[DOE LETTERHEAD]
NATIONAL NUCLEAR SECURITY
ADMINISTRATION
April 28, 2004
The Honorable John T. Conway
Chairman
Defense Nuclear Facilities
Safety Board
625 Indiana Avenue, NW.
Suite 700
Washington, D.C. 20004
Dear Mr. Chairman:
Enclosed is the "Quarterly
Report for the Implementation Plan Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board
Recommendation 98-2, Accelerating Safety Management Improvements at the Pantex Plant,"
for the period January 1 through March 31, 2004.
During this reporting period,
the Department of Energy/National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) made
progress toward the Seamless Safety (SS)-21 start-up authorizations for the W78
and B83. A Nuclear Explosive Safety
Study (NESS) was conducted on the W78. On April 5, 2004, the NNSA
provided the NESS
approval of the W78 Disassembly &
Inspection and
Repair Operations at the Pantex Plant for single unit processing only. The B83 SS-21 project schedule was rebaselined
for startup authorization in October 2004 to accommodate satellite facility
scope expansions. Twenty-three out of
twenty-seven commitments have been delivered and four remain outstanding.
If you have questions, please
call me at 202-586-4879 or have your staff contact Ms. Debra Volk at
505-845-5106.
Sincerely,
David E. Beck
Assistant Deputy Administrator
for Military Application and
Stockpile Operations
Defense Programs
cc w/enclosures.
J. McConnell, DNFSB
W. Andrews, DNFSB
A. Matteucci, DNFSB