December 17, 1998
The Honorable John T. Conway
Chairman
Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board
625 Indiana Avenue, N.W.
Suite 700
Washington, D.C. 20004 p>Dear Mr. Chairman:
Your November 17, 1998, correspondence requested plans and a resource
loaded schedule for DOE review and approval activities related to the
performance of certain projects as well as qualifications, and affiliations
of those individuals assigned to these review activities. DOE continues
to work with project management at the Los Alamos National Laboratory
as they finalize the details necessary to properly assign special resources
for which many programs compete. The Laboratory goal is to complete
the Operational Readiness Review in a time consistent with current plans
for the execution of the next proposed experiment. A schedule of the
DOE associated activities and resources will be provided following the
completion of the Laboratory's resource assessment. We will continue
to coordinate and integrate our activities with the Laboratory to assure
that sufficient time and talent is available to the DOE for the review
of pertinent safety issues prior to the commencement of Laboratory activities
leading to test execution.
Defense Programs has defined the activities that must be completed in
order to provide adequate assurance that work supporting the program
will be performed safely. These activities are sequentially outlined
in the enclosure to this letter. Also enclosed are the names, qualifications
and affiliations of the DOE and outside experts currently involved or
scheduled to be involved in the necessary safety reviews. Should conflicts
arise due to scheduling changes, additional DOE or outside experts will
be called upon to provide the appropriate assistance in reviewing these
safety issues.
Consistent with the principles and application of Integrated Safety
Management, the LANL team responsible for conducting these experiments
is addressing safety aspects as a part of their overall planning for
the experiment. Similarly, DOE Defense Programs (DP), Albuquerque Operations
Office, and Los Alamos Area Office staffs are actively involved with
the development of the programmatic and safety aspects of this project
to assure that our activities are integrated. The final schedule of
activities will fully cover all necessary programmatic and safety steps.
Finally, the attachment to your letter, involving issues raised at a
meeting held at LANL on July 21-22, 1998, states that there is a concern
that LANL may accelerate schedules to perform certain tests involving
more challenging charge loadings, potentially resulting in inadequate
lead time to perform and understand results of analyses of confinement
vessel integrity and response. Let me assure you that this is not the
case. The vessel performance assurance infrastructure has been established
and will be adhered to as preparations are made to perform future tests,
which may exceed the currently established envelope. We are gratified
to know that you believe the upcoming proposed experiment to be within
the bounds of currently analyzed capabilities of the test confinement
vessels. We will keep your staff apprised of schedule changes and other
issues affecting the timing or performance of specific experiments.
We would like to provide you with a follow-up briefing on this topic
at your earliest convenience. If you have any questions or comments
involving the enclosed report, please contact Dr. Gil Weigand, Deputy
Assistant Secretary or have your staff contact Tim Beville at (301)
903-8251.
Sincerely,
Victor H. Reis
Assistant Secretary
for Defense Programs
Enclosure is classified.
cc w/enclosure:
M. Whitaker, S-3.1
