July 8, 2011

Implementation of Nuclear Weapons Quality Assurance Requirements at Los Alamos National Laboratory

The National Nuclear Security Administration's (NNSA) Los Alamos National Laboratory (Los Alamos) is a multidisciplinary research and production institution responsible for the design and production of nuclear weapons components. In its effort to attain the highest quality in weapons engineering design and manufacturing, the Department of Energy (Department) established the DOE/NNSA Weapon Quality Policy (QC-1). This policy requires NNSA and its contractors to establish processes to detect and prevent quality problems. This policy also requires that items, services and processes that do not meet established requirements be identified, controlled and corrected. To that end, NNSA and Los Alamos conduct surveys to help ensure that problems are identified and corrected.

Topic: National Security & Safety