The seminar was focused on workforce training for the nuclear power plants under construction. Managers of the Leningrad NPP training division presented the program of staff training for new VVER-1200 reactors and key stages of commissioning the full-scale and analytical simulators. Already in operation, the simulators help quickly and effectively develop and hone skills of the entire nuclear station team, from a front-line operator to a shift supervisor.
Hanhikivi-1 to be built in Finland is a single-unit nuclear power plant with the Russian-designed VVER-1200 reactor. Leningrad II will serve as a reference project for the Finnish plant. “Hanhikivi-1 is now in the licensing stage. We are also scheduling staff training sessions for the plant commissioning phase,” said Eija Salo, Fennovoima’s HR Director. “This is why we are interested to know how staff training is organized at the Leningrad nuclear plant. Classroom training should go hand in hand with practice, though. For this purpose, we will have a full-scale simulator in Pyhäjoki, and it will also be used in the commercial operation stage. By now, we have completed the introductory technical training for the nuclear station personnel.”
Fennovoima HR Director Eija Salo: It was very useful to see the construction site, the simulators, and the training center at Leningrad II. It is very important for us to get familiar with the reference plant. Since our visit is focused on staff training, it was interesting and useful to hear about their training programs and learn how they train operators. We really enjoyed our visit to Leningrad II, and it was very interesting to see how the construction is progressing. We had an opportunity to visit the turbine hall.
The Fennovoima representatives made a tour round the now constructed Leningrad II and were demonstrated facilities where the commissioning and pre-operational tests were running full tilt. In the reactor and turbine islands, pipe washing operations and hydraulic tests have entered the final stretch.
“The purpose of my visit to the Leningrad Nuclear Power Plant was to discuss staff training issues and see the construction site,” said Fennovoima’s Operation Manager Juhani Jokinen. “Given the fact that this is a reference project for us, I would particularly like to note a modern approach to passive safety systems at Leningrad II. This is a very important part of the project.”
It was not the first visit of Finnish nuclear experts to Russian nuclear plants. In late September 2016, Fennovoima representatives studied staff training practices at the Kalinin Nuclear Power Plant. Last November, Fennovoima’s employees took a pilot training course on Hanhikivi-1 technology in Russia. Lecturers from Rosatom’s staff training center CICET explained basic operation and safety principles of advanced VVER-1200 reactors to their Finnish colleagues. The second training course will be organized later this year when Fennovoima’s engineers will come to study specific systems to be installed at Hanhikivi-1.
About Hanhikivi-1
In 2013, Rosatom’s international division Rusatom Overseas (later reorganized into Rusatom Energy International) and Fennovoima as Hanhikivi-1 project owner signed a nuclear plant construction agreement. In 2014, Russia acquired a 34% stake in Fennovoima. The Parliament of Finland approved the project by majority vote in December of the same year. In June 2015, Fennovoima applied for the construction license. The nuclear plant is expected to come online in 2024.
“Along with evaluation and delivery of construction license documents, our main tasks for 2017 are to select the I&C supplier, start manufacturing the reactor pressure vessel and turbine equipment, continue the construction and excavation operations on the plant site, and development of the organization,” a representative of Fennovoima said to the Rosatom Newsletter.
Construction of the main gate building and weather mast will be finished later this year. Construction operations in the accommodation village will begin in early 2017. In the summer, a contractor for Fennovoima’s administrative building and on-site offices will be selected to start the construction in late 2017. The plant supplier will start building its social facilities, a first-aid station and site offices later this year. Excavation operations on the plant site will continue in the spring of 2017 after necessary plans are received and approved. At present, construction of the infrastructure and auxiliary buildings continues on the site. For instance, engineering networks and the main gate building are being built and finishing touches are put to the waste sorting station. Earth works on the accommodation village site began in late 2016.
