[DOE LETTERHEAD]
National
Nuclear Security Administration
March 27, 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:
The purpose of this letter is to
inform you of the completion of the National Nuclear Security Administration
(NNSA) commitment to establish dispositions of former Albuquerque and other
Operation Office’s supplemental directives as committed in our September 9, 2005,
letter in response to your December 8, 2003, letter. In order to accomplish this task, NNSA
performed a comprehensive review to determine whether supplemental directives
from the former Operation Offices are still in NNSA contracts or being used by NNSA
organizations. References to Albuquerque Operations Office
(AL) Supplemental Directives on the Department of Energy (DOE) Directives
Website were also addressed as part of this effort.
Based on this comprehensive
review, NNSA concludes
that there are isolated instances of Albuquerque and other Operations Offices
supplemental directives still invoked in NNSA contracts or in use by NNSA
organizations. In some cases, cancelled
or outdated AL supplemental directives were still being presented as current
documents on the DOE Directives Website. As part of this review, all but three
Albuquerque Operations Office supplemental directives were cancelled and are in
the process of being removed from the DOE Directives Website.
Each supplemental directive that
was either referenced in an NNSA contract, in use by an NNSA organization, or
cited on the DOE Directives Website as a current AL supplemental directive was
reviewed. Based on this review, several
references to supplemental directives were removed from contracts and 17 AL
Supplemental Directives are to be removed from the DOE Directives Website. The following supplemental directives will
remain in contracts:
·
The
Y-12 contract contains a limited number of Oak Ridge Operations Office (ORO)
supplemental directives. This is
appropriate as ORO continues to provide support to the Y-12 Site Office (YSO)
in some areas. The ORO supplemental directives
are applicable and valid. YSO is
actively managing the Y-12
contract and has approved use of the ORO supplemental directives.
·
The
Nevada Site Office (NSO) contracts continue to reference some Nevada Operations
Office documents. NSO is in the process
of revising and transitioning the old Nevada Operations Office documents into
new NSO directives. The NSO is actively
managing and tracking this transition as part of the NSO
Directive Improvement Plan. At this point, NSO has completed
transition of over 60% of the old documents and expects to complete the
transition by December 2006. The continued
inclusion of Nevada Operations Office Supplemental Directives in the NSO
contracts was determined to not be a major concern as they are essentially being
managed by the same organization.
·
The
Pantex Site Office (PXSO) intends to modify the BWXT Pantex Management and
Operating contract by April 30, 2006, to include PXSO 425.1C which will
supersede AL 425.lB, Startup
and Restart of AL Facilities/Activities.
·
Three
Albuquerque Operations Office Supplemental Directives have not been cancelled: AL 452.2B,
Safety of
Nuclear Explosive Operations; AL
452.4A, Security
and Control of Nuclear Explosives and Nuclear Weapons;
and AL
5610.13, Joint Department of
Energy/Department of Defense Nuclear Weapon System Safety, Security, and
Control Activities. These will be cancelled when the
corresponding DOE Directives are approved. This is currently scheduled to occur by
September 2006.
Two former AL Supplemental
Directives that are considered to be appropriate for continued use in contracts
but were not covered by this initiative are: 1) 56XB, Nuclear Weapon Development and Production Manual,
and 2)
QC-1, DOE/NNSA Weapon Quality
Policy. These documents are no longer AL
Supplemental Directives. The responsibility
for administering these directives has been transitioned to NNSA Headquarters. The Office of Defense Programs is currently
working on incorporating these documents into the DOE/NNSA directives system.
The usage of supplemental
directives from the former Operation Offices by NNSA organizations was also
reviewed. With the exception of the
supplemental directives discussed above, it was found that supplemental
directives from former Operation Offices are not in use by NNSA employees.
NNSA will continue to track the
status of the remaining actions related to supplemental directives to ensure
that they are all completed. NNSA will
notify the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board when the remaining actions
are completed. Additionally, on-going
NNSA oversight activities are on alert for the use of former Operation Offices Supplemental
Directives by contractors and NNSA personnel.
If you have any questions,
please contact Lynn Maestas at (505) 845-6388 or Rabi Singh at (301) 903-5864.
Sincerely,
Thomas
D’Agostino
Deputy Administrator
for Defense Programs
cc:
L. Brooks, NA-1
J. Paul, NA-2
M. Whitaker, DR-1