- Email: [email protected]
Quality assurance in a nuclear tubing mill
SESSION
2
QUALITY
CONTROL
SYSTEMS
Chairmen: R. Stratton Paul Scherrer
G.Sukhanov IAEA. Vienna
Institute,
Wiirenlingen
AND QUALITY
ASSURANCE
Journal of Nuclear Materials 178 ( 1991) 125-13 1
125
North-Holland
Quality assurance in a nuclear tubing mill J. Badri Narayan * Specialty Metals Plant, Commercial Blairsville, PA 15 717-8904. USA
Nuclear Fuel Division, Westinghouse Electric Corporation,
RD 4, Box 333,
The Specialty Metals Plant Quality Assurance system and the quality organization are described in general. Hierarchy of the system documents and the dual functions of the Plant Product Assurance Department are described. The necessary modifications to the plant procedures
to meet the international
QA requirements
1. Introduction The nuclear tubing manufacturing facility of the Westinghouse Commercial Nuclear Fuel Division (CNFD) is the Specialty Metals Plant (SMP). Nuclear tubing has been produced at SMP since 1967. The Plant Quality Assurance program complies with the division and the Energy Services Business Unit Quality Assurance Plan approved by the United States of America Nuclear Regulatory Commission. The Energy Service Business Unit Quality Assurance Plan [ 1] documents the Business Unit approach to satisfy each of the eighteen criteria of the Quality Assurance requirements given in table 1 set forth in the United States of America Nuclear Regulatory Commission publication 1OCFRSO Appendix B [ 2 1. In the 1980’s, SMP began producing zirconium alloy tubing for international customers and was exposed to the customers’ domestic Quality Assurance requirements which, in certain countries, differ from the US requirements. Although the Quality Assurance requirements of US and most of the other countries emphasize and focus on Quality Systems, Quality Assurance requirements of a few countries, such as West Germany, encompass both the system and product related functions [ 3 1. This is further substantiated by Aly et al. [ 41 in their discussions on development of nuclear quality assurance standards in various countries. They indicate that a majority of the countries and international organizations follow US NRC lOCFR50 Appendix B; however the German quality assurance requirements rely more on an independent third party verification of quality control and inspection activities than on a quality assurance program. This has meant that SMP has had to formulate procedures and require-
are discussed.
Table I List of the eighteen criteria of the Quality Assurance requirements [2] 1. Organization 2. Quality assurance program 3. Design control 4. Procurement 5. Instructions, procedures and drawings 6. Document control 7. Control of purchased material, equipment and services 8. Identification and control of materials, parts and components 9. Control of special processes 10. Inspection 11. Test control 12. Control of measuring and test equipment 13. Handling, storage and shipping 14. Inspection, test and operating status 15. Nonconforming materials, parts and components 16. Corrective action 17. Quality assurance records 18. Audits
ments within the framework of the Business Unit Quality Assurance Plan, as necessary, to satisfy the individual customer requirements. This paper briefly discuss the Commercial Nuclear Fuel Division and Specialty Metals Plant organization as it relates to Quality and Product, the hierarchy of the documents and SMP approach to several of the eighteen Quality Assurance criteria: process and product qualifications,
internal and external quality audits, and final release of product to customer and product certification.
* Fellow Engineer, Product Assurance Department. 0022-3115/91/$03.50 0 1991 - Elsevier Science Publishers
B.V. (North-Holland)
126 2.
J. Badri Narayan /Quality assurance in a nuclear tubing mill
Quality organization
The Commercial Nuclear Fuel Division organization given in fig. 1 highlights the functional differences between Quality Assurance (QA) and Product Assurance departments. The QA department, along with the individual plants, reports directly to the division manager and works outside the division with other Quality Assurance departments in the Business Unit to formulate or address any Quality Assurance policies and concerns for the Business Unit. Within the Division, the Quality Assurance department ( 1) has the responsibility to set out the division policies and procedural system and guidelines satisfying the Business Unit Quality Assurance plan; (2) performs internal quality audits of each department whose activities affect the quality and safety of the critical components of the reactor and its performance; and (3) performs external audits of suppliers of raw materials, subcontractors, calibration and test services for system compliance. The Product Assurance (PA) department at each plant has dual responsibilities - Quality Assurance of the system and Quality Control (QC) of the product and process. To this effect, each PA department reports directly to the plant manager on the day-to-day QC and QA activ-
Commercial
Nuclear
ities but also, on a matrix basis, reports to the division Quality Assurance manager on system compliance. This dual responsibility is reflected in the Specialty Metals Plant Product Assurance department organization (fig. 2). The Inspection and Quality Programs and Services departments perform product inspection and tests using the procedures developed and approved by Quality Engineering. The Quality Engineering group performs an independent product and process history review for compliance to customer requirements and issues material release documents as applicable. This unique approach developed at the tubing mill seems adequate to meet the German QA requirements for Quality System and Control.
3. Document hierarchy The Specialty Metals Plant documents can generally be grouped into three major categories - administrative, operating, and interface (fig. 3). For each department a set of administrative and operating procedures are available. The administrative procedures specify the departmental policies to meet the system and Business Unit policy requirements. The operating procedures, however, address
Fuel
Division
Quality
Assurance
Operations
Product Assurance
_---------
I -I_
Policies
-Internal Audits
_Suppkr Audit
1
Inter Division Qucmy Assurance Interface
Fig.
I Organization
chart of Commercial
Nuclear Fuel Division.
127
Quol1ty Engineering
I Product
Inspection
Inspector
Training
Laboratory
Gauge
Inspection procedures
Tests
Process
Control
Controls
and QualificatiOn Quality
Quality
Requirenents
Records
Document
mamy Cost Reports
Control
Corrective Internai/Custoner Audit Interface
Actions
System Customer Interface on Product/System Requirements
Product Release and Certification
Fig. 2. Organization of Specialty Metals Plant Product Assurance. requirements for equipment operation, product inspection, and tests and recording of observed results. The plant has recognized the need to interface with various departments within the plant and within the division, because an individual department’s or plant’s activity affecting quality may vary slightly from another department or plant or not recognize another department’s or plant’s special requirements. In order to have cohesive approach for the entire plant in its interdepartmental and intra-division activities, the interface documents were established. These documents provide a unified approach within the plant and the division to meet several requirements of the Quality Assurance system. Each customer speci~cation requires the tubing manufacturer to submit various operating and administrative procedures for approval. In a system, similar to Specialty Metals Plant, where individual instructions may include
several customers’ requirements, it is very difficult, almost impossible, to keep track of customer document submittals and approval and with document revisions. The plant has, instead, developed a separate document, the Manufacturing and Quality Plan (MAQP), one per each customer’s product specification. This document summarizes critical elements of each step of the tubing process, from receipt of raw material to inspection, test, certification, and packing for shipment. The individual operating step summaries include those critical parameters requiring customer approval. Each critical parameter is normally broader than the actual floor practice. An example is given in table 2. The MAQP, by virtue of adequately addressing the customer concerns regarding product and system-related quality activities, is the only document approved by customers, and has eliminated the need to obtain customer
J. Badri Narayan /Quality assurance in a nuclear tubing mill
128
Energy Systems Business Unit Quality ASSU~CI~C~ Plan
pL$z&q Conmerical
Neclear
Fuel
Specialty Metais Administrative Policies
Division
Plant
I Procedures
I
1
Administrative
Operating
-Product
Assurance
lnterfoce
Inter-Department Quality-Related Activities
-Inspection
-Operations
-Manufacturing
-Maintenance
-Purchasing
-Purchasing
-Production
Planning
-Laboratory
Tests
-Quality
Services
-Calibration
Fig. 3. SMP document system hierarchy
Table 2 Example of a critical parameter
and performance of the nuclear reactor component. However, items and services such as zirconium alloy raw
Stress relief annealing operation Parameter
MAQP values approved by customer
Actual floor practice values
Recorder temperature ( “C) Maximum vacuum during annealing (Pa) Minimum annealing time (h)
Ti8.5
T?3
1.33x 1o-2 1I
6.65x lo-’ 11-12
approval of individual procedures. In recent years, several customers have begun utilizing the Manufacturing and Quality Plan as the Primary reference document during quality audits of the process and product-related items.
material, calibration and laboratory test services purchased from an outside supplier require supplier compliance to the applicable sections of the eighteen QA criteria of USA NRC 1OCFRSO Appendix B [ 31. To distinguish the items and services relating to safety and performance of reactor component from others, the term “Controlled Items and Services” is used at the plant. The term is defined as “any hardware item, component, material or service that becomes a functional part of a product, or determines acceptability of a product and where a failure or nonconformance would cause an adverse effect on performance.” Therefore, only suppliers ofControlled Items and Services audited and qualified to the applicable QA criteria are used.
5. Process and product qualifications
4. Controlled items and services In a nuclear tubing manufacturing plant, a majority of the items and services purchased do not relate to the safety
In the nuclear industry, the reactor designers develop cladding tube dimensions and properties unique to their design. The tube dimensions, properties and surface lin-
J. Badri Narayan /Quality assurance in a nuclear tubing mill
ish influence the performance. Tubes are normally purchased from a supplier who has successfully demonstrated capability to produce tubes which meet the technical requirements consistently utilizing a given thermomechanical process sequence. The thermomechanical process steps which could adversely affect the performance are generally the reduction schedule, heat treatment, and final surface preparation. At SMP, for each customer product specification a suitable combination of thermomechanical treatments and finishing operations are initially identified and a qualitication plan developed and approved by the customer. The qualification plan normally includes test and inspection of the final product specification and drawing requirements. The sampling frequency for each test and inspection characteristic is at least twice as many as the specification requirements. The plan is executed and a qualification report issued to the customer for approval. The report will include the actual process steps used and the critical heat treatment parameters utilized for the qualification of the process and product. During the qualification process, inspection and test acceptance standards, where necessary, are also selected and submitted for customer approval. In general, the user has sufficient historical data on tubing properties such as crystallographic texture, creep, and corrosion properties relating to their individual design requirements that these tests are normally excluded from the qualification. However, if requested, necessary samples are provided to the customer for characterizing these properties independent of process and product qualification. The tube production order is executed after the approval of the qualification report. In parallel to the startup of the production, the MAQP document, described earlier, is submitted for customer approval. Any change to the critical parameters given in the MAQP would warrant customer reapproval before implementation. Heat treatment parameters, for example may even require requalification.
6. Internal and external quality audits Within the division the Quality Assurance department has the charter to develop general policies and procedures for the division in compliance to quality system requirements; oversee their implementation and adequacy throughout the division. Verification of system compliance to each of the eighteen criteria is performed via internal audits throughout the division. Since SMP is a tubing manufacturing facility, the plant has no design
129
responsibilities and therefore criteria 3 on design and 11 on test control of design criteria are not applicable for the plant. The Quality Assurance department also performs external audits of the quality system of suppliers of controlled items and services to the division. The individual plant, on an annual basis, provides a list of areas of concerns based on performance, if any, on each supplier to Quality Assurance department for the purpose of verifying system adequacy in these areas. In addition to the internal audits, both the tubing customers and electrical utilities, the ultimate users of tubing, also perform quality system audit at SMP. Until recently, these audits encompassed only compliance to the system requirements. However, in recent years, especially auditors from foreign countries also perform process and product audits for compliance to specification requirements. In these cases the customer-approved MAQP is utilized for verification. Deficiencies, when noted, require corrective action by the affected department.
7. Product release and certification Within the division, the fuel manufacturing plant receives tubing from SMP, and SMP receives the tubing raw material in the form of Tube Shells from Western Zirconium. Since each facility is governed by the division system and product-related requirements, materials are released to the subsequent user plant by the site PA department after final product inspection and tests are completed and accepted. The material certifications, under normal circumstances, are retained at each plant. When SMP supplies tubing to outside customers, however, the customer requires certification for each lot of tubing. The certification format is unique to each customer and is either supplied by the customer for SMP use or developed by SMP and approved by the customer. In recent years, SMP has developed a generic certification format suitable for use for all customers. The generic format (fig. 4) identifies all the requirements of an individual specification by sections, the sampling frequency, acceptance limits, and the actual data. The dimensional and ultrasonic test requirements, since they are performed on each tube, is certified as “acceptable”. The tubing customers normally perform surveillance inspection on each lot or batch of tubes. On occasion, the surveillance is waived by the customer. The SMP Quality Engineering group within the Product Assurance department is an independent group with no direct responsibility for product inspection and tests,
J. Badri Narayan /Quality assurance
130
ACCEPTANCE ‘roductl
Zlrcaloy-4
Fuel
TEST
Tubing
Lot Lot
,MP Order
Ingot
Customer Customer
Nunber Nunber
lrawlng Number (Item) laenslons(0B
CERTIFICATE
SM? Release
lanufacturcrl Westinghouse Etectrlc Corporatton Specialty Metals Plant RD #4, Box 333 Blatrsvllle, Pa. 15717 ppeclflcatlon
in a nuclear tubing mill
Nunber
Order
Number Quontlty
Nunber
Shlpped
Number
Final Heat
Treat
Type
Flnal Heat
Treat
Tenp (‘0
x T x L)
WCkcibnl
Test
ITest SCOIX Soec. Value
Actuak
Vatues/Results
Chemical Anaiysls Final Product
Interstltlal
Total Elongrkmunder5om cp 4OO’C flO’C Stean
Gas Analysis
Icnpth(
Corrosion
Test
I Walght Vlsua\
I
I
I
I
Gain Evaluatlon
1Hvdrlde Urlentatlon Fn Factor
-
Outer
Fn Factor
- MIddIe Area
Fn Factor
-
Inner
Area
Area
This Is to certify that the naterlal covered by this report accordance with the approved procedures and was found to described hercln, Signature
was sonpicd and tested In meet the appllcatle requirements
Bate
Title
Fig. 4. Generic certification format.
J. Badri Narayan /Quality assurance in a nuclear tubing mill and, therefore, performs independent review of each lot process history, inspection and test activities, and results for compliance to customer requirements, and issues certification. The certifications are normally presented to the customer surveillance inspector at the beginning of surveillance. The lots accepted on surveillance are released for shipment by the surveillance inspector. When surveillance inspection is waived by the customer, SMP Quality Engineering releases the lots based on independent review and lot certification.
8. Summary and conclusion The SMP tubing manufacturing plant approach to compliance to the Nuclear Quality Assurance System requirements have been described with particular emphasis
131
on several key QA criteria. The adequacy of the approach to meet the special customer requirements for system and product-related functions have been outlined. The appreach recognizes the high importance of the overall systern needs for safety and other quality as well as product and process-related items.
References
[ I] Quality Assurance Plan - Energy Systems Business Unit, Westinghouse Electric Corporation, WCAP 8370/7800 Revision 1lA/7A, December 1988. (21 Quality Assurance Criteria for Nuclear Facilities, lOCFR50 Appendix B, US Nuclear Regulatory Commission. Washington, DC, USA. [3] G. Dressier and J.A. Perry, J. Nucl. Mater. 106 (1982) 53. [4] A.E. Aly, A. El-Sayed and H.I. Shabaan. Quality Prog. 19 (1986) 24.
2
QUALITY
CONTROL
SYSTEMS
Chairmen: R. Stratton Paul Scherrer
G.Sukhanov IAEA. Vienna
Institute,
Wiirenlingen
AND QUALITY
ASSURANCE
Journal of Nuclear Materials 178 ( 1991) 125-13 1
125
North-Holland
Quality assurance in a nuclear tubing mill J. Badri Narayan * Specialty Metals Plant, Commercial Blairsville, PA 15 717-8904. USA
Nuclear Fuel Division, Westinghouse Electric Corporation,
RD 4, Box 333,
The Specialty Metals Plant Quality Assurance system and the quality organization are described in general. Hierarchy of the system documents and the dual functions of the Plant Product Assurance Department are described. The necessary modifications to the plant procedures
to meet the international
QA requirements
1. Introduction The nuclear tubing manufacturing facility of the Westinghouse Commercial Nuclear Fuel Division (CNFD) is the Specialty Metals Plant (SMP). Nuclear tubing has been produced at SMP since 1967. The Plant Quality Assurance program complies with the division and the Energy Services Business Unit Quality Assurance Plan approved by the United States of America Nuclear Regulatory Commission. The Energy Service Business Unit Quality Assurance Plan [ 1] documents the Business Unit approach to satisfy each of the eighteen criteria of the Quality Assurance requirements given in table 1 set forth in the United States of America Nuclear Regulatory Commission publication 1OCFRSO Appendix B [ 2 1. In the 1980’s, SMP began producing zirconium alloy tubing for international customers and was exposed to the customers’ domestic Quality Assurance requirements which, in certain countries, differ from the US requirements. Although the Quality Assurance requirements of US and most of the other countries emphasize and focus on Quality Systems, Quality Assurance requirements of a few countries, such as West Germany, encompass both the system and product related functions [ 3 1. This is further substantiated by Aly et al. [ 41 in their discussions on development of nuclear quality assurance standards in various countries. They indicate that a majority of the countries and international organizations follow US NRC lOCFR50 Appendix B; however the German quality assurance requirements rely more on an independent third party verification of quality control and inspection activities than on a quality assurance program. This has meant that SMP has had to formulate procedures and require-
are discussed.
Table I List of the eighteen criteria of the Quality Assurance requirements [2] 1. Organization 2. Quality assurance program 3. Design control 4. Procurement 5. Instructions, procedures and drawings 6. Document control 7. Control of purchased material, equipment and services 8. Identification and control of materials, parts and components 9. Control of special processes 10. Inspection 11. Test control 12. Control of measuring and test equipment 13. Handling, storage and shipping 14. Inspection, test and operating status 15. Nonconforming materials, parts and components 16. Corrective action 17. Quality assurance records 18. Audits
ments within the framework of the Business Unit Quality Assurance Plan, as necessary, to satisfy the individual customer requirements. This paper briefly discuss the Commercial Nuclear Fuel Division and Specialty Metals Plant organization as it relates to Quality and Product, the hierarchy of the documents and SMP approach to several of the eighteen Quality Assurance criteria: process and product qualifications,
internal and external quality audits, and final release of product to customer and product certification.
* Fellow Engineer, Product Assurance Department. 0022-3115/91/$03.50 0 1991 - Elsevier Science Publishers
B.V. (North-Holland)
126 2.
J. Badri Narayan /Quality assurance in a nuclear tubing mill
Quality organization
The Commercial Nuclear Fuel Division organization given in fig. 1 highlights the functional differences between Quality Assurance (QA) and Product Assurance departments. The QA department, along with the individual plants, reports directly to the division manager and works outside the division with other Quality Assurance departments in the Business Unit to formulate or address any Quality Assurance policies and concerns for the Business Unit. Within the Division, the Quality Assurance department ( 1) has the responsibility to set out the division policies and procedural system and guidelines satisfying the Business Unit Quality Assurance plan; (2) performs internal quality audits of each department whose activities affect the quality and safety of the critical components of the reactor and its performance; and (3) performs external audits of suppliers of raw materials, subcontractors, calibration and test services for system compliance. The Product Assurance (PA) department at each plant has dual responsibilities - Quality Assurance of the system and Quality Control (QC) of the product and process. To this effect, each PA department reports directly to the plant manager on the day-to-day QC and QA activ-
Commercial
Nuclear
ities but also, on a matrix basis, reports to the division Quality Assurance manager on system compliance. This dual responsibility is reflected in the Specialty Metals Plant Product Assurance department organization (fig. 2). The Inspection and Quality Programs and Services departments perform product inspection and tests using the procedures developed and approved by Quality Engineering. The Quality Engineering group performs an independent product and process history review for compliance to customer requirements and issues material release documents as applicable. This unique approach developed at the tubing mill seems adequate to meet the German QA requirements for Quality System and Control.
3. Document hierarchy The Specialty Metals Plant documents can generally be grouped into three major categories - administrative, operating, and interface (fig. 3). For each department a set of administrative and operating procedures are available. The administrative procedures specify the departmental policies to meet the system and Business Unit policy requirements. The operating procedures, however, address
Fuel
Division
Quality
Assurance
Operations
Product Assurance
_---------
I -I_
Policies
-Internal Audits
_Suppkr Audit
1
Inter Division Qucmy Assurance Interface
Fig.
I Organization
chart of Commercial
Nuclear Fuel Division.
127
Quol1ty Engineering
I Product
Inspection
Inspector
Training
Laboratory
Gauge
Inspection procedures
Tests
Process
Control
Controls
and QualificatiOn Quality
Quality
Requirenents
Records
Document
mamy Cost Reports
Control
Corrective Internai/Custoner Audit Interface
Actions
System Customer Interface on Product/System Requirements
Product Release and Certification
Fig. 2. Organization of Specialty Metals Plant Product Assurance. requirements for equipment operation, product inspection, and tests and recording of observed results. The plant has recognized the need to interface with various departments within the plant and within the division, because an individual department’s or plant’s activity affecting quality may vary slightly from another department or plant or not recognize another department’s or plant’s special requirements. In order to have cohesive approach for the entire plant in its interdepartmental and intra-division activities, the interface documents were established. These documents provide a unified approach within the plant and the division to meet several requirements of the Quality Assurance system. Each customer speci~cation requires the tubing manufacturer to submit various operating and administrative procedures for approval. In a system, similar to Specialty Metals Plant, where individual instructions may include
several customers’ requirements, it is very difficult, almost impossible, to keep track of customer document submittals and approval and with document revisions. The plant has, instead, developed a separate document, the Manufacturing and Quality Plan (MAQP), one per each customer’s product specification. This document summarizes critical elements of each step of the tubing process, from receipt of raw material to inspection, test, certification, and packing for shipment. The individual operating step summaries include those critical parameters requiring customer approval. Each critical parameter is normally broader than the actual floor practice. An example is given in table 2. The MAQP, by virtue of adequately addressing the customer concerns regarding product and system-related quality activities, is the only document approved by customers, and has eliminated the need to obtain customer
J. Badri Narayan /Quality assurance in a nuclear tubing mill
128
Energy Systems Business Unit Quality ASSU~CI~C~ Plan
pL$z&q Conmerical
Neclear
Fuel
Specialty Metais Administrative Policies
Division
Plant
I Procedures
I
1
Administrative
Operating
-Product
Assurance
lnterfoce
Inter-Department Quality-Related Activities
-Inspection
-Operations
-Manufacturing
-Maintenance
-Purchasing
-Purchasing
-Production
Planning
-Laboratory
Tests
-Quality
Services
-Calibration
Fig. 3. SMP document system hierarchy
Table 2 Example of a critical parameter
and performance of the nuclear reactor component. However, items and services such as zirconium alloy raw
Stress relief annealing operation Parameter
MAQP values approved by customer
Actual floor practice values
Recorder temperature ( “C) Maximum vacuum during annealing (Pa) Minimum annealing time (h)
Ti8.5
T?3
1.33x 1o-2 1I
6.65x lo-’ 11-12
approval of individual procedures. In recent years, several customers have begun utilizing the Manufacturing and Quality Plan as the Primary reference document during quality audits of the process and product-related items.
material, calibration and laboratory test services purchased from an outside supplier require supplier compliance to the applicable sections of the eighteen QA criteria of USA NRC 1OCFRSO Appendix B [ 31. To distinguish the items and services relating to safety and performance of reactor component from others, the term “Controlled Items and Services” is used at the plant. The term is defined as “any hardware item, component, material or service that becomes a functional part of a product, or determines acceptability of a product and where a failure or nonconformance would cause an adverse effect on performance.” Therefore, only suppliers ofControlled Items and Services audited and qualified to the applicable QA criteria are used.
5. Process and product qualifications
4. Controlled items and services In a nuclear tubing manufacturing plant, a majority of the items and services purchased do not relate to the safety
In the nuclear industry, the reactor designers develop cladding tube dimensions and properties unique to their design. The tube dimensions, properties and surface lin-
J. Badri Narayan /Quality assurance in a nuclear tubing mill
ish influence the performance. Tubes are normally purchased from a supplier who has successfully demonstrated capability to produce tubes which meet the technical requirements consistently utilizing a given thermomechanical process sequence. The thermomechanical process steps which could adversely affect the performance are generally the reduction schedule, heat treatment, and final surface preparation. At SMP, for each customer product specification a suitable combination of thermomechanical treatments and finishing operations are initially identified and a qualitication plan developed and approved by the customer. The qualification plan normally includes test and inspection of the final product specification and drawing requirements. The sampling frequency for each test and inspection characteristic is at least twice as many as the specification requirements. The plan is executed and a qualification report issued to the customer for approval. The report will include the actual process steps used and the critical heat treatment parameters utilized for the qualification of the process and product. During the qualification process, inspection and test acceptance standards, where necessary, are also selected and submitted for customer approval. In general, the user has sufficient historical data on tubing properties such as crystallographic texture, creep, and corrosion properties relating to their individual design requirements that these tests are normally excluded from the qualification. However, if requested, necessary samples are provided to the customer for characterizing these properties independent of process and product qualification. The tube production order is executed after the approval of the qualification report. In parallel to the startup of the production, the MAQP document, described earlier, is submitted for customer approval. Any change to the critical parameters given in the MAQP would warrant customer reapproval before implementation. Heat treatment parameters, for example may even require requalification.
6. Internal and external quality audits Within the division the Quality Assurance department has the charter to develop general policies and procedures for the division in compliance to quality system requirements; oversee their implementation and adequacy throughout the division. Verification of system compliance to each of the eighteen criteria is performed via internal audits throughout the division. Since SMP is a tubing manufacturing facility, the plant has no design
129
responsibilities and therefore criteria 3 on design and 11 on test control of design criteria are not applicable for the plant. The Quality Assurance department also performs external audits of the quality system of suppliers of controlled items and services to the division. The individual plant, on an annual basis, provides a list of areas of concerns based on performance, if any, on each supplier to Quality Assurance department for the purpose of verifying system adequacy in these areas. In addition to the internal audits, both the tubing customers and electrical utilities, the ultimate users of tubing, also perform quality system audit at SMP. Until recently, these audits encompassed only compliance to the system requirements. However, in recent years, especially auditors from foreign countries also perform process and product audits for compliance to specification requirements. In these cases the customer-approved MAQP is utilized for verification. Deficiencies, when noted, require corrective action by the affected department.
7. Product release and certification Within the division, the fuel manufacturing plant receives tubing from SMP, and SMP receives the tubing raw material in the form of Tube Shells from Western Zirconium. Since each facility is governed by the division system and product-related requirements, materials are released to the subsequent user plant by the site PA department after final product inspection and tests are completed and accepted. The material certifications, under normal circumstances, are retained at each plant. When SMP supplies tubing to outside customers, however, the customer requires certification for each lot of tubing. The certification format is unique to each customer and is either supplied by the customer for SMP use or developed by SMP and approved by the customer. In recent years, SMP has developed a generic certification format suitable for use for all customers. The generic format (fig. 4) identifies all the requirements of an individual specification by sections, the sampling frequency, acceptance limits, and the actual data. The dimensional and ultrasonic test requirements, since they are performed on each tube, is certified as “acceptable”. The tubing customers normally perform surveillance inspection on each lot or batch of tubes. On occasion, the surveillance is waived by the customer. The SMP Quality Engineering group within the Product Assurance department is an independent group with no direct responsibility for product inspection and tests,
J. Badri Narayan /Quality assurance
130
ACCEPTANCE ‘roductl
Zlrcaloy-4
Fuel
TEST
Tubing
Lot Lot
,MP Order
Ingot
Customer Customer
Nunber Nunber
lrawlng Number (Item) laenslons(0B
CERTIFICATE
SM? Release
lanufacturcrl Westinghouse Etectrlc Corporatton Specialty Metals Plant RD #4, Box 333 Blatrsvllle, Pa. 15717 ppeclflcatlon
in a nuclear tubing mill
Nunber
Order
Number Quontlty
Nunber
Shlpped
Number
Final Heat
Treat
Type
Flnal Heat
Treat
Tenp (‘0
x T x L)
WCkcibnl
Test
ITest SCOIX Soec. Value
Actuak
Vatues/Results
Chemical Anaiysls Final Product
Interstltlal
Total Elongrkmunder5om cp 4OO’C flO’C Stean
Gas Analysis
Icnpth(
Corrosion
Test
I Walght Vlsua\
I
I
I
I
Gain Evaluatlon
1Hvdrlde Urlentatlon Fn Factor
-
Outer
Fn Factor
- MIddIe Area
Fn Factor
-
Inner
Area
Area
This Is to certify that the naterlal covered by this report accordance with the approved procedures and was found to described hercln, Signature
was sonpicd and tested In meet the appllcatle requirements
Bate
Title
Fig. 4. Generic certification format.
J. Badri Narayan /Quality assurance in a nuclear tubing mill and, therefore, performs independent review of each lot process history, inspection and test activities, and results for compliance to customer requirements, and issues certification. The certifications are normally presented to the customer surveillance inspector at the beginning of surveillance. The lots accepted on surveillance are released for shipment by the surveillance inspector. When surveillance inspection is waived by the customer, SMP Quality Engineering releases the lots based on independent review and lot certification.
8. Summary and conclusion The SMP tubing manufacturing plant approach to compliance to the Nuclear Quality Assurance System requirements have been described with particular emphasis
131
on several key QA criteria. The adequacy of the approach to meet the special customer requirements for system and product-related functions have been outlined. The appreach recognizes the high importance of the overall systern needs for safety and other quality as well as product and process-related items.
References
[ I] Quality Assurance Plan - Energy Systems Business Unit, Westinghouse Electric Corporation, WCAP 8370/7800 Revision 1lA/7A, December 1988. (21 Quality Assurance Criteria for Nuclear Facilities, lOCFR50 Appendix B, US Nuclear Regulatory Commission. Washington, DC, USA. [3] G. Dressier and J.A. Perry, J. Nucl. Mater. 106 (1982) 53. [4] A.E. Aly, A. El-Sayed and H.I. Shabaan. Quality Prog. 19 (1986) 24.