On the forum of 2011 they spoke about creating shared information space for design, in 2012 – about shared information space for construction. The main topic of 2013 – establishing shared information space for complex engineering projects operation. The starter and the main organizer of the forum is the NIAEP-Atomstroyexport Joint Engineering Company, a Rosatom enterprise. “In the limelight of the III Forum is digitizing of existing objects for raising effectiveness of their operation and also modelling operation characteristics of a future project at design and construction stages” – says Ivan Borisov, the NIAEP Vice-President for Development.
A Good Start
Multi-D official dates are June 13-14, however in fact the event started a day earlier – with a traditional visit to site under construction. Foreign delegation of specialists and journalists visited the units 3 and 4 construction site of the Rostov NPP and had a look at the project management system. Opening the forum Valeriy Limarenko, the NIAEP President, called it a good start.
“We have a shared information space established for all participants of NPP designing and construction, – he said. – This kind of approach gives us opportunity of designing in different information spaces with shared navigation system. Thus we can negate errors and manage the whole project configuration. An evident advantage of the system is that we don’t have to deal anymore with a bunch of paperwork – a specialist looking for drawings can just come and download whatever he or she needs.
On the III Multi-D forum we are planning to give more details of our innovations, we also want to discuss the issues of applications of similar approaches not only at design and construction stages of complex objects, but also at the stage of operation”. Kirill Komarov, Rosatom Deputy General Director for Development and International Business noted the high applicability of the topic chosen: “For many industries life cycle management is something common. Atomic industry now is just learning to work within this logic, however for us it is even more important than for others. NPP is expensive to build but cheap to operate. We have to find a good balance between these two things. Today the specialists – NPP operators, constructors and equipment producers – got together here and we truly hope that exchanging opinions will help us find the best solutions.”
Vladimir Asmolov, First Deputy General Director of Rosenergoatom Concern (Russian energy company, NPP operator) emphasized: “To provide reasonable-priced operation of nuclear units one has to put into the NPP project the kind of consumer usability, allowing its further successful operation. I am positive that the technologies developed in the Soviet Union and Russia will allow us doing that. Our projects developments, started from “AES-2006” are continued in VVER-TOI and show that consumer usability and safety indicators are quite appropriate. The VVER-TOI project is done in a totally new information space and has new additional features, typical for the VVER technology. The project client is Rosenergoatom Concern. The whole project life cycle, from design to decommissioning, is in the subject of our close attention. Many international organizations are the project experts”.
Promising Project
The central topic of the first day was Russian VVER-TOI project – typical AES project with optimized and computerized high capacity power unit based on VVER technology. The specialists discussed its technical and economical characteristics, while members of Nuclear Machine-Building Fair (part of the forum) received information about essential conditions of choosing suppliers for the project. According to Senior Vice-President for NIAEP Project Management Alexander Polushkin, VVER-TOI can defy competition at world market. The project was done in up-to-date information space with the capability to manage information throughout the life cycle of the unit. In the VVER-TOI project the safety systems, using active and passive principles of work, are applied.
The design guarantees switching of pile assembly to safe mode with various combinations of starting events, natural and technogenic, leading to loss of all power sources. The project is to be applied at the Akkuyu NPP in Turkey and at the Kursk NPP-2. The important events of the first day of the forum were signing of three Memoranda of mutual understanding and cooperation between: NIAEP and DASSAULT Systemes; NIAEP and Intergraph PP&М; NIAEP and NEOLANT (developer of innovative designs and supplier of engineering and IT-services for fuel and energy complex).
“We did a big and serious work together and today we finish it signing this memorandum, – says Valeriy Limarenko. – Our companies together work on technologies managing life cycle of complex engineering facilities. DASSAULT Systemes and Intergraph PP&М produce advanced IT-items, our company applies them to life and NEOLANT helps us. This is what we call fruitful cooperation”.
Discussion on Innovations
On the second day the participants were told about the NIAEP and other Rosatom enterprise’s innovative projects. In the discussion part of the program the most interest was raised by the “Information technologies: from design to operation” two-days seminar. “Operation stage – the longest cycle. For NPP it is minimum 60 years, while designing and construction last for 5-10 years, – said Vyacheslav Alenkov, Deputy Director of Moscow branch of NIAEP, Principal Architect of Integrated Information Model. – Everything created in the last ten years has to be maintained on operation or decommissioning stage. This task is the most important. Speaking about today’s realization on practice: only yesterday we took a large delegation of heads of different Russian and foreign engineering companies to our Rostov power unit under construction and showed them how these technologies are applied, right on the site. Thus you can come up to the pit or a building under construction and right there use an information booth and see the object 3D model. And all this goes on at that very place, on the construction site”.
One of the forum’s second day’s key events was the “Solutions of passing engineering data between design/construction stages and operation (HandOver)” panel discussion. It was the first time in Russian practice the issue was discussed by leading world specialists-rivals: DASSAULT Systemes, Integraph, AVEVA, Bentley System, IBM, NEOLANT, Fiatech, Tech InvestLab. “Clear-sighted actions of the NIAEP-Atomstroyexport managers show their good understanding of the 3DEXPERIENCE platform for digital modelling, organizing and certifying of NPPs, – said Bernard Charles, Dassault Systèmes President and General Director. – developing the first digital 3D model for operating NPP, the NIAEP-ASE company not only sufficiently reduces the term of object construction and its cost, but also raises work effectiveness, quality and safety of nuclear power stations”.
“A good example is a car – the thing created for efficient and safe driving, – said Gerhard Sallinger, the Intergraph President. – The same tasks are put while designing a complex engineering project, plant or other. We are taking part in this forum for the third time and we are happy to have an opportunity to bring our decisions to a wide circle of clients or just real professionals. The forum is a wonderful platform for further development in this field. We are really proud to be the NIAEP-ASE key partner and have an opportunity to develop new solutions to be used in the future”.
Forum Was a Success
The forum organizers didn’t limit with atomic objects construction. Representatives of various industry sectors managed to share their experience. Lest we forget that the NIAEP-ASE joint company itself develops non-atomic projects in their scale and degree of complexity comparable to NPP power units. It is a tradition that within the bounds of the Multi-D forum there is International Machine-Building Fair, in which this time took part the biggest Russian and foreign enterprises – suppliers of equipment and materials for units under construction. At the final ceremony in the end of the forum several diplomas for successful application of advanced technologies in design, construction and operation of complex engineering projects were presented.
Electricité de France (France), the major NPP operator in the world, 80% energy supplier of the country, was awarded for its “configuration management brisk growth while operating NPP”. The award “For successful application of modern design technologies while developing VVER-TOI” was handed to “Rosenergoatom”. The Broad Group Corporation (China) was awarded for “ The use of module technologies in high buildings construction”. “For popularization and promotion of system engineering in Russia” diploma was granted to “Tech InvestLab” – Russian system engineering pioneer. The forum participants remained pleased.
“We believe the forum to be essential and timely, since today the building information modeling (BIM) technology is being developed in the whole world, – says Alexey Zotov, General Director of the IBM company in Russia (international company, one of the major world hardware and software producers and suppliers, also supplier of IT and consulting services). – thanks to this kind of forum the level of methodological and technical literacy in Russian economics is growing”.
“In three years the forum has grown in its scale and format with the number of participants increasing every year. It’s the first time the forum presents an enhanced program for modern engineering apparatus of complex projects”, – said Elena Lavrukhina, Manager for Strategic Development of Schneider Electric, Russian office. – “The forum essentiality is an opportunity to present modern smart operating systems, that didn’t exist 10-20 years ago, allowing making any industry, including atomic one, safer. It is very important for the whole world to understand that we use atom in truly peaceful purposes and that everyone here works on special instruments to make atom more peaceful. To my mind, this could be one more mission of the forum, its macro-sense”.
“This forum helps big companies to interact”, – believes Roman Titov, head of the “Tyazhmash” projects – equipment producer for ore mining and metallurgy industry and power plants. – We have an opportunity to conduct meetings with enterprises that later could become our partners. We can exchange memoranda of understanding and discuss further cooperation prospects”. Foreign participants weren’t disappointed either. “Our country is in great need of energy, that’s why we cooperate with Russian NIAEP and ASE companies for NPP construction in India, – said the head of NPCIL office (Indian atomic corporation) in Russia. We all know that nuclear reactors are the future. Russia has a vast experience in NPP construction and operation and that’s why we take part in the forum. We want to get as much information in the sphere of technology, metallurgy, designing, programming, commissioning and decommissioning of NPP as possible. The new technology of shared information space gives contractors and subcontractors opportunity to exchange information”.
“As we know, the Akkuyu NPP is to be built in Turkey. Our company is willing to take part in the plant construction, that’s why we came to Russia – to present our production here and get more information on technologies and construction systems of this kind of objects, – said Ahmed Kos, Manager for Business Development of “Dogus” (Turkey). – The defining role in creating shared information platform is played by the scale of projects growing bigger and bigger, which means that more and more companies and people take part in them. That’s why now we came to this necessity of creating the shared space where all project members could exchange information, which allows performing the work with more efficiency and less expenses”.
“The participation in the III Multi-D international research and practice forum “Lyfe cycle management of complex engineering facilities. Tools for operation support” gives us a very good opportunity to share our view of the issues with other major representatives of the industry, – said the EDF representative Cristophe Dupre. – Exchanging information, aiming for data acquisition is a key moment while operating complex engineering facilities, since it allows providing effective control of information, facilitates the access to valuation requirements of accidents within and beyond design basis, allows analyzing impacts of nuclear station modernization, helps to continuously improve the quality of work and optimize economics”.
Ringing down the curtain of the forum, Valeriy Limarenko, the NIAEP President, said: “The forum was a success thanks to participants, interested in the topic: life cycle management of complex engineering projects. Thanks to the specialists doing their business in the field, giving a creative approach. They are the ones to make this progress real. We had both seminars and panel discussions. We grow together, developing essential topics and their components. Our next forum will be dedicated to NPP or other complex engineering object decommissioning. Next year we’ll meet again and share our new victories”.
