Highlights for March 4 - 8, 2002

LLNL inspection activities involving drafting of the inspection report, summary validations, quality review board and preparation for the site out-briefing are ongoing.

Personnel Security Special Review data collection activities have been completed at the Oak Ridge Operations Office and will continue at Headquarters. Additional interviews will be conducted at other Federal agencies in March. Data collection activities for the Savannah River Site have been re-scheduled.

OA received comments on the draft SAP Oversight Implementation Guide from the SAPOC and the Program Offices on February 26. These comments will be reviewed and incorporated, if needed, into the final document and provided to the SAPOC for approval in March.

Preparations continue for OA’s participation in the evaluation of the Savannah River Site security performance tests.

Keywords are being developed for the safeguards and security policy issues database to provide additional query capabilities for tracking and analysis of issues. Once completed, testing of the system will be initiated to ensure effective and accurate data retrieval.

Review of Draft DOE O 473.1 and DOE M 473.1-1 (RevCom action) is ongoing with comments due from the staff no later than March 13.

OA-20 has begun preparations for a special review of the DOE SecureNet system, which provides classified network connectivity between a number of National Nuclear Security Administration sites. The purpose of this review is to assess the effectiveness of protection of classified information that crosses physical site boundaries and the cyber security of the interconnected sub-networks. An initial scoping meeting is scheduled for March 18, 2002, with the central network’s Information Systems Security Operations Manager (ISOM). Additional planning meetings will be scheduled with sub-network ISOMs, as needed.

OA-30 and OA-50 continue planning efforts for the combined LANL inspection to be conducted in March.

OA-30 continues to plan for a corrective action follow-up at ORNL to coincide with the annual emergency response exercise scheduled for March. In addition to the exercise, OA-30 will coordinate with and observe a line management emergency management self-assessment activity.

The report of the OA-30 Review of Headquarters Facility Emergency Response Plans has begun the final technical editing process. It is scheduled for publication the week of March 18.

OA-30 and OA-50 continue to plan for the combined Argonne National Laboratory-East inspection to be conducted in May 2002. The OA team leader will attend a meeting with local stakeholders on April 10 to explain the OA role of independent oversight. Planning for emergency management performance tests will be conducted the week of April 15.

OA-50 has performed an analysis of the results of independent assessments of DOE environmental protection programs that have been conducted over the last several years. A draft analysis report has been developed to capture and communicate common strengths and weaknesses in the implementation of environmental monitoring, surveillance and control programs at DOE sites. Several policy issues affecting DOE environmental performance have also been identified. The draft analysis report is undergoing review by the Office of Environmental Policy and Assistance (EH-41). A meeting to discuss preliminary results was conducted on March 7, 2002.

Discussion continues between the Director of OA-50 and various site managers on the Augmentation Program.

Efforts are continuing to revise the ES&H Appraisal Process Guide to make it compatible with OA ES&H mission and directives including DOE O 470.2A and OA management directions. A draft report has been compiled and is being reviewed by OA-50 management.

OA-50 staff is continuing coordination activities with EH on ISM policies, guides, FRAM, QA Order, ORR Order, and AI Order.

OA-50 is reviewing comments provided by the LPSOs on the modification to DOE Order 470.2A to reflect transfer of ES&H from EH to OA and RevCom process has been initiated. The comment period for submission of consolidated comments through the LPSO for all DOE organizations on the draft 470.2B was March 3. The DNFSB’s staff is working on their response, and the Board members were involved in the response for this order.

Key team members of the Hanford Inspection of ES&H Management completed validation and close out on February 21. Written factual accuracy comments on the draft report were requested.

The corrective action plan for the Focused Review of the Kansas City Plant was received on March 1, 2002. OA-50 is reviewing the corrective actions for the ES&H findings.

OA-50 staff is continuing coordination activities with OLASO and LANL on safety and emergency management evaluation planning activities. A site visit with selected OA-30 and OA-50 staff members was conducted March 4-5, 2002, to coordinate and finalize tabletop emergency performance tests, discuss and collect safety system documentation, and interface with LANL tenant division management and staff for preparation of process work planning and control review aspects. The Team Leader also met with the OLASO and LANL staff and managers to answer questions on the Evaluation Plan. These meetings included discussions with the Acting Manager and deputy for OLASO.

The OA-50 criticality expert continues to support/participate in the Criticality Safety Support (CSSG). Activities include guidance on critical experiments and interpretation of results.

The Argonne National Laboratory scoping visit was completed. OA-50 staff is developing the ES&H portion of the ANL-E Evaluation Plan. This is a combined review with OA-30 where the OA-30 Director is leading the review.

The Director of OA-50 continues to work with an ERG representative on ES&H performance metrics.

Office of Safeguards and Security Evaluations (OA-10)

The LLNL inspection on-site data collection activities, including force-on-force performance testing have been completed.

The Office of Cyber Security Evaluations (OA-20) completed an inspection of Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) and the Oakland Operations Office (OAK) from February 25 – March 8, 2002. A presentation, summarizing the results of the inspection, was provided to OAK and LLNL managers on March 8, 2002.

OA-20 provided technical support for an assessment of the Hanford Waste Treatment Plant from March 4-8, 2002.

OA-30 conducted a scoping visit to Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) in preparation for the March 2002 review of selected corrective actions and related exercise implementation observation.

OA-30 conducted a planning visit to Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) to orchestrate the emergency management performance tests that will be administered during the March review.

OA-50 and Accreditation Association for Ambulatory Health Care (AAAHC) staff completed the survey portion of the LANL occupational medical program re-accreditation process on January 28-29, 2002. The AAAHC accreditation committee has recertified the LANL occupational medical program.

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