[DOE LETTERHEAD]
National Nuclear Security
Administration
January 12, 2006
The Honorable A. J. Eggenberger
Chairman
Defense Nuclear Facilities
Safety Board
625 Indiana Avenue, N.W., Suite
700
Washington, D.C. 20004-2901
Dear Mr. Chairman:
In your May 31, 2005, letter you
requested a report describing the strategy that would lead to timely resolution
of all fire protection deficiencies noted by your staff and achieve site-wide
improvements in the Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) fire protection program
for defense nuclear facilities. You
suggested that the strategy should involve a multi-year project plan similar to
those developed by LANL under the Operations Efficiency Project for other major
institutional issues. You also requested
that the report include a discussion of lessons learned at other DOE sites that
have experienced similar challenges in fire protection, an estimate of
engineering resources required, and a projection of when all fire protection
upgrades would be completed.
Enclosed is an interim response
to your letter, which includes a proposed LANL fire protection plan and the Los
Alamos Site Office’s (LASO) detailed evaluation of the plan. While LASO concurs with the plan, NNSA
Headquarters shares LASO concerns regarding the anticipated benefits, plan
direction, and requirement expectations.
The addition of a fulltime fire
protection engineer at LASO in May 2005 was an important step in increasing
NNSA’s oversight capability of the LANL fire protection program. In addition, LASO has assured NNSA Headquarters that fire protection oversight
has not been reduced during the ongoing LASO strategic pause.
During the transition phase for
the new contract, LASO will request LANL to submit an updated fire protection
strategy by March 15, 2006. LASO will
review the updated strategy, develop a complementary Site Office fire
protection oversight strategy with resource requirements and implementation
schedule, and submit the complete package to NNSA Headquarters by April 14, 2006.
The complete package will be transmitted
to the Board by April 28, 2006.
If you have any questions,
please contact me, or have your staff contact Mike Thompson of my office at
301-903-5648 or Gerald Schlapper, Senior Safety Advisor at LASO at 505-665-7111.
Sincerely,
Linton F. Brooks
Administrator
cc: E. Wilmot, LASO
G.
Schlapper, LASO
W.
Futrell, LASO
M.
Whitaker, DR-1
D.
Cobb, LANL
W. S.
Gibbs, LANL
C.
Leasure, LANL