BWX Technologies

This week the Department of Energy’s Waste Isolation Pilot Plant in New Mexico plans a short-duration test of its idle 700-C ventilation fan to increase underground airflow during certain work. The testing will last about four hours, according to a press release issued late Friday by the DOE’s prime contractor for the Waste Isolation Plant […]

The Huntington Ingalls Industries-led contractor in charge of legacy cleanup at the Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico won roughly 82% of its total potential fee and 72% of its subjective fee in a recently-released scorecard from the Department of Energy.  Newport News Nuclear BWXT (N3B) Los Alamos took home $8.4 million out of […]

Lynchburg, Va.-based BWX Technologies this morning appointed Rob Smith as its president of government operations, which is a newly-created post. In that role, Smith will lead the company’s nuclear operations and nuclear services segments. This includes work for the Department of Energy’s Office of Environmental Management, the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA), the Naval Nuclear […]

Here’s some of the news Weapons Complex Monitor tracked over the last two weeks during the Exchange Monitor’s publishing break for the winter holidays. Navarro-led Hanford Laboratory Management and Integration this week began the process of taking over the Department of Energy’s 222-S Laboratory at the Hanford Site in Washington state. Located in the 200-West […]

Amentum-led Savannah River Remediation, the liquid waste contractor at the Department of Energy’s Savannah River Site in South Carolina, took home almost $64 million or 98% of its total potential fee for work done over an 18-month period ending Sept. 30, 2020. The contractor was rated “very good” on its subjective fee as determined by […]

Just before Christmas, and months after two losing teams protested the award, the Department of Energy canned a $13-billion liquid-waste cleanup contract awarded in May to a BWX Technologies-led team. It is the second time in two years that a BWXT-led team has seen DOE cancel a major procurement which it had originally won. In […]

Amentum-led Savannah River Remediation, the liquid waste contractor at the Department of Energy’s Savannah River Site in South Carolina, took home almost $64 million or 98% of its total potential fee for work done over an 18-month period ending Sept. 30, 2020. The contractor was rated “very good” on its subjective fee as determined by […]

The Department of Energy liked what it saw in Washington River Protection Solutions’ tank waste management at the Hanford Site in Washington state during fiscal 2020. The DOE awarded the Amentum-Atkins partnership about $42.58 million or 95% out of a potential $45 million in fees for overseeing Hanford’s 56 million gallons of highly radioactive and […]

Just before Christmas, and months after two losing teams protested the award, the Department of Energy canned a $13-billion liquid-waste cleanup contract awarded in May to a BWX Technologies-led team. In a Dec. 23 memo to Hanford employees, DOE said it scrapped the Tank Closure Contract because it wants to combine that work — emptying […]

The Government Accountability Office says Hanford Tank Closure Co., made up of Atkins, Amentum and Westinghouse Government Services, is not entitled reimbursement of its legal costs for protesting a $13-billion tank closure contract issued in May by the Department of Energy. In a November decision published this month, the Government Accountability Office (GAO) said the […]

While the coronavirus pandemic affected nuclear cleanup at the Department of Energy in ways great and small, it did not slow down the acquisition process in 2020, when the Environmental Management Office awarded about $31 billion worth of new cleanup contracts. That includes $17 billion of contracts during the 2020 calendar year and some $14 […]

The New Mexico Environment Department is still waiting on the Department of Energy to provide more details on the planned remediation of contamination discovered earlier this year on a public road outside the Los Alamos National Laboratory. The preliminary screening plan that will determine if the hazardous constituents at the 28-acre DP Road site are […]

Concerns about the surging COVID-19 pandemic in New Mexico led the Department of Energy to reduce on-site staffing and slow certain operations at both the Los Alamos National Laboratory and the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant, according to recent documents published by the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board.  At Los Alamos, operations are affected for both […]

The Department of Energy’s Office of Environmental Management on Friday issued its final request for proposals for the Oak Ridge Reservation Cleanup Contract in Tennessee. The potential $8.3 billion indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity contract has an ordering period of 10 years and the completion of the task orders are expected within 15 year, DOE said in a Friday […]

The New Mexico Environment Department is still waiting on the Department of Energy to provide more details on the planned remediation of contamination discovered earlier this year on a public road outside the Los Alamos National Laboratory. The preliminary screening plan that will determine if the hazardous constituents at the 28-acre DP Road site are […]

Seventy-four employees have agreed to take a voluntary buyout from the decommissioning and demolition contractor at the Department of Energy’s Portsmouth Site in Ohio. Fluor-BWXT Portsmouth announced the results of its Self-Select Voluntary Separation Program in a Wednesday email statement. The voluntary buyout package includes a severance based on years of service and the applicable […]

Seventy-four employees have agreed to take a voluntary buyout from the decommissioning and demolition contractor at the Department of Energy’s Portsmouth Site in Ohio. Fluor-BWXT Portsmouth announced the results of its Self-Select Voluntary Separation Program in a Wednesday email statement. The voluntary buyout package includes a severance based on years of service and the applicable […]

The National Nuclear Security Administration on Monday moved to reassure the city of Oak Ridge that moving some uranium purification outside the fence at the Y-12 National Security Complex in Oak Ridge Tenn., will not cost the site any jobs. The city raised the alarm in a statement issued before the Thanksgiving holiday last week, […]

The total number of active cases of COVID-19 at nuclear cleanup sites overseen by the Department of Energy’s Office of Environmental Management remained high this week at 282, which is still lower than the 298 active cases during Thanksgiving week, a spokesperson said Thursday.  Active, reported cases were in the double digits as recently as […]

A document obtained by Weapons Complex Morning Briefing indicates the Department of Energy’s environmental contractor at the Portsmouth Site in Ohio has confirmed at least 73 cases of COVID-19 so far during the pandemic, with three of those reported in recent days. The document summarizes COVID-19 data compiled through Tuesday by Fluor-BWXT Portsmouth, the decommissioning […]

Local officials with the City of Oak Ridge slammed the National Nuclear Security Administration’s decision to shift some national security work to BWX Technologies Subsidiary Nuclear Fuel Services, Erwin, Tenn., from the Y-12 National Security Complex. The semi-autonomous Department of Energy nuclear-weapons agency informed the city of the move in an email the day before […]

The venture that manages the Department of Energy’s Waste Isolation Pilot Plant in New Mexico will have until Dec. 21 to reply to a lawsuit brought last month by the construction contractor it fired this summer after slower-than-anticipated progress on a major new underground ventilation system. The motion for an extension, filed by Nuclear Waste […]

A federal magistrate judge has set a status conference Dec. 8 to discuss discovery issues in a lawsuit brought by Southern Ohio residents against current and former contractors at the Department of Energy’s Portsmouth Site in Ohio. U.S. Magistrate Judge Elizabeth Preston Deavers set the conference to discuss issues in the lawsuit brought in May […]

The Department of Energy’s Waste Isolation Pilot Plant could run out of space if the number of waste drums bound for the New Mexico site keeps increasing, or if a new underground accounting system is thrown out by the courts, the Government Accountability Office said Thursday. The report landed as the site, DOE’s only deep-underground […]

A federal magistrate judge has set a status conference Dec. 8 to discuss discovery issues in a lawsuit brought by Southern Ohio residents against current and former contractors at the Department of Energy’s Portsmouth Site in Ohio. U.S. Magistrate Judge Elizabeth Preston Deavers set the conference to discuss issues in the lawsuit brought in May […]

The Department of Energy’s Waste Isolation Pilot Plant near Carlsbad, N.M., received 25 shipments of transuranic waste during October, which is marginally better than the 21 shipments during the same month in 2019. That is according to DOE’s public database for the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP), which also shows shipments for this pandemic-hobbled year […]

The Department of Energy’s Idaho National Laboratory has a new directory, John Wagner, who is being promoted from his current post as associate director for nuclear science and technology. Wagner has been Idaho National Laboratory’s associate director since 2017. Battelle Energy Alliance, the lab prime, announced his elevation to the top job last week. Battelle […]

The Department of Energy’s manager for the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant in New Mexico has yet to reply to a $32-million breach of contract suit filed late last month by a joint venture which had been hired to build a major new underground ventilation system. Critical Applications Alliance, a venture jointly owned by Christensen Building […]

Lynchburg, Va.-based BWX Technologies hauled in $520 million in revenue during the third quarter, which ended Sept. 30, which is up 3% from the $506 million it took in during the same period a year ago, the company reported this week. Its net income for the quarter dipped a bit, however, as BWXT took in […]

Although the Department of Energy has put the award on hold, BWX Technologies President and CEO Rex Geveden likes his company’s chances of retaining the potential $13-billion Tank Closure Contract at the Hanford Site in Washington state. “We feel good about our prospects there,” Geveden said during the Lynchburg, Va.-based company’s third-quarter earnings call Monday […]