[DOE
LETTERHEAD]
September 27, 2005
The Honorable A. J. Eggenberger
Chairman
Defense Nuclear Facilities
Safety Board
625 Indiana Avenue, NW, Suite
700
Washington, D. C. 20004
Dear Mr. Chairman:
This letter provides interim
status and reports partial completion of Commitment 12 of the Department’s
2004-1 Implementation Plan for Improving Oversight of Nuclear Operations. Commitment 12 calls for structured training
for safety professionals, senior managers and decision-makers responsible for
nuclear safety, including those responsible for nuclear safety oversight. The Department remains committed to providing
the necessary training to make our safety professionals, decision-makers, and
managers effective. An important step in
this direction is the Nuclear Executive Leadership Training that was developed
over the past year.
Enclosure 1 describes the Nuclear Executive Leadership Training that was
designed for senior managers with responsibilities for nuclear safety. The Nuclear Executive Leadership Training was
first presented May 9-13, 2005, for 26 managers in the National Nuclear
Security Administration (NNSA) and Offices within Energy, Science and Environment (ESE). The next session was conducted September
19-23, 2005, for 25 additional managers from these organizations. This training, an important element of professional
development for senior managers and decision-makers, will be continuously updated
and provided at least annually in the future. A copy of the training materials has been
provided to your staff.
The Department's training and
professional development plan for safety professionals, senior managers, and
decision-makers is not complete. Many
ongoing DOE and NNSA training and development initiatives, described in
Enclosure 2, are candidates for incorporation in the overall plan. Our approach is to evaluate these initiatives,
and strengthen and integrate them as needed to provide the training necessary
to make our NNSA and ESE safety professionals, managers, and decision-makers
effective. To this end, we are
establishing a cross-organizational group of senior representatives from NNSA,
ESE, the Office of Environment, Safety and Health (EH), the Office of Human Capital
(HR), the Office of Security and Safety Performance Assurance (SP), and the Federal
Technical Capability Panel (FTCP) to work for us in developing a recommended path
forward. Mr. Raymond Hardwick, Deputy
Assistant Secretary, Office of Facility Safety (EH-2), has agreed to lead this
group. Ms. Audrey Clark, Acting Deputy
Director of the National Training Center (NTC), will serve as vice lead. The NTC has been designated responsibility for
safety professional development for the Department.
We will personally monitor the
progress of this group. We will brief
the Board by December 2005 on our progress. We welcome the input from you and your staff
during the development of this program.
If the Board has questions,
please do not hesitate to contact us: Linton Brooks at (202) 586-5555
and David
Garman at (202) 586-7700.
Sincerely,
David K. Garman
Under Secretary for Energy,
Science and Environment
Linton F. Brooks
Administrator
National Nuclear Security
Administration
cc: M. Whitaker, DR-1