Heproauceo trom tne Unclassmeq I Ueclassmed Holdings ot the Nattonal Arcmves I: r, . '12"532?; at} 7 Department of Energy Washington. DC. 20585 1 1. August 30, 1978 Honorable F. Ray Marshall Secretary of Labor washington, D.C. 20210 Dear Mr. Secretary: The purpose of this letter is to advise you of the probable impact of the proposed beryllium standard (29 CFR Part 1910].on U. 8. national security. Our position and recommendations are based on the results of a recently completed DOE report which is enclosed for your internation. volume I contains all pertinent information, except a small classified volume II addresses the weapons design aspects. The DOE study concluded that it is improbable that industry would invest millions of dollars in an attempt to reduce the beryllium exposure with no assurance that their facilities can be brought into compliance with the proposed standard. In addition, the proposed beryllium standard places a heavy burden.upon the free world's two primary berylliwn producers, who might cease production of high-purity beryllium metal and beryllium.oxide if the proposed OSHA standard is promulgated. The loss of beryllium production capability would seriously impact our ability to develop and produce weapons for the nuclear stockpile and, consequently, adversely affect our national security. Furthermore, our existing stockpile weapons could not be remanufactured with substitute materials without nuclear testing to verify performance; in some cases, full-yield testing would be necessary. Beryllium is also contained in weapons currently under development and approved by the President for entry into the stockpile; these weapons would have to be redesigned to exclude beryllium components. The redesign of weapons in stockpile or those in development would require a long-term major investment and would incur significant penalities in performance, safety, and cost. A long?term development program would also be required to establish substitute materials for DOD applications. Clearly, cessation of beryl? 1ium metal and/or beryllium oxide production is unacceptable and would significantly degrade our national defense effort. a sailors33 :2 u! ., 1 4 ?J'Mmli?'?mlm In v-v -v .1 T.. "?rrn. 3 . mm ,u'l?fi" 4. u- . . 1. Heprouuceo rrom me Unclassmedj Ueclassmed Holdings or the National Archives Honorable F. Ray Marshall 2 August 30, 1973 We certainly agree that the worker's health is of paramount importance. However, significant questions have been raised within the scientific community concerning the quality and adequacy of the data on which change of the present standard is based by the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health Therefore, we believe it is in the national interest fer the Department of Health, Education, and Welfare (DHEW) to undertake an independent peer review of all-available data on the effects of beryllium to address the adequacy of the present standard before issuing the pr0posed new standard. An identical letter has been sent to the Honorable Joseph A. Califano, Jr., Secretary of Health, Education, and'Welfare. Sincerely, g?fl Schlesinger Secretary Enclosure: . Special Task Group Report Beryllium, Vblume I cc: Dr. Zbigniew Brzezinski Asst. to the President for National Security, w/encl. sine nee COPIED -