Qualtity assurance in nuclear technology

The demand for safety in nuclear power plants is rooted in the Atomic Energy Act of the Federal Republic of Germany, under which 'preplanned safety' is a licensing condition. Moreover, the safety of nuclear power plants is outlined in more precise terms in the guidelines of the German Advisory Committee for Reactor Safeguards (Reaktorsicherheitskommission). The usual approach taken in this country, i.e., to establish quality assurance for each specific product, with supplementary quality assurance measures geared to systems requirements being implemented by industry, has proved to work satisfactorily. Product-based quality assurance mainly stems from the classical quality control concept, whereas systems-based quality assurance primarily is to ensure that both manufacturers and systems suppliers take all measures in advance which are needed for the satisfactory processing of an order and to achieve the quality level required. The special features and the advantages of the joint action of manufacturers, systems suppliers and experts, which are characteristic of the German approach, very clearly emerge from a comparison with practices in the United States. In the further refinement of the quality assurance concept as practised in Germany, qhich will have a particularly great impact on costs and schedules because of the manpower requirement involved, it should be carefully weighed where there are exaggerations and unnecessary complications which can no longer be justified by the demand for more safety. (orig.)