[DNFSB LETTERHEAD]
January 24, 2003
The Honorable Spencer Abraham
Secretary of Energy
1000 Independence Avenue, SW
Washington, DC 20585-1000
Dear Secretary Abraham:
The Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board
(Board) has received your action plan, dated January 3, 2003, to address recommendations
of the Department of Energy (DOE) Commission on Fire Safety and
Preparedness. The action plan addresses
five actions including one for which the report of the commission stated in its
cover letter “This commitment should begin with establishing and
sustaining a safety conscious mindset throughout DOE [emphasis in
original letter] . . . . ”
The Board has also received a copy of a DOE
letter dated January 9, 2003 directing the Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL)
to deobligate $75 million in uncosted balance from funds originally
appropriated to mitigate impacts from the Cerro Grande fire. Some of the funds are for projects of
particular interest to the Board such as the Partial Site-wide Fire Alarm
System Replacement Project. This
project is intended to upgrade an antiquated and inadequate site-wide fire
alarm system at LANL and was identified as being urgently needed during
feedback following the Cerro Grande fire.
In its response to Board Recommendation 2000-2, Configuration
Management, Vital Safety Systems, DOE committed to perform a Phase II
assessment on the system, but requested that it be performed following the
completion of a portion of the partial fire alarm replacement project. Other projects of interest to the Board
include waste management risk mitigation that would upgrade the Technical
Area-50 radioactive liquid waste treatment facility, resumption of laboratory
programmatic operations that would permit timely shipment of transuranic waste,
to the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant, and the mobile command center to be a part
of the LANL emergency management system.
The action to stop the safety-related
projects at LANL appears to be inconsistent with “. . . establishing and
sustaining a safety conscious mindset. . . .”
In addition it is not clear to the Board how the safety issues affected
by the deobligation of funds will be addressed in some other suitable
manner. Therefore, pursuant to 42
U.S.C. § 2286b(d), the Board
requests a report within 30 days of receipt of this letter that documents how
DOE plans to address the hazards and implement the safety improvements that
were the focus of the safety-related action plans being defunded by DOE. The report should include a revised plan for
completing a Phase II assessment of the LANL site-wide fire alarm system.
Sincerely,
John T. Conway
Chairman
c:
The Honorable Linton Brooks
The Honorable Jessie Hill Roberson
Mr. Mark B. Whitaker, Jr.