[DOE LETTERHEAD]

 

September 28, 2006

 

The Honorable A. J. Eggenberger

Chairman

Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board

625 Indiana Avenue, NW, Suite 700

Washington, DC 20004-2941

 

Dear Mr. Chairman:

 

The implementation of Quality Assurance Programs (QAPs) at the Environmental Management's (EM) Field Offices have been completed within the time delineated in our November 30, 2005, letter.  The Department of Energy's (DOE) 2004-1 Implementation Plan for Oversight of Complex, High-Hazard Nuclear Operations, provided the scope for updating our QAPs to fully implement DOE O 414.1C, Quality Assurance.

 

Per our letter, each EM DOE Field Office has approved QAPs consistent with the requirements in DOE O 414.1C.  Specifically, the following EM Field Offices are fully implementing their QAPs:  Office of River Protection, Richland Operations Office, Savannah River Operations Office, Ohio Field Office, Carlsbad Field Office and the Rocky Flats Project Office.  Recently the QAP for the Portsmouth/Paducah Project Office (PPPO) was approved and underwent a Quality Assurance assessment by EM Headquarters.  While the QAP is implemented at PPPO, there are corrective actions under development to respond to the assessment to further strengthen their program.

 

The updates to the Oak Ridge (OR) and Idaho (ID) QAPs to include DOE O 414.1C requirements have been approved by each Office's respective Program Secretarial Office with EM concurrence.  Implementation of the ID QAP is evident in their International Organizational for Standardization 9000 efforts, and is well underway for the OR QAP.

 

If you have any comments or feedback, please call me at (202) 586-0738 or Mr. Dae Y. Chung, Deputy Assistant Secretary for Safety Management and Operations, at (202) 586-5151.

 

Sincerely,

 

Dr. Inés R. Triay

Chief Operating Officer for

  Environmental Management

 

cc:  Mark Whitaker, DR-1