BWX Technologies

Editor’s note: This is the first in a series of quarterly news summaries and analyses about President Donald Trump’s first 100 days in office. We’ll check in with one long, big-picture update every 25 days, with a regular flow of updates in between to keep you up to date on news affecting Department of Energy […]

The Savannah River Site liquid waste tank farms hold less than 35 million gallons of waste for the first time since 1999, according to a Jan. 9 Facebook post from Savannah River Remediation (SRR), the Department of Energy facility’s liquid waste contractor. Since taking over the contract in 2009, SRR’s goal has been to rid the […]

The mayor of the village of Piketon wants the Energy Department to fund an independent assessment of the nuclear landfill the agency wants to build at the former uranium enrichment site near the small town in southeast Ohio. DOE formally decided to build the proposed 100-acre on-site disposal cell in 2015, saying it was the least […]

The environmental remediation contractor for the Department of Energy’s West Valley Demonstration Project in upstate New York earned “very good” ratings in all four categories of its latest performance evaluation. That was a slight dip from the previous evaluation but enough to earn CH2M Hill BWXT West Valley (CHBWV) a $360,000 award fee, 80 percent of the […]

The environmental remediation contractor for the Department of Energy’s West Valley Demonstration Project in upstate New York earned “very good” ratings in all four categories of its latest performance evaluation. That was enough to earn CH2M Hill BWXT West Valley (CHBWV) a $360,000 award fee, 80 percent of the total available $450,694 for the performance period […]

The mayor of the village of Piketon wants the Energy Department to fund an independent assessment of the nuclear landfill the agency wants to build at the former uranium enrichment site near the small town in southeast Ohio. DOE formally decided to build the proposed 100-acre on-site disposal cell in 2015, saying it was the least […]

Ken Grumski, vice president of federal services at Waste Control Specialists, on Wednesday announced he is leaving the company to take an executive position with SECUR LLC. In an email to dozens of industry and government officials, Grumski said Friday will be his last day at the Dallas-based company that operates a complex near Andrews, Texas, for storage of […]

CARLSBAD, N.M. — Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz on Monday put the incoming Donald Trump administration on notice that the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) ― the nation’s only deep-underground nuclear waste disposal site ― is too important to fail. Less than two weeks before the president who nominated him leaves office, Moniz headlined a group […]

The Savannah River Site’s liquid waste contractor earned 94 percent, $23.2 million out of a possible $24.6 million, of its performance award and incentive fees for fiscal 2016. On the recently released performance scorecard, the Department of Energy highlighted Savannah River Remediation’s (SRR) response in February to a leak in an evaporator pot, which slowed […]

A waste disposal project at the Savannah River Site took another step forward recently when the facility’s liquid waste contractor conducted a successful leak tightness test for Saltstone Disposal Unit 6 (SDU 6). SDU 6 is the first 30-million gallon, megavolume salt waste disposal concrete unit constructed at the Department of Energy site in South […]

The recently reopened Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) could be ready to accept new shipments of nuclear waste from across the Energy Department’s nuclear complex by May, under an ambitious schedule being discussed internally in Carlsbad, N.M. For that to happen, WIPP prime Nuclear Waste Partnership (NWP) must bury transuranic waste marooned above ground at the site’s […]

The management and operations contractor for two key U.S. nuclear arms sites improved its performance significantly in fiscal 2016, according to the National Nuclear Security Administration. However, Consolidated Nuclear Security will need to take another step forward to ensure it stays on the job past the initial term of its contract. CNS has since July […]

Technicians with Nuclear Waste Partnership have moved transuranic waste into the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) for the first time in nearly three years, the New Mexico Environment Department said late Wednesday in a press release. Closed since February 2014 following an accidental underground radiation release and earlier, unrelated undergound fire, WIPP received Energy Department clearance […]

The Savannah River Site’s security contractor earned $5.66 million out of a possible $5.92 million, or 95.5 percent, of its performance award fee for fiscal 2016. The Department of Energy highlighted Centerra-Savannah River Site’s efforts in keeping employees safe and cutting costs in the 12-month period ending Sept. 30. Contractors earn award fees each year by […]

The Savannah River Site’s security contractor earned $5.66 million out of a possible $5.92 million, or 95.5 percent, of its performance award fee for fiscal 2016. The Department of Energy highlighted Centerra-Savannah River Site’s efforts in keeping employees safe and cutting costs in the 12-month period ending Sept. 30. Contractors earn award fees each year by […]

The New Mexico Environment Department has given the U.S. Energy Department the OK to reopen the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP), removing one of the last major hurdles to resuming transuranic waste disposal at the site after a nearly three-year shutdown. In doing so, the state mandated that DOE and WIPP prime contractor Nuclear Waste Partnership (NWP) begin […]

BWXT Conversion Services fared well and Restoration Services Inc. fared better, but Fluor Federal Services hit a skid and netted only half of its latest possible award fee, according to a raft of contract scorecards released recently by the Energy Department’s Portsmouth/Paducah Project Office. Restoration Services earned 96 percent of a possible $397,054 award fee […]

The Energy Department will not commit to reopening the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) by Dec. 31, an agency official told local stakeholders Thursday. “Our goal, based on everything we know, continues to be December,” Todd Shrader, head of DOE’s Carlsbad Field Office, said in a town hall meeting webcast from Carlsbad, N.M., some 40 miles […]

New Mexico state regulators have completed a critical review of the Department of Energy’s Waste Isolation Pilot Plant, but have yet to disclose the results. “Once our inspectors have compiled their observations, we will formally notify WIPP of the results of the inspections,” New Mexico Environment Department (NMED) Secretary Butch tongate said in a press […]

The Energy Department is expected to announce Thursday whether the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant is ready to reopen its doors for nuclear-waste disposal after a nearly three-year pause. DOE finished its final operational readiness review of the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) earlier this month. The two-week checkup was designed to gauge whether contractor Nuclear […]

The Energy Department’s final review of the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant’s recovery effort uncovered 21 punch-list items the agency’s Carlsbad Field Office and contractor Nuclear Waste Partnership must address before the mine can reopen after its nearly three-year pause. In addition to those 21 so-called corrective actions, DOE prescribed 15 fixes that the local field […]

The Energy Department has canceled a meeting that was expected to be the forum for a major announcement about whether the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant would be ready to resume disposal of nuclear waste this year. Sources said Tuesday DOE canceled the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) town hall scheduled for Thursday. The move will […]

As soon as Thursday, the Energy Department could declare it is ready to once again dispose of nuclear waste at the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant after a nearly three-year pause. At 8:30 p.m. Eastern time that day, DOE and the city of Carlsbad, N.M., plan to webcast their latest quarterly Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) […]

This week, as the Energy Department weighed decisions that will determine if the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) reopens in 2016, news broke that New Mexico’s U.S. senators believe the facility needs tens of millions of dollars more than expected to safely resume nuclear waste disposal. After numerous setbacks this year, DOE and site contractor […]

With the impending ascension of former NASA hand Rex Geveden to the top spot at BWX Technologies, the Lynchburg, Va.-company has set an an outsider from the aerospace business in charge of an effort to grow the company’s legacy nuclear cleanup business with the Energy Department’s Office of Environmental Management. “We remain strongly committed to […]

With the impending ascension of former NASA hand Rex Geveden to the top spot at BWX Technologies, the Lynchburg, Va.-company has set an outsider from the aerospace business in charge of an effort to grow the company’s legacy nuclear cleanup business with the Energy Department’s Office of Environmental Management. “We remain strongly committed to that […]

The Energy Department is scheduled on Friday to complete the last agency-led review standing in the way of reopening the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) for transuranic waste-disposal operations, sources in New Mexico said Wednesday. DOE is set to conduct its exit interview with WIPP prime contractor Nuclear Waste Partnership (NWP) in the early afternoon, local […]

BWX Technologies, a top contractor in the Department of Energy’s nuclear cleanup and security operations, said Tuesday it is promoting its chief operating officer to the position of president and CEO. Rex Geveden will take the job, along with a position on the BWXT Board of Directors, on Jan. 1 of next year. He will take […]

Waste Control Specialists is seeking leniency from federal regulators after apparently violating its federal waste-storage permit to prevent a possible radiation release in 2014, according to an official account the company filed with the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. The 12-page account, the most detailed Waste Control Specialists (WCS) has offered publicly on the situation, is printed […]

The Energy Department is due to conclude this week its final review of whether the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) in New Mexico is ready to reopen for transuranic waste disposal nearly three years after a pair of accidents closed the deep-underground facility. DOE on Nov. 14 began an operational readiness review that was expected to take […]