Qualification
Qualification testing can be required for equipment used in “safety-related” applications in a nuclear plant.
Safety-related applications are systems, structures, components, procedures, and controls (of a facility or process) that are relied upon to safely shut down a plant and maintain the plant in a shutdown state while the residual heat is safely removed without the release of radioactive substances into the environment.
Qualification testing can be necessary to ensure that the safety-related equipment will still work in extreme circumstances such as an earthquake (“seismic event”), a coolant line break, or a steam line break.
Although some qualification can be done by analysis, in many cases the equipment must be physically tested in a laboratory where the extreme circumstances can be re-created. This can include seismic (earthquake) simulation, as well as Environmental Qualifications (EQ).
Environmental Qualifications can be specified for “mild environment”, or “harsh environment” depending upon its location and application.
Other qualification testing is often required to ensure that equipment used in a nuclear plant meets radiation exposure requirements, aging requirements and standard industry requirements such as IEEE 323.
Amidyne provides a full suite of qualification services for the nuclear power industry, either to the 10CFR 50 App B, NQA-1, or to Canadian CSA Standards.
