Section 3 Meeting “Safety of nuclear installations” of the Rostechnadzor Scientific and Technical Council

On September 24, 2018 a regular meeting of Section 3 “Safety of nuclear installations” of the Rostechnadzor Scientific and Technical Council took place. The agenda covered 3 issues.

The first issue of the agenda was dedicated to the results and development prospects of review and validation of computer codes used for nuclear installations safety justification. Mr. Sergey Shevchenko, SEC NRS Head of the Division for Safety Analysis Calculations made a presentation on the issue and noted that the amendments to Article 26 of the Federal Law №170-FZ from November 21, 1995 were introduced by the Federal Law №118-FZ from May 23, 2018, and these amendments stipulate that for mathematic simulation of processes one shall use computer codes reviewed by a technical and scientific support organization of the regulatory body. Basically, the changes introduced to the law codified the practice of computer codes review and validation which has already been implemented for more than 25 years.

The Expert Council on Validation of Computer Codes is established in order to review and validate computer codes. The activities of the Expert Council are aimed at the provision of the most effective usage of scientific, technological and intellectual potential of the Russian Federation expert community in the field of atomic energy use to solve the issues of safety analysis calculations. The structure of the Expert Council includes the Executive Committee and 7 Sections.

Mr Sergey Shevchenko provided information on newly developed procedure of computer codes review (Rostechnadzor Order №325 of July 30, 2018) and a draft statute of the Expert Council on Validation of Computer Codes. These documents were drafted for the replacement of the existed Guide on the computer codes review procedure (RD-03-33-2008).

Mr S. Soloviev, academic adviser of the JSC “VNIIAES”, performed as a coreporter concerning the first issue. He made a presentation on current issues of development and verification of computer codes used for new generation NPPs safety justification. Mr. Soloviev mentioned the need for system development of experimental capability necessary for justification of innovation technical solutions taken at the NPP design stage as well as when implementing the solutions to operating NPPs, and raised the issue of the necessity to develop the computer codes evaluation criteria based on innovation methods of analysis calculations (multi-physical simulation, computer codes of CFD-DNS type, etc).

It was decided to approve the draft statute of the Expert Council on Validation of Computer Codes and proposed candidates for Chairman, Deputy Chairman, Scientific Secretary of the Council and Chairmen and Deputy Chairmen of the Council Sections. In order to enhance the effectiveness and performance of computer codes review and validation SEC NRS was requested to develop the action plan aimed at the completion of the most important tasks concerning development, verification and review of computer codes.

The second issue of the agenda was covered by Mr. I. Ulyanov, SEC NRS Lead Legal Counsel of the Regulations Drafting Division, with a report “On the execution of the Rostechnadzor activity plan on the implementation of recommendations and suggestions of the IAEA Follow-up Mission “Integrated Regulatory Review Service” in the Russian Federation in November 2013”. Members of the Section took the information into consideration.

3 additional topics were approved after a report of Mr. V. Gremyachkin, PhD, SEC NRS Scientific Secretary, in addition to the decisions made at the Section meetings on June 22, 2017 and June 21, 2018 on formulation of the subject of work in the framework of SEC NRS State Assignment.