High-level project of radioactive waste processing management system entrusted to Lithuanian companies.
Baltijos Informacinės Sistemos in cooperation with electronic engineering solutions company Fima is installing an automated system for the management of processing of liquid radioactive waste at one of the largest nuclear power plants in Russia. The works that require extreme safety and modernity were delegated to the Lithuanian specialists based on an assessment of their experience in analogous objects.
A consortium of Baltijos Informacinės Sistemos UAB and Fima UAB has signed a three-party agreement with the Rosenergoatom concern and the European Commission. Under the contract, the two Lithuanian companies will have to design, supply and install a system for the management of the conversion of liquid radioactive waste at the Smolensk Nuclear Power Plant. The project is financed under the European Union’s TACIS Nuclear Safety Programme. The value of the project is EUR 1.7 million, with all tasks to be completed in two years by the end of 2009.
Utilisation and long-term storage of liquid radioactive waste resulting from operations of nuclear power plants is becoming an increasingly urgent issue. The waste utilisation technological process to be launched at the Smolensk Power Plant will be fully automated and managed by a digital control system. The staff will only control and observe the process with the help of computer software. The control system will be designed and installed by the Lithuanians.
“The system we will mount at the Smolensk Nuclear Power Plant consists of sensors measuring temperature, pressure and many other parameters, control units that convert the data to a digital format and software for management of control and observation processes. We appreciate the significance of the project and the responsibility – it is an exceptional project even in Russia. The significance of work is indicated by other companies that took part in the tender – we competed with famous companies, such as NUKEM, AREVA and ANSALDO. The fact that the project will be performed by Fima and Baltijos Informacinės Sistemos prove trust in our competences,” Vytautas Zinkevičius, Development Director of Fima, says.
“Baltijos Informacinės Sistemos UAB has been taking active part in the TACIS Nuclear Safety Programme in Russia. Under the programme, the company performed modernisation of the information system of the second block of Kalinin in 2002-2004 and participated in the development of the concept of the modernisation of control device of the Leningrad Nuclear Power Plant in 2003-2006. Currently, the company is modernising information systems of the first and the second block of the Balakov nuclear plant, as well as installing a new heat seepage control system. We are glad to say that our competences in automation of technological processes are equal competitors with companies of European fame,” Kastytis Butkus, Director General of Baltijos Informacinės Sistemos UAB, notes.
The first such type of radioactive waste processing system in the former Soviet Union was mounted in our country, in Ignalina, approximately three years ago. Fima also contributed to the project. The company’s cooperation with the Ignalina Nuclear Power Plant dates back to 1994. During these years, the nuclear plant was equipped with spent nuclear fuel storage facilities and complex security systems, an automobile control post, a modernized communications network and enhanced fire safety. In the storage facility of spent nuclear fuel, Fima installed a top-level complex security system. Last year, the facility was supplemented by one of the most modern in Lithuania staff warning and notification systems.
