Quality Assurance Program

AMS QUALITY ASSURANCE MANUAL
Revision 7
Dated December 2009
AMS Document Number: QAM0101R7

AMS has a strong Quality Assurance (QA) program which has been designed to comply with 10CFR50 Appendix B and related standards. The AMS QA manual is the main document which specifies the AMS QA policy and the overall QA goal and objectives of the company. These objectives are met by a number of specific procedures which provide step-by-step instructions as to how work must be done, the acceptance criteria, documentation requirements, test frequency, etc.

The AMS QA program has been successfully audited by most nuclear utilities in the United States and several utilities in other countries. The audits of the AMS QA program in recent years have been conducted by a joint nuclear industry organization known as the Nuclear Procurement Issues Committee (NUPIC). The NUPIC audit involves a comprehensive review of the QA program by a team of auditors from a number of utilities. The audit usually includes not only QA experts but also technical experts. AMS has been successfully audited by NUPIC numerous times (about once every two years) since the early 1990s.

All safety-related tasks that AMS performs is accomplished according to both the AMS QA program and applicable QA requirements of customers. All safety-related work is performed by qualified AMS personnel using approved procedures and equipment with current calibration traceable to the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) in Washington, D.C. USA.

In addition to specific QA requirements in the AMS QA manual, AMS follows a number of industry standards. These include standards of the American Nuclear Society (ANS), American National Standard Institute (ANSI), American Society for Testing and Materials (ASTM), American Society for Mechanical Engineers (ASME), Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE), International Society of Automation (ISA), International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC), and guidelines of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).