ABSTRACT
Quality assurance is an integral part of the characterization, design, and performance assessment process for the Department of Energy’s (DOE) high-level nuclear waste repository program at the Yucca Mountain Project (YMP) in Nye County, Nevada. In the effort to characterize, select, and license a nuclear waste repository, it is paramount that an effective quality assurance program be developed and implemented for rock mechanics and other site related activities. A good quality assurance program will ensure quality engineering work without encumbering the engineering effort. This entails the development of a quality assurance program plan which strives for the performance of quality work without burdening the participants with unnecessary and excessive quality assurance requirements. In the context that quality assurance is a management tool it is reasonable to evaluate quality assurance in ways that other management methods are evaluated. When evaluating management tools cost is a common measure used in the evaluation process.
