PNNL

Abstract

Since 1994, the DOE Meteorological Coordinating Council (DMCC) has been addressing meteorological monitoring and meteorological applications program issues at U.S. Department of Energy/National Nuclear Safety Administration (DOE/NNSA) sites and providing solutions to these issues. The fundamental objectives of the DMCC include promoting cost-effective meteorological support and facilitating the use of common meteorological methods, procedures, and standards at all DOE/NNSA sites. In 2005, the DOE established strict software quality assurance (SQA) requirements for safety software, including consequence assessment software used for hazard assessments and safety analyses. These evaluations often utilize meteorological data supplied by DOE/NNSA site-based meteorological programs. However, the DOE has not established SQA guidance for this type of safety-related meteorological software. To address this gap, the DMCC is developing this guidance for the use of both public- and private-sector organizations. The goal for the DMCC is to mimic the SQA requirements for safety software but allow a much greater degree of “grading” in determining exactly what specific activities are needed. The emphasis of the DMCC SQA guidelines is on three key elements: 1) design and implementation documentation, 2) configuration management, and 3) verification and validation testing. These SQA guidelines should provide owners and users of meteorological software with a fair degree of assurance that their software is reliable, documented, and tested without putting an undue burden on meteorological system software developers.