NucSIG Newsletter - Issue 2

Chairman’s Introduction – Geoff Edmondson NucSIG Chairman

It is now two years since the formal launch of NucSIG with events at Sellafield, Merseyside and London. Since then five very successful events on a range of topics have been held at locations in Scotland and the North and South of England. I and the other members of the Steering Group have been encouraged by the excellent response to these events in terms of contributions, attendance (average 44) and participation by members.

However, none of these events would have been possible without the support, hospitality and sponsorship of the host companies (Sellafield Limited, Magnox North, Hunterston ‘A’ Magnox South and Babcock Marine) and Proquis for which the Steering Group are most grateful.

The NucSIG is one of the most active and successful of the CQI Special Interest Groups and I would wish that to continue. Therefore, I would ask members to continue supporting our networking events (see Future NucSIG Events below), to encourage colleagues to become members of NucSIG by completing the SIG Registration Form and to join LinkedIn discussion forum (see below).

Finally, I would welcome any ideas on what further improvements might be made to the operation of the NucSIG.

HMNB Clyde Event Report – Martin McKay

Over the 8th and 9th June 2010, NucSIG held its second event of 2010. The event ran over two days with a visit to the HMNB Clyde shiplift on Tuesday 8th and the main event held on Wednesday 9th. The theme of the event was Nuclear Supplier Assurance.

On the afternoon of Tuesday 8th June, a group of 22 NucSIG members met at the HMNB Clyde Off-Site Centre for a trip to the naval base to see the shiplift. Our host for the afternoon was Stewart Millar. We went by minibus down to the site and made our way to the shiplift building, following the usual safety brief we were shown around this impressive facility and its functionality explained.

On our way back to the Off-Site Centre we were taken to a vantage point overlooking the naval base where we could see the layout of the whole site, Stewart our host pointed out the key parts of the site.

The main event took place on the Wednesday and focused on Nuclear Supplier Assurance, the event was well attended with some excellent debate and networking within the group. The key theme of the event was pertinent to many attendees and will no doubt be part of future meetings of NucSIG.

The meeting was opened by Mark Dixon the Fleet Services Director for Babcock, mark gave an overview of the work at HMNB Clyde and discussed the wider aspects of Babcock and the nuclear sector.

Presentations and case studies covered a number of key supply chain issues, particularly global supply issues, standards and specifications, differences between civil and nuclear sectors. The meeting stimulated lots of debate, including the presentation regarding the Safety Directors Forum initiative related to an initiative on supply chain quality.

The event was deemed to be a great success and probably the best NucSIG event so far.

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

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.

NucSIG Steering Group

The steering group meets on a regular basis to discuss the activities of NucSIG and to assist with organisation and development of the SIG, if you would like to know more about the steering group and its members, have a look at the NucSIG section of the CQI website.

LinkedIn

NucSIG has started using the Linkedin networking site for the discussion forum, and this has now almost replaced the NucSIG discussion forum on the CQI website.

So what is Linkedin? The Wikipedia definition states:

“Linkedin is a business-oriented social networking site. Founded in December 2002 and launched in May 2003, it is mainly used for professional networking. As of 21 June 2010, LinkedIn had more than 70 million registered users, spanning more than 200 countries and territories worldwide”.

The Linkedin site can be found at www.linkedin.com and to access the NucSIG page, you need to search for Nuclear Special Interest Group (NucSIG) and join. Mike Underwood and Martin Mckay are the moderators for the group and will give you access. There are a number of quality and nuclear related groups on Linkedin with some interesting debate and discussions, so it’s well worth joining.

Nuclear Industries Association – Quality Working Group

The Nuclear Industries Association has a working group looking at Quality within the UK Nuclear sector. The group is made up of quality professionals from across the industry including members of the supply chain, regulators and SLC’s it also encompasses the Civil and Military nuclear sectors the, the group is Chaired by Barry Richardson from Sellafield and Ian Mitchell from BAE systems at Barrow as the deputy Chairman, both NucSIG members.

Like NucSIG the group discusses quality related issues from across the nuclear sector and there are many common areas of interest. The two groups have common members and would like to collaborate on a number of areas, to facilitate the collaboration, Martin McKay will act as liaison between the two groups.

It is hoped that some joint events will be held in 2011 on areas of common interest.

NucSIG Information

The NucSIG Steering Group has recently welcomed Richard Hibbert as the rep for the South of England. Richard works for RSRL at Harwell where he is QAMS Manager. We will post a pen profile of Richard on the NucSIG website in due course. We look forward to working with Richard in due course.

Membership of NucSIG

The group is open to quality, safety and regulatory professionals within the nuclear industry including operators, construction personnel, regulators, service providers, consultants, certification body personnel, government personnel who can contribute to the objectives of the group.

Contact details

Chairperson: Geoff Edmondson
E: gedmondson@btinternet.com
T: 01229 772084
M: 0797 267 1156

Secretary: Mike Underwood
E: mike.underwood@magnoxnorthsites.com
T:01928 737302
M: 0773 459 5724

Newsletter editor: Martin McKay
E: 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 of the CQI website.