THE DEVELOPMENT OF A SYSTEMS APPROACH TO NUCLEAR MATERIALS AUDIT WITHIN THE UNITED KINGDOM ATOMIC ENERGY AUTHORITY

Auditors from the Authority Nuclear Materials Control Office (ANMCO) undertake internal audit of Nuclear Materials Accounting and Control (NMA&C) at United Kingdom Atomic Energy Authority sites. Until recently a Substantive approach to NMASC audit has been adopted but in 1988 a decision was made to adopt a Systems approach to this activity. The paper outlines the approach the ANMCO auditors have taken, the problems encountered and the means by which these have been overcome in adapting the methodology originally developed for financial and commercial audit to NMA&C systems. The purpose and content of the ANMCO NMA&C Systems Audit Manual is outlined, and the policy adopted of discussing this with auditees is also discussed. The paper highlights a major difficulty in NMA&C auditing, that of agreeing control objectives in a form acceptable to both auditees and auditors. The paper illustrates that NMA&C auditors require broad scientific as well as auditing skills in order to audit the technical systems which establish the amounts of nuclear material.