[DOE LETTERHEAD]

May 26, 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 second quarter, Fiscal Year 1999.

Overall, 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 6.2.2, Milestone 1: Collocate logbooks (copies or originals) from all U.S. critical mass laboratories;
• IP Commitment 6.2.2, Milestone 3: Publish a Criticality Safety Information Research Center Program Plan;
• IP Commitment 6.3, Milestone 2: Document initiation of priority tasks from the Oak Ridge National Laboratory Sensitivity/Uncertainty Methods Development Program Plan in the Quarterly Report to the Board;
• IP Commitment 6.6.4, Milestone 1: Develop a qualification program for Departmental criticality safety personnel; and
• IP Commitment 6.7, Milestone 1: Individual sites will conduct surveys to assess line ownership of criticality safety and issue report.

The Department has completed the actions identified under Commitments 6.2.2, 6.3, and 6.7, above, and proposes closure of these commitments.

The enclosed quarterly report discusses in detail the status of all Nuclear Criticality Safety Program element areas. There is significant progress being made in each program element area, thereby maintaining essential infrastructure and providing information and tools needed by line criticality safety programs. One noteworthy accomplishment was attainment of the first critical configuration for the Zeus experiment at the Los Alamos Critical Experiment Facility on April 26, 1999. This experiment is very important because it will provide integral data on intermediate energy neutron spectra necessary to validate calculations for a number of Departmental programs.

The quarterly report also discusses IP milestones and indicates that four of them are overdue. These include:

• expanding criticality safety training at the Los Alamos National Laboratory;
• publishing guidance on contractor training and qualification;
• providing guidance to procurement officials regarding contractor criticality safety qualification requirements; and
• determining a date by which contractors will implement qualification guidance.

The IP contains thirty milestones of which twenty-four have been completed. Of the six remaining milestones, four are overdue, and the two milestones which are not yet due will be delayed because of their connection to the overdue milestones. The reasons for the overdue milestones are detailed in the enclosed Report. Recovery Plans, which the Management Team will use to track and complete these milestones, are being established. Four of these Plans are included in this Quarterly Report as Attachment C. Recovery Plans for the two remaining overdue milestone will be forwarded to you when completed. The Management Team is working very hard to complete all remaining milestones and to continue implementing the Nuclear Criticality Safety Program Plan.

Stability of finding to implement the IP has been an ongoing concern, and the Department was able to use the process defined in the August 1998 Memorandum of Understanding to address this issue. Following a meeting with the Assistant Secretary for Environmental Management on March 3, 1999, $750,000 was restored. With the restoration of this funding, I am pleased to report that all planned Fiscal Year 1999 funding for this program has been secured.

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

Sincerely,

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

Enclosure

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

Note: This enclosure is available in [PDF].