Experience feedback from enforcement of quality assurance requirements in the context of French national safeguards

Regulatory and technical conditions for nuclear material control and accountancy (NMC&A) in the context of French national safeguards are set in a ministerial order dated march 16, 1994. A crucial evolution brought by this order was it clearly requires from the operators the implementation of a quality policy and a quality assurance system in the field of NMC&A, complying with relevant international standards. In a first part, the paper recalls the mandatory requirements in the field of QA applied to nuclear material MC&A and shows the interest of such requirements. Emphasis is put on procedures that should specify all internal measures implemented by the operator in order to comply with regulations regarding NMC&A. The paper focuses on experience feedback related to QA practices such as management reviews, quality audits and training of staff, that are essential elements to guarantee that both the quality objectives set by the operator and the regulatory requirements are met. In the second part of the paper, description is given of the ve rifications performed by sworn inspectors from French National Safeguards to ensure that these measures are being correctly applied. Experience feedback from six years of experience is presented and illustrated by mean of examples. It is also shown how quality assurance constitutes an important tool in the frame of the inspection mission.