Nuclear process industry, auditing

Our initial round of interviews in the U.K. nuclear power industry was conducted in July 1999 with the British nuclear safety authorities— the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) Nuclear Installations Inspectorate (Nil)— and the private nuclear generating company in England (British Energy). A second round of interviews was conducted in January 2000 to follow up on open issues. Additional background information was obtained from discussions with trade union representatives and a local U.K. trade press correspondent. The U.K. interviewees were given considerable latitude to describe the process and impacts of industry restructuring in their own terms, in part because a sensitive audit was still pre-decisional at the time of the interviews. 

Especially in the nuclear industry and other potentially high consequence endeavors, there are formal sets of rules for the QA and safety audit process. ANSI/ASME NQA-1 (ASME 2001) nuclear quality audits use certified and trained auditors and lead auditors who are also expert in the areas being audited. 

Because of the potential for high-consequence accidents, since inception the nuclear industry has been closely regulated and audited by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. The audit process is formalized with the industry standard ASME/ANST NQA-1 (ASME 2001). The NQA-1 standard provides comprehensive QA requirements and audit process requirements to include auditor and lead auditor training, certification, and continuance of certification standards. 

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