[DOE LETTERHEAD]
NATIONAL NUCLEAR
SECURITY ADMINISTRATION
November 26, 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:
This letter is provided in response to your
letter of October 3, 2002, on the observations of Enriched Uranium Operations
(EUO) Wet Chemistry resumption activities.
Your letter noted continuing concerns with line management’s inability
to effectively achieve an adequate state of readiness prior to starting the
readiness review process. The National
Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) concurs with the issues identified by
your staff, and the Y-12 Site Office (YSO) has been closely following this
activity and ensuring BWXT Y-12 addresses these and other issues with their
restart process.
On October 14, 2002, the BWXT Y-12
Operational Readiness Review (ORR) team issued its final report that concluded
that readiness preparations remain inadequate to allow a recommendation that
startup can proceed safely. The ORR
team cited three primary factors for this determination. They included the extensive use of
simulations, inappropriate disposition of equipment testing exceptions, and the
inability to satisfactorily, correct problems identified by review teams. The YSO concurs with this conclusion and
recognizes that the ORR process was credible.
However, improvements are necessary in the restart preparation process.
BWXT Y-12 is evaluating the activities
required to establish the necessary level of readiness for the restart of EUO
Wet Chemistry operations. The path
forward will include an evaluation by line management on the overall readiness
of the operation, a BWXT Y-12 ORR, a YSO validation of readiness review by BWXT
Y-12, and the NNSA ORR. The schedule
for the readiness review phase is still under review and will be provided to
your staff as soon as the schedule has been finalized.
BWXT Y-12 is also evaluating the causal
factors associated with inadequate preparations resulting in the negative
conclusion reached by the contractor ORR.
It is anticipated that lessons learned will be generated that will
require revisions to the Y-12 Plant procedures.
While improvements have been made to the
Y-12 readiness process as demonstrated in the successful restart/start-up of a
number of operations in the past year, it is recognized that further action is
necessary to consistently implement and improve the overall readiness process
at Y-l 2.
I appreciate your staff’s involvement in the
Y-12 readiness process and the feedback provided in your letter. The NNSA will schedule a briefing to the
Board prior to commencing the NNSA ORR for EUO Wet Chemistry to discuss
specific actions that have been taken, as well as results of the contractor
reviews. Additionally, any long-term
corrective actions will be discussed with you at that time.
If you have any questions concerning our
approach for improving the readiness process at Y-12, please contact me or have
your staff contact Mr. David E. Beck at 202-586-4879, or Mr. Bill Brumley at
865-576-0752.
Sincerely,
Everet H. Beckner
Deputy Administrator
for Defense Programs
cc:
M. Whitaker, EH-9