[DOE LETTERHEAD]

April 11, 2002

The Honorable John T. Conway
Chairman
Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board
625 Indiana Avenue, NW
Suite 700
Washington, D.C. 20004

Dear Mr. Chairman:

Enclosed is a table showing the schedule for updating the functional area qualification standards in the Technical Qualification Program (TQP). This table fulfills Commitment 19 of the Department of Energy's (DOE) Implementation Plan for the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board Recommendation 2000-2, Configuration Management, Vital Safety Systems. Based on this deliverable, the Department proposes closure of Commitment 19.

Commitment 19, originally to be completed by June 2001, called for DOE to revise TQP standards or processes for safety system expertise, taking into account conclusions from the report, "Analysis of Safety System Federal Staff Expertise and Availability," which was provided to the Board on January 24, 2002. That report concluded that the majority of DOE technical skill gaps are in the following technical areas: mechanical systems, fire protection, electrical systems, instrumentation and control, and criticality safety.

The enclosed table shows the schedule the Federal Technical Capability Panel (FTCP) is using to update and change the TQP standards into DOE Technical Standards. Priority has been placed on the five functional areas having the greatest skill gaps, so that these standards are updated first to appropriately reflect safety system expertise for Federal employees newly qualifying in these functional areas.

During the update of the qualification standards, the sponsor for each standard is to evaluate the need to add competency requirements or supporting knowledge and/or skill statements dealing with oversight of safety systems. The sponsor is expected to add these elements to the functional area qualification standard, or provide the FTCP a justification as to why they are not needed. Two of the five priority functional area qualification standards have already been evaluated for safety system expertise: fire protection and criticality safety. In both cases, existing competency requirements and knowledge and/or skill statements adequately address safety systems. The fire protection qualification standard was updated to a DOE Technical Standard in July 2000 and will not undergo a further update at this time. The criticality safety qualification standard is expected to be changed to a DOE Technical Standard by June 2003. The three other priority functional area qualification standards (mechanical systems, instrumentation and control, and electrical systems) are expected to be updated by April 2003. All remaining functional area qualification standards are expected to be updated by December 2003.

In another matter, the FTCP has approved its 2002 annual plan and a copy has been provided to the Board's staff. Action 5.3 of the annual plan calls for the FTCP agents to identify staff level personnel who are responsible for the oversight of contractor safety systems. This information is intended to provide additional detail as a follow-on step to the report, "Analysis of Safety System Federal Staff Expertise and Availability. " Each site has flexibility to use an appropriate method to identify personnel responsible for safety system oversight. The completion goal for this action is June 30, 2002. This information will be provided to the Board when complete.

If you have any questions, please contact me or have your staff contact Mr. Patrick McGuire at (803) 952-4016.

Sincerely,

Roy J. Schepens
Chairman
Federal Technical Capability Panel

Enclosure
Qualification Standards Schedule

cc w/enclosure:
E. Livingston (S-l), HQ
B. Cook (EH-I), HQ
M. Whitaker (S-3.1), HQ
R. Card (US), HQ
J. Gordon (NA-l), HQ
J. Roberson (EM-01), HQ
R. Haeckel (NA- l0), HQ
FTCP Agents (electronically)

Attachment

FUNCTIONAL AREA QUALIFICATION STANDARD UPDATE SCHEDULE