2019 Annual Report on Radiation and Nuclear Safety in the Republic of Slovenia
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REPUBLIC OF SLOVENIA MINISTRY OF THE ENVIRONMENT AND SPATIAL PLANNING SLOVENIAN NUCLEAR SAFETY ADMINISTRATION 2019 Annual Report on Radiation and Nuclear Safety in the Republic of Slovenia 2019 Annual Report on Radiation and Nuclear Safety in the Republic and Slovenia REPUBLIC OF SLOVENIA MINISTRY OF THE ENVIRONMENT AND SPATIAL PLANNING SLOVENIAN NUCLEAR SAFETY ADMINISTRATION 2019 Annual Report on Radiation and Nuclear Safety in the Republic of Slovenia August 2020 i 2019 Annual Report on Radiation and Nuclear Safety in the Republic and Slovenia Prepared by the Slovenian Nuclear Safety Administration in cooperation with: The Slovenian Radiation Protection Administration; The Administration of the Republic of Slovenia for Civil Protection and Disaster Relief; The Ministry of Infrastructure; The Administration of the Republic of Slovenia for Food Safety, Veterinary and Plant Protection; The Ministry of the Interior; The Agency for Radwaste Management; The Nuclear Insurance and Reinsurance Pool; The Fund for Financing the Decommissioning of the Krško Nuclear Power Plant; The Krško Nuclear Power Plant; Žirovski Vrh Mine d.o.o.; Jožef Stefan Institute; and The Institute of Occupational Safety. The report was approved by the Expert Council for Radiation and Nuclear Safety. Editors: Igor Sirc and Benja Režonja Slovenian Nuclear Safety Administration Litostrojska cesta 54 1000 Ljubljana, Slovenia Telephone: +386-1/472 11 00 Fax: +386-1/472 11 99 [email protected] URL: https://www.gov.si/drzavni-organi/organi-v-sestavi/uprava-za-jedrsko-varnost/ URSJV/RP-113/2020 ISSN 2536-4219 ii 2019 Annual Report on Radiation and Nuclear Safety in the Republic and Slovenia SUMMARY In 2019, the Krško Nuclear Power Plant (NPP) operated safely. A regular outage was performed in the fall. During the outage, among other activities, several important security improvements from the Security Upgrade Programme were carried out. The Krško NPP reported three events, which did not affect the population or the environment. The Krško NPP reported two events on the basis of a request from the legislature, while the third event was reported by the Krško NPP at the request of the SNSA. At the end of May 2019, the deadline for the implementation of the Action Plan for the second periodic safety inspection of the Krško NPP expired. Within the framework of this Action Plan, the Krško NPP carried out more than 95% of the planned works. For the remaining few actions, the Krško NPP requested an extension of the deadline. The SNSA assessed the reasons for the extension as acceptable, as these were tasks that were particularly demanding and related to other projects at the Krško NPP that were being carried out in parallel. The Krško NPP continued with the implementation of the Safety Upgrade Programme, which is the most extensive project following the modernisation of the Krško NPP in 2000. The implementation of the programme is now in the last phase and is expected to be completed in 2021. The remaining matters concern alternative core cooling systems, auxiliary systems installation, and emergency control room installation. One of the most important activities of the last phase of the programme is the construction of a dry storage for spent fuel. The Krško NPP intends to start building a new facility at the end of 2020, and its operation is planned for 2022. In 2019, procedures began regarding the placement of the warehouse in space. Thus, the Municipality of Krško started the process of amending the existing NPP regulatory plan, and the Ministry of the Environment and Spatial Planning (MESP) began the process of carrying out a comprehensive environmental impact assessment and cross- border assessment in Austria and Croatia. At the TRIGA Mark II Research Reactor in Podgorica, all activities from the Action Plan were carried out after the first periodic safety inspection. In 2019, the revision of the programmes for the decommissioning of the Krško NPP and the disposal of radioactive waste and spent fuel from the Krško NPP was completed. In September, the Interstate Commission for Monitoring the Implementation of the Interstate Agreement on Co- Ownership of the Krško NPP reviewed the prepared programmes and sent them for further consideration to the internal procedures of both countries. The Slovenian Government was informed of the summaries of programmes in December 2019. The Interstate Commission is expected to adopt the latest revision of the programmes in 2020, which will be the basis for determining the contributions that GEN Energija and Hrvatska elektroprivreda, as owners, must each pay into their fund for financing the decommissioning and disposal of radioactive waste and spent fuel. In addition to monitoring the preparation of new revisions of both programmes, the Coordination Committee, appointed by the International Commission in 2017, also studied the possibilities for the joint disposal of Slovenian and Croatian radioactive waste from the Krško NPP. Based on the report of the Coordination Committee, the Interstate Commission concluded that a joint solution for the disposal of Low- and Intermediate-Level Radioactive Waste (hereinafter: LILW) is not possible, which means that each country must take care of its share of radioactive waste. The Radioactive Waste Agency (ARAO) continued its activities for the construction of the LILW repository in Vrbina near Krško. Preliminary activities were carried out for the public presentation of the environmental impact report and the cross-border environmental impact assessment of the future disposal site. At the end of the year, a cross-border environmental impact assessment was 1 2019 Annual Report on Radiation and Nuclear Safety in the Republic and Slovenia launched. A public presentation of the environmental impact report in Slovenia has not yet been carried out. Given the dynamics of the activities and actions of the bodies involved, the challenge remains how the Krško NPP will operate when the storage capacities for such waste in the power plant are filled and there is no disposal site. At the Boršt hydrometallurgical tailings disposal site of the former uranium mine in Žirovski Vrh, the problems with rock landslides have not been resolved, so the search for solutions as to closing the disposal site continues. In 2019, there were no major problems for radiation practitioners, and there were few interventions due to the discovery of ionising radiation sources in the field. In mid May 2019, an amendment to the Ionising Radiation Protection and Nuclear Safety Act (ZVISJV-1A) entered into force, which newly regulated the safety screening of foreign nationals. The process of transposing the EU BSS directive into Slovenian law has been completed. 2 2019 Annual Report on Radiation and Nuclear Safety in the Republic and Slovenia TABLE OF CONTENT 1 INTRODUCTION ................................................................................................................................. 6 2 OPERATIONAL SAFETY ..................................................................................................................... 7 2.1 OPERATION OF NUCLEAR AND RADIATION FACILITIES .................................................................. 7 2.1.1 Krško Nuclear Power Plant .................................................................................................................................... 7 2.1.1.1 Operational Safety .............................................................................................................................................. 7 2.1.1.2 Abnormal events and operating experiences in the Krško NPP ......................................................................... 13 2.1.1.3 Second Periodic Safety Review ........................................................................................................................... 16 2.1.1.4 Outage 2019 .................................................................................................................................................... 17 2.1.1.5 Inspections of fuel assemblies during the 2019 outage ......................................................................................... 18 2.1.1.6 The Krško NPP Safety Upgrade Program ........................................................................................................ 19 2.1.1.7 The Krško NPP Spent Fuel Dry Storage ......................................................................................................... 22 2.1.1.8 Technical improvements and modifications ......................................................................................................... 22 2.1.1.9 Safety culture..................................................................................................................................................... 23 2.1.1.10 Topical peer review of the aging management programme (TPR - AMP) ........................................................... 23 2.1.1.11 Inspection Review .............................................................................................................................................. 24 2.1.2 The TRIGA Mark II Research Reactor in Brinje ............................................................................................. 25 2.1.2.1 Operation .......................................................................................................................................................... 25 2.1.2.2 Nuclear Fuel ...................................................................................................................................................