1.1 General
Application of Quality Assurance Program during nuclear power plant site selection: to formulate control and confirmation criteria over all activities which may affect the result quality of survey, evaluation and confirmation of nuclear power plant site; and to ensure that due result quality is achieved. The above activities shall be carried out according to established and documented procedures and working instruction, and by qualified personnel; and results obtained shall be verified, which is essential to the final success of nuclear power project.
In determination of relevant site parameters, scientific and engineering analysis and judgment are involved. Except for technical expertise, professional experience in judging and drawing conclusions is also required. A great many examples show that inspection and test or other technologies which can be exactly identified and controlled also may make no contribution to directly verify resulting parameters in the process. Above all, information adopted as judgment criteria shall be complete and reliable as much as possible. In this connection, it is necessary that all activities providing information for this type of evaluation shall be carried out in a systematic and controlled way by technically qualified and experienced personnel. This may be achieved by formulating documented quality assurance program for site selection activities on basis of quality assurance requirements. The Quality Assurance Program will include all kinds of activities having influence on safety of nuclear power plants, a complete set of work plans and procedures which fully describe the scope, progress, confirmation points, data requirements, examination & approval requirements and staff duties and responsibilities.
In laws and regulations of nuclear safety which are formulated in China, safety guidelines for quality activities in the process of site selection are not set in particular as far as quality assurance field is concerned. However, general principles of quality assurance set and introduced in "Requirements for Quality Assurance and Safety of Nuclear Power Plants" (HAF 0400) shall also be implemented in site selection activities. Particularly, "safety requirements" shall be applied in some activities selected in the following phases of site selection:
- Site survey which is intended to determine one or several plant sites that may be described over their characteristics in the site evaluation phase. All safety or nonsafety matters to be considered shall be evaluated. For site survey activities, generally, it is limited to collection, assembly and analysis over available information of areas concerned. Site survey involves research and investigation in a wide area. It results in systematically screening over this area, documenting causes of excluding unqualified area, and selecting and comparing plant sites located at the rest acceptable areas.
- Site evaluation, which includes research and investigation over one or several preferred plant sites to verify whether they are acceptable from all aspects especially the safety viewpoint. Plant site evaluation activities include: required outdoor and laboratorial investigations and monitoring so as to provide information for supporting design of nuclear installations and for proposing all kinds of nuclear safety management requirements. For investigations of plant site evaluation, the result is to prepare all kinds of documents to be submitted or documents supporting the license or license application.
- Plant site confirmation, which includes construction (pre-operation phase) of nuclear installations and some activities undertaken during operation period. These activities include: (i) necessary in-depth investigations undertaken for solving problems caused by construction of nuclear installations and during operation period; (ii) continued monitoring program. Investigation and monitoring results in plant site confirmation would be written into all kinds of documents to be submitted or documents supporting the operation of license application, into subsequent periodical monitoring reports as well.
1.2 Quality Assurance Program
Quality Assurance Program shall be prepared with respect to site selection activities. In principle, this program is a component of the general quality assurance program for nuclear power project. However, considering that site selection activities usually would start at the very earliest time before starting the nuclear power project, the Quality Assurance Program therefore shall be formulated as early as possible according to the progress of site selection activities, and shall be organized according to the principle similar to quality assurance program of the nuclear power project. This program shall cover every subprogram which is formulated in allusion to particular period and/or specific activities in the process of site selection. Subprograms which are in the charge of equipment and service suppliers shall be the contract liability of corresponding suppliers . When the purchase document has requirements, these suppliers shall submit their quality assurance subprograms to corresponding buyers for approval. These quality assurance programs shall be supported by diverse program documents which include instruction of quality assurance program, program procedure, work plan and degree, working procedure and instruction.
1.3 Responsibility
The organization that takes the overall responsibility of nuclear power project (hereafter referred to as "operating organization") is also responsible for formulating and performing an effective overall quality assurance program, which includes the responsibility of Quality Assurance Program with respect to site selection activities. This organization may entrust the work of formulating and performing a whole or a part of Quality Assurance Program to other organizations, however, it still shall take the validity responsibility of the overall program, with no changes in other obligations and statutory responsibility of the organization appointed simultaneously. As a result, the organization providing service within activity scope shall be possessed of contract obligations to formulate and execute their quality assurance subprograms according to technical specifications cited in the Contract.
1 Introduction 1
1.1 General 1
1.2 Quality Assurance Program 2
1.3 Responsibility 2
2 Preparation of Quality Assurance Program 3
2.1 GeneralGeneral 3
2.2 Service Grading 3
2.3 Quality Assurance Activities 3
2.4 Matching of Quality Assurance Activities (Selection Matching) 4
2.5 Quality Assurance Subprograms - Quality Assurance for Professional Services 4
3 Coverage (Scope) of Quality Assurance Program 6
3.1 General of Site Selection Activities 6
3.2 Grading of Site Selection Service 6
3.3 Matching of Quality Assurance Activities in Site Selection (Selection Cooperation) 6
4 Document of Quality Assurance Program 13
4.1 General 13
4.2 Instructions of Quality Assurance Program 13
4.3 Procedures of Quality Assurance Program 14
4.4 Work Plan and Progress 15
4.5 Working Procedures and Instructions 15
4.6 Manual 16
5 Organization 18
5.1 General 18
5.2 Personnel Allocation 18
5.3 Personnel Qualification and Training 20
5.4 Quality Assurance Training for the Consultancy's Personnel 20
5.5 Site Selection Review Committee 21
6 Performance of Quality Assurance Program 22
6.1 General 22
6.2 Document Control 22
6.3 Control of Rearch, Evaluation and Analysis 23
6.4 Procurement Control 23
6.5 Equipment Control 25
6.6 Process Control 26
6.7 Quality Verification 26
6.8 Control of Non-conformance Term 29
6.9 Corrective Actions 29
6.10 Records 30
6.11 Monitoring 30
Appendix I Examples of Documents Applied within the Scope of Quality Assurance Program in the Survey, Evaluation and Confirmation of Nuclear Power Plant Site 32
Appendix II Examples of Procedures or Working Instructions of Various Site Selection Activities 58
Appendix III Description on Quality Assurance Activities of Site Selection for French Nuclear Power Plant 70
