Commitment to reliability

Technological reliability is fundamental for the safe operation of a nuclear power plant. A plant is a complex facility where thousands of operations take place every day, and each and every one of these is properly studied, planned and coordinated.

Everything is planned

From the design to the construction of equipment, from the daily operation to all the maintenance activities, everything that takes place in a nuclear power plant, even the response to extraordinary situations, is formulated, planned, trained or included in manuals and procedures.

In accordance with these principles, ANAV fosters training and the critical analysis abilities of its workers, upgrades the facilities with the best technology available and exchanges information with manufacturers and other operators in order to increase the level of efficiency of the facilities and the working methods.

The robustness of the energy supply of the Ascó and Vandellós II plants is explained by the implementation of an operational excellence model that evolves, adapting to the changes required by the organisation, and that is always subjected to safety criteria.

For ANAV reliability is a duty, not a goal

International missions

Also contributing to the continuously increasing reliability is the cooperation with and the recommendations from specialist international organisations, such as the World Association of Nuclear Operators (WANO) or the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA). These organisations review ANAV’s equipment, personnel and procedures. The requirements of the Nuclear Safety Council, who has personnel permanently assigned to the plants and carries out on-site inspections, also contribute to this end.

Stopping to continue moving forward

Every year and a half, ANAV’s nuclear power plants complete an operation cycle and must shut down to renew a third of the fuel housed in the reactor. Let us show you what happens in a refuelling outage.

 

Approximately 65% of the operating reactors throughout the world came on-line between 1984 and 1988, at the same time as the Ascó and Vandellós nuclear power plants. A large proportion of these uses technologies that are similar in many ways, and exchange experiences in international forums.