Quality control activities during manufacturing and construction phase of an NPP - Experience from Finland. Annex IV

Quality control is the part of quality management focused on fulfilling quality requirements as defined in ISO 9001:2015. Surveillance and verification activities are one of the core activities under the licensee's responsibilities (ISO 19443:2018). It is of paramount importance that the conformity assessment is performed in such way that, the party performing control and inspection activities is independent from design and execution. According to good practices of quality control (example NQA-1 [IV-3]), those verifying activities affecting quality shall have sufficient authority, direct access to responsible levels of management, organizational freedom, and access to work to perform this function, including sufficient independence from cost and schedule when opposed to safety function considerations. The principles of ISO/IEC 17020:2012 are followed and focus shall be given to impartiality of quality control activities such as: • Inspection activities shall be undertaken impartially; • The inspection body shall be responsible for the impartiality of its inspection activities and shall not allow commercial, financial or other pressures to compromise impartiality; and • The inspection body shall identify risks to its impartiality on an ongoing basis. This shall include those risks that arise from its activities, or from its relationships, or from the relationships of its personnel. However, such relationships do not necessarily present an inspection body with a risk to impartiality.