[DOE LETTERHEAD]

NATIONAL NUCLEAR SECURITY ADMINISTRATION

September 6, 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:

Enclosed for your information is an Action Plan to address issues regarding the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory's (LLNL) Building 332 emergency power system. On April 19, 2002, the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board (Board) sent a letter to Secretary Abraham with a Board staff issue report detailing concerns with the LLNL Building 332 emergency power system. The letter requests a briefing, which LLNL personnel provided to the Board on June 29, 2002. During the briefing, LLNL personnel described an Action Plan that was under development to address issues regarding the Building 332 emergency power system and committed to provide the final plan to the Board.

Mr. Michael K. Hooper, the Assistant Manager for National Security at the Oakland Operations Office (DOE-OAK), approved the plan and is responsible for overseeing the completion of the actions. Staff from LLNL and OAK provided a briefing concerning this plan on August 29, 2002. As described in the plan, LLNL and DOE-OAK personnel will provide additional briefings to the Board in February and August 2003 on the status of actions in response to the April 19, 2002, letter.

If you have any questions, please feel free to contact Mr. Hooper, or have your staff contact Ms. Dawn Wechsler of my staff at 925-422-2547.

Sincerely,

Everet H. Beckner
Deputy Administrator
for Defense Programs

Enclosure

cc (w/encl):
M. Hooper, DOE-OAK
M. Whitaker, S-3.1
L. Brooks, NA-1