[DOE LETTERHEAD]

November 4, 1999

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:

The Implementation Plan (IP) for Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board Recommendation 97-2 requires a quarterly status report. Enclosed is the Department of Energy's quarterly status report for the fourth quarter, Fiscal Year 1999.

The Department has made significant progress in implementing Recommendation 97-2, thereby maintaining important criticality safety infrastructure. The following Recommendation 97-2 IP milestones were completed during the quarter:

• IP Commitment 6.5.2, Milestone 1: Develop a departmental guide for reviewing criticality safety evaluations;
  
• IP Commitment 6.6.1, Milestone 1: Expand the Los Alamos Critical Experiments Facility training course; and,
  
• IP Commitment 6.6.3, Milestone 2: Issue Guidance for site-specific criticality safety training and qualification programs.

The Department has completed the actions identified under Commitment 6.5.2 and Commitment 6.6.1, above, and proposes closure of these commitments.

The enclosed report outlines steady progress in each of the Nuclear Criticality Safety Program (NCSP) task areas. In addition, the Criticality Safety Support Group (CSSG) worked on a number of projects during the quarter including completion of its review of the Multi-Canister Overpack criticality safety evaluations for the Office of Environmental Management. Members of the CSSG also reviewed the Pilot Advanced 5-Day Criticality Training Course which was held at the Los Alamos National Laboratory in August 1999.

The IP contains 30 milestones, 27 of which have been completed. Of the three remaining milestones, two are overdue, and the remaining milestone, which is not yet due, will be delayed because of its connection to previously delayed milestones. A Recovery Plan, which was established to complete one of the milestones, was forwarded to the Board in the January-March 1999 Quarterly Report. It is included in Attachment B to this report to chronicle progress; all Recovery Plan milestones, with one minor exception, are being met on schedule. Recovery Plans for the two remaining overdue milestones will be forwarded to you when completed. The Management Team is working very hard to complete all remaining milestones and to continue implementing the NCSP Plan.

I will keep you informed as we continue to make progress on this important cross-cutting program.

Sincerely,

Gilbert G. Weigand
Deputy Assistant Secretary
for Research, Development and Simulation
Defense Programs

Enclosure

cc (w/encl):
M. Whitaker, S-3.1

Note: This enclosure is available in [PDF].