DEVELOPMENT OF QUALITY ASSURANCE REQUIREMENTS - AN INTERNATIONAL COMPARISON

Total quality management strategy and the worldwide introduction of th e DIN/ISO 9000 (EN 29000) series of standards have given new impetus t o traditional quality assurance. The most important change must surely be seen in the holistic approach of total quality management and its strict orientation towards customer requirements and, ultimately, cust omer satisfaction. International codes and standards for the nuclear i ndustry will also have to be brought into line as part of the process of harmonizing quality assurance system standards. One possible approa ch is simply to specify a supplementary ''delta'' of nuclear-specific requirements to be appended to the broad range of conventional require ments. It is a particular feature of quality-assured procedures in Ger many that product and/or component related quality requirements and qu ality verifications are defined in the specifications of the architect engineer so that full implementation of the requirements from the des ign phase through to the manufacturing phase is assured Looking at the development of the European Pressurized Water Reactor (EPR) and the e laboration of ''Common Rules'', it is to be anticipated that a major s tep will be made toward international harmonization of safety criteria .