Rosenergoatom (part of the Electric Power Division of the State Atomic Energy Corporation Rosatom) has completed its work on examining the business processes of nuclear power plants and the formation of uniform requirements for the Information System to Support NPP Operation.

The NPP operation support information system (hereinafter referred to as the System) will be a unified information platform that will integrate the processes of operational service, maintenance and repair, engineering support, resource management and documentation and will be integrated with other Rosenergoatom information systems affecting production processes of the NPP operation. The system will allow collecting data on various objects, including that for creating digital twins of equipment, as well as introducing a digital production control system: bypasses using mobile devices, monitoring the passage of bypass routes, etc.

As part of the creation of the System, the solution of the automated control system for maintenance and repair of equipment (ACS MRE), operating at the Balakovo nuclear power plant, will be finalized and replicated.

“We have completed a very important stage of collecting and forming functional requirements, which directly affects the quality of the System we are implementing. Our main task was to collect the experience and best practices of all our stations in the field of operation processes, repair management, resources and documentation. It was important for us to move away from the historically isolated existence of the experience and developments of the plants and come to single standards and approaches for the safe and efficient operation of nuclear power plants,” said Victor Tsaranu, head of the project office for the implementation of digital solutions in the operation of Rosenergoatom nuclear power plants.

“This project is the key and the largest project of the Rosenergoatom digitalization program. Today more than 900 employees of the division are involved in it. The project is complex both in its organization and technical perspective. In 2 years we need to implement integration between key systems that ensure automation and digitalization of all the main processes of NPP operation,” commented Oleg Shalnov, director of the Department of IT Project Management and Integration of Rosenergoatom.

At the beginning of next year, the information system to support the operation of nuclear power plants will be introduced into pilot industrial operation at the Balakovskaya, Beloyarskaya, Kola, Smolensk and Rostov nuclear power plants. The next step will be to replicate the System at the Kalinin, Kursk, Leningrad and Novovoronezh NPPs.

It is planned that the Operational Support Information System will be implemented at nine Russian NPPs from mid-2023, and in the future it will also be used at foreign nuclear power plants of Russian design as part of the integrated solution of the NPP Digital Operation Template.