SAFETY MANAGEMENT AND RELIABILITY ANALYSIS
Protecting people and the environment
The objective of safety management is to guarantee and optimize the safety of a plant in order to protect people and the environment by identifying and assessing factors that may potentially affect the safety performance. These factors include the organizational structure and the operational processes or process organization.
For this purpose, the past operating behaviour (experience feedback) is assessed and the future operating behaviour is forecasted to ensure a reasonably balanced continuation of safe operation. Safety management systems are generally implemented to secure this process using PDCA cycles (Plan – Do – Check – Act) and indicators throughout the entire organisation as well as their processes.
In addition to organisational findings, the operational procedures are evaluated under consideration of the risk which is inherent to any technical system. Based on risk assessments, suitable inspection, maintenance and monitoring concepts are developed and tested, which keep the risk posed by the technical system below the limits as stipulated by the regulator.
An important source for errors in operational procedures is the interface between man, technology, and organisation (MTO). An analysis of the processes applied by the licensee, the existing organisation, and the actual actions executed provide information on potential for optimisation and improvement.
Comprehensive evaluation of all safety management-related tasks
TÜV NORD Nuclear has extensive experience in evaluating management systems and in considering the relevant conditions for designing and operating nuclear facilities, taking into account their impact on safety-related parameters. Examples are:
- Assessment of the licensee's regulations and the safety management system,
- assessment of incidents and events that must be reported,
- assessment of the operating conditions and the operation performance,
- participation in reviews, inspections and audits, e.g. for process qualification,
- evaluation if and to what extent MTO, i.e. the interplay of man, technology, and organisation, impact safety,
- assessment of probabilistic and deterministic safety analyses, safety concepts, and their implementation,
- assessment of procedures for implementing specifications and to certify the reliability, availability, maintenance, and safety (RAMS),
- assessment of risk-based or risk-informed inspection concepts.
Based on their long-term experience as consultants, TÜV NORD Nuclear experts are also able to provide consultancy for above matters and be of assistance in preparing the relevant documents, depending on the specific task.
