[DOE LETTERHEAD]
National Nuclear Security Administration
October 10, 2002
The Honorable John T. Conway
Chairman
Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board
625 Indiana Avenue, N.W.
Suite 700
Washington, D.C. 20004
Dear Mr. Chairman:
I would like to invite you to participate in a Nuclear Criticality Safety
Program meeting on November 22, 2002, at the Omni Shoreham Hotel in Washington,
D.C., and to speak briefly to the audience about the Defense Nuclear Facilities
Safety Board’s perspective on criticality safety, Commissioner Nils J. Diaz
from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission plans to attend and will address the
group about the challenges facing the criticality safety community from his
perspective. I will be opening the
meeting with my perspective on the Department of Energy’s Nuclear Criticality
Safety Program and our commitment to maintain necessary criticality safety
infrastructure.
The Nuclear Criticality Safety Program holds
these meetings semi-annually in conjunction with the American Nuclear Society
meetings and uses them to communicate directly with the operational criticality
safety community and solicit feedback on Program initiatives. These meetings also provide a forum for open
discussions on selected topics of interest to the community and are well
attended. A preliminary agenda for the
November meeting is enclosed for your information. Your participation will be greatly appreciated.
If you have any questions, you can contact
mc directly or have your staff contact Mr. Mike Thompson at 301-903-5648. Mr. Thompson will provide your staff with
the meeting room number when it becomes available.
Sincerely,
David H. Crandall
Assistant Deputy Administrator
for Research, Development, and Simulation
Defense Programs
Enclosure
cc (w/encl):
M. Whitaker, S-3.1
E. Beckner, NA-10
L. Brooks, NA-1
The DOE Nuclear Criticality Safety Program
ANS Winter
Meeting
Friday,
November 22, 2002
The US Department of Energy Nuclear
Criticality Safety Program (NCSP) was initiated in response to DNFSB Recommendation
97-2, “Continuation of Criticality Safety.”
The NCSP is a comprehensive, crosscutting program
that integrates the need to maintain the US criticality safety infrastructure with
effective support for criticality safety programs throughout the DOE complex. During the morning session, representatives of DOE management, DNFSB staff and facility representatives,
and technical program element staff will discuss the
status of the NCSP. A speaker from the NRC will discuss the use
of the NCSP products by NRC licensees and the potential impact of
regulatory changes on the oversight of criticality safety.
The afternoon session is a forum for interactions led by the DOE
Criticality Safety Coordinating Team and the End-Users
Group. This session is open to anyone
interested in a discussion of criticality safety from the
practitioners point of view. These
sessions, while not part of the official ANS program, have been
arranged through the courtesy of the ANS
Headquarters staff. The presentations are based on the DOE NCS
Program, but because of the global application of the work supported by
the DOE NCSP, feedback is encouraged from anyone interested in the needs of a diverse,
well-organized criticality safety program. International, NRC and licensee criticality
safety personnel are encouraged to attend. Extensive audience participation is
anticipated.
|
8:00 a.m. |
Introduction and Program Status (Dave
Crandall, Mike Thompson, Adolf Garcia) |
|
8:30 a.m. |
NRC and the NCSP |
|
9:00 a.m. |
DNFSB and the NCSP (TBD) |
|
9:30 a.m. |
Break |
|
9:40 a.m. |
DNFSB/Site Representative (Tom Burns) |
|
10:00 a.m. |
Status of NCS Qualification - Lessons
Learned (Jerry McKamy, Kevin Carroll, Song Huang, Bruce Wilson, Fitz Trumble) |
|
11:00 a.m. |
RSICC Activities (Bernadette Kirk, Hamilton
Hunter) |
|
11:20 a.m. |
Nuclear Data and NDAG Activities (Dick
McKnight) |
|
11:40 a.m. |
Open forum, comments, questions and
answers (Adolf Garcia) |
|
Noon |
Lunch |
|
1:00 p.m. |
CSCT Activities (Jerry McKamy, Bob Wilson) |
|
1:30 p.m. |
End Users Group Forum (Hans Toffer) |
|
2:30 p.m. |
Break |
|
2:45 p.m. |
End Users Group Forum Continues (Hans Toffer) |
|
3:30 p.m. |
Open Discussion Session (Adolf Garcia) |
|
4:00 p.m. |
Close Meeting |