WRITTEN QUESTION No. 774/99 by Marjo MATIKAINEN-KALLSTRÖM Tacis project A2.01/96 concerning the provision of a training simulator for the No. 2 unit of the Medzamor nuclear power establishment (Armenia)
Date: 1999-03-29
Institutions: European Parliament, MATIKAINEN-KALLSTROEM
Subjects: Armenia, Central and Eastern European countries, Finland, award of contract, invitation to tender, nuclear power station, nuclear safety, software, vocational training













EUR-Lex - 91999E0774 - EN






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91999E0774

WRITTEN QUESTION No. 774/99 by Marjo MATIKAINEN-KALLSTRÖM Tacis project A2.01/96 concerning the provision of a training simulator for the No. 2 unit of the Medzamor nuclear power establishment (Armenia)  


Official Journal C 370 , 21/12/1999 P. 0104 





WRITTEN QUESTION E-0774/99by Marjo Matikainen-Kallström (PPE) to the Commission(29 March 1999)Subject: Tacis project A2.01/96 concerning the provision of a training simulator for the No 2 unit of the Medzamor nuclear power establishment (Armenia)The Commission has issued an invitation to tender for the provision of a training simulator for the no. 2 unit of the Medzamor (Armenia) nuclear power station. However, the possibility has been mooted of awarding the tender directly to a consortium which does not have the relevant product ready and which indeed has yet to develop the product. The development of an appropriate programme will take years.The APROS programme was planned in Finland from 1986. APROS is a versatile programme which has been widely used in training simulator applications. At least 50 different APROS applications have been in use.The APROS programme's credentials are supplied by the power stations at Kozloduy, Paksi and on the Kola Peninsula. The Kola power station in particular is very similar to the one at Medzamor. APROS has been in use in incident analyses since January 1995 and as a training simulation application since December 1997. The completed and tested training simulator on the Kola peninsula proves that a training simulator based on APROS is a powerful and cost-effective alternative for Medzamor too.An invitation to tender will at least guarantee that all sides' strong points are taken into account, that resources are used for this project in a cost-effective manner and that aid money is not spent on product development. A tender procedure will also ensure that the EU's principles of competition and transparency are put into practice.Does the Commission intend to put this project out to tender so that all interested parties may participate?Answer given by Mr van den Broek on behalf of the Commission(5 May 1999)The Phare and Tacis programmes for nuclear safety have supplied multi functional training simulators for all reactor sites of the type VVER 440 in the New independent states (NIS) and the Central and Eastern European countries (CEECs). The project was awarded by a tendering process in 1994. The Armenian plant of Medzamor was in the beginning not incorporated from that supply due to the fact that it was shut down at the time after the 1988 earthquake.When the Armenians decided to restart the plant, the international community decided to try to get an urgent commitment on behalf of the Armenian authorities to shut the plant down as soon as possible, while at the same time assisting Armenia in operating it as safely as possible during the remaining operation time.It was in this context that the supply of a simulator for Medzamor was decided. The basic software was already developed for other relevant plants. Due to the urgency of the situation, the most practicable solution was to supply the equipment and software from the same supplier of all other VVER multifunctional simulators. Hence the Commission took the decision to proceed in that way.