Year
2012
Abstract
Accurate and precise measurement of plutonium and uranium is critically important for safeguards in addition to process control and is the premise of safeguards inspection by the IAEA at nuclear fuel handling facilities. The Quality Control Section of the Plutonium Fuel Development Center of Japan Atomic Energy Agency (hereafter “PFDC-lab”) has been analyzing the plutonium and uranium isotopic composition of materials by mass spectrometry as well as elemental content by isotope dilution mass spectrometry for MOX fuel pellets or their source materials for the accountancy purposes. To maintain analysis quality in accordance with ISO 9001 requirements, we have been establishing a quality management system by measuring reference material, participating to the intercomparison and having third party evaluation of analysis quality. To maintain and improve analysis quality and to have international accreditation for analysis reliability, PFDC-lab decided to have accreditation to ISO/IEC 17025: 2005 (International Standard for the General Requirements for the Competence of Testing and Calibration Laboratories). ISO/IEC 17025 accredits, in addition to the equivalent quality assurance system with ISO 9001, if the laboratory is competent to perform specific testing based on international standard. Thus, the reliability of the results reported by accredited laboratory is guaranteed internationally. PFDC-lab established analysis quality management system, acquired the knowledge and information of uncertainty evaluation under cooperative study with US DOE’s New Brunswick Laboratory (NBL), ensured our analysis traceability using intercomparison results and validates our analysis methods to meet technical requirements. In conclusion, we have accredited for ISO/IEC 17025: 2005 in March 1st, 2010. This paper presents our approaches to have accreditation and operational status. Also, detail of the quality control system and measurement uncertainty evaluation is reported by the other paper titled “Quality Control and Uncertainty Evaluation for Accountancy Analysis at PFDC-lab”.