[DOE
LETTERHEAD]
National Nuclear Security Administration
October
31, 2003
The Honorable John T. Conway
Chairman
Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board
625 Indiana Avenue, N.W., Suite 700
Washington, D.C.
20004
Dear Mr. Chairman:
The National Nuclear Security Administration
(NNSA) approved its Functions, Responsibilities, and Authorities Manual (FRAM)
on October 15, 2003 (copy enclosed). This document defines the roles and
responsibilities within NNSA for assuring safe conduct of work activities.
Completion of the NNSA FRAM addresses three
existing Board commitments:
(1)
In your letter
to Secretary Abraham, dated January 31, 2002, regarding closure of Board recommendation
98-1, you indicated that your closure was contingent on completion of several
organizational FRAMs, including one by NNSA. My understanding is that all three
organizational FRAMs have now been completed and forwarded to you.
(2)
In our Quality
Assurance Improvement Plan, approved by Secretary Abraham and forwarded to you
by letter dated November 22, 2002, we committed to addressing NNSA quality
assurance roles and responsibilities in our FRAM. These are addressed in the responsibilities
sections of various NNSA officials, with emphasis on the site office managers.
(3)
In my letter
to you, dated April 7, 2003, I committed to addressing in the NNSA FRAM
the NNSA roles and responsibilities for oversight of safety system readiness. The NNSA FRAM assigns the following
responsibility to site office managers: “Appraise
performance of the contractor against formally established ES&H and emergency
management performance measures and other ES&H and emergency management
performance indicators, and take appropriate action. The adequacy of the contractor self-assessment
process and assessments of safety system operability and programs that support
system operability should be specifically appraised”.
NNSA considers these commitments to be
complete. If you have any questions,
please do not hesitate to contact me.
Sincerely,
Everet H. Beckner
Deputy Administrator
for Defense Programs
Enclosure
cc: M. Whitaker, DR-1