[DNFSB
LETTERHEAD]
October 27, 2004
The Honorable Linton Brooks
Administrator
National Nuclear Security
Administration
U.S. Department of Energy
1000 Independence Avenue, SW
Washington, DC 20585-0701
Dear Ambassador Brooks:
In Recommendation 93-6, Maintaining Access to
Nuclear Weapons Expertise in the Defense Nuclear Facilities Complex,
the Defense Nuclear
Facilities Safety Board (Board) asked the Department of Energy (DOE) to
identify a process for capturing the knowledge necessary to “develop or verify
safe dismantlement or modification procedures specific to all remaining types of
U.S. nuclear weapons.” As part of its
archiving activities, in the revised Implementation Plan for Recommendation
93-6, DOE committed to developing a program for the capture and documentation
of safety-related experience and knowledge that could affect safe weapons operations
at the Pantex Plant, the Y-12 National Security Complex, and the Nevada Test
Site. DOE also committed to using the
Weapon Safety Specification (WSS) as a single-source document for all relevant
safety-related information and to capturing requirements for the WSS in appropriate
DOE procedures and directives.
During a recent visit to the
Pantex Plant, the Board learned that the previous Pantex Plant contractor had
ceased the archiving process shortly after the closure of Recommendation 93-6
in 1999. The archiving process at Pantex
was intended to capture safety-related information through document research
and through interviews with individuals currently or formerly associated with weapons
programs in order to identify hazards associated with specific nuclear weapon
assembly, disassembly, and surveillance operations. Although a manual for conducting these
interviews was developed, it no longer is being used. This manual provided step-by-step guidance for
conducting interviews with knowledgeable operations personnel, including
production technicians. The resulting
information was intended for possible incorporation into WSSs. According to a presentation made by BWXT
Pantex to the Board, archiving was never accomplished at the Pantex Plant for
several weapon systems.
At the Y-12 National Security
Complex, interviews and archiving activities were carried out with technical
and managerial personnel to elicit knowledge and experience on various design and
operational issues and archive that information for future use. There are no indications that the Y-12
archiving program was continued past fiscal year 1997.
The Board is concerned that DOE
is not supporting commitments made in response to Recommendation 93-6. Therefore, pursuant to 42 U.S.C. § 2286b(d), the Board requests a
report within 90 days of receipt of this letter that provides a summary of
which archiving activities planned during the development of the revised
Implementation Plan for Recommendation 93-6 were actually completed, which have
been institutionalized, and which were unaccomplished when the recommendation
was closed. In the same report, the
Board would also like an assessment of the quality of all WSSs and a schedule
for updating any that are found to be deficient.
Sincerely,
John T. Conway
Chairman
c: Mr. Mark B. Whitaker, Jr.