Independent Technical Assessment (ITA)

The ITA work which CRA conducts covers a broad and diverse area of the site Safety Case. CRA has supported the System Lifecycle Assurance process and aimed to examine the full lifecycle of nuclear safety significant equipment to assure that appropriate arrangements are in place at all phases. This involved the identification of a sample of significant equipment to be subject to ITA oversight review through their full system lifecycle from design, through manufacturing, qualification and installation, and into commissioning. CRA identified and tracked top-level safety requirements from high level documents to the specifications which the equipment suppliers will be using.

CRA have also supported ITA of a new nuclear build pre-construction safety report submission. Areas of assessment included a review of the adequacy of organisational processes, detailed technical review and assessment of the pre-construction safety report supporting studies on a cross-cutting sample basis, review of the ‘Golden Thread’ of safety case arguments through the pre-construction safety report submission and a review of the overall completeness and fitness for purpose of the pre-construction safety report.

On behalf of the ITA team, CRA carried out a review of the nuclear safety design assessment principles to confirm their overall suitability for purpose and reviewed previously identified technical issues with the implementation of these principles. As part of this process, these principles were compared against similar safety design principles for existing nuclear power plants in the UK.

The construction safety justification and supporting studies for a new nuclear power plant was reviewed by CRA to support the client ITA team. This included consideration of the comprehensiveness of the hazard identification, the basic design hazard protection schedules, the substantiation of the site hazard characteristics and the ALARP arguments put forward in relation to the design against external hazards.