An advanced comparison of five major quality assurance systems used for nuclear work and facilities, with emphasis on the Department of Energy

There are several systems of quality assurance requirements governing quality assurance (QA) at current nuclear operations of the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE). The two systems most required for conformances by DOE Contractors are the Federal law 10 C.F.R. § 830 Part 120 (now 830.122) and DOE Orders 414.1 and 5700.6C, each containing ten common QA criteria. Commercial American manufacturing and nuclear power industries have operated under the more stringent requirements of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers' NQA-1 (nuclear quality) and the International Organization for Standardization's ISO 9001 quality systems concurrently. These other QA systems, with eighteen and twenty criteria respectively, contain more explicit words. In this thesis, the criteria of these QA systems will be reviewed, and the comparisons and contrasts will be expounded between the criteria of these QA systems. Afterwards, a proposal will be made for a new QA system for the DOE Complex.