Hanford Site

By John Stang Complications in waste treatment operations and closure costs of a facility in Tennessee trimmed Perma-Fix Environmental Services’ revenue and produced an operating loss in the fourth quarter of 2017. However, executives said the company’s outlook is strong in 2018 as it vies for new government and commercial contracts and looks toward a potential […]

The Waste Treatment Plant (WTP) at the Hanford Site in Washington state should start converting low-activity radioactive waste into vitrified glass by the end of 2021, in advance of a legal deadline, the highest-ranking official at the Energy Department Office of Environmental Management said Wednesday. James Owendoff, principal deputy assistant energy secretary for environmental management, […]

The Department of Energy has named a new federal project director and assistant manager for the Hanford Site Waste Treatment Plant as the $17 billion project moves into a new phase. Tom Fletcher, now deputy manager of DOE’s Hanford Richland Operations Office, will move to the DOE Hanford Office of River Protection to take the […]

The Idaho Cleanup Project Citizens Advisory Board is preparing to issue a recommendation on the future of the Idaho National Laboratory’s Advanced Mixed Waste Treatment Project (AMWTP), sources said this week. The Energy Department advisory board will hear public input on potential future uses for the AMWTP during a conference call on March 28. The […]

Washington state Gov. Jay Inslee on Wednesday signed into law a bill that is expected to increase the number of Hanford Site workers’ compensation claims approved by the state Department of Labor and Industries. The legislation would require the state to presume a wide range of illnesses were caused by working for as little as […]

The 3 gallons of low-activity radioactive waste the Hanford Site in Washington state shipped in October to a nearby Perma-Fix Environmental Services facility have been processed and shipped to the Waste Control Specialists site in Andrews County, Texas. A March 2 article gave an incomplete picture of the status of the waste.

Due to potential conflicts of interest, the U.S. Energy Department has determined potential bidders for the $4 billion Hanford Mission Essential Service Contract should not be part of five other key contracts at the Hanford Site in Washington state. The Energy Department issued a draft request for proposals for the 10-year contract in November, with […]

Management relied too heavily on near real-time continuous air monitors (CAMs) to check for airborne radioactive particles during demolition of the Hanford Site’s Plutonium Finishing Plant, according to the root cause evaluation for the December spread of radioactive contamination from the project. Hanford cleanup contractor CH2M Hill Plateau Remediation Co. on Thursday submitted its evaluation […]

Washington state Gov. Jay Inslee on Wednesday signed into law a bill that is expected to increase the number of Hanford Site workers’ compensation claims approved by the state Department of Labor and Industries. The legislation would require the state to presume a wide range of illnesses were caused by working for as little as […]

Due to potential conflicts of interest, the U.S. Energy Department has determined potential bidders for the $4 billion Hanford Mission Essential Service Contract should not be part of five other key contracts at the Hanford Site in Washington state. The Energy Department issued a draft request for proposals for the potential 10-year contract in November, […]

Mission Support Alliance (MSA) has earned its highest award fee since it became the Hanford Site’s services contractor in 2009. The Department of Energy announced late Monday it was awarding MSA $20.4 million, or about 94 percent of the maximum $21.7 million available for fiscal 2017. That was more than the $19.2 million, or 91 […]

A panel of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine kicked off two days of public meetings in Richland, Wash., on Wednesday as it studies supplemental processing of low-activity waste at the U.S. Energy Department’s nearby Hanford Site. The data gathering will culminate in several reports by the National Academies on treatment of low-activity […]

A public meeting is planned for March 14 in Richland, Wash., on permit changes to support the Department of Energy’s plan to stabilize the second waste tunnel at the Hanford Site PUREX Plant. It also will cover actions already taken to stabilize the first tunnel at the plant. After the older of two tunnels storing […]

Mission Support Alliance (MSA) has earned its highest award fee since it became the Hanford Site’s services contractor in 2009. The Department of Energy announced late Monday it was awarding MSA $20.4 million, or about 94 percent of the maximum $21.7 million available for fiscal 2017. That was more than the $19.2 million, or 91 […]

A public meeting is planned for March 14 in Richland, Wash., on permit changes to support the Department of Energy’s plan to stabilize the second waste tunnel at the Hanford Site PUREX Plant. It also will cover actions already taken to stabilize the first tunnel at the plant. After the older of two tunnels storing […]

A federal judge has rescheduled the bench trial in the Hanford Site chemical vapors safety lawsuit for a ninth time. Judge Thomas Rice, of U.S. District Court for Eastern Washington, most recently pushed back the trial date from Nov. 26, 2018, to Feb. 5, 2019. Deadlines in the case also have been extended by about […]

The watchdog organization Hanford Challenge said this week it found traces of radioactive americium in the engine filters of two employee vehicles that had been parked at the Hanford Site’s Plutonium Finishing Plant. The vehicles had previously been checked at Hanford and declared clean in the wake of a radioactive contamination spread from the plant […]

Fluor is looking for additional business opportunities within the Energy Department’s Cold War cleanup complex, Chairman and CEO David Seaton said Tuesday. “We are looking at the Hanford liquid waste contract that is coming up for rebid this year,” Seaton said during a regular quarterly earnings conference call with Wall Street analysts. He did not […]

SNC-Lavalin President and CEO Neil Bruce on Thursday praised the early benefits of his company’s acquisition of British engineering rival Atkins, which he called “the largest and most transformative in our history.” The Montreal-based infrastructure and engineering company in July 2017 completed its $3.6 billion (CAN) deal for Atkins, a significant player in cleanup of […]

Shipbuilder Huntington Ingalls Industries said Wednesday that Michael Smith will become president of subsidiary Stoller Newport News Nuclear (SN3) effective immediately. Smith has been Huntington Ingalls’ executive vice president for strategy and development. In his new post, Smith will report to Michael Lempke, president of Huntington Ingalls’ nuclear and environmental group. As president of SN3, […]

Fluor is looking for additional business opportunities within the Energy Department’s Cold War cleanup complex, Chairman and CEO David Seaton said Tuesday. “We are looking at the Hanford liquid waste contract that is coming up for rebid this year,” Seaton said during a regular quarterly earnings conference call with Wall Street analysts. He did not […]

The watchdog organization Hanford Challenge says it found traces of radioactive americium in the engine filters of two employee vehicles that had been parked at the Hanford Site’s Plutonium Finishing Plant. The vehicles had previously been checked at Hanford and declared clean in the wake of a radioactive contamination spread from the plant demolition site, […]

Dallas-based Fluor, one of the major contractors for the Energy Department’s Office of Environmental Management, will hold its fourth-quarter earnings call at 5:30 p.m. Eastern today. Then, on Thursday, Montreal-based SNC-Lavalin will release its latest quarterly earnings report and host its own investor conference call. Fluor will issue its results shortly after the market closes […]

Leidos has acquired a larger share of Hanford Site contractor Mission Support Alliance to eliminate a conflict of interest for Jacobs Engineering Group. Leidos now owns 88 percent of the support services provider, with Centerra owning the remainder. When Jacobs Engineering Group completed its acquisition of CH2M in December, Jacobs became the partial owner of […]

The Trump administration is again proposing to increase the budget for the Energy Department’s nuclear cleanup office, to $6.6 billion for fiscal 2019. That would be $182 million above the fiscal 2017 enacted level and $100 million above the amount proposed for the current budget year for DOE’s Office of Environmental Management (EM). Two industry […]

Members of the Pacific Northwest congressional delegation are prepared to fight a $230 million budget cut for the Department of Energy’s Hanford Site in Washington state. If approved by Congress, funding for cleanup of the former plutonium production complex would drop to roughly $2.185 billion in the DOE fiscal 2019 budget proposal issued Monday. The […]

The number of workers with positive bioassay results has increased to seven since the spread of radioactive contamination was discovered in mid-December at the Hanford Site Plutonium Finishing Plant demolition zone. The seven workers are in addition to 31 workers discovered to have ingested or inhaled radioactive particles after a June spread of contamination during […]

The White House budget request for fiscal 2019, released Monday, would cut spending at the Department of Energy’s Hanford Site by $230 million. The total budget would be $2.185 billion for the budget year beginning Oct. 1. The Office of River Protection (ORP) would receive $1.438 billion, which is $61 million below current spending for […]

The Trump administration is again proposing to increase the budget for the Energy Department’s nuclear cleanup office, to $6.6 billion for fiscal 2019. That would be $182 million above the fiscal 2017 enacted level and $100 million above the amount proposed for the current budget year for DOE’s Office of Environmental Management (EM). Since the […]

Leidos has acquired a larger share of Hanford Site contractor Mission Support Alliance to eliminate a conflict of interest for Jacobs Engineering Group. Leidos now owns 88 percent of the support services provider, with Centerra owning the remainder. When Jacobs Engineering Group completed its acquisition of CH2M in December, Jacobs became the partial owner of […]