Energy Safety Group presented two reports at the 31st International Conference on Nuclear Engineering “24/7 Clean Nuclear Energy – Solution for Global Warming”

Ways to solve the problem of safe operation of VVER-1000 reactors in case of loss of supplies of rod cluster control assemblies (RCCAs) from russia and the possibility of modifying NPPs by introducing hydrogen technologies within the Euratom’s NPHyCo project were presented by representatives of Energy Safety Group at the 31st International Conference on Nuclear Engineering. The event, held in Prague on August 3-8, 2024, was dedicated to clean nuclear energy as a solution to global warming.

The International Conference on Nuclear Engineering is a global event for professionals who want to stay current on new technology and industry trends and developments in nuclear industry. The conference is annually hosted by ASME’s Nuclear Engineering division, the Japan Society of Mechanical Engineers (JSME), and the Chinese Nuclear Society (CNS).

The conference discussed such topics as operating plant challenges, successes and lessons learned, nuclear plant engineering, advanced reactors and fusion, small modular and micro-reactors technologies and applications, nuclear fuels, research and fuel cycle, nuclear codes and standards, etc.

Vadym Ivanov, Head of Energy Safety Group, emphasized the problem of providing European reactors with RCCAs, since historically, no one except russia produced them for VVER-1000 reactors: the only supplier of RCCAs for NPPs in Ukraine and the EU countries with Soviet-designed reactors was the russian company JSC “TVEL”. According to him, there are several ways to provide RCCAs for power units with VVER-1000 reactors, including:

• service life extension of the RCCAs already in operation in the core;
• setting up the in-house production of the RCCAs (design, materials) similar to the design of the russian federation;
• development of technological processes for the manufacture of control rods and RCCAs, which will generally improve life time characteristics and increase their service life.

According to Vadym Ivanov, Ukrainian experts have developed a technology for manufacturing control rods and RCCAs for VVER-1000 reactors that are comparable in design and materials to the russian-made RCCAs. Trial operation is currently underway. At present, in order to gain time until the new RCCAs are licensed, Ukraine had to extend the service life of the existing RCCAs. In his report, Vadym Ivanov discussed in detail the possibilities of extending the service life of the RCCAs and the main directions for improving efficiency, in particular, by introducing neutron-absorbing materials and increasing the density and diameter of the neutron-absorbing part of the rods. After all, a similar problem is faced by European countries that have refused to have contracts with russia.

Martin Kykal, Energy Safety Group’s Lead Engineer, in his report presented the current results obtained by the company during the implementation of the EU’s NPHyCo research project, which analyzes the possibilities of hydrogen production at Ukrainian NPPs. After all, today most of the hydrogen produced in Europe comes from fossil fuels, which contradicts the EU’s stated goal of fully decarbonizing its economy by 2050.

The results obtained during the analysis of the potential for low-carbon hydrogen production in Ukraine were presented, particularly the results achieved by various working groups of the NPHyCo project: concept, technology, economy, licensing, implementation, selection of a suitable location for a hydrogen production plant and utilities on the example of the Rivne NPP. Particular attention was paid to the modification of the NPP in case of construction of a hydrogen plant, its connection to NPP resources, and NPP safety assessment.