Quality Assurance Readiness for Operations Review Judy Malsbury, Head of QA Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory NSTX Upgrade LSB B318 December 9-11, 2014 NSTX-U Supported by Culham Sci Ctr York U Chubu U Fukui U Hiroshima U Hyogo U Kyoto U Kyushu U Kyushu Tokai U NIFS Niigata U U Tokyo JAEA Inst for Nucl Res, Kiev Ioffe Inst TRINITI Chonbuk Natl U NFRI KAIST POSTECH Seoul Natl U ASIPP CIEMAT FOM Inst DIFFER ENEA, Frascati CEA, Cadarache IPP, Jülich IPP, Garching ASCR, Czech Rep Coll of Wm & Mary Columbia U CompX General Atomics FIU INL Johns Hopkins U LANL LLNL Lodestar MIT Lehigh U Nova Photonics Old Dominion ORNL PPPL Princeton U Purdue U SNL Think Tank, Inc. UC Davis UC Irvine UCLA UCSD U Colorado U Illinois U Maryland U Rochester U Tennessee U Tulsa U Washington U Wisconsin X Science LLC 1

PPPL Quality Assurance Independently funded by overhead, not NSTX/U Procurement QA – >200 separate procurements for NSTX/U – Helps assure that quality requirements for procurements are properly specified and satisfied, e.g. baffles, lead extensions, windows, coatings, mirror assemblies, …. – Suspect and counterfeit items Receipt Inspection – New position added for NSTX/U as a result of a problem vendor. – Performs supplier visits to detect problems early in the manufacturing process – Performs receipt inspection at PPPL to assure that we received what we ordered. 2

PPPL Quality Assurance (cont’d) Quality Control – Monitors work in the field to assure compliance with requirements – Covers welding*, permeability, electrical installations, critical lifts, control of configuration Audits and Assessments – Programs, processes, and events – Technical, quality, and ES&H related – Causal analyses Tracking and verification – Corrective actions from audits/assessments/causal analyses, NCRs, ORPS/NTS action items, design review chits – Generates agenda for and minutes from monthly Assessments and Actions Items Meetings * 781 lbs of weld wire was bought by PPPL for welding on the vessel. 3

NSTX/U Startup Process Audit * Performance Objective – “PPPL is able to demonstrate that it has successfully performed or will be ready to perform the defined start-up tests for NSTX prior to the scheduled start-up.” Governing documents: – OP-NSTX-02, Rev. 14, Start Up of NSTX-U (draft) and associated spreadsheet of procedures and documentation status – OP-NSTX-12, Rev. 5, NSTX Operations Training A snapshot review of the readiness of the project to perform a start-up review – Performed last half June, 2014 – Report dated July 11, 2014 * Audit requested by the Chair of the ACC 4

Observation #1 - Procedures At the time of the audit (June 2014), the schedule for performing pre-operational test procedures was not well defined. Audit recommendation was to generate and maintain a tracking system for all the procedures. The project developed a tracking spreadsheet (excerpt shown) 5

Observation #2 - Training The audit team questioned the training for COEs and Physics Operators adequate given the high energy levels that NSTX/U will achieve and the new systems being installed. The project response indicated that – The COEs are trained by the cognizant system engineers (and in some cases, are in fact the system engineers) prior to operation including "at-the- controls" training during testing. – The Physics Operations will direct previously approved machine or experimental proposals, but all machine operating limits remain under the control of the COE and engineered protection systems. 6

Observation #3 – Design Issues At the time of the audit, it was not clear if all design issues, identified via design chits, would be resolved prior to installations and operations. The project response indicated that design review chits were diligently being tracked with closure confirmed by QA. 7

Questions? 8