[DOE LETTERHEAD]

February 14, 2002

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

Dear Mr. Chairman:

The purpose of this letter is to respond to your November 21, 2001, letter to Secretary Abraham regarding your expectations for changes to be made to our Recommendation 2000-l Implementation Plan, Stabilization and Storage of Nuclear Material.

We are still working to prepare revised commitments for plutonium stabilization at the Savannah River Site and Los Alamos National Laboratory. Although it was originally anticipated that the new commitments for the Savannah River Site would be provided to you by the end of 2001, the Site has required additional time to complete rebaselining of the plutonium packaging project and determine the best commitment dates that can be provided.

I would also like to inform you that the Rocky Flats Environmental Technology Site (RFETS) will not meet the May 2002 commitment date to repackage all metal and oxides into 3013 containers (commitment #305). This is a result of a delayed startup of the RFETS Plutonium Stabilization and Packaging System (PuSPS), lower than anticipated production rates, and higher than expected equipment failure rates. However, the RFETS has implemented corrective actions to mitigate the delay. The RFETS expects to substantially increase the output rate of PuSPS by implementing a 10-hour per shift operational schedule and minimizing operational downtime. According to current planning, RFETS estimates that PuSPS processing of the remaining oxides and metal material will be completed by October 2002.

The revised commitment noted above, along with other changes that we have provided to you in letters over the past year, will be incorporated into a full revision of the 2000-l Implementation Plan which we plan to provide to you by the end of April 2002. The proposed changes for the Savannah River Site and Los Alamos National Laboratory will be discussed with your staff as soon as that information is available.

We continue to closely track progress on all Recommendation 2000-l commitments and will keep you and your staff apprised of our progress. If you have any further questions, please feel free to contact me at (202) S86- 5151.

Sincerely,

David G. Huizenga
Deputy Assistant Secretary for
Integration and Disposition
Office of Environmental Management

cc:
M. Whitaker, S-3.1