Certification to NCA-3800 - No Design - Stainless steel plate processor

[thbohnsack]

Hi,

Has anyone got through or going through getting your Quality Management System certified to NCA 3800 system. We are a stainless steel plate processor, and are considering upgrading our QMS to allow us to provide material to companies who are fabricating equipment for the remediation of spent nuclear fuel. We do not undertake any design function here, so as I understand it - NQA-1 is not the way we need to go.

Can anyone help me? Good stories? Bad stories? Been there, not doing that anymore?

Thanks....

 

[Gerry Quinn]

I have been out of the Nuclear business for 10 years so my comments are going to be dated.

Under ASME Section III NCA-3800 you would need to be certified as a Material Supplier either by the ASME or by your customer. ASME is very particular about terms. Marerial Supplier is one of their terms as opposed to a Material Manufactruer (Steel Mills). There are rules for upgrading (testing) of material that you will have to understand and you may be required to have NDE access.

NCA-3800 is all about the control of material and its POSITIVE identification.

If things are still the same you will have to apply to the ASME if you want your own certificate, for a review of your quality manual, procedures and work instructions. Then the rudest bunch of people will come to your site to do a VERY detailed survey.

And unlike ISO, if you don't like these guys, you're out of luck. They are the only ones authorized by the Nuclear Regulatory Comisson to issue certificates. So, if you spend the $50K to prepare for the survey and you fail. Your out of luck. You have to keep going back to ASME until you pass.

The good thing about this is that you can't shop around until you find an easy registrar. So society is protected from the bums.

ASME quality systems are very compliance oriented and ASME has been in the survey business for at least 35 years. They are very good at what they do and they don't take any bologna from applicants.

 

[thbohnsack]

Thanks For The Info -

Interesting...

 

[QAFitz]

Nca-3800 & Nca-4000

I'm a consultant specializing in the nuclear QA arena. I've helped develop and implement QA Programs that have been successfully audited by The ASME for materials (Material Organization - MO) NPT without design and, I'm currently working on NPT w/design, N and N3 Program development for an upcoming ASME audit. I also add the programmatic controls for 10CFR Part 50 Appendix B and 10CFR Part 21. This way you have one Program meeting your nuclear customer base that is not bound by the ASME Code. ASME is also an ISO registrar so, while doing the Program I make sure the controls for ISO-9001:2000 are in the Manual. I manitain my ANSI N45.2 / NQA-1 Leaad Auditor certification and do audits for the companies Ive established Program for.