Bechtel

Management at the Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico has acknowledged it will not meet upcoming contractual milestones for treatment of nitrate salts, according to a recently released site report from the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board. The news comes just days ahead of the scheduled period for the Department of Energy to award […]

The University of California, a senior partner in the current management and operations contractor for the Los Alamos National Laboratory, indicated Wednesday it is “likely” to make a play for a follow-on contract expected to go out for bids in September. “The decision on whether or not to bid rests with the UC Board of Regents and […]

The Energy Department’s Office of Environmental Management (EM) could be just days from awarding a new contract for legacy nuclear cleanup operations at the Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico. A major procurements update from EM, dated Aug. 11, says the contract was due to be issued from June to August of this year. The […]

Fluor Corp. has posted an online help-wanted advertisement connected to liquid waste management at the Energy Department’s Savannah River Site in South Carolina. The company is not a member of the current liquid waste team at SRS, but is widely believed to have joined with Westinghouse Government Services to bid on the upcoming contract. The job […]

In official replies to questions about the next big contract for the Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) in New Mexico, the Energy Department responded to some local concerns that the next lab manager might not be as good for the community as the current manager. However, the agency appeared to preserve at least the option […]

Energy Secretary Rick Perry made his first trip to the Hanford Site on Tuesday, touring facilities that will be used to treat radioactive waste left over from Cold War-era plutonium production. The former Texas governor walked through the Pretreatment Facility for the Waste Treatment Plant that Bechtel National is building to convert up to 56 […]

The Los Alamos National Laboratory is still waiting on word regarding a new contract for legacy nuclear cleanup at the Department of Energy facility in New Mexico, an official said Tuesday. DOE’s Office of Environmental Management (EM) in September 2016 issued its final request for proposals for the contract, which could be worth up to […]

Contractors that over a decade ago competed for the current management and operations contract at the Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico are not yet saying whether they intend to bid on the upcoming new prime contract at the site. The National Nuclear Security Administration last week released a draft request for proposals for […]

The United Kingdom’s Nuclear Decommissioning Authority said Wednesday it spent £3.2 billion ($4.2 billion) through its 2016-2017 fiscal year in carrying out its mission to clean up 17 nuclear sites around the country. Milestones during the year included extracting all bulk stocks of nuclear fuel from the Pile Fuel Storage Pond at the Sellafield site […]

The National Nuclear Security Administration has released a draft request for proposals for the next management and operations contract for its Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico. The semiautonomous Department of Energy agency is inviting prospective bidders to submit questions and other feedback on the document by 11 a.m. EDT on July 26, to SEB7@nnsa.doe.gov. Responses […]

Days after the transition was set to start, the Energy Department has yet to announce who will take over the next decade of legacy nuclear cleanup at the Los Alamos National Laboratory under a contract that went out to bid in September. In its final request for proposals, DOE’s Office of Environmental Management (EM) advised […]

Sen. Claire McCaskill (D-Mo.) on Thursday demanded the Energy Department brief Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs staff by July 21 about what the senior senator from Missouri considers a questionable contracting arrangement between Bechtel National and AECOM at DOE’s Hanford Site in Washington state. McCaskill, the committee’s ranking Democrat, questioned in a letter to […]

The National Nuclear Security Administration on Tuesday issued a presolicitation notice for the next management and operations contract for its Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico. The notice comes just days after the semiautonomous Department of Energy agency said it is investigating the improper shipment of nuclear material from the laboratory to sister sites […]

The Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico mistakenly transported nuclear material to two other national laboratories by air instead of by ground, the Energy Department’s semiautonomous National Nuclear Security Administration said late Friday. While the material was prepared for transport by commercial ground cargo, as was proper, shipment documents indicated it should be flown by […]

Veolia Nuclear Solutions said last week it has picked up its first nuclear remediation contract in Canada. The nuclear cleanup services branch of French waste management group has been selected to design, build, and commission a system for remediation of intermediate- and low-level waste stored at Canadian Nuclear Laboratories’ shuttered Whiteshell Laboratories in Manitoba. The […]

Trial in the lawsuit over worker protection from vapors at the Department of Energy’s Hanford Site in Washington state has been reset for June 11, 2018, at the request of all parties in the case. This is the third time plaintiffs and defendants have jointly requested a delay in the federal trial to allow for […]

Bechtel National workers have completed assembling the first melter at the Hanford Site’s Waste Treatment Plant, the Department of Energy announced Thursday. Completion of the project earned the contractor $4.275 million in incentive pay. The melter is one of two that will be used at the plant’s Low-Activity Waste Facility, which DOE aims to begin […]

The liquid waste contractor for the Department of Energy’s Savannah River Site in South Carolina wants a federal judge to throw out a discrimination lawsuit, saying the former employee and plaintiff “has failed to state a claim upon which relief can be granted.” The lawsuit, filed April 24, is one of two open discrimination suits against Savannah […]

WASHINGTON — In a mostly symbolic milestone that nevertheless carries measurable cost savings, the Energy Department could close out Washington Closure Hanford’s contract by the end of 2017, a senior DOE official said here Wednesday. “I think we may be at the end of this year able to say we have everything done to close […]

The Energy Department this week was to debrief the runners-up for the potentially 10-year, $1.5 billion contract won by a CH2M-led team for continued cleanup of the Paducah Gaseous Diffusion Plant in Kentucky. DOE received four bids for the contract, which the agency announced May 26 went to Four Rivers Nuclear Partnership. The team also includes […]

Two Savannah River Remediation workers were contaminated with beta and gamma radiation at the Savannah River Site’s Defense Waste Processing Facility this week, according to an official Department of Energy account of the incident. The incident occurred Wednesday when one employee spilled a sample of liquid waste pulled from an oil drum. The sample splattered […]

A least one liquid waste-related operation is ongoing at the Savannah River Site, despite the temporary halting of liquid waste processing earlier this year. At a Savannah River Site (SRS) Citizens Advisory Board meeting last week, a DOE official said the site is about halfway through its checklist on the Salt Waste Processing Facility (SWPF): […]

Bechtel National earned just over $7 million in fees for its work building the Waste Treatment Plant at the Energy Department’s Hanford Site near Richland Wash.: good for 71 percent of the total available for the fiscal year ended Sept. 30, 2016. DOE grades Bechtel in two major categories: the less-quantifiable project management category, which […]

Bechtel National earned just over $7 million in fees for its work building the Waste Treatment Plant at the Energy Department’s Hanford Site near Richland Wash.: good for 71 percent of the total available for the fiscal year ended Sept. 30, 2016. DOE grades Bechtel in two major categories: the less-quantifiable project management category, which […]

Savannah River Remediation expects to save about $10 million by repairing, rather than replacing, a piece of equipment essential for chemical separations operations at the Department of Energy’s Savannah River Site in South Carolina, a company executive told a citizens group Monday. The equipment, a nearly 30-foot-high evaporator pot that last year leaked some 3,000 gallons […]

Workers at the Los Alamos National Laboratory on Wednesday morning sent the first barrel of potentially explosive nitrate-salt waste to the building where it will be cleaned up and prepared for eventual disposal at the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant, a source in New Mexico said. Stephen Hoffman, deputy manager of the agency’s Environmental Management Los […]

It will take until 2031 to empty and seal 16 underground waste tanks at the Energy Department’s Hanford Site near Richland, Wash. — 12 years later than the end-date DOE and Washington state set in 2010, the federal agency said late Monday in a regulatory filing. The 16 single-shell tanks to be emptied and closed are in Hanford’s […]

A change in corporate parents was enough to quickly undo the 2016 award for the management and operations contract for the Nevada National Security Site. The primary issue was the corresponding shift in past performance portfolios, an industry source told NS&D Monitor this week in the wake of the second and presumably final contract award […]

The Department of Energy’s Savannah River Site in South Carolina has implemented a new initiative aimed at streamlining spent fuel operations and cutting costs in the process. Workers with Savannah River Nuclear Solutions (SRNS), the site’s management and operations provider, are making better use of the transfer bay in L Area, according to the latest […]

  The Department of Energy has not used leading practices to manage the risk of fraud and other improper payments to its contractors and subcontractors, according to a Government Accountability Office report released Monday. The report found inconsistent review of invoices, too little data for oversight, and a lack of centralized and detailed policies. “Improper […]