QA's role in the independent verification of plant readiness for startup from planned outages

Quality Assurance (QA) personnel at the N Reactor, located near Richland, Washington, USA, perform many activities to independently verify the readiness for startup of the reactor from planned outages. The verifications are performed as inspections, test witnessing, audits, surveillance, and followup on identified corrective action needs. The results of these verifications are used in a formal readiness review process. The formal reviews are administered by a Review Board of representatives from several major components of the Company and are conducted using systematically structured analytical techniques. The N Reactor QA staff includes 26 persons (excluding managers) who are involved in independent verifications of reactor-related work as part or all of their assigned functions.