[DOE
LETTERHEAD]
March 29, 2006
The Honorable A. J. Eggenberger
Chairman
Defense Nuclear Facilities
Safety Board
625 Indiana Avenue, NW, Suite
700
Washington, DC 20004-2941
Dear Mr. Chairman:
The Office of Environmental
Management (EM) portion of Commitment 10B in the Department of Energy’s
(DOE) June 2005 Implementation Plan (IP) to Improve Oversight of Nuclear
Operations has been completed. This IP
was in response to the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board Recommendation
2004-1, Oversight of Complex,
High-Hazard Nuclear Operations.
Per our commitment, each EM DOE
Field Office has approved Quality Assurance Plans (QAP) consistent with the
requirements in DOE Order 414.1C, Quality Assurance. Specifically,
EM has recently reviewed and re-approved, as necessary, the following QAPs: Office of River Protection, Richland
Operations Office, Savannah River Site, Ohio Field Office, Portsmouth/Paducah
Project Office, and Idaho Operations Office (approved by Office of Nuclear
Energy, Science and Technology). The
Carlsbad Field Office QAP is not impacted by DOE Order 414.1C, and they plan to
update the reference to the new Order during their next review cycle (June
2006). All EM offices are on track with implementation
and completing updates to EM contracts for inclusion of DOE Order 414.1C.
The Oak Ridge Office (OR) QAP
update has been developed and is expected to be approved by the Office of
Science by May 2006. EM Headquarters is
a part of the review and approval process for the OR QAP. DOE will notify you when the OR QAP update is
approved.
If you have any comments or
feedback, please call me at (202) 586-0738 or Mr. Dae Y. Chung, Acting Deputy
Assistant Secretary for Integrated Safety Management and Operations Oversight,
at (202) 586-5151.
Sincerely,
Dr. Inés R. Triay
Chief Operating Officer for
Environmental Management
cc: Mark Whitaker, DR-1
Russell
Shearer, EH-1
Robert
Johnson, NE-1
Donald
Barnes, NE-70
Raymond
Orbach, SC-1
Robert
Warther, OH
Keith
Klein, RL
Roy
Schepens, ORP
Jeffrey
Allison, SR
David
Moody, CBFO
William
Murphie, PPPO
Elizabeth
Sellers, ID
Richard
Provencher, ID
Gerald
Boyd, OR
Stephen
McCracken, OR