[DOE LETTER HEAD]
December 28, 2007
The Honorable A. J. Eggenberger
Chairman
Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board
625 Indiana Avenue, NW
Dear Mr. Chairman:
This letter is to report on the implementation of the Department of Energy (DOE)
Operating Experience Program (OEP) in the Office of Environmental Management
(EM) as specified in Commitment 19.2 of the Department of Energy’s (DOE)
Implementation
Plan, Revision 2, October 2006, for Recommendation 2004-1,
Oversight
of Complex, High- Hazard Nuclear Operations.
EM has focused on several areas in our implementation of the Integrated Safety
Management (ISM) Core Function “Feedback and Improvement” as we continue to
implement
the DOE OEP outlined in DOE Order 210.2, DOE
Corporate Operating
Experience Program. A status of the EM OEP implementation activities is enclosed
for your information.
While we have made good progress in our lessons learned process in general, the
specific implementation of DOE Corporate OEP is just now maturing enough at our
sites for us to initiate a systematic line oversight approach to evaluate site
implementation. A review of the status of implementation shows that while some sites
report they implemented the program, others are making progress in the development of
more formal processes to fully implement the Order.
Our plan for providing line oversight of the implementation of DOE Order 210.2 in FY-
2008 is as follows:
1. Develop a Criteria, Review, and Approach Document (CRAD) to help ensure
effective, consistent assessment of the implementation of the OEP.
2. Direct EM Field Offices to perform self-assessments of their site-wide OEP,
as well as assessments of their contractors OEP using the developed CRAD.
These assessments may be separate or part of another larger scope assessment
such as an ISM System effectiveness review or verification. As an example,
EM assessed the OEP implementation at the Richland Field Office by
participating in the recent Phase II verification of the Washington Closure
3. EM will conduct OEP line oversight assessments for at least two sites, and
will review the Field's self-assessment results at other EM sites in order to
comprehensively evaluate EM complex-wide implementation posture.
We will provide an annual report summarizing the results of this comprehensive OEP
line oversight to your staff prior to October 31, 2008.
If you have any further questions, please call me at (202) 586-0738, or Mr. Dae Y.
Chung, Deputy Assistant Secretary for Safety Management and Operations, at
(202) 586-5151.
Sincerely,
James
M. Owendoff
Chief
Operations Officer for
Environmental Management
cc:
I. Triay, EM-2
M. Whitaker, HS-1.1
D. Chung, EM-60
C.
Wu, EM-61
R. Goldsmith, EM-62