PLANT-OPERATIONS ORGANIZATION IN EAST EUROPEAN NUCLEAR-POWER-PLANTS

Over the past few years, the organization of plant operation in East European nuclear power plants has been handled quite differently from that in plants in the West. Customary features in Eastern plants were personnel reporting to more than one supervisor; a lack of transparency in the delegation of duties, in competences and responsibilities. This has been improved only partly in new structures of organization. As no operating manuals were kept, operating instructions could only be culled from experience not verified by means of simulators. Preventive maintenance was widely unknown, as no ministerial orders provided for it. Regulations only existed for shutdowns at five-year intervals. Bilateral contacts between Eastern and Western nuclear power plant operators can lead to more individual responsibility and improve the safety of nuclear power plants at little expense, which is impossible, or possible only at great expense and in the long term, for technical measures.