[SOE LETTERHEAD]
July 30, 2001
The Honorable John T. Conway
Chairman
Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board
625 Indiana Avenue. NW
Washington, D.C. 20004-2901
Dear Mr. Chairman:
The Department has received your May 24, 2001, letter
concerning the Department’s response to the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety
Board’s Recommendation 2001-1, High-level Waste Management at the Savannah
River Site.
We continue to evaluate the concerns described in your
letter. As you know, we are taking action as described in the initial
Implementation Plan. The Department
completed operations to lower the level of liquid high-level waste in Tank 6 to
a level below known leak sites and is preparing to pump Tank 5 to address those
recent leak events. Also, the
Department recently issued the Final Environmental Impact Statement on the Salt
Processing Project, identifying the preferred alternative for the cesium separations
technology.
By September 15, 2001, we will submit to you a revised
Implementation Plan. The Department
proposes to work with your staff to schedule a series of meetings related to
the full range of issues identified in Recommendation 2001-1, to not only
ensure our revised Implementation Plan meets your expectations but also to
communicate progress and status of our ongoing initiatives, such as the overall
high-level waste system risk assessment.
Mr. Mark Frei, Deputy Assistant Secretary for Project
Completion, Office of Environmental Management, is the manager responsible for
developing the Department’s Implementation Plan to this Recommendation. Mr. Charles E. Anderson, Assistant Manager
for High Level Waste, Savannah River Operations Office, will be the point of
contact for the site-specific actions for this Recommendation. Mr. Frei may be reached at (202) 586-0370
and Mr. Anderson can be reached at (803) 208-6072.
Sincerely,
Spencer Abraham