Interface Manual    DOE M 140.1-1B Interface with the DNFSB

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1. INCOMING CORRESPONDENCE.

a. Upon receipt of incoming correspondence from the Board (other than Board recommendations, which are addressed in Chapter 2), the Department addressee must verify that the Departmental Representative is on the copy list or promptly provide him/her with a copy. The Departmental Representative must review incoming correspondence for required actions and initiate designations of responsibility, consistent with input from the affected Secretarial Officers and the Deputy Secretary. When a letter or staff issue report is addressed directly to a Secretarial Officer or Operations/Area Office Manager, that individual must assume lead responsibility for determining whether a response to the Board is necessary and developing and coordinating that response. Responses are appropriate when the Board requests a response, or when the Department wants to clarify facts or issues associated with the incoming correspondence. For incoming letters requiring response, the Departmental Representative's staff must track the response as a deliverable in the Department's Safety Issues Management System.

b. The following guidelines should be used in responding to incoming correspondence.

(1) The Responsible Manager should evaluate the implications of the information contained in the letter or staff issue report on the subject facilities and programs. Coordinating with the affected Departmental elements, he/she should develop a coordinated response to the Board. The Departmental Representative will assist the Responsible Manager with the resolution of internal disagreements or conflicts, as requested.

(2) The Responsible Manager must describe commitments and noted actions contained in the response in a manner consistent with the guidance on making commitments (see Chapter IV, paragraph 2).

(3) The Responsible Manager must route the final version of the letter for concurrence to those organizations affected by the commitments contained in the response and to the Departmental Representative. Unless otherwise specified by the Board letter or staff issue report, the coordinated response should be transmitted to the Board within 45 days from the date of the initiating letter or receipt of the issue report.

(4) For responses that require more than 45 days to prepare (or require more preparation time than that specified by the Board in its information request), the Responsible Manager should prepare and transmit a letter acknowledging receipt of the initiating letter or staff issue report, and providing the Department's plans and schedule for response.

(5) The Board routinely transmits staff trip reports and technical issue reports to the Department, sometimes for action and sometimes for information only. The Board's policy is to transmit these reports to the Department if, in the Board's view, the reports contain safety information that might prove useful to the Secretary, the Department, and site contractors in their joint pursuit of safer conditions and practices at defense nuclear facilities. The Board has been most interested in conveying information that will accomplish one of the following purposes:

(a) stimulate line management self-assessment of questionable practices or operations;

(b) assist in determining the root causes of specific safety problems; or

(c) aid in identifying generic problems at facilities that might benefit from cross-transfer of remedial know-how from other facilities that faced similar problems (see Chapter I, subparagraph 2c).

a. Each office and organization should take particular care in preparing and reviewing outgoing correspondence to the Board to ensure that it is complete, accurate, and consistent. To help achieve this objective, the originating organization must provide for review of all applicable correspondence (with the exception of responses to information requests) by the Office of the Departmental Representative prior to transmittal to the Board.

b. The Responsible Manager must route outgoing correspondence containing commitments to the Board for concurrence to those organizations affected by the commitments and to the Departmental Representative. A copy of the outgoing correspondence and the associated signature concurrences must be established and maintained by the cognizant organization. The Departmental Representative's staff will process commitments in accordance with the Safety Issues Management System.

c. The Responsible Manager must use the following approval guidelines to determine the minimum approval level for outgoing correspondence to the Board.

 

d. The Responsible Manager should address formal correspondence to the Board to the Board chairman (for example, The Honorable John T. Conway, Chairman) with the salutation of "Dear Mr. Chairman:".

e. The Responsible Manager should provide an electronic copy of outgoing correspondence to the Office of the Departmental Representative, which will post this information on the Department's Information Archive of Board-related correspondence.

a. The Departmental Representative is responsible for the internal distribution, retention, and subsequent retrieval of incoming correspondence from the Board or its staff. To accomplish this responsibility, the Departmental Representative's staff must:

(1) maintain standard distribution lists;

(2) provide a weekly summary to interested parties;

(3) maintain an information archive of Board-related correspondence that is accessible via the Internet; and

(4) provide timely and direct dissemination of Board-related correspondence that contains time-sensitive or high-interest information.

b. The originating office must distribute outgoing correspondence to the Board or its staff. The Departmental Representative's staff can assist in distribution of outgoing correspondence, if necessary.

c. Departmental elements may acquire copies of incoming or outgoing correspondence by accessing the Information Archive on the Departmental Representative's web site or by contacting the Departmental Representative's office.

d. The Departmental Representative must review Board-related correspondence for potential generic implications and transmit such documents to the appropriate organizations for their review. Standard distribution of Board-related correspondence by the Departmental Representative should include the Deputy Secretary, Secretarial Officers, affected Operations/Area Office Managers, and the corresponding points of contact. The points of contact should distribute correspondence within their respective organizations.

e. Departmental elements that develop or identify Board-related information should evaluate this information for potential generic applications to other Departmental programs and sites. Points of contact should transmit information of generic interest to the Departmental Representative, whose staff will make internal distribution of this information, as appropriate.

a. The Departmental Representative must maintain the Department/Board Information Archive of documents and letters to, from, by, or relevant to the Department/Board interaction. The Information Archive is formatted for viewing on the Internet using most Internet browsers. The user may also download (i.e., save to a file) many documents within the Information Archive. Departmental personnel with questions regarding access to or contents of the Information Archive should contact the Departmental Representative's office.

b. The following types of documents are included in the Information Archive:

(1) Board recommendations;

(2) Departmental responses and implementation plans;

(3) Departmental letters to the Board;

(4) Board letters to the Department;

(5) public meeting notices;

(6) policy statements and letters from the Secretary and the Board;

(7) Annual Reports to Congress from the Secretary and the Board concerning Board-related matters;

(8) Board technical reports;

(9) resumes of the Board members;

(10) this Manual; and

(11) staff issue and trip reports provided to the Department by the Board.

c. The uniform resource locator (Internet address) for the Departmental Representative's web site is http://www.hss.energy.gov/DepRep/.

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