[DOE LETTERHEAD]

RICHLAND OPERATIONS OFFICE

December 28, 2000

The Honorable John T. Conway
Chairman
Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board
625 Indiana Avenue, NW
Washington, D.C. 20004-2901

Dear Mr. Conway:

The Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board (DNFSB) has been tracking the commitments of the U.S. Department of Energy, Richland Operations Office (RL) associated with removing spent nuclear fuel from the K Basins at the Hanford Site as part of its Recommendation 94-1, which was recently combined into Recommendation 2000-1. One specific RL commitment was to "Begin fuel removal from the K-West (KW) Basin", by November 30, 2000 (Commitment Number R00-01/l171 3).

Initiation of fuel removal from the KW Basin was authorized by RL on December 6, 2000, after all pre-start findings related to the Operational Readiness Review had been verified closed by the RL Office of Spent Nuclear Fuels. The contractor, Fluor Hanford, Inc., completed all work associated with this commitment on December 7, 2000, when the first Multi-Canister overpack (MCO) loaded with spent nuclear fuel was removed from the KW Basin, and transported to the Cold Vacuum Drying (CVD) Facility. The CVD Facility and Canister Storage Building (CSB) were ready to receive spent nuclear fuel before the first MCO was removed from the KW Basin. The MCO was subsequently transported to the CSB for storage on December 18, 2000, after a three day weather delay.

The due date for this commitment was November 30, 2000. This due date was formally extended for contractual reasons to December 7, 2000 by RL, due to the time lost when a range fire caused the Hanford Site to be closed for several days last summer. The commitment date was not changed in the Implementation Plan schedule for Recommendation 2000-1; therefore, this commitment was completed seven days late.

If you have any questions, please feel free to contact me on (509) 376-7465.

Sincerely,

P. G. Loscoe, Director
Office of Spent Nuclear Fuels