CHAPTER 10: Documentation

Documentation

The procedures and guidelines developed for accident management should be well documented and should be supported by appropriate background documentation. This documentation should describe and explain the rationale of the various parts of the procedures and guidelines, and should, in principle, include an explanation of each of their individual steps.

The background material has three functions:
- It is a self-contained source of reference;
- It demonstrates compliance with the relevant quality requirements;
- It provides support material to be used in training courses for technical support staff and operators.

Background material should include:
(a) The technical basis for strategies;
(b) Detailed description of instrumentation needs;
(c) Results of supporting analyses;
(d) The basis and detailed descriptions of procedure and guideline steps;
(e) Set point calculations and their basis.

The background documentation does not replace the procedures and guidelines themselves. It should be available to all staff (on- and off-site) involved in evaluation of plant status during the course of the accidents and to support the decision-making.