[DOE LETTER HEAD]
January 29, 2008
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 purpose of this letter is to transmit the Office of Environmental Management (EM)
response to Commitments 5.1.1 and 5.1.3 of the Department of Energy Implementation
Plan for Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board Recommendation 2007-1, Safety-
Related In Situ Nondestructive Assay of Radioactive Materials, October 2007.
The Enclosure lists EM Hazard Category 2 Nuclear Facilities and identifies existing
criticality safety programs and their dependence on in-situ nondestructive assay. For EM
facilities this number is less than 20 percent. EM Hazard Category 3 Nuclear Facilities
with criticality safety programs have also been included. A prioritization of these
facilities was also performed based upon criticality accident risk. Ranking was based on
the following hierarchy from highest to lowest priority: Processing/storage of fissile
solutions or transfers of potentially fissile solutions from favorable to unfavorable
geometry vessels; operating critical assembly or research reactor facility; large quantities
of suspected but uncharacterized holdup such as in a D&D situation of a former Pu
facility; metal/oxide processing and handling; solid TRU waste along with input on
current facility operations. All EM facilities were identified as low risk with the
exception of the Plutonium Finishing Plant at Hanford and the HB Line at the Savannah
River Site which have been identified as medium risk.
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) 586-5 15 1.
Sincerely,
James M. Owendoff
Chief Operations Officer for
Environmental Management
cc:
J. Rispoli, EM-1
I. Triay, EM-2
J. Owendoff, EM-3
C. Lagdon, CNS-ESE
M. Whitaker, HS-1
K. Picha, EM-61