The representatives of Fennovoima, the customer and the owner of the plant under construction, made their first visit to the Kalinin Nuclear Power Plant. PetrozavodskMash, the manufacturer of nuclear equipment for the Finnish station, was inspected by the Finnish QA service. Rusatom Energy International took part in the Finnish Energy Day conference held in Helsinki.
The Finnish nuclear experts visited the Kalinin Nuclear Power Plant, aiming to familiarize themselves with Rosatom’s staff training practices. “We are going to build the Hanhikivi-1 nuclear station in Finland. Its designing is now underway. The construction is scheduled for 2018,” commented Eija Salo, HR Manager at Fennovoima. “We are working in close contact with RAOS Project Oy [a subsidiary of Rusatom Energy International], the general supplier of the project. We collaborate in working out a training program for the Hanhikivi-1 operational staff. This is why we are anxious to see the training practices and nuclear station simulators applied by our Russian counterparts.”
The Finnish experts toured the Kalinin production facilities, training department, Public Information Center, and visited Municipal School No. 3 with its newly established Atom Class course offering advanced training in nuclear physics for senior students.
The representatives of the Fennovoima Oy nuclear consortium and STUK (Finland’s Radiation and Nuclear Safety Authority) have inspected Rosatom’s PetrozavodskMash, which will produce the equipment for Hanhikivi-1. The auditors studied records and examined the production processes. Generally, the Finnish experts rate the inspection as done in an open and cooperative atmosphere. As the final report has it, PetrozavodskMash has sophisticated multipurpose equipment, and its production and project management system features all necessary media for planning and controlling production stages and providing relevant consumables. A number of recommendations were also provided to improve the safety culture.
Helsinki hosted the Finnish Energy Day, a traditional annual conference held by the largest Finnish news magazine Tekniikka & Talous (“Machinery and Economy”) focusing on economy, industry and energy. Anton Dedusenko, New Projects Director at Rusatom Energy International (a Rosatom company), took part in the conference and spoke at a panel discussion on the prospects of nuclear power industry and low-fossil energy technologies.
Mr. Dedusenko noted that Rosatom is working to extend the service life of nuclear stations by at least 100 years, which will add to the nuclear power competitiveness in terms of energy production costs. Besides, the company is about to finish plant designs featuring small capacity and closed nuclear fuel cycle.
While discussing safety culture at Russian and Finnish nuclear facilities, Dedusenko said, “Safety is a top priority for Rosatom. The safety standards are established on various levels, yet the IAEA’s standards are fundamental. There can be no differences between safety cultures in Russia and Finland, since safety culture requires not only employee awareness, but also strict compliance in real life.”
He also mentioned the modern approach of customers to nuclear vendors. Alongside building nuclear stations varied in capacity, Rosatom is offering to set up power equipment production in a customer country, develop nuclear infrastructure from scratch, help train and re-train nuclear workforce, supply nuclear fuel and do the maintenance of the nuclear facility, as well as assist in its operation.
