To address these issues the Swedish Nuclear Utilities have jointly funded the development of guideline document on the management of Essential Variables within the Swedish Qualification Process. The approach taken to develop these guidelines is to obtain the consensus opinion of a steering and reference committee made up of personnel employed by organizations actively participating in the requirements to qualify NDE systems for the inservice inspection of NDE systems in Sweden. The organizations represented in these committees include the Nuclear Utilities, the Accredited laboratories providing services to the Nuclear Utilities, The Swedish Nuclear Power Inspectorate and The Swedish Qualification Center. On behalf of the Swedish Utilities the EPRI NDE Center is facilitating the assembly of the information and preparing the guideline document.

This paper will describe the progress made to date and discuss some of the challenges ahead in reaching a common understanding and an acceptable practice.