An International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Operational Safety Review Team (OSART) says Hungary has demonstrated a commitment to operational safety. The 18-day mission to the Paks NPP was conducted at the request of the Government of Hungary, which hosted its first OSART in 1988. This was followed by subsequent OSART missions in 2001 and 2014.
Paks NPP, owned by Magyar Villamos Művek (MVM) and located about 100 kilometres southwest of Budapest is Hungary’s first and only NPP. It comprises four 506 MWe pressurised water reactor units commissioned between 1982 and 1987. Last year, Paks NPP generated almost half of Hungary’s electricity.
The team made daily visits to Paks NPP to observe regular plant activities in areas such as: maintenance and surveillance, radiation work permits, and training, and to interview personnel. The 13-member team comprised experts from Argentina, Bulgaria, China, Czech Republic, Russia, South Africa, Switzerland, Ukraine, United Arab Emirates and the US, as well as three IAEA officials.
“The team was pleased to see that the plant was very well prepared and cooperated fully and openly with IAEA experts during the mission,” said team leader Yury Martynenko, Senior Nuclear Safety Officer at the IAEA. “The managers and staff of Paks NPP are committed to improving the operational safety and reliability of their plant, and we were pleased to see many actions in progress.”
The team identified good practices to be shared with the nuclear industry globally, including:
- The development and implementation of a monitoring and repair programme for confinement systems.
- The storage of geospatial information on plant structures and components and the sharing of data on different platforms.
- The development of software to predict potential initiating emergency events and the progression of events.
The mission also made some suggestions to further improve safety, including that:
- The plant should consider enhancing measures to maintain its measurement equipment, including inspections, calibrations, storage and traceability – arrangements to ensure plant and personnel safety.
- The plant should consider reinforcing its plant programmes and work practices to ensure that, in the event of an earthquake, the potential impact of non-fixed items on safety-related equipment is minimised.
- The plant should consider enhancing its processes, procedures and practices to provide personnel with the necessary instructions in the industrial areas of the plant.
“It was in the spirit of continuous learning that we had requested the IAEA review. The OSART mission has allowed us to make an in-depth assessment of our work. The recommendations and suggestions will help us to continuously improve the plant’s operational safety, and thanks to the expertise of our team, we can also contribute to the enrichment of global best practices,” said MVM Paks CEO Péter János Horváth.
The team provided a draft report of the mission to the plant management. They will have the opportunity to make factual comments on the draft. These comments will be reviewed by the IAEA, and the final report will be submitted to the Government of Hungary within three months.
MVM Paksi Atomerőmű said it requested the IAEA to conduct the OSART test with the aim to explore further possibilities to improve the operational safety of the power plant based on available best practices. Deputy head of the Hungarian Atomic Energy Authority László Juhász said the review did not produce any comments that questioned the high safety level of the NPP.
