Current Applications of Software Reliability and Quantitative Software Quality Analysis in the Nuclear Regulatory Commission
Steven Arndt
The 17th IEEE International Symposium on Software Reliability Engineering (ISSRE 2006) -- Government Track
Raleigh, North Carolina, USA, 7-10 November 2006
Abstract
The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) is the federal regulatory agency for all uses of nuclear material in the US, including nuclear reactors, nuclear fuel processing facilities, as well as medical and industrial uses. Over the last few years the use of software driven digital systems has expanded significantly in all areas regulatory concern for the NRC. To fully analyze the complex system that the NRC sees, we must analyze the components comprising the system, as well as their integration as a system. Toward this end, one major division in analysis activities is between hardware and software. Currently, the NRC does not have a standardized methodology for quantitatively assessing the reliability of a digital system. Rather, the current practice is to review the processes used to develop a safety system, with the presumption that a high-quality process will produce a system that satisfies regulatory requirements. A set of digital system quality assurance evaluation attributes is provided in the NRC standard review plan for nuclear power plants (NUREG-0800). This guidance identifies functional and development process characteristics that must be reviewed to ensure that the quality of a proposed digital system is sufficient for use in safety-related applications. The NRC experience in developing and deploying new quantitative software reliability and software quality analysis methods and acceptance criteria will be discussed.