Qualification
Contents
- For other uses, see Education (disambiguation) and Qualification (disambiguation)
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
A qualification may enable an individual to work independently, depending on local and national policies. It is also used to identify a process of formal confirmation that an individual meets qualification requirements. Achieving qualification 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
