LAS VEGAS -- The U.S. Department of Energy's Office of Civilian Radioactive Waste Management announced that two contractors have been selected to perform independent assessments of the quality assurance program and the current draft of the Yucca Mountain license application being prepared for submission to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.

"These independent assessments are critical to help me and senior managers determine how to fully address some of the process and organizational issues in these areas," said Ward Sproat, director of the Civilian Radioactive Waste Management office. "These external reviews are intended to inform us about how and where we need to improve in these critical areas, and to ensure that we submit a high quality license application."

InfoZen Inc. has been selected to perform an independent review of the quality assurance program. Organizational Analysis Corp. has been selected to review the draft license application for the Yucca Mountain repository.

InfoZen will review the adequacy of the quality assurance plans for Sproat's office, Bechtel SAIC Co., the program's prime contractor, and select national laboratories. InfoZen Inc. will also audit implementation of these plans and will help DOE determine how to improve the design and implementation of current quality assurance activities.

Organizational Analysis will assess the completeness and adequacy of the draft license application against the acceptance criteria contained in relevant NRC requirements. The contractor will also recommend actions to address any issues identified during its assessment.

The majority of the work for both assessments is expected to be completed within six months. The quality assurance assessment contract is valued at $1.3 million and the draft license application review contract is valued at $1.7 million.