[DOE LETTERHEAD]

NATIONAL NUCLEAR SECURITY ADMINISTRATION

February 11, 2002

The Honorable John T. Conway
Chairman
Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board
625 Indiana Avenue, NW.
Suite 700
Washington, D.C. 20004-2901

Dear Mr. Chairman:

In our response to your June 28, 2001, letter about the Justification for Continued Operations related to the W88 Hazard Analysis Report we agreed to:

• Reconsider the risk reduction provided by mats used to prevent High Explosive Violent Reaction due to High Explosive drops onto work surfaces in W88 operations and to reconcile the difference between the W88 value of the failure rate and the value used in the corresponding analysis of W78 operations



• Issue a revised Section 11.8 of the Development & Production Manual.

Our letter of January 3, 2002, responded to the first commitment. This letter forwards the second.

If you have further questions, please contact me or have your staff contact Jeff Underwood at 301-903-8303.

Sincerely,

David E. Beck
Assistant Deputy Administrator
for Military Application and
Stockpile Operations
Defense Programs

Enclosure
Note:  Enclosure to follow.

cc w/enclosure:
Mark Whitaker, S-3.1