Hanford Site

PHOENIX, Ariz. – While the Energy Department and its nuclear cleanup contractors acknowledge they are learning on the job, both sides Wednesday stressed the urgency of meeting deadlines for the first set of solicitations issued under the agency’s overhauled approach to procurement. Requests for proposals are due March 18 for two potential 10-year, multibillion-dollar contracts […]

Brian Stickney as of this week is the new assistant manager for safety and environment for the Department of Energy Richland Operations Office at the Hanford Site in Washington state. Stickney had been the deputy assistant manager for safety and environment since August 2016 and served as manager in an acting capacity for eight months, […]

PHOENIX, Ariz. — The head of the Energy Department’s Office of Environmental Management said Monday she intends for the new end-state contracting approach to halt “ever-extending site closure dates” for cleanup of Cold War-era nuclear sites. The Energy Department cannot “simply keep treading water,” but must drive these sites toward completion, Assistant Secretary of Energy […]

Registration opens at 9 a.m. March 19 for all of the Department of Energy’s 2019 environmental cleanup tours of the Hanford Site in Washington state. Twenty tours will be offered this year, with all bus seats expected to be claimed in a matter of hours. Registration is only available via the Hanford.gov website. However, a […]

The U.S. Department of Justice has detailed its complaints about a new Washington state law that makes it easier for Hanford Site personnel to have their workers’ compensation claims approved. The Justice Department filed a motion for summary judgment late on March 1 in U.S. District Court for Eastern Washington state, asking that the court […]

Retirees of former Hanford Site contractor Lockheed Martin Services Inc. have petitioned the full U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit to hear their appeal of a U.S. Court of Federal Claims decision in a class action lawsuit against the Department of Energy. In early February, a three-judge panel of the appeals court upheld […]

The latest procurement schedule from the Energy Department’s Office of Environmental Management indicates draft requests for proposals for major work at the Oak Ridge Site in Tennessee and the West Valley Demonstration Project in New York could be issued this spring. A draft RFP for a new Idaho Cleanup Project contract could go out this […]

While the Energy Communities Alliance (ECA) hopes the Department of Energy will readjust its classification of high-level radioactive waste, it has not forgotten the federal agency still owes Congress a report on the issue. The ECA asked the House and Senate Armed Services committees on Tuesday to “attempt to require” compliance with a provision of the […]

While the Energy Communities Alliance (ECA) hopes the Department of Energy will change what it considers high-level radioactive waste, it has not forgotten the federal agency still owes Congress a report on the issue. The ECA asked the House and Senate Armed Services committees on Tuesday to “attempt to require” compliance with a provision of […]

Retirees of former Hanford Site contractor Lockheed Martin Services Inc. have petitioned the full U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit to hear their appeal of a U.S. Court of Federal Claims decision in a class action lawsuit against the Department of Energy. In early February, a three-judge panel of the appeals court upheld […]

The Energy Department’s Office of Environmental Management issued its latest procurement schedule on Wednesday, but it lists no timeline for awarding the long-awaited liquid waste management contract for the Savannah River Site in South Carolina. The multibillion-dollar re-award is now listed as “TBD,” or to be determined. When the procurement schedule was updated in November, […]

Three Department of Energy field managers in New Mexico said Thursday that an agency order issued last year will bring little change in a good relationship with an independent federal watchdog, the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board (DNFSB). The officials offered the commitment at a DNFSB public hearing in Albuquerque, N.M. The four board members […]

The U.S. Department of Justice and Washington state have agreed that a federal lawsuit over a new state law easing workers’ compensation requirements for ill Hanford Site workers likely can be resolved without a trial. Both have told the court they plan to file motions for summary judgment in the case. Judge Stanley Bastian, of […]

By Calvin Biesecker Leidos on Tuesday posted higher sales and earnings due to top-line growth across its business segments and higher operating income in its Health and Civil segments. Net income increased 65 percent to $188 million, $1.25 earnings per share (EPS), from $114 million (74 cents EPS) a year ago. The strong earnings were […]

The U.S. Department of Justice and Washington state have agreed that a federal lawsuit over a new state law easing workers’ compensation requirements for ill Hanford Site workers likely can be resolved without a trial. Both have told the court they plan to file motions for summary judgment in the case. Judge Stanley Bastian, of […]

The manager of the Department of Energy Office of River Protection at the Hanford Site, Brian Vance, has been selected as acting manager of the Hanford Richland Operations Office. This is the first time since the Office of River Protection (ORP) was established in 1998 that there has been one top manager for the entire […]

The U.S. Department of Justice on Feb. 8 filed a civil lawsuit against Hanford Site contractor Mission Support Alliance (MSA), accusing it of fraud through false claims and kickbacks from 2010 to 2015. The lawsuit filed in U.S. District Court for Eastern Washington also names Lockheed Martin Services Inc., Lockheed Martin Corp., and Lockheed executive […]

The Department of Energy’s nuclear cleanup office sent a valentine to prospective contractors Thursday, issuing two major requests for proposals at the Hanford Site in Washington state. In releasing final procurement notices for the Central Plateau Cleanup Contract and the Tank Closure Contract, DOE’s Office of Environmental Management (EM) met a 45-day deadline it set […]

The Hanford Site’s occupational medicine contractor has been awarded 90.1 percent of the fee available for the last full fiscal year under its expiring contract. HPM Corp. (HPMC), of Kennewick, Wash., earned $315,350 of $350,000 available for fiscal 2018, according to a Department of Energy performance scorecard released Wednesday. HPM Corp. was awarded a six-year […]

The Department of Energy needs to be more realistic in tracking and reporting progress toward environmental milestones at its nuclear cleanup sites, the Government Accountability Office (GAO) said Thursday. “We found that DOE didn’t accurately track or report whether milestones were met, missed, or postponed. We also found that sites continually renegotiate milestones they are […]

A motorist who died in an automobile crash inside the Savannah River Site in South Carolina on Feb. 7 was not an employee of the Department of Energy or its contractors. “It wasn’t connected to our work,” a DOE spokesperson said by email. “It does appear that it was just a tragic accident — one […]

The Hanford Site’s occupational medicine contractor has been awarded 90.1 percent of the fee available for the last full fiscal year under its expiring contract. HPM Corp. (HPMC), of Kennewick, Wash., earned $315,350 of $350,000 available for fiscal 2018, according to a Department of Energy performance scorecard released Wednesday. HPM Corp. was awarded a six-year […]

The manager of the Department of Energy Office of River Protection at the Hanford Site, Brian Vance, has been selected as acting manager of the Hanford Richland Operations Office. This is the first time since the Office of River Protection (ORP) was established in 1998 that there has been one top manager for the entire […]

The Wednesday meeting of the Hanford Advisory Board in Richland, Wash., has been canceled due to bad weather. Heavy snowfall across Washington state and a forecast for freezing rain prompted the cancellation. The meeting had already been reduced to a single day administrative session because the partial shutdown of the federal government in January prevented […]

The U.S. Department of Justice on Friday filed a civil lawsuit against Hanford Site contractor Mission Support Alliance (MSA), accusing it of fraud through false claims and kickbacks from 2010 to 2015. The lawsuit filed in U.S. District Court for Eastern Washington also names Lockheed Martin Services Inc., Lockheed Martin Corp., and Lockheed executive Jorge […]

Heavy snowfall has stopped most work at the Hanford Site in Eastern Washington state. Day, swing, and graveyard shifts have been canceled Monday for the third successive day for workers not designated essential to safety or security. The cancellations started with the swing and graveyard shifts Friday night. By Saturday, key highways leading to the […]

The Government Accountability Office says there is an opportunity for the Department of Energy to balance the cost and risks posed by 149 single-shell tanks containing radioactive waste at the Hanford Site in Washington state. A section a Jan. 29 GAO report, on growing liability costs for DOE’s Office of Environmental Management, said the agency […]

Dallas-based Jacobs Engineering brought in $3.1 billion in revenue during the quarter ended Dec. 31, 73 percent higher than the $1.8 billion reported for the same period one year earlier Jacobs, which has a wide footprint in the Energy Department nuclear cleanup complex through subsidiary CH2M, reported earnings Tuesday for the first quarter of its […]

Doug Shoop, manager of the Department of Energy’s Richland Operations Office at the Hanford Site in Washington state, will retire from federal employment on Feb. 16. Shoop has led one of the two DOE offices overseeing the massive cleanup job at Hanford since July 2016. Brian Vance remains manager of the Office of River Protection. […]

Allison Finelli, a staffer with the Energy Department’s Office of Environmental Management in Washington, D.C., recently accepted a 120-day detail as acting chief of staff at the Hanford Site’s Office of River Protection. In her interim role, Finelli will report to ORP Manager Brian Vance, sources said Thursday. She will serve as a primary aide […]