Design control and scientific investigations: Is there any linkage?

The quality assurance requirements that apply to the effort to achieve safe transportation, storage, and disposal of high-level nuclear waste specify that ''design control'' be applied to design activities. That effort also involves extensive scientific investigation activities to, among other things, develop information that may be used in engineering design activities. Individuals who are charged with the implementation of such quality assurance requirements have come to a variety of conclusions about whether there is any firm linkage between design control and the conduct of scientific investigations. This paper contends that there is a reasonable and necessary linkage between ''design control'' and scientific activities, though not a connection that has traditionally been made and not one addressed in the QA standards for radioactive waste management programs