[DOE LETTERHEAD]
National
Nuclear Security Administration
February 14, 2006
The Honorable A. J. Eggenberger
Chairman
Defense Nuclear Facilities
Safety Board
625 Indiana Avenue, N.W., Suite
700
Washington, D.C. 20004-2901
Dear Mr. Chairman:
The purpose of this letter is to
provide you the status of Commitment 4.3.3 of the Implementation Plan for
Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board Recommendation 2002-1, Quality Assurance for Safety Software at
Department of Energy Defense Nuclear Facilities.
Commitment 4.3.3 required the National Nuclear Security
Administration (NNSA) and Site Offices to review safety Software Quality
Assurance (SQA) directives and determine the actions necessary to implement the
requirements.
The Department of Energy (DOE)
Order 414.1C, Quality Assurance, that includes the safety SQA requirements, has
been added to all NNSA contracts with management and operating contractors
except for those with Honeywell Federal Manufacturing Technologies (Honeywell
FM&T), Kansas City Plant (KCP), and Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL). There is no safety software in use at KCP and,
as such, SQA directives are not applicable to Honeywell FM&T and KCP. The Los Alamos Site Office (LASO) is in the
process of establishing a new contract for LANL which will require implementation
of DOE Order 414.lC. LASO expects to
complete this action by no later than May 2006. I have asked LASO to advise you when they have
approved the new contract containing the appropriate SQA requirements. Once
this is done, NNSA will consider the commitment complete. The requirements of
DOE Order 414.1C are being implemented as part of the NNSA Roadmap for Nuclear
Facility Quality Assurance Excellence.
Should you have any questions,
please contact Rabi Singh at (301) 903-5864.
Sincerely,
Thomas P. D’Agostino
Assistant Deputy Administrator
for Program Integration
cc: M. Whitaker, DR-1
J.
Shaw, EH-1
J.
Paul, NA-2
E.
Wilmot, LASO