[DOE LETTERHEAD]
ALBUQUERQUE OPERATIONS OFFICE

The Honorable John T. Conway
Chairman
Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board
625 Indiana Avenue, N.W.
Suite 700
Washington, D.C. 20004

Dear Mr. Chairman:

Commitment 5.1.4 of DNFSB Recommendation 98-2 Implementation Plan states, "Issue project plans with improved project definitions for each weapon program and BIO improvement initiative. Resolve scope and resource conflicts. Issue schedule for Pantex operational improvement initiatives." This commitment was not complete on the cited date of June 30, 1999. The purpose of this letter is to provide additional information concerning this action.

Due to administrative delays, the Basis for interim Operations (BIO) Program Plans were not submitted in time to be incorporated into the June deliverable submittal, and are enclosed with this letter. This BIO Program Plan meets a portion of the referenced commitment.

The original IWAP was based on best estimates for the individual weapon programs. At the time the IWAP was developed, the project plans had not yet been created or approved by the Senior Management Team, (SMT). In the past several months significant progress has been made on developing these individual project plans. These plans capture the scope of work and have also attempted to identify the necessary resources to accomplish these tasks.

Initial efforts at resource loading an integrated plan, which is based on the individual project plans, has identified resource conflicts at Pantex. Specifically, the functional areas of risk analysts, tooling drafters, and program engineers all indicate periods of over allocation. The Department and the Pantex operating contractor are currently focusing efforts on ways to resolve these resource conflicts while still achieving its other commitments. This effort is expected to take three more months and will coincide with the next fiscal year budget determinations (November 1999).

Realization of process efficiencies per the SS-21 initiatives have not yet fully manifested themselves; however, we continue to progress in the overall 98-2 implementation plan actions, and are confident the process efficiencies will continue to occur which will minimize or negate future resource limitations.

If you have any questions, please contact me, or have your staff contact Dan Glenn at 505-665- 6028.

Sincerely,

R. E. Glass
Manager

Enclosures

cc w/enclosures:
J. McConnell, DNFSB
W. Andrews, DNFSB
625 Indiana Avenue, NW
Suite 700
Washington, D.C. 20004-2901
M. Whitaker, S-3.1
E. Morrow, DP-3
D. Beck, DP-20
S. Puchalla, DP-21
M. Baca, ONDP, AL
S. Goodrum, AAO
D. Pelligrino, AL/ISRD
S. Schwartz, AL/WPD

Note: If you need a copy of the enclosure, please contact this office at (202) 586-3887.