Quality Assurance (QA)

Accreditation and certification

Contact: Thomas Peter

Quality Assurance Service

The aim of the Quality Assurance Service is to support all concerned projects at SCK•CEN with assistance in all fields related to Quality Control, Quality Assurance, Quality Management or other Management Systems such as Environmental, Safety or Health Management Systems. In order to achieve this a documented Quality System, available on the Intranet, has been laid down and has been implemented. The control of the documented system, the evaluation of its implementation through internal audits, the review of its effectiveness through management reviews and the continuous improvement of the system are the main responsibilities of the QA-service. The service consists of the QA Manager, a QA Officer and a Secretary assisted by QA coördinators in every QA-section taking care of the local QA-activities.

The major objective of the Quality Assurance Management at SCK•CEN is that everybody incorporates the Quality Philosophy in his or her daily work, thus increasing both the internal and the external customer satisfaction.

Quality Policy

The Management of SCK•CEN wants to maintain and further develop a quality system at a high level and has defined its quality policy in the following highlights:

• Attracting young, capable, highly skilled and university trained employees
• Investing in the continuous modernization and innovation of its laboratories and scientific and technical equipment
• Permanent training and education of the employees
• A consistent policy of continual quality improvement
• Fostering a quality culture throughout the whole organisation

Objectives of the quality system at SCK·CEN

SCK·CEN aims at obtaining the accreditation of all its laboratories and certification of its process activities according to the current national and international standards (the ISO standards ISO 17025 and ISO 9001 serve as a basis).

Launched in 1993, Quality Assurance at SCK·CEN focuses on three main tasks:

1. Elaborating a modular QA system based on international standards
2. Increasing the quality of our scientific output
3. Improving the quality of our internal way of working and information

The main reason for setting up this quality system was external and due to an internationalisation of trade and therefore the growing importance of e.g. test reports for products. In the free market industrial customers needed test reports covered by a QA-system which could be recognised as technical passports (e.g. the analysis of MOX rods).

In the regulatory sector, the federal government needed recognised laboratories to perform analyses in accordance with QA standards as a part of product control or inspection of goods for free trade according to EC directives on environment and security (e.g. radioactvity in milk powder after the Chernobyl accident).

However, this merely external reason was not the only one. Answering the question "How can a research centre prove to customers or to the public in general that it is providing high quality analyses, high quality products and processes and high quality research?" is very difficult since the product of those activities is not tangible. In order to guarantee the quality of our research and services, we decided to apply for an accreditation or certification according to international quality assurance standards.

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Accreditation and certification

Our nuclear measurements service was the first Belgian nuclear laboratory ever to be accredited: it obtained its certificate in 1995 from Beltest (currently Belac).

At this moment the following test-laboratories have achieved an accreditation by Belac which officialy proves their competence to execute a very specific service as described in the so-called scope:

ISO17025_BELAC_015_TEST_2010_januari_NL_bijlage_versie_5 (2 MB)

ISO17025_BELAC_015_TEST_Certificaat_20100119_20140827 (176 kB)

ISO17025_BELAC_015_TEST_Certificaat_20100119_20140827_EN (177 kB)

ISO17025_BELAC_015_TEST_Certificaat_20100119_20140827_FR (173 kB)

Gammaspectrometry Non Destructive Analysis Reactordosimetry Radiochemical Analysis Low Level Radioactivity Measurements Mechanical Tests Dosimetry Anthropogammametry

SCK·CEN also has obtained Belac accredition for two calibration laboratories with their own specific scope:

ISO17025_BELAC_015_CAL_2010_januari_NL_bijlage_versie_4 (4 MB)

ISO17025_BELAC_015_CAL_Certificaat_20100119_20140827 (176 kB)

ISO17025_BELAC_015_CAL_Certificaat_20100119_20140827_EN (175 kB)

ISO17025_BELAC_015_CAL_Certificaat_20100119_20140827_FR (173 kB)

Nuclear Calibrations Non-nuclear Calibrations

Following processes are certified according to ISO 9001:

Production of radioisotopes for medical and industrial applications & Production of Neutron Transmutation Doped (NTD) Silicon ISO9001_2008_AIB_BR2_20091026_20121025_E (212 kB) ISO9001_2008_AIB_BR2_IQNET_20091026_20121025_E (209 kB) Decommissioning reactor BR3: Materials & document management ISO9001_2008_AIB_BR3_20091026_20121025_E (218 kB) ISO9001_2008_AIB_BR3_IQNET_20091026_20121025_E (217 kB) Management of all research projects with a contractual value of at least € 50.000/year. Research project concerns: contracting the client, drawing up the R&D plan, management of personnel, management of the budget, follow up of the agreed planning, follow up of deliverables, review of the research project, consulting the client, adapting the R&D plan and closing the research project ISO9001_2008_AIB_WD_20091026_20121025_E (226 kB) ISO9001_2008_AIB_WD_IQNET_20091026_20121025_E (223 kB)

For our work in French nuclear installations we have obtained a certification according to CEFRI requirements.
Certificate CEFRI (79 kB)

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