Fennovoima Oy has "provisionally accepted" the 'Basic Design Stage 1' documentation for the Hanhikivi-1 project in Finland from the nuclear reactor supplier, RAOS Project Oy, which is a subsidiary of Rusatom Energy International JSC, which is itself a subsidiary of Russian state nuclear corporation Rosatom.
In accordance with their Engineering, Procurement, Construction (EPC) contract, the documentation includes a description of, for example, the conceptual and functional design of the plant, systems and buildings, and a 3D model. It provides the basis for the Preliminary Safety Analysis Report (PSAR), which shall be reviewed and accepted by the Finnish Radiation and Nuclear Safety Authority (STUK) before the construction licence is granted by the Finnish government.
Consisting of 15 batches, the PSAR is the main document of the licence application and presents a detailed description of all safety-related aspects of the project: plant site selection, basic design and technical solutions, safety measures, as well as the results of design validations from a safety point of view.
Fennovoima Oy has to date submitted five batches of documents for the PSAR to STUK for review and another two will be provided to Fennovoima before the end of this year. The PSAR is to be completed in the spring of 2021.
Rosatom said STUK requires a higher level of detail in the documents required at the licensing stage when compared to most other countries, which is helpful for further stages in a project, since it helps avoid delays and reduces the amount of work on changes to the design after construction work has started.
Janne Liuko, director of utility operations at Fennovoima, said: "Prior to submitting the PSAR documents to the regulator, we conduct our own independent review and assessment of the safety of the design. As the responsible owner and operator of the future nuclear power plant, we consider independent review necessary at all stages."
Ivan Doshchuk, engineering director at RAOS Project for the Hanhikivi-1 plant, added: "In addition to the high level of detail, the design has to be submitted fully digitized, which means that we need to include a 3D model and an information model of the future plant into the package of documents we hand over to the customer."
Development, review and acceptance of the documentation is "a heavily interactive process" between the customer and the plant supplier, Rosatom said, and meeting this milestone is testament to the supplier and customer's "mutual understanding" of the requirements for technology, quality, safety and project implementation.
The EPC contract, signed on 21 December 2013, states that the Russian side will supply a licenced, functional and operational nuclear power unit on a turnkey basis.
Hanhikivi-1, which will be a single VVER-1200 nuclear power plant , will be built on the Hanhikivi cape in the municipality of Pyhäjoki in the Finnish region of Northern Ostrobothnia.
