An Integrated Management System for Quality, Health and Safety, and Environment: A Case Study

Abstract

The nuclear power plant (NPP) project (NPPP) usually faces with the complex quality, health and safety, and environment (QHSE) risks, so that it is vital to establish the QMS, OHSMS, and EMS, as is called QHSEMSs, according to ISO 9001, ISO 45001, and ISO 14001 standards, as is called the three ISO standards, respectively. Meanwhile, the QHSEMSs need to be supplemented and improved according to IAEA safety standards due to its industry particularity, and the special QHSEMSs need to be established and then implemented. However, during establishing and implementing the special QHSEMSs for NPPP, problems including huge numbers of documents, complex organizational structures, cumbersome management processes, lower management efficiency, and higher management cost are encountered. In order to solve these problems, a generic model for integrating the special QHSEMSs into an integrated management system (IMS) for QHSE (QHSEIMS) for NPPP in China was proposed according to the three ISO standards and IAEA safety standards through PDCA, process, and system approaches, as is called the three integration approaches. The proposed model was applied to establish and implement the QHSEIMS in a typical case, and the application results indicated that the proposed model was of great help to streamline the documentation, organizational structure, and management process for QHSE, and to effectively and efficiently manage the QHSE for the NPPP.