Quality assurance and quality control in nuclear facilities will continue to be vital in achieving the highest quality standards and safety objectives and must be an integrated part of a management system, an IAEA meeting concluded. Nuclear 'newcomer' countries, who may have varying degrees of familiarity and competence in applying management systems need to ensure that quality assurance and control principles are built into all processes.
Quality assurance (QA) in a management system provides confidence that specific requirements will be fulfilled, while quality control (QC) verifies that structures, systems and components of a nuclear power plant correspond to predetermined requirements (IAEA Safety Glossary, 2007).
"Quality is about meeting requirements”, said Gustave Danielson, from the US Department of Energy, who chaired the IAEA Technical Meeting on Quality Control and Quality Assurance and Their Relationship with Management Systems at the IAEA last month. "There is no alternative to yielding an outcome that meets requirements. To do that, we need people, functions, criteria and processes."
Sixty-five representatives of the nuclear industry, international and non-governmental bodies, supply chain organizations, regulators and researchers from 26 Member States and two international organizations discussed important areas of QA, QC and their relationship with management systems including needs of new or expanding nuclear power programmes, supply chain and operating facilities. Also the concept of quality itself was addressed, and participants agreed that it means compliance with the requirements for safety, security, safeguards, environment, occupation safety, economy and other important objectives for an organization.
"You cannot 'inspect' quality into an item or service; it has to be designed and planned for those items that we cannot afford to fail," said Pekka Pyy, IAEA Scientific Secretary of the meeting. "We have to understand that proper QA is vital for the success of nuclear. The management system processes, leadership and organizational culture need to be right, but you also need to know your requirements and convey them in the specifications to the supply chain. Proper communication is key here."
The meeting recommended that Member States apply requirement management with modern information technology tools, foster cooperation and communication on all parts of the supply chain and found that management systems in corporate structures with many different objectives, business units and supply chain parts may require additional focus, including in construction projects. Also, risk management is becoming established in many international standards and should be used by all stakeholders. They also encouraged the IAEA to promote using sound management system practices in Member States' nuclear power project management. In that context, the IAEA is planning a Technical Document to ensure that future nuclear professionals understand how fundamental QA is to an effective management system.
