[DOE LETTERHEAD]
National
Nuclear Security Administration
May 15, 2006
The Honorable A.J. Eggenberger
Chairman
Defense Nuclear Facilities
Safety Board
625 Indiana Avenue, N.W., Suite
700
Washington, D.C. 20004-2901
Dear Mr. Chairman:
In your May 3 1, 2005, letter
you requested a report describing the strategy that would lead to timely
resolution of all fire protection deficiencies noted by your staff and achieve site-wide
improvements in the Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) fire protection program
for defense nuclear facilities. You
suggested that the strategy should involve a multi-year project plan similar to
those developed by LANL under the Operations Efficiency Project for other major
institutional issues. You also requested
that the report include a discussion of lessons learned at other DOE sites that
have experienced similar challenges in fire protection, an estimate of
engineering resources required, and a projection of when all fire protection
upgrades would be completed.
On January 12, 2006, NNSA
submitted an interim response to the Board’s request. The interim response contained LANL’s proposed
overall integrated plan for fire protection, along with an evaluation by the
Los Alamos Site Office (LASO) that expressed concerns regarding the anticipated
benefits, plan direction, and requirement expectations. As part of contract transition activities,
LASO requested an updated plan from LANL and committed to developing a
complementary Site Office fire protection oversight strategy.
The Administrator has requested
that I forward to you the updated LANL fire protection strategy and LASO’s
evaluation of the strategy. In its
evaluation, LASO expressed concerns related to inadequate staffing, quality of
fire protection analyses, and the pending fire department services agreement,
along with other implementation issues. On a positive note, LASO commended LANL for
its preparation for improvement in wildland fire management.
In March 2006, the Administrator
directed the LASO Manager to implement a new, two- year pilot model for
providing oversight, following approval of the Los Alamos National Security,
LLC (LANS) Contractor Assurance System. The new oversight model will apply to business
systems, non-nuclear safety, project management, and all other areas, except
security and the performance of nuclear operations. In light of this new direction, LASO’s fire
protection oversight strategy will be incorporated into the pilot oversight
model for those activities that do not impact nuclear operations. LASO will continue to provide full fire
protection oversight for nuclear operations at LANL.
If you have any questions,
please contact me, or have your staff contact Mike Thompson of my office at
301-903-5648 or Gerald Schlapper, Senior Safety Advisor at LASO at 505-665-7111.
Sincerely,
Thomas P. D'Agostino
Deputy Administrator
for Defense Programs
cc: L. Brooks, NA-1
E.
Wilmot, LASO
G.
Schlapper, LASO
W.
Futrell, LASO
M.
Whitaker, DR-1
D.
Cobb, LANL
W. S.
Gibbs, LANL
C.
Leasure, LANL