- Status
- Closed
Background
According to the Ukrainian law, Conformity Assessment (CA) is ‘the activity, the result of which is assurance that products, quality systems, quality management systems meet the requirements established by legislation’. Ukrainian legislation distinguishes two types of Conformity Assessment aspects:
Legally regulated aspects: The Ukrainian national system of products certification was being reformed in order to harmonize it with the European practice. The Laws of Ukraine “'On Conformity Assessment”, “On Accreditation of Conformity Assessment Authorities” were adopted in May, 2001 which initiated the process of establishment of a new CA system in Ukraine. In the Nuclear Industry there was a plan to elaborate a set of Technical Regulations for Conformity Assessments of Safety–related Elements for Nuclear Installations.
Legally unregulated aspects: According to the law, the Operator Organization – NAEC 'Energoatom' is responsible for the behaviour of all the safety related equipment in normal and accident conditions. Therefore, the quality of each construction material or equipment shall be preliminary tested and certified. To ensure this, the CA processes may be rather complex: they may involve testing at the manufacturer’s plant, checking of the manufacturing process, checking of the set-up procedure at the NPP, adequate on-site testing, ageing monitoring, etc.
As a consequence of the changes in the legislative framework and after introduction of the new relevant Technical Regulations, the System required certain corrections, such as: the clarification of mandatory requirements, aims and objectives, criteria for selection of different conformity procedures, with the aim of bringing it in line with the international practice.
Objectives
The aim of this project is to provide technical assistance to the Ukrainian nuclear organizations, based on best West European practices, for the development of the Ukrainian Conformity Assessment System, to be used by equipment and product manufacturers and the customers in relation to nuclear facilities, radiation sources and storage sites.
Activities will include training for Ukrainian specialists, seminars and meetings to exchange information on methodology and experience available in EU, and participation of Western specialists in the development of key documents.
Results
The Project was implemented by the Consortium including EDF (France), Framatome (France) and Fortum (Finland). The Sub-Contactors were the State Scientific and Engineering Center of Control Systems and Emergency Response (SSEC CSER) and CERTATOM.
The project was organized in the following tasks:
- Detailed study and analysis of current situation in the field (both in Ukraine and Western countries).
- Training of Ukrainian specialists.
- Development of recommendations and drafts of key procedural Energoatom documents in the field.
- Equipment supply for testing Laboratories.
The project met the objectives stated in the terms of reference (TORs) and represented a major step forward in the improvement of the quality system in Ukraine.
The new system had immediate applications for two important tasks, such as:
- The modernization of Khmelnitsky Nuclear Power Plant unit 2 (KhNPP-2) and Rovno Nuclear Power Plant unit 4 (RNPP-4) after commissioning.
- The decommissioning of Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant (ChNPP).