[DOE LETTERHEAD]
March 6, 2007
The Honorable A. J. Eggenberger
Chairman
Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board
625 Indiana Avenue, NW, Suite 700
Washington, DC 20004 – 2901
Dear Mr. Chairman:
On December 7, 2004, the Defense Nuclear
Facilities Safety Board (Board) issued Recommendation 2004-2, Active
Confinement Systems. The
Department of Energy’s (DOE) Implementation Plan (IP) for Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board
(DNFSB) Recommendation 2004-2 requires the DOE to “[r]evise,
as necessary, the Ventilation System Evaluation Guidance document based on
experience and lessons learned from the pilot facility evaluations.”
This deliverable (deliverable 8.6.4) has been
completed using the pilot evaluations for:
·
Savannah
River Site Actinide Removal Process 242-96H and 512-S Facilities
·
Idaho
Cleanup New Waste Calcining Facility
·
Savannah
River Site Pit Disassembly and Conversion Facility
The pilot evaluation for PF-4 facility at
TA-55 at the Los Alamos National Laboratory has been completed, but has not yet
been fully reviewed by the Independent Review Panel (IRP). After discussion with the Recommendation
2004-2 IRP, National Nuclear Security Administration staff and the Board staff,
it was decided to close this commitment based on the information gained from conducting
three of the four pilot evaluations.
Based on these evaluations, the IRP has
concluded that the Ventilation System Evaluation Guidance is fundamentally sound and that no significant revisions to it are
required. Instead, an addendum to the
Guidance has been prepared that contains cautions and lessons learned from the
pilots (see Enclosure). This addendum
will be shared on a DOE-wide basis through the IRP.
If you have questions regarding this issue,
please contact me or John J. Nichols, Acting Director for the Office of Nuclear
Safety and Environmental Policy
at (301) 903-1018.
Sincerely,
Andrew C. Lawrence
Director
Office of Nuclear Safety and Environment
Office of Health, Safety and Security