November 21, 2002
The Honorable John T. Conway
Chairman
Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board
625 Indiana Avenue, NW, Suite 700
Washington, D.C. 20004
Dear Mr. Chairman:
The Department acknowledges receipt of the
Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board’s (Board) recommendation 2002-1, Quality
Assurance for Safety-Related Software, issued on September 23, 2002, and
published in the Federal Register on October 9, 2002. The Department accepts recommendation 2002-l
and will develop an implementation plan that results in the following:
The Department has initiated activities to
improve the implementation of quality management systems at its defense nuclear
facilities. Many of these activities
resulted from the deficiencies documented in the Board’s Technical Report
DNFSB/TECH-25, Quality Assurance for Safety-Related Software at Department
of Energy Defense Nuclear Facilities, and discussed at several of your
public meetings on quality assurance.
The Department considers its efforts to improve software quality
assurance as a key element in the overall improvement of our quality management
system, and the implementation plan will include and build on the actions that
were previously undertaken as part of this initiative.
Ms. Beverly Cook, Assistant Secretary for
Environment, Safety and Health, is the Department of Energy official
responsible for safety-related quality assurance and for ensuring the
successful completion of the implementation plan we will develop in response to
your recommendation. Mr. Ray Hardwick,
Office of Environment, Safety and Health, (301) 903-4244, is the responsible
manager for the preparation of the Department’s implementation plan.
Please feel free to contact either of them
with any questions you may have as the Department moves forward with
development of the implementation plan.
Sincerely,