This paper on "Quality Assurance of Mechanical Applications and Software: A Contribution to Nuclear Safety" was presented at the International Conference on Quality Assurance and Standards in Finite Element Analysis - 22-25 May 1989, Stratford-upon-Avon, England.

Introduction to Paper

For the nuclear safety, the Quality Assurance is already an old concept. The recommendations of the International Agency for Atomic Energy (I.A.A.E.), the acts of the national nuclear safety authorities in U.S.A., U.K. or FRANCE, lead to define rules and requirements more and more precise.
In FRANCE, the 10 August 1984 Departmental order explains the meaning of a quality regulation for safety used to design or to dimension nuclear plants.
Requirements induce to define order of procedure for all activities. These procedures applies to all products used during these investigations: project or computation notes, data bases, software, ...
One presents the principal aspects of the Quality Assurance methodology used by Electricité de France, national board for hydraulic, fossil or nuclear fuel power plants. This methodology define the importance of the QA procedure for engineering software: new development one's but also all used computer codes.