Actually, I don't remember nuclear as being that invasive - we were supplying heat treated stock to be used in making bolts for nuclear reactors. I don't remember the exact size, but we'd get two to three mults out of 1 20 foot long bar with some scrap. Bar diameters were around 7". Some bigger some smaller. On the other hand we had to supply an archive mult from I believe the top and bottom of each VAR ingot. To the best of my knowledge, those archive mults are still in a federal depository around Cleveland, OH with my name on the c of a's associated with them.
More invasive were materials for ships - we heat treated material for propeller shafts and had to arrange to have representatives from both Lloyd's Registry and the American Burea of Ships (ABS) present during our testing of the product. It was a royal pain trying to get both reps in at the same time to see the tests. Both of these instances were back in the late 70's - at the same time we were also supplying all of the heat tretaed stock used by Colt Industries to produce M-16 barrels.
More recently, the biggest pain was probably UL, Underwriter's Laboratories, we had one grade of stainless sheet used in the heating industry that was certified by UL. The inspector could come in at any time to check production, testing, etc. We never had a problem with the testing, it was always the surprise timing that was a problem, as it seemed that I was always busy on a project ar at a meeting when the call came that the inspector was at the gate.
Sidney - I do like the new quality term. The more I see of the big 3, the more it seems to apply.