25 years of quality management in NFC

The development of atomic energy programme in India, as elsewhere, required a new class of materials with unique characteristics such as high chemical purity, resistance to radiation damage, corrosion resistance under reactor environment and above all ensuring neutron economy. Hence, the quality of the nuclear materials was essentially characterised towards meeting stringent specifications with respect to chemistry, mechanical and metallurgical properties and dimensional accuracy as the case may be. Thus, when Nuclear Fuel Complex was set up in 1971 for manufacture of nuclear fuel and zirconium alloy mill-products starting from basic raw materials, in an integrated chain of chemical and metallurgical plants, a detailed programme for quality management was also cast. This included setting up a control laboratory for high purity chemical analysis, a metallography and mechanical testing laboratory and dedicated inspection sections for fuel and zircaloy fabrication plants - based on the expertise developed earlier