Getting SQEPed for Nuclear Industry

Abstract

Global demand for nuclear power is growing and with that the number of countries generating nuclear power is likely to increase from 30 to over 50. Professional engineers wishing to work in the nuclear power sector should be aware that it is one of the most highly regulated industries. In the UK, the regulator (Nuclear Installations Inspectorate) requires that any activities related to nuclear safety is carried out by Suitably Qualified and Experienced Personnel (SQEP). Article 7 of the recently published EU Directive on Nuclear Safety also states that "Member States shall ensure that the national framework in place requires arrangements for education and training to be made by all parties for their staff having responsibilities relating to the nuclear safety of nuclear installations in order to maintain and to further develop expertise and skills in nuclear safety". The term 'SQEP' is often used in the UK nuclear industry but there are similar SQEP requirements in other countries which require a professional qualification and several years of experience with recognition that that person's skills can be used to resolve a technical problem.

The technology and the skill needs are driven by the main issues facing the nuclear industry. There are challenges in the area of new build, life extension, waste management, national and international regulations and human resource. Computational mechanics is helping in developing new designs, substantiating existing designs, performing failure investigations, probabilistic risk assessments and in assessing new technologies for waste packaging. In the context of the activities of organisations like NAFEMS, one aspect which is of interest here is developing and monitoring SQEPed skill to use computational modelling techniques to solve the problems.

With the advent of more powerful computers, the application of computational mechanics has gained popularity in engineering companies involved in the design and analysis of engineering components and structures for the nuclear industry. There are several computer codes which are now available commercially to run on wide range of computer hardware to analyse the behaviour of a structure under various loading conditions. But computers do not solve the problems. A typical engineering problem is formulated into a mathematical model which is run by computers and the solution is subjected to an engineering appraisal. Hence, the need to have a SQEP to perform such design and analysis.

This presentation discusses the following issues related to the process of establishing a SQEPed capability.

In addition, it is shown how a SQEP register is maintained at AMEC Nuclear. AMEC Nuclear defines a SQEP as a person who has sufficient qualifications and experience in a defined skill area, to be able to implement that skill, at one of the five levels:

Agenda

Webinar Presenter

Dr. Nawal Prinja

Dr. Prinja holds the post of Technical Director at AMEC Nuclear with special responsibility for solving engineering problems by use of computational mechanics. He has co-authored for NAFEMS three books ‘Use of Finite Element Analysis in the Design Process’, ‘An Introduction to the Use of Material Models in FE’ and 'How to do Seismic Analysis Using Finite Elements'.

Highlights: