TRIUMF's Shining Armour

It’s not easy keeping a facility full of passionate scientists orderly, but that is exactly the task Phil Jones faces as he comes into work each morning. As the Manager of Quality Assurance and Training (QA & Training), he oversees the thirteen sections that make up the TRIUMF Quality Management System.

“Procurement, operations, configuration management, experimental approval, etc. … I make sure the process for all of those programs is defined, first of all, and then use internal audits to make sure everything is run according to protocol.”

Phil has been a valued addition to TRIUMF since 2000, when he was hired to help out with training in the Radiation Protection Group and then the Operations Groups. In 2005, he also took on the additional role of Quality Assurance Manager. His latest task has found him involved with the Canadian Standards Association (CSA).

Phil is a member of the CSA task force responsible for establishing guidelines for the operation of nuclear facilities. The standard currently used is specific to nuclear power plants.

As Phil points out, “The CSA wants to write a more generic standard, one that would be applicable to all nuclear facilities, including TRIUMF, but also other facilities such as the uranium mines in Saskatchewan.” At the moment, the eight-member task force is in the process of identifying who should be writing the standard, in order to make sure there is a fine balance between those with interests in nuclear power plants and other facilities that focus on research, mining, development, etc.

Phil’s participation in the task force is important as the CSA standards could have a big impact on the operations at TRIUMF, for as he mentions - “We have a vested interest in how the standard will be written because we will be audited against it … we would want to ensure the standard is not written in such a way that is restrictive to our research.”

Working at a world-class research facility is also one of Phil’s favorite aspects of his job at TRIUMF. Not only does it allow him to encounter interesting individuals, but it also enables him to sustain his passion for physics, which is evident through his part-time job as a physics teacher for evening courses at a local high school.

While experiments often take precedence over the news, it would be impossible to run a lab as complex as TRIUMF without the behind-the-scenes action of the QA & Training group. Thus, we are grateful for the time and effort Phil and his colleagues put in to keep us safe and have everything run like butter!

As part of a CSA taskforce, Phil Jones is working to develop guidelines that would apply to all nuclear facilities

The Quality Assurance and Training group investigates problems and takes corrective actions to ensure a safe work environment within TRIUMF