[DOE LETTERHEAD]

January 3, 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 (JCO) related to the W88 Hazard Analysis Report (HAR), 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 (D&P) Manual.

We have reconsidered the risk reduction provided by the mats and found the risks of the W88 operation to be comparable to the risks of W78 program and likewise acceptable. The W88 HAR and JCO will be updated during the next normal revision to the W88 HAR. We will work through your site representative to ensure that your staff has the opportunity to review the revised HAR. The revised Section 11.8 of the D&P Manual is in the final stages of approval and will be forwarded after approval by the Standing Management Team, and prior to January 30, 2002.

If you have further questions, please contact me or have your staff contact Mr. David E. Beck at 202-586-4879 or Mr. Jeff Underwood at 301-903-8303.

Sincerely,

RONALD J. HAECKEL
Brigadier General, USAF
Acting Deputy Administrator
for Defense Programs

cc:
Mark Whitaker, S-3.1