NucSIG Newsletter

Introduction – Martin McKay Steering Group member

We will be publishing this on the CQI website and also sending it to all members at the e-mail addresses you have provided. If you have any comments on the newsletter or would like to submit an article or host an event please let us know, the contact details are at the end of the newsletter.

Chairman’s highlights for 2009 – Geoff Edmondson NucSIG Chairman

2009 was a very successful year for the NucSIG, with a number of key events and activities as follows:

Steering Group

The Steering Group was active throughout the year holding five meetings. There was one change in the membership of the Steering Group with the departure of Jim Evans who represented the South of England.

Contact was made with EDF Energy with the intention of extending the Steering Group to include a quality professional representing the area of nuclear new build.

Networking events

Three very successful events were held in 2009:

• April – ‘Supply chain quality’ at Sellafield (80 delegates)
• June – ‘Quality professional competency’ at Birchwood (34 delegates)
• September – ‘Audit, assessment and inspection’ at Hunterston ‘A’ (40 delegates)

Without the support, hospitality and sponsorship of Sellafield Ltd, Proquis and Magnox North, Hunterston’A’ respectively, none of these events would have been possible. It was pleasing to see at these events regular attendees, NucSIG members who attended for the first time and many non-NucSIG members.

Membership

Membership at the end of December was 221, with 47 new members from across the nuclear sector (operations, projects, consultancy, supply chain) joining during the year.

Publications

Articles about NucSIG and its activities were published in Quality World, Nuclear Future (Journal of the Nuclear Institute) and Professional Engineering.

In addition, NucSIG members featured in Qualityworld’s The Lifelines Interview – Paul Murphy (May 2009) and CQI member of the month – Emma Sloan (September) and Jim Leitch (October.)

Berkeley event report – Martin McKay

On 20th January 2010 NucSIG held its first event of 2010 covering 'Knowledge Management.' The event was held at the Hamfields Leisure centre next to the former Berkeley Power Station. The event was hosted and organised by Magnox North and sponsored by Proquis. The Steering group would like to thank Richard Connett and Val Docherty from Magnox North for organising the event and Bill Best from Proquis for sponsoring it. We would also like to specifically thank Parsons Brinkerhoff who not only presented at the event but brought along a lot of free literature and publications generated by their KM system.

Although a flurry of snow the night before prevented a few from attending, we had 30 quality professionals at the event with some new NucSIG members and some regular attendees.

The event focused on knowledge management with presentations from a variety of speakers covering different aspects of this very diverse topic, a key theme being that Knowledge Management principles are a fundamental part of a QA professional’s toolkit.

In his opening address Geoff Edmondson, Chair NucSIG emphasised the growing importance of knowledge management and of the need to recognise that knowledge is an asset that should to be managed in the same way as other key organisational assets.

The event opened with a presentation on the decommissioning work at Berkeley presented by  David Brown outlining how knowledge management had assisted them in the work and giving examples of practical applications.

Other presentations included:

• Knowledge concepts and the value of knowledge management together with examples of  knowledge management practices in a large engineering consultancy, were presented by Alan Knott, Parsons Brinkerhoff
• A presentation from Larry Malthoff, Magnox North on WANO (World association of Nuclear Operators) on sharing practical experience for improvement
• Emily Jones of Osbourne Clark presented on the legal aspects of managing and controlling information
• Graham Litson, British Energy gave a presentation on their CDMS Knowledge management system
• Mike Underwood from Magnox North gave a brief presentation on knowledge management work being undertaken in Magnox North

The event stimulated some good debate and questions from the attendees and was well received as commented by Mike Underwood, NucSIG Steering Group member " It is always valuable to share understanding and experiences from outside your company and indeed outside your industry, I am leading a knowledge management improvement programme -  we are pretty much on square one.  At this event I have made a contact whose company has a similar policy but is fours years down the line.  He has agreed that we can visit to pick their brains and learn what went well and what didn't. This is what networking is all about."

The presentations from the event will be available on the NucSIG section of the CQI website in the near future.

Nuclear Quality Knowledge (NQK)  - Iain McNair

At the NucSIG launch events in 2008 and the Birchwood workshop in 2009, it was apparent that a large number of members felt the need for something that gave them further information on the unique quality aspects of the nuclear industry.

A webpage setting out the vision, format, layout and contents of sections is available on the NQK page.  

To produce such a piece of work is quite labour intensive and no single person has the whole picture. Lead authors (hopefully supported by members volunteering to act as reviewers) will produce first drafts which will be put onto the web, but your comments will be welcomed. Comments can be left on the website. Authors will collate the comments and determine how to address them. Tracking sheets will be published at the same time as re-issues.

Do you think there are other topics that need to be addressed?  Could you help in authoring or reviewing? If so please contact  Geoff Edmondson or Mike Underwood.

Future NucSIG events

Listed below are events planned to date, please keep an eye on the website and your e-mail for more information as events are confirmed.  Reserve the date in your diary.

ASQ EE Conference 2009 – Martin McKay

The American Society for Quality, Energy and Environment group holds an annual conference for quality professionals in the US oil and gas, renewables and nuclear energy sector. The conference attracts delegates not just from the USA but also across the world, mainly due to the content of the presentations and the post conference workshops.

The 2009 conference was held at the Caribe Royale Hotel and conference centre in Orlando, Florida, this years conference theme was ‘Quality Assurance – taking it to the next level’ very much focused on the need for change and improvement with the Nuclear renaissance and expansion of new build.

The conference was attended by 160 delegates, apparently a reduction on previous years due to the recession and a marketing blunder by the ASQ (a reminder to keep your website up to date). Throughout the conference and subsequent workshops there was a great deal of lively debate on the future of QA within the USA and particularly the Nuclear sector, there were some interesting comparisons with UK and European approaches to the same issues.

The conference focused on the Nuclear sector, though there were some oil and gas related seminars, most of the attendees worked in the Nuclear sector, the majority were from the operators/contractors side but a few were from DOE (none from the EM side of DOE) and the NRC. I spoke with delegates from several of the contractors who form the Parent Body organisations to UK sites owned by the NDA, particularly URS Washington, and Energy solutions, of particular interest to me were the discussions with staff from DOE and the NRC to compare their approach to ours in the UK.

The conference started on Sunday 11th October with a networking event for delegates to meet prior to the formal conference opening on 12th October. The event was useful and provided significant networking opportunities, particularly with participants from DOE who provided a great deal of information on their approach to Quality both internally and what was expected from their contractors, it was apparent that quality has a much higher profile within the US Nuclear programme than its does within the UK programme.

Attendance at this event proved useful not only from gaining knowledge of the US Nuclear sector but also the networking opportunities and the ability to discuss common issues and problems, particularly the age profile/shortage of  quality professionals in the Nuclear sector and the global supply chain and quality issues.

My original intention on attending the conference was to meet with staff from DOE EM, but late in the day they decided not to attend, though other DOE staff were very keen to discuss things and this was useful, it gave me an excellent insight into the structure, regulation and operation of the US Nuclear sector.

The American Society for Quality, Energy and Environment group is a direct equivalent to NucSIG with many similarities and whilst at the conference I spoke with the current chairman of the group with a view to establishing a cooperation agreement between us, this is currently ongoing.

If you would like a full copy of my report please contact me via martin.mckay@nda.gov.uk

Proquis

Proquis is a leading provider of Compliance Management Solutions and takes great pride in assisting a global network of customers in achieving and sustaining regulatory compliance. Proquis solutions are designed to enable organizations in the Nuclear and Energy industries to take an integrated approach towards quality management with modules such as Document Control and Change Management, Process Mapping and Analysis, Audit Management, Supply Chain performance and CAPA Management, all of which provide efficient documentation and improved process performance.  

Proquis is proud to be associated with CQI Nuclear Special Interest Group who are committed to supporting compliance, quality assurance, and improvement in the Nuclear and Energy industries. Please visit our newly re-designed website www.proquis.com to get more information on our products and services.

NucSIG information

NucSIG forum

We operate a private CQI forum open to all NucSIG members to encourage discussion about the industry and share thoughts with like minded peers. To access the forum you will need to register as a CQI forum member before requesting access to the Nuclear forum by emailing us with your CQI forum member ID.

Contact details

Chairperson and CQI Sector Head Nuclear: Geoff Edmondson  
Email: gedmondson@btinternet.com
Tel: 01229 772084
M:  0797 267 1156

Secretary: Mike Underwood        
M:  0773 459 5724

Newsletter editor: Martin McKay
Email: martin.mckay@nda.gov.uk
M: 07970746179

To join the NucSIG and receive regular updates email: nucsig@thecqi.org

To join the CQI, go to the membership section.