As a part of the operational Partnership verification at the Beloyarsk NPP, the team of WANO experts have observed the way the staff works at the main control room using a full-scale BN-800 simulator. This fairly new type of verification is called CPO – Crew Performance Observations.

The goal of this exercise was to evaluate how the main control room’s staff shifts can respond to imitated equipment failures in different modes, how well they observe the processes and prepare the documentation, as well as to check the capabilities of the full-scale simulator and how the instructors can model equipment operational modes. The shifts undergoing the verification where the actual ones operating at the unit, not made of specially trained people.

Yuriy Nosov, the interim director of the Beloyarsk NPP, noted: ‘The mission of these observations is to verify if the operating staff is ready to address any dysfunction. CPO is helpful because it shows how the main control room employees would respond to unexpected occurrences with unpredictable input, verify how well the shift members work together and how disciplined they are. This independent evaluation is extremely important: we obtain new information to help us improve the staff training processes. And this is paramount for safe operation of a nuclear power plant’.

Semyon Aksyonov, the head of the WANO CPO team, explained: ‘CPO is a tool to evaluate the whole unit operation in general. This is a compulsory stage of an operational Partnership verification. Three existing shifts of a power unit practice three different scenarios on a simulator. As a result, we learn from each other, which is priceless’.

Safety is the top priority for the Beloyarsk NPP. The power plant works on economically effective generation and reliable supply of electric and heat energy to consumers while impeccably following all safety standards. Two operating Beloyarsk NPP power blocks with BN-600 and BN-800 reactors account for around 16% of all electric power produced in the Sverdlovsk region: each sixth light bulb here is powered by the nuclear power plant.