[DOE LETTERHEAD]
February 29, 2008
The Honorable A. J. Eggenberger
Chairman
Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board
Dear Mr. Chairman:
As a result of recent briefings to your staff, I would like to clarify specific commitments related to the Implementation for Board Recommendation 2007-1, Safety-Related In Situ Nondestructive Assay of Radioactive Materials. Commitment 5.2.1 in the Department's Implementation Plan requires the Department to establish criteria for conducting state of the practice reviews of: a) training and qualification; b) design requirements for new facilities and equipment; c) standards for conducting NDA holdup measurements; d) implementation of standards; e) research and development; f) quality assurance; and g) oversight. These criteria will also be used to review approaches for evaluating the use of in situ NDA for compliance with material at risk limits at sites with in situ NDA programs. Selected in situ NDA results (calculations) will then be reviewed per Commitments 5.2.4 and 5.2.5 to validate that the protocols, methodologies, calculations, and assumptions used to obtain the NDA results are sufficiently conservative.
Additionally,
the following clarification is provided to the Department's response to Commitments
5.1.1, which required the identification of Office of Environmental Management
defense nuclear facilities for which a criticality safety program is required
(per DOE 0 420.1B) and relies on in
situ NDA. For
Questions concerning these commitments may be directed to me at (202) 586-9471 or Larry Berg at (301) 903-0125.
Sincerely,
Richard
H . Lagdon, Jr.
Chief
of Nuclear Safety
Office
of the Under Secretary of Energy
cc:
James M. Owendoff, EM-3
Robert M. Smolen, NA- 1 0
Mark B. Whitaker, HS-1.1