[DOE LETTERHEAD]

 

July 20, 2001

 

The Honorable John T. Conway

Chairman

Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board

625 Indiana Avenue, NW, Suite 700

Washington, D.C. 20004-2901

 

Dear Mr. Chairman:

 

The purpose of this letter is to formally notify you of a delay which has occurred in completion of one of our commitments contained in the Department’s 2000-1 Implementation Plan (IP), Stabilization and Storage of Nuclear Material.  As anticipated and discussed in our briefing to you on June 22, 2001, the following commitment has since been missed:

 

114               Package aluminum alloys at Richland for disposition to Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP). Brush and package remaining alloys at Plutonium Finishing Plant (PFP): Due June 2001

 

The enclosed letter from the Richland Operations Office (RL) dated June 29, 2001, gives a detailed description of the Site’s progress in stabilizing and packaging the alloy materials.  In summary, the 31 alloys to be dispositioned at WIPP have been packaged into pipe overpack containers.  However, at the time the IP was last revised, PFP identified 42 alloy items to be brushed and packaged to meet DOE-STD-3013 by June 30, 2001.  This portion of the milestone remains incomplete.

 

Of the 42 items identified for brushing and packaging to meet DOE-S TD-30 13, 11 have been brushed and packaged into inner 3013 containers.  They will be welded into outer 3013 containers by the end of July 2001.  Sampling of the remaining 31 items showed that they were not suitable for brushing and packaging, and that they need to be thermally stabilized as oxides.

 

Currently, oxides cannot be packaged at RL to meet the DOE-STD-3013 criteria until a replacement for the Super-critical Fluid Extraction (SFE) moisture measurement technique is approved, qualified and operational at that Site.  The Site expects to have a new method operational within the next three to six months, and will complete stabilization and packaging of these items within 60 days after the method is qualified and operational. 

 

Several other sites have milestones which are potentially impacted by the retraction of the SFE technique.  Those longer term milestones are still being evaluated for possible workarounds and to determine the scope of any necessary delays.  We will keep you informed as additional information becomes available. 

 

 

 

We continue to closely track progress on all Recommendation 2000-1 commitments and will keep you and your staff apprized of our progress.  If you have any questions, please contact me at (202) 586-5151.

 

Sincerely,

 

David G. Huizenga

Deputy Assistant Secretary

  for Integration and Disposition

Office of Environmental Management

 

cc:

M. Whitaker, S-3.1

 

 

Note: The enclosure is available in [PDF].