[DNFSB
LETTERHEAD]
December 15, 2004
The Honorable Linton Brooks
Administrator
National Nuclear Security
Administration
U.S. Department of Energy
1000 Independence Avenue, SW
Washington, DC 20585-0701
Dear Ambassador Brooks:
The special tooling program at
the Pantex Plant plays a vital role in the overall safety of nuclear explosive
operations. Due to the longstanding and
recurring nature of tooling program failures at the Pantex Plant, as
communicated to you in the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board’s (Board)
letter of June 18, 2004, the Board requested that the National Nuclear Security
Administration (NNSA) perform a comprehensive review of quality assurance as it
affects the tooling program. Prior to
the conduct of this NNSA review,
the contractor had completed a majority of the corrective actions previously
identified to address problems in this area. Even with the completion of these corrective
actions, the NNSA review
performed recently was suspended due to the number, variety, and type of findings.
The discovery of multiple
failures in the various tooling program functional areas following completion
of a majority of corrective actions indicates that, among other things, an
inadequate causal analysis was performed prior to developing the corrective
actions. The Board does not believe that
a viable path forward exists to resolve these tooling problems and is convinced
that effective involvement by both NNSA headquarters and the Pantex Site
Office is necessary.
The Board remains concerned that
the continuing weaknesses in the tooling program could have an adverse impact
on the safety of nuclear explosive operations. Therefore, pursuant to 42 U.S.C. § 2286b(d), the Board requests
that NNSA provide a report to the Board within 30 days that discusses (1) the
impact of the continuing tooling problems on the safety of nuclear explosive operations
at the Pantex Plant, (2) the compensatory measures in place that provide
confidence that special tooling used in nuclear explosive operations will function
as designed, and (3) the path forward to identify the root causes of the
problems and resolve existing and newly identified tooling program deficiencies.
The Board would like to be briefed on
this report by NNSA after it is completed.
Sincerely,
John T. Conway
Chairman
c: Mr. Daniel E. Glenn
Mr.
Mark B. Whitaker, Jr.