3D simulation as a tool for improving the safety culture during remediation work at Andreeva Bay

Abstract

Andreeva Bay in northwest Russia hosts one of the former coastal technical bases of the Northern Fleet. Currently, this base is designated as the Andreeva Bay branch of Northwest Center for Radioactive Waste Management (SevRAO) and is a site of temporary storage (STS) for spent nuclear fuel (SNF) and other radiological waste generated during the operation and decommissioning of nuclear submarines and ships. According to an integrated expert evaluation, this site is the most dangerous nuclear facility in northwest Russia. Environmental rehabilitation of the site is currently in progress and is supported by strong international collaboration. This paper describes how the optimization principle (ALARA) has been adopted during the planning of remediation work at the Andreeva Bay STS and how Russian-Norwegian collaboration greatly contributed to ensuring the development and maintenance of a high level safety culture during this process. More specifically, this paper describes how integration of a system, specifically designed for improving the radiological safety of workers during the remediation work at Andreeva Bay, was developed in Russia. It also outlines the 3D radiological simulation and virtual reality based systems developed in Norway that have greatly facilitated effective implementation of the ALARA principle, through supporting radiological characterisation, work planning and optimization, decision making, communication between teams and with the authorities and training of field operators.

Comprehensive support for nuclear decommissioning based on 3D simulation and advanced user interface technologies

“…Visual simulation of past and possible crisis situations, and enabling workers to observe and practice response tactics, can be an effective method for implementing training for an emergency preparedness strategy. For an example, a customised version of the VRdose system, the Andreeva Planner, has been utilised to simulate planned remediation work (Figure 8) and possible emergency situations, develop and teach optimal emergency response tactics, as well as support regulatory compliance as part of the emergency preparedness strategy within the programme for the remediation of legacy sites in the Andreeva Bay in the northwest of Russia [8].…”

“…by supporting evaluation of new tools in the planning phase, and training workers for application of new technology. The results of use in industry projects [1,8,15,24,25] proved that these technologies are very useful for improving planning and optimisation of jobs, team communication and regulatory surveillance, as well as briefing and training of field operators. This is conditional, however, on the technological solution used being a good match with the specific needs of the decommissioning project, and being easy to use, to minimising deployment costs such as training staff.…”

“…These customised tools are based on a commercial variant of the Halden Planner, the HVRC VRdose system [7]. For example, the Andreeva Planner has been developed specifically to support implementation of the as low as reasonably achievable (ALARA) principle and high-level safety culture during the planning of the rehabilitation of the most dangerous nuclear site in the northwest of Russia, operated by the Andreeva Bay branch of the Northwest Center for Radioactive Waste Management (SevRAO) [8].…”

Radiation situation dynamics at the Andreeva Bay site for temporary storage of spent nuclear fuel and radioactive waste over the period 2002–2016

“…To assess potential occupational doses in emergency situations and to plan RW management operations in accordance with their aftermath, a preliminary prediction should be made based on the identified potential emergency scenarios, including a full list of initiating events, and determination of time and sequence of aftermath activities within the emergency response. For this purpose, to assure radiation protection of workers involved in operations at the Andreeva Bay site, IAS RBP-information and analytical system of radiation protection of the NWC SevRAO workers-has been developed as the combination of Andreeva Planner and Easy-RAD software [10].…”

“…Nonlinear logarithmic transformation makes the data suitable for geostatistical analysis. Lognormal kriging is not based on the measured values of Z, but the interpolation of the logarithms of the Y values: 10 The angle and ratio of anisotropy are parameters of the variogram for kriging interpolation. The variogram is responsible for the correlation relationship between two random variables; in our case the ADER values.…”