Difference between revisions of "Qualification"
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Revision as of 10:31, 12 February 2014
Contents
- For other uses, see Education (disambiguation)
Disambiguation
- Equipment qualification
- Generation and maintenance of evidence to ensure that the equipment will operate on demand to meet system performance requirements. Qualification of equipment important to safety in nuclear power plants (NPPs) ensures its capability to perform designated safety functions on demand under postulated service conditions including harsh accident environment (e.g. loss of coolant (LOCA), high energy line break (HELB) and seismic or other vibration conditions)[1].
- A qualification procedure shall confirm that the equipment is capable of meeting, throughout its operation life, the requirements for performing safety functions while subject to the environmental conditions (e.g. vibration, temperature, pressure, jet impingement, radiation, humidity) existing at the time of need. These environmental conditions shall include the variations expected during normal operation, anticipated operational occurrences and accident conditions [2]
- Professional qualification of individuals
- Qualification is a formal statement resulting from an assessment or audit of an individual’s competence to fill a position and perform all duties assigned to that position in a responsible manner. Competence is the ability to apply skills, knowledge and attitudes in order to perform an activity or a job to specified standards in an effective and efficient manner. Competence may be developed through education, experience and formal training. For specific safety related functions, several competence criteria may need to be satisfied, and competence should be acquired by a combination of the above mentioned methods. When competence is being assessed, the qualification becomes a formal statement of competence.
- Only qualified persons should be entrusted with functions important to the safe supervision, operation and maintenance of a nuclear power plant. These functions and the related duties and responsibilities should be clearly indicated in the description of the operating organization and of each position (work assignment). For each category of personnel the necessary competence may be defined by means of:
- educational level (academic qualification),
- previous experience (including direct and related experience),
- training and continuing training.
- Owing to the considerable differences in the abilities developed by education systems in different States, meeting the requirements of formal educational qualification is generally not in itself sufficient. On the basis of an analysis of the actual abilities (knowledge and skills) developed through the national education system, each operating organization should decide which educational qualifications are necessary for each particular position at its plant. [3]
- Qualification of external resources (see. Competency management)
Definition
(Professional) Qualification is A formal statement of competency resulting from a process of assessment or audit of an individual’s competency, certifying that an individual possesses the education, training and experience required to meet specific job performance requirements
Summary
Achieving competency is generally a two-step process: both education and training is needed, although the weight of these two components may vary. Education is a knowledge-driven process which occurs mainly in accredited academic institutions, whereas training is an application-driven process occuring either on the site of the work, or in specialized training centers. Education aims creating, maintaining and transmitting knowledge. On the other hand, training is mainly oriented to acquire the skills necessary to perform a specific job.
Description (Equipment qualification)
A qualification procedure should confirm that the equipment is capable of performing, throughout its operational life, its safety functions while being subjected to the environmental conditions (dynamic effects, temperature, pressure, jet impingement, radiation, humidity) existing at the time of need. These environmental conditions should include the variations expected during normal operation, anticipated operational occurrences and accident conditions. Where the equipment is subject to external natural events and is expected to perform a safety function during or following such an event, the qualification programme should replicate the conditions imposed on the equipment by the natural phenomena.
In addition, any unusual environmental conditions that can be reasonably anticipated and could arise from specific operating conditions, such as during periodic containment leak rate testing, should be included in the qualification programme. To the extent possible, equipment that is expected to operate during severe accidents should, by tests, experiments or engineering analysis, be shown with reasonable confidence to be capable of achieving the design intent under severe accident conditions.
It is preferable that qualification be achieved by the testing of prototypical equipment (type testing). This is not always fully practicable for the vibration of large components or the ageing of equipment. In such cases extrapolation of equipment performance under similar conditions, analyses or tests plus analyses should be relied upon. [4]
References
[1] Safety Report Series No. 3. EQUIPMENT QUALIFICATION IN OPERATIONAL NUCLEAR POWER PLANTS: UPGRADING, PRESERVING AND REVIEWING http://www-pub.iaea.org/MTCD/publications/PDF/P052_scr.pdf
[2] Code on the Safety of Nuclear Power Plants: Design, Safety Series No. 50-C-D (Rev. 1), IAEA, Vienna (1988).
[3] IAEA SAFETY STANDARDS SERIES Recruitment, Qualification and Training of Personnel for Nuclear Power Plants SAFETY GUIDE No. NS-G-2.8 http://www-pub.iaea.org/MTCD/publications/PDF/Pub1140_scr.pdf
[4] IAEA SAFETY STANDARDS SERIES SAFETY GUIDE No. NS-G-1.2 Safety Assessment and Verification for Nuclear Power Plants http://www.iaea.org/ns/tutorials/regcontrol/refs/59safass.pdf
