When procuring Basic Components the reasonable assurance that the item will satisfy its safety function is based upon a qualified supplier applying appropriate quality assurance requirements during the design and manufacture of the component, or by the successful completion of the commercial grade item dedication process. Thusly, when purchasing items for nuclear application, the most correct vernacular is no longer to obtain qualified parts (parts from a qualified supplier) but to obtain Basic Components. As a result of this, when an item has been shown to have adequate assurance that it will perform its safety functions on demand it is considered a вЂњBasic Component.вЂќ A Basic Component is defined in ASME-NQA-1a-2009 as: вЂњa structure, system or component, or part thereof that affects its safety function, that was designed and manufactured in accordance with the requirements of this Standard, or Commercial Grade Items which have successfully completed the dedication process.вЂќ The shift in how items were procured created a need for a definition of acceptability for nuclear service that encompassed both ways of procuring items. This document is still relevant today and forms the basis upon which the ASME Nuclear Quality Assurance Committee drew in developing the requirements in ASME-NQA-1-2008 and NQA-1a-2009. The EPRI guidance was published as EPRI- 5652, Guideline for the Utilization of Commercial-Grade Items in Nuclear SafetyRelated Applications (NCIG-07). The final push for the process occurred in the 1990s with the Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI) taking the lead for the commercial nuclear industry by publishing guidance to assist in establishing an items ability to perform its safety function with reasonable assurance. The commercial grade dedication (CGD) process was first developed by the commercial nuclear industry and regulated by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. This need has since grown to include new components and materials for use in nuclear applications as construction of new plants face the same issue. It was the need to replace items being used in nuclear applications with those from unqualified suppliers (suppliers that could not meet the requirements of ASME-NQA-1) that drove the need to establish a consistent set of expectations in the commercial nuclear industry. This sometimes prevented a purchaser from acquiring an item for nuclear service where the itemвЂ™s ability to perform its safety function was not already established with reasonable assurance. Beginnings of Commercial Grade DedicationДЄs the nuclear industry contracted through the 1980s and 1990s many suppliers stopped maintaining the rigor of processes mandated by ASME-NQA-1.

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