[DOE
LETTERHEAD]
April 30, 2004
The Honorable John T. Conway
Chairman
Defense Nuclear Facilities
Safety Board
625 Indiana Avenue, NW
Washington, D.C. 20004-2941
Dear Mr. Chairman:
Former Assistant Secretary
Beverly A. Cook provided letters to the
Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board (DNFSB) dated September 5, 2003,
December 15, 2003, and March 1, 2004, regarding the Department of Energy's
(DOE) proposed revision to the DOE Handbook:
Electrical
Safety (DOE-HDBK-1092-98).
In the March 1, 2004, letter DOE
provided you with revised Chapters 1-8 of the Handbook and committed to provide
you a fully revised Handbook for review, including a new chapter on electrical
safety guidance for underground utility and excavation activities and enhanced
chapter(s) on electrical safety for research and development, by April 2004. The purpose of this letter is to provide the
DNFSB with a draft of the fully revised Handbook for your review.
As noted in the letter dated
December 15, 2003, a DOE Electrical Safety Group was formed and chartered to
provide a comprehensive review of the Handbook. This group was instrumental in revising the
Handbook and we are pleased with their work and efforts. We invited and coordinated these activities
with your staff to ensure their concerns and issues were addressed.
Your staff should complete its
review of this Handbook and provide comments to DOE.
We will work with your staff to
resolve their comments before we issue the revised Handbook for DOE interim use
and comment through the DOE Technical Standards Program.
If you have any questions,
please call me at 202-586-4693 or your staff may contact Richard Black at
301-903-0078.
Sincerely,
Raymond J. Hardwick, Jr.
Deputy Assistant Secretary
Office for Facility Safety
Environment, Safety and Health
cc:
M. Whitaker, DR-1
E. Beckner, NA- 10
J. Roberson, EM-1
R. Black, EH-22