QUALITY MONITORING AND ASSURANCE
Reaching and maintaining the pre-determined quality level
Quality assurance is the total of all the organisational and technical measures that ensure the attainment and maintenance of stipulated quality levels during the design, manufacture, commissioning and operation stages of nuclear installations.
It should be emphasised that the role of quality assurance measures is not to optimise the quality of a single, specific part or component but rather to maintain an overall level for the whole facility set forth in rules and regulations for nuclear plants.
It is the licensee's responsibility to ensure that the plant is operated in an undisturbed and environmentally friendly fashion also without need to credit the function of the safety systems. This is achieved by implementing stringent demands regarding quality in the design, construction, commissioning and operation of the plant as well as ensuring a high professional qualification of the employees. Tasks inherent in quality assurance include:
- Description of measures by which required quality features are implemented
- The implementation of these measures
- The documentation of the results achieved by applying these measures.
Important milestones assuring the required quality level include for instance
- Specifications that define comprehensively the quality requirements on components and systems
- Manufacturer assessments
- Design reviews of the manufacturing documents
- Non-destructive testing (NDT)
- Type and random sample testing
- Suitability tests
- Construction and acceptance inspections including e.g. material and pressure tests
- Specific tests as part of commissioning
- In-service inspections (ISI) during operation
- Documentation reviews
TÜV NORD Nuclear has gained considerable experience in applying the rules and methods of quality assurance referred to above. It is based on the experience gained in numerous nuclear projects both in Germany and abroad.
