APPLICATION OF QUALITY ASSURANCE TO SCIENTIFIC ACTIVITIES AT WESTINGHOUSE HANFORD COMPANY

The application of quality assurance to scientific activities has been an ongoing subject of review, discussion, interpretation, and evaluation within the nuclear community for the past several years. Much of the focus on this subject has dealt with the difficulties encountered in relating the concepts of quality assurance to scientific activities, particularly when those concepts are presented in traditional quality assurance formats and terminology. This paper provides a discussion on the natures of science and quality assurance and presents suggestions for integrating the two successfully. The paper shows how those actions were used at the Westinghouse Hanford Company to successfully apply quality assurance to experimental studies and materials testing and evaluation activities that supported a major project. An important factor in developing and implementing the quality assurance program was the close working relationship that existed between the assigned quality engineers and the scientists. The quality engineers, who had had working experience in the scientific disciplines involved, were able to bridge across from the scientists to the more traditional quality assurance personnel who had overall responsibility for the project's quality assurance program.