Currently, an innovative export-oriented project of a nuclear floating power unit is being developed including from the point of view of the application of IAEA safeguards taking into account the experience of operation at land-based nuclear power plants with water-cooled reactors. According to the design technical features of a nuclear floating power unit and the handling of nuclear material, it is necessary to adapt the existing approaches to the application of the IAEA safeguards to this vessel. A key aspect of controlling unauthorized removal of nuclear material is the use of containment and surveillance equipment. Therefore, the article objective is to study a possible approach to the application of the IAEA safeguards to a nuclear floating power unit in terms of installing equipment for containment and surveillance measures. When developing an approach to the application of the IAEA safeguards, the following are taken into account: the life cycle of an atomic floating power unit; peculiarities of nuclear material handling; possibility of object mobility. To achieve a high level of elaboration of the approach in terms of aspects of the application of safeguards, a comparison method is used with similar approaches for land-based nuclear power plants of large capacity. Peculiarities of nuclear material handling at nuclear floating power unit aimed at minimization of nuclear materials proliferation risks are considered. A list of the IAEA containment and surveillance equipment has been compiled, which can be used on the nuclear floating power unit board taking into account the specifics of its operation. Based on the results of the analysis, it can be concluded that the scheme of using the IAEA containment and surveillance equipment on the nuclear floating power unit board is much simpler than at land-based nuclear power plants of high capacity. This scheme can be taken into account in a timely manner already at the stage of detailed design, which will simplify the installation and use of the IAEA containment and surveillance equipment already at the operating facility.

This paper describes a robotic system for performing chemical syntheses with product analysis, made with the aim of creating a prototype of a robot chemist. The basis was the automated system from the Russian-Japanese company Evotech-Mirai Genomics called «LifeBot». «LifeBot» was originally developed for isolating nucleic acids and preparing mixtures. To reprofile the system for chemical tasks, various modifications were made, including increasing the number of stored solvents and solutions dosed through additionally mounted peristaltic pumps, expanding the number of available reagents by modifying the storage and adding a manipulator and a rack with storage. The most significant modification was equipping the setup with a mixer with heating and temperature control, which allows parallel chemical syntheses execution. Another important modification was the addition of an interface for interacting with a liquid chromatograph, that makes it possible to analyze reaction mixtures after the synthesis. The software is written in Python and allows both direct control over the physical aspects of the robotic system and automatic parallel syntheses execution, starting with calculation of the required volumes of reagents, preparation of reaction mixtures, followed by stirring for the time required for synthesis with heating to the selected temperature and finishing with sampling and dilution for analysis and their sending to the chromatograph. Thus, human presence is required only during pre-synthesis preparations (loading solutions into storage, installing clean dispenser tips and reactor tubes) and after synthesis completion (release from used reactors and tips), which is promising in terms of minimizing human contact while working with harmful and/or hazardous substances. The operation of the system in automated syntheses with product analysis was tested on the reaction of glycine oligopeptide formation under the action of sodium trimetaphosphate, in which the synthesis conditions were varied: reagent ratios, temperature, process time.

Nuclear weapons testing and accidents at nuclear power plants have contributed to significant contamination of territories with artificial radionuclides. Furthermore, the development of uranium-thorium deposits and the presence of natural radioactive anomalies make the largest contribution to the collective effective dose received by the Earth's population from natural sources of ionizing radiation. This paper presents the results of assessing the radiation situation in the cities of the Caucasian Mineral Waters (CMV) in the Stavropol Region. As part of the study, gamma background measurements were conducted in the following cities: Pyatigorsk, Kislovodsk, Zheleznovodsk, Yessentuki, and Lermontov. Gamma dosimetry (measurement of the ambient equivalent dose of gamma radiation) was carried out on central streets, in tourist/park areas of cities, and in areas with the most dense development using a pedestrian gamma camera at a height of 1 meter above the ground, using the DRBP-03 dosimeter-radiometer with the SBM-20 built-in detection unit and the DKS 96 dosimeter-radiometer with the BDKS 96s detection unit The average values of the ambient equivalent dose of gamma radiation (AED, μSv/h) in all cities are approximately 0.15 μSv/h, which is typical for settlements in the southern part of European Russia, including the Rostov NPP. In general, such studies of the radiation situation in resort settlements, especially in mountainous areas with uranium ore deposits and volcanism, should be continued to compile maps of the distribution of gamma radiation and identify possible natural and/or man-made radiation anomalies, as well as to reduce social tensions among the population related to radiophobia.

The article considers the designs of heat-exchanging cartridges of moisture separator-reheaters (MSRs) of increased efficiency being a part of the equipment of NPPs with VVER-1000 and VVER-1200. One of the main problems of NPP saturated steam turbines is the reduced moisture content in the turbine flow part and the deficiency in the heating steam temperature resulting in the need to modify the existing designs of moisture separator-reheaters and increase their heat transfer. Some proposed engineering solutions and process methods for improving the efficiency of heat-exchangers lie in increasing the heat transfer surfaces using a more branched surface of heat-exchanging tubes. Such designs are heat-exchanging cartridges of reheaters, consisting of a large number of heat-exchanging tubes with six and eight longitudinal U-fins, MSR designs SPP-1000 and SPP-1200, respectively. It is noted that cartridges with six longitudinal U-fins do not provide the heating steam temperature deficiency of 6 °C for more powerful facilities
of NPP Power Units with VVER-1200. An appropriate engineering solution for meeting this requirement is the application of heat-exchanging tubes with eight longitudinal U-fins in the cartridges. The article contains advantages and disadvantages of the considered design of longitudinally finned tubes. The main disadvantages of tubes with eight U-fins are the increased metal consumption per heat-exchanging cartridges and the lack of conditions for large-scale production of tubes of such class. We considered the engineering solution to apply the reheater heat-exchanging cartridges with low-profile monometallic tubes, allowing keeping the modular principle of construction of all units
in previously existing designs. The article states approaches to the selection of heat-exchanging tube blanks subject to the range of products manufactured by global and domestic manufacturers. Some results of studies of the structure and physical and mechanical properties of the heat-exchanging tubes are shown for optimal selection of heat-exchanging tubes for MSR SPP-1200. It is noted that the feasibility of the proposed engineering solutions for modification of MSRs should be supported by the results of thermal and hydraulic calculations as well as a comparison of the technical characteristics of the designs before and after the modification.

The results of computational modeling of burnable absorbers in fuel assemblies using the SAPHIR_95 and SAPHIR_RF engineering programs are presented. Two models of fuel assemblies with uranium and uranium-plutonium fuel have been developed using a uranium-gadolinium burnable absorber implemented in the form of a fuel element. The analysis of the grid convergence of a method for calculating the neutron multiplication coefficient from the depth of fuel burnup is carried out. Recommendations have been developed on the number of calculated layers in fuel rods for non-slow systems (4-8 layers) and systems with a rigid spectrum (2-4 layers). The VVER-1000 LEU and MOX benchmark was used to estimate the calculation error. The calculations performed in the SAPHIR_95 and SAPHIR_RF programs have results similar to those obtained in the MCU, TVS-M, WIMS8A, HELIOS, and MULTICELL programs. The maximum value of the relative deviation of the benchmark value referred to the average value in calculations using the SAPFIR_95 program was: for fuel assemblies with uranium fuel 0.78%, for fuel assemblies with mixed uranium-plutonium fuel 0.9%. For the SAPFIR_RF program, the errors ​​were 1.04% and 1.41%, respectively. It is shown that for systems with a rigid neutron spectrum, unlike non-slow systems, there is no obvious decrease in the multiplication coefficient due to the use of self-shielded burnable absorber. It is concluded that there may be a reduction in the use of fuel rods in assemblies with mixed uranium-plutonium fuel or their abandonment. As a result of the simulation, the distribution dependences of the neutron flux density of the fast and thermal groups were obtained depending on the depth of the burnout of the cassettes. The results obtained during the calculation in SAPHIR_95 and SAPHIR_RF are not qualitatively different.

This article examines the specifics of welding the casework of power engineering equipment characterized by a pronounced discrete nature and inherent challenges of small-scale production such as low process reproducibility and a high degree of uncertainty in component condition. Pre-production costs are comparable to or exceed the costs of the actual process. This article considers the process properties of power sources and welding machines in a single "power source – welding machine – arc – weld" system. The process properties are separately assessed in steady-state and dynamic modes of equipment operation. In steady-state mode, the process properties of both power sources and welding machines are quite high and almost always meet welding technology requirements. Therefore, when evaluating equipment properties, its ability to handle process disturbances is most often examined. A transient analysis is performed based on the dynamic characteristics of welding circuit elements. For conventional power sources containing electromechanical controllers, the dynamic properties are determined by inductance and design features, while for semiconductor power sources, they are determined by the characteristics of the electronic control unit. The paper concludes that successfully designing a control system for an electric arc welding circuit depends on many factors, primarily the process's information base for the high-quality generation of the input state vector. The main conclusion reached is that creating a modern control system is impossible without the support of information and digital analytical systems for recording primary data sets and subsequently extracting qualitatively new information about the dynamics of the electric arc welding process from them, ensuring a comprehensive approach to improvement encompassing the entire welding production cycle.

The article considers the issues of vibration monitoring of fuel assemblies based on the analysis of neutron noise during the processing of current signals from direct charge sensors. The principles of estimating the vibration state of fuel assemblies based on spectral characteristics are disclosed. The advantages of neutron noise control methods are formulated, the main of which are passivity, the use of standard equipment and the ability to assess the vibration state of the fuel assembly during operation of the unit at power. The differences between TVS-5 and standard fuel assemblies for VVER-1200 reactor installations are briefly described. For the first time, neutron noise analysis of fifth-generation fuel assemblies (TVS-5) as part of the seventh fuel campaign at unit 1 of Novovoronezh NPP-2 in the low-frequency and high-frequency ranges has been performed. In the low-frequency range, a complete coincidence of the spectral characteristics of the TVS-5 and the standard TVS was noted. Based on experimental data, an important conclusion is drawn that the fuel assemblies-5 do not stand out in terms of vibration relative to regular fuel assemblies. At the same time, a difference was noted between the experimentally recorded resonances in the fuel assembly spectral characteristics and the set of frequencies for which theoretical modelling and calculation of the stress-strain state of the fuel assembly were performed. The differences are noted between the TVS-5 and regular TVS spectra in the high-frequency range. The authors have identified frequencies that are common to TVS-5 and regular fuel assemblies, but there are also frequencies that are registered only for a certain type of fuel assemblies. Taking into account that neutron noise in the high-frequency range has not been assessed previously, it is too early to draw conclusions, and further work on existing nuclear power plant units is necessary

The paper presents a universal approach (not based on specific degradation laws) to identifying the current states of NPP technological systems. A fragment of the technological system is analysed in the space of diagnostic features (parameters) with a dominant criterion. The system boundary of the selected fragment is the surface formed by the normative restrictions on the values of diagnostic features. A probabilistic mapping of the system is constructed in a unit hypercube on the time series of parametric monitoring to represent its evolution in terms of degradation (movement towards normative boundaries). The constructed virtual (possible digital) image of the system is approximated by a Kolmogorov-Gabor polynomial which is used as an extrapolator. The predictive capabilities of the approach are investigated for a real object: «The Oil System of the Main Circulation Pump (MCP)». The methodology is a simplified version of multidimensional statistical analysis, where the multidimensional distribution function of parameters is not normal and cannot be restored in real time. The classical theory is replaced by the task of identifying one-dimensional empirical distribution functions of diagnostic feature measurements in space. The method has proven itself well in cases of degradation such as wear, ageing, deposit formation, and surface erosion. The ability to predict instantaneous failures (limit exceedance jumps) is implemented based on disturbances in the corresponding distribution functions. The method requires a large amount of statistical material, so it is preferable for monitoring stationary modes of equipment operation or processing archives. It is expected to be used in programming «observers» to monitor the development of abnormal situations and training neural networks.

The article is devoted to the development of special software for the organization of a signal source
in a TEMPEST channel due to electromagnetic radiation from the video system cable (VGA, DVI, etc.). The interface and functionality of the developed special software are presented: the main program window and the window for selecting the characteristics of the test electromagnetic signal. Using the developed special software, the values of the voltage at the output of the measuring antenna were measured, corresponding to the combination of the signal and interference of the electromagnetic radiation of the VGA cable, depending on the color processed by the video computer system. The results of calculating the voltage values of the signal at the output of the measuring antenna corresponding to these colors are presented. Based on the calculated values, conditional places are assigned to the colors, indicating the effectiveness of receiving electromagnetic radiation from a VGA cable that occurs when a video system processes these colors using computer technology.

Abstract. The article considers the problem of staffing electric power companies based on industry needs, and searches for solutions to overcome the personnel shortage using the example of PJSC «Rosseti» Group, a partner of the state corporation Rosatom in the field of IT developments. The objective of the research work is to develop relevant mechanisms for staffing electric power companies at the regional level. The scientific novelty of the study is reduced to the following provisions: a model of staffing of an electric power company is proposed, taking into account regional differentiation, incorporating internal and external factors. Methodology and methods. To study the trends in staffing, general scientific methods are used (theoretical analysis of scientific papers, empirical, logical, comparative analysis and modeling). A review of publications is conducted, which allowed us to determine the subject area of the research work. Results. As a solution to the staffing problem of electric power companies, based on industry needs, a regional model of staffing is proposed. It includes external (infrastructure) and internal factors. External factors include educational infrastructure and the presence of competing employers. Internal factors include the availability of corporate training centers and the company's management, HR, and social policies. Discussion. The key internal and external elements of the regional staffing model for an electric power company are identified, and the existence of regional differentiation, characteristic of the spatial development of the Russian Federation, is substantiated. To confirm the importance of an internal focus on employees, a comparative analysis of regulatory acts in the field of social partnership is conducted.

The paper considers the issues of teaching English-language scientific and technical terminology to students specializing in nuclear industry-related fields. Knowledge of specialized vocabulary is becoming a key factor in professional competence in the context of globalization and the integration of Russian specialists into the international professional area. The paper focuses on modern methods and approaches to teaching terminology including the use of digital technologies, gamification, and project-based learning. The empirical part includes an effectiveness analysis of the proposed methods based on testing and surveying students at the Volgodonsk Engineering Technical Institute the branch of National Research Nuclear University MEPhI. It is found that the integration of professionally oriented materials increases motivation and term mastering by 30–40%. The results of the study can be used to improve foreign language programs at technical universities.