Hanford Site

An entity called Hanford Integrated Infrastructure Services Contractor filed a bid protest Monday with the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) against the Department of Energy’s award last month of a $4 billion contract for support services at the Hanford Site in Washington state. The Energy Department on Dec. 5 issued the potential 10-year contract to […]

The U.S. Justice Department’s civil fraud case against an Energy Department contractor at the Hanford Site in Washington state is going forward, but a federal judge Monday dismissed “kickback” allegations against a former Mission Support Alliance president. Federal attorneys last February brought the case against defendants Mission Support Alliance (MSA), Lockheed Martin Corp., Lockheed Martin […]

An employee of the U.S. Department of Energy in Washington state is giving up her federal job after admitting to conducting an unauthorized tour for a political candidate. The U.S. Office of Special Counsel (OSC) said in a Thursday press release the DOE staffer admitted violating the Hatch Act and relinquished her post Jan. 4 […]

The U.S. Energy Department Office of Inspector General (IG) is urging management at the Hanford Site in Washington state to provide more clarity and standardization in its recordkeeping for employee radiation dose. Greater use of standard forms and clearer lines of authority would better ensure that accurate employee histories of radiation dosage are kept, according […]

Constellis, the Reston, Va.-based parent of U.S. Energy Department contractor Centerra Group, has reached a “forbearance agreement” with certain creditors in order to get some leeway on loan repayment while it works to shore up its balance sheet. “Constellis recently closed on a $110 million delayed-draw credit facility provided by a subset of its existing […]

An entity called Hanford Integrated Infrastructure Services Contractor filed a bid protest Monday with the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) seeking to the Department of Energy’s award last month of a $4 billion contract for support services at the Hanford Site in Washington state. The Energy Department on Dec. 5 issued the potential 10-year contract […]

The U.S. National Labor Relations Board ruled Thursday that a labor union representing security guards at the Waste Treatment Plant under construction at the Energy Department’s Hanford Site is not entitled to see the contract under which they are employed. The NLRB ruling finds that Waste Treatment Security Guards Union 161 holds no legal right […]

The Washington state Department of Ecology is making good on last month’s threat to fine the U.S. Department of Energy $1 million for denial of access to certain records for the Hanford Site. The state announced the fine Monday after DOE appealed Ecology’s Dec. 5 ruling finding Hanford officials are wrongly withholding information. The appeal […]

The Energy Department expects to start vitrifying low-activity radioactive waste at the Hanford Site’s Waste Treatment Plant (WTP) as early as fiscal 2022 or as late as fiscal 2024. “We are going to have hiccups. … We are going to have failures along the way,” but they can be overcome, Tom Fletcher, DOE’s assistant manager […]

Debriefings got underway this week on major Energy Department contracts issued in December for the Hanford Site in Washington state, a source said Thursday. Debriefs were held in Richland, Wash., on the potential 10-year, $4 billion support services contract announced Dec. 5 for Hanford Mission Integration Solutions (HMIS), a joint venture comprised of Leidos, Centerra, […]

The Energy Department expects to start vitrifying low-activity radioactive waste at the Hanford Site’s Waste Treatment Plant (WTP) as early as fiscal 2022 or as late as fiscal 2024. “We are going to have hiccups. … We are going to have failures along the way,” but they can be overcome, Tom Fletcher, DOE’s assistant manager […]

The Washington state Department of Ecology is making good on last month’s threat to fine the U.S. Department of Energy $1 million for denial of access to certain records for the Hanford Site. The state announced the fine Monday after DOE appealed Ecology’s Dec. 5 ruling finding Hanford officials are wrongly withholding information. The appeal […]

Potential bidders on the management and operations contract for the U.S. Department of Energy’s Savannah River National Laboratory in South Carolina have until noon ET on Jan. 9 to sign up for briefings. The Energy Department is providing new details on its Jan. 16 industry day for the stand-alone lab contract. The DOE Office of Environmental […]

Twelve months ago, Anne Marie White was eagerly anticipating her first full year at the helm of the U.S. Department of Energy’s $7 billion-plus Office of Environmental Management. But her tenure as Energy Department assistant secretary for environmental management turned out to be closer to the end rather than the beginning. After being sworn into […]

A joint venture of Perma-Fix Environmental Services and ERRG in December sealed a contract worth at least $15 million for cleanup services at the U.S. Department of Energy’s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory in California. The 18-month contract covers remediation, construction, and waste management at the Alameda County complex, according to a Dec. 23 press release […]

Gov. Jay Inslee (D) has picked a state lawyer to lead the Washington Department of Ecology. Laura Watson succeeds Maia Bellon, who announced her retirement on Dec. 2 after leading the state agency since 2013. The Department of Ecology, through its Nuclear Waste Program, regulates the U.S. Department of Energy’s Hanford Site, as well as […]

Major League Baseball has proposed abandoning its affiliation with a fixture of the community that is home to the Department of Energy’s Hanford Site in Washington state: the Tri-City Dust Devils Minor League Baseball club. The news broke around Thanksgiving that Major League Baseball (MLB) wanted to end its affiliation with 42 minor league franchises. […]

Veolia has won a contract to build what it describes as a “water detention” facility at the U.S. Energy Department’s Portsmouth Site in Ohio. Veolia Nuclear Solutions-Federal Services said Tuesday that DOE vendor Fluor-BWXT Portsmouth has awarded it a subcontract to build a system to contain any runoff from demolition of the X-326 process building […]

The U.S. Energy Department debriefings on two major contract awards announced this month at the Hanford Site in Washington state will wait until January, two sources said this week. On Dec. 12, Central Plateau Cleanup Co., comprised of AECOM, Fluor, and Atkins affiliates, won the potential 10-year, $10 billion contract for ongoing remediation of Hanford’s […]

For the second straight year, AECOM-led Washington River Protection Solutions (WRPS) earned more than 90% of its fee for its performance as the radioactive tank waste manager at the U.S. Energy Department’s Hanford Site in Washington state. The WRPS scorecard was one of two issued this week for Hanford vendors. Wastren Advantage (now part of […]

A compromise budget passed by Congress this week would fund the U.S. Energy Department’s Office of Environmental Management at almost $7.5 billion. President Donald Trump is expected today to sign the fiscal 2020 domestic priorities and international assistance minibus, which encompasses appropriations bills for a long list of federal agencies. The House approved the bill […]

The U.S. Energy Department debriefings on two major contract awards announced this month at the Hanford Site in Washington state will wait until January, two sources said this week. On Dec. 12, Central Plateau Cleanup Co., comprised of AECOM, Fluor, and Atkins affiliates, won the potential 10-year, $10 billion contract for ongoing remediation of Hanford’s […]

The two offices at the U.S. Energy Department’s Hanford Site in Washington state would enjoy higher funding in a compromise appropriations bill for fiscal 2020, according to supporting material released Tuesday. The energy and water development bill agreed to by the House and Senate as part of a larger appropriations package would fund Hanford’s Richland […]

Washington Department of Ecology Deputy Director Polly Zehm is retiring from state service at the end of January, just a month after her boss, agency spokesman Randy Bradbury said Monday. Zehm served more than 22 years with the agency, about eight of them as deputy director, according to an online biography. She sent an internal […]

As the Department of Energy prepares to reshape the state of business at the Hanford’s Site by switching its industry affiliations at the former plutonium-production campus, Major League Baseball has proposed abandoning its affiliation with a hometown fixture that arrived before the current slate of cleanup contractors: the Tri-City Dust Devils Minor League Baseball club. […]

The compromise National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) for fiscal 2020 would allow almost $2.1 billion for defense environmental cleanup operations the Department of Energy’s Hanford Site in Washington state. Defense environmental cleanup is the largest tranche of funding for Hanford and other properties managed by DOE’s Office of Environmental Management. In total, the office would […]

A major defense policy bill would effectively block the U.S. Department of Energy from applying its new interpretation of high-level radioactive waste during fiscal 2020 in Washington state. That would cover the Hanford Site, a former plutonium production complex that is DOE’s largest cleanup project and home to much of its high-level waste. The fiscal […]

A defense policy bill on the verge of passage would require the U.S. Energy Department to provide Congress with anticipated costs of complying with court-enforced consent decrees at nuclear cleanup sites. The final version of the fiscal 2020 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) passed easily out of the House of Representatives Wednesday on a vote […]

AECOM has named Bruce Covert as deputy general manager at the Waste Treatment Completion Co., based at the Energy Department’s Hanford Site in Washington state. Waste Treatment Completion Co. is a joint venture formed by Bechtel and AECOM in January 2017 that acts as a subcontractor to Bechtel National for startup of low-activity waste vitrification […]

Less than two months after U.S. Rep. Greg Walden (R-Ore.) announced plans to leave Congress, several declared candidates are jockeying to take his place. Three Democrats and three Republicans have filed to run in their respective party primaries on May 19, 2020, according to the Ballotpedia website. The victors would then square off in the […]