In 2024, Energoatom specialists with significant experience working on a full-scope simulator of one of the power units of the Zaporizhzhia NPP were involved in the educational process at the Department of Nuclear Energy.
NNEGC has strong partnerships with a number of specialized universities that teach specialists for the power industry. Among them is National Technical University of Ukraine “Igor Sikorsky Kyiv Polytechnic Institute”, where future nuclear engineers are trained by the Educational and Scientific Institute of Nuclear and Thermal Energy.
Director of the Educational and Scientific Institute of Nuclear and Thermal Energy Yevhen Pysmennyy emphases: “The management and employees of Energoatom understand the importance of personnel training very well. We have long established fruitful cooperation. In particular, last year, specialists seconded from NNEGC – employees of the ZNPP Training Center – appeared in the Kyiv Polytechnic Institute, and they are very helpful for us in mastering the multifunctional simulator of a VVER-type nuclear installation.
The multifunctional simulator of the operational part of the main control (MCR) of the VVER-1000 V-320 unit has been fully used in the educational process at Kyiv Polytechnic Institute since the beginning of 2023. The Argonne National Laboratory with the support of the U.S. Department of Energy provided this equipment to the Institute of Nuclear and Thermal Energy in 2022. Supply, installation and configuration have performed by the American Western Services Corporation (WSC), which has 20 years of international experience in the field of simulator construction for NPPs.
Owing to cooperation with Energoatom, the software of the complex has been configured for the VVER-1000/320 model. In general, the capabilities of such equipment allow to provide training for specialists not only for VVER reactor plants, but also for Western-type PWR reactors.
The laboratory with a simulator is equipped in the premises of the Scientific and Research Centre of NPP’s Reliability and Safety. This is a powerful software and hardware complex, which is composed of 4 servers, 12 workplaces for student operators (each of them is equipped with 2 monitors), workplaces for laboratory assistant and instructor, and 3 large screens. On its basis, the Department of Nuclear Energy of IATE trains students in a number of disciplines, primarily related to the operation of nuclear power plants. The software of the educational equipment allows modeling the processes that occur on the reactor plants of power units (thermal-hydraulic, neutron-physical, electrical, and chemical).
The education and training of future operators of the NPP reactor plant takes place in the form of individual or group training sessions, when students practice the actions of the MCR operational personnel (working shift) in certain situations. Owing to such training, young specialists will be closer to solving real tasks that will expect them at production site after graduating from the university, Yevhen Pysmennyy stresses.
Energoatom assisted Kyiv Polytechnic Institute in involving highly qualified nuclear specialists in the educational process as instructors of a multifunctional simulator. The employees of Kyiv Polytechnic Institute emphasize that the presence of skilled specialists of this level is an invaluable finding for the Institute of Nuclear and Thermal Energy.
Zaporizhzhia NPP specialists have significant experience working on a real VVER-1000/320 power unit and as instructors on a NPP full-scope simulator (FSS), which is a prototype of an operating power unit and is intended for FSS personnel education and training. Both specialists worked for Operations Department of the Zaporizhzhia NPP, past certain stages of operational work. Then they trained personnel at the FSS. But due to the occupation of the Zaporizhzhia NPP by the russian federation, they, like many of their colleagues, were forced to leave their homes and jobs.
When the proposal to provide professional assistance to Kyiv Polytechnic Institute came, a new stage in their professional history began. Zaporizhzhia nuclear employees – currently instructors of the multifunctional simulator – share that the new activity is interesting for them, although, of course, the training simulator is different from the FSS of the nuclear power plant, has different specifics and other tasks, and work with students has its own peculiarities. Therefore, Energoatom specialists enthusiastically joined the training of future professionals in the nuclear industry, investing their considerable experience in that important matter.
Oleh Rostovych is the head of FSS-1 of the Zaporizhzhia NPP Training Center, where he has worked for 24 years. His colleague has been a leading instructor of the ZNPP FSS for the past few years; his professional background is 25 years of operational experience at one of the ZNPP units, from the reactor operator to the unit shift supervisor.
Head of the Scientific Research Center for NPP Reliability and Safety Serhii Klevtsov talks about his new colleagues in the team as follows: “ZNPP specialists – with real operational experience on VVER-1000 reactor facility and NPP full-scope simulator – have significantly strengthened our work. They understand the training technology well and what a future nuclear engineer should know. Their valuable suggestions and powerful impetus have given us an understanding of how to conduct training better, use theory on work experience, etc. On their initiative, we have an elective for students of 3-5 years who willingly come to the laboratory in their extracurricular time to master the experience of these specialists, and during their self-training; they consult directly with them –people who operated the power unit. Therefore, their assistance is invaluable to us. This is a big plus!”
Students of the specialty “Nuclear Energy”, who, using the simulator, have the opportunity to train certain actions, performed by MCR operational personnel, on work experience, share the same opinion. “Laboratory training sessions based on the simulator are very helpful in understanding future activities at the NPP. In case of any question asked the instructors explain everything, meaningfully, clearly and interestingly, this adds interest to the studies and future activities at the plant,” Master’s student Mykola Polishchuk shares.
“This classroom is a unique environment for us, students, because we have the opportunity to learn from specialists who have experience working on operating power units,” Master’s student Olha Nazaruk adds. “The instructors are happy to help us; we can contact them outside of training sessions. Owing to their work and the availability of a simulator, we understand why we needed to study theory.”
Such cooperation with specialized universities is an important component of Energoatom’s activities. The operator of all Ukrainian nuclear power plants, as the largest employer in the nuclear powery sector, commited to recruit qualified young personnel to its multi-thousand team of nuclear employees.
