[DOE LETTERHEAD]
April
8, 2005
The
Honorable A. J. Eggenberger
Acting
Chairman
Defense
Nuclear Facilities Safety Board
625
Indiana Avenue, NW, Suite 700
Washington,
D.C. 20004-2901
Dear
Mr. Acting Chairman:
Your
February 4, 2005, letter provided your staff’s clear observations on the
engineering issues experienced by the K-Basin Project at the Richland
Operations Office. As stated in that
letter, the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board believes the continuing
design changes the project is undergoing are indicative of a lack of fundamental understanding of
the properties and characteristics of the sludge.
Although
the site has taken a series of actions to address these concerns, as you were
briefed last week at the site, I am not convinced we adequately understand the
properties and nature of the sludge well enough to have developed an engineered
solution to remove and process the sludge in a predictable manner. Therefore, I am directing the Manager,
Richland Operations Office to take the following actions:
·
Convene a review board in the next 30
days to assess sludge characterization data to determine whether or not we have
an adequate technical basis to proceed (Your staff will be invited to this
meeting),
·
Continue sludge containerization until there is a condition
which stops the operation at which time we would not recommence operations until the review board has completed their
assessment, and
·
Accelerate the removal of racks and
larger debris from the basins so that
the sludge removal operations will be able to proceed more predictably in the
future.
If
you have any further questions, please contact me on (202) 586-7709 or Ms.
Patrice M. Bubar, Deputy Assistant Secretary for Integrated Safety Management
and Operations Oversight at (202) 586-5151.
Sincerely,
Paul
M. Golan
Principal
Deputy Assistant Secretary for
Environmental Management
cc:
Mark Whitaker, DR- 1
Keith Klein, RL