Implementation of a Management System for Operating Organizations of Research Reactors

Over the years, IAEA requirements to establish and implement a quality assurance programme for research reactors and their associated experiments have been developed, to ensure safe and reliable operation. These requirements range from quality assurance requirements established in 1996 to requirements to establish and implement a process based management system conforming with the requirements set out in IAEA Safety Standards Series No. GS-R-3 on The Management System for Facilities and Activities in 2006. IAEA Safety Standards Series No. NS-R-4 on the Safety of Research Reactors, issued in 2004, states that 'the establishment, management, performance and evaluation of a quality assurance programme for a research reactor and its associated experiments are important for ensuring safety.' The IAEA safety standards on quality management of 1996, which were superseded by IAEA Safety Standards Series No. NS-R-4, did not require a process based management system in which all elements of safety, health, environment, security and economics were integrated. As a consequence, the majority of research reactor operating organizations developed different quality assurance programmes for operation, utilization, maintenance, radiation protection and emergency preparedness, resulting in a patchwork of programmes and procedures by which the responsibilities to ensure safe and reliable operation and the safety of workers and the public were distributed among various quality assurance programmes and departments. With the introduction of IAEA Safety Standards Series No. GS-R-3, it was required that 'a management system ... be established, implemented, assessed and continually improved', and that 'health, environmental, security, quality and economic requirements are not considered separately from safety requirements, to help preclude their possible negative impact on safety.' However, the need for practical examples of the implementation of process based management systems for operating organizations of research reactors was still apparent, as was also shown by requests from IAEA Member States. The global research reactor community includes a number of highly diverse facility designs, organizational structures and technical missions. Research reactor power levels range from over 100 MW down to zero power in both critical and subcritical facilities. Some research reactor operating organizations are large and comprise teams of operators, maintenance technicians, safety and radiation control officers, managers, and licensing and other support staff. Other reactors are successfully operated by a relatively small team of around ten or even fewer permanent staff. For this reason, among others, a case study of a smaller research reactor has been included in Annex I of this publication. This report presents a set of processes which are applicable to many research reactor operating organizations, but the processes will ideally be tailored to the specific operating organization and graded based on the structure of the operating organization and on potential hazards relevant to the specific nuclear facility involved.