Office of Environmental Management (EM)

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 […]

Navarro-led Hanford Laboratory Management and Integration on Monday received notice from the Department of Energy to begin taking over the 222-S Laboratory at the Hanford Site in Washington state. Located in the 200-West Area of the former plutonium complex, the primary purpose of the 70,000 square foot lab is to provide analytical support for the […]

The Department of Energy said Monday that Centerra, the paramilitary security contractor at the Savannah River Site in South Carolina, is taking home roughly 98% of its potential $6.73 million in fee for the 12 months ended Oct. 7. Centerra-Savannah River Site will pocket $6.58 million for providing an armed and uniformed security force for […]

The Department of Energy reiterated in Dec. 23 online comments that questions on the long-term contract, potentially worth up to $8.3-billion, at the Oak Ridge Site in Tennessee, are due at 11:59 p.m. Eastern Time today, Monday Dec. 28. In answer to a question submitted by a potential bidder, the DOE stressed any questions should […]

The Department of Energy’s Office of Environmental Management said Dec. 21 that it has transferred the Separations Process Research Unit in New York from the nuclear cleanup office to the DOE Office of Naval Reactors as of Dec. 16. The DOE announced the transfer of the Separations Process Research Unit (SPRU) areas from the Office […]

UCOR, the Amentum-Jacobs team in charge of remediation at the Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge Site in Tennessee, earned 98% of its potential fee, almost $28 million, for its work for the final six months of fiscal 2020. The joint venture earned 100% of its $20.8 million in objective fee for meeting deadlines and accomplishing […]

The COVID-19 pandemic did not take a holiday during Christmas week, with new infections reported at Department of Energy nuclear cleanup operations such as the Hanford Site in Washington state and the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant in New Mexico. Supervisors at the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) were notified of nine positive COVID-19 cases between […]

Cold War and Manhattan Project locations being cleaned up by the Department of Energy could be viable candidates for new nuclear power plants, a federal official said during an online presentation Wednesday. About a dozen of the 16 nuclear cleanup properties run by the DOE Office of Environmental Management (EM) boast “unique characteristics” potentially attractive […]

A group led by Navarro Research and Engineering is expected to start its transition Jan. 4 as the new contractor at the Department of Energy’s Hanford Site in Washington state, a source said this week. Hanford’s DOE site manager, Brian Vance, said last week during an appearance before the Hanford Advisory Board to expect the […]

The Department of Energy’s manager for the Hanford Site in Washington state expects the stabilization of three crumbling underground waste structures near the Plutonium Finishing Plant to be shored up by the end of January. “We expect to complete that project by the end of January,” Hanford’s site manager Brian Vance told a meeting of […]

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 […]

Weapons Complex Monitor will not publish next week in observance of the Christmas holiday, nor the week after, in observance of New Year’s Day. Look for the next issue in your inbox on Friday, Jan. 8. Happy 2021!

The Department of Energy extended the bid deadline for a new Carlsbad Technical Assistance Contract by one week, to Dec. 23. The DOE Office of Environmental Management announced the extra time in a package of questions and answers published Dec. 11 on a procurement website. Previously, bids were due Dec. 14. In a final Q&A […]

President-elect Joe Biden will nominate former Michigan Gov. Jennifer Granholm (D) to be Secretary of Energy, media reported this week. Granholm, who is deeply familiar with U.S. auto-making, will be a key ambassador to industry when Biden enlists the DOE’s help bolstering his agenda to fight climate change, outlets reported, citing people familiar with the […]

Cold War and Manhattan Project locations being cleaned up by the Department of Energy could be viable candidates for new nuclear power plants, a federal official said during an online presentation Wednesday. About a dozen of the 16 nuclear cleanup properties run by the DOE Office of Environmental Management (EM) boast “unique characteristics” potentially attractive […]

The Washington state Department of Ecology will hold an online public hearing Jan. 21 on proposed modifications to certain facilities at the Department of Energy’s Hanford Site. The DOE and contractor Washington River Protection Solutions seek a class 2 modification to allow expansion of loading areas at the Liquid Effluent Retention Facility and the 200 […]

A group led by Navarro Research and Engineering is expected to start its transition Jan. 4 as the new contractor at the Department of Energy’s Hanford Site in Washington state, a source said Tuesday. Hanford’s DOE site manager, Brian Vance, said last week during an appearance before the Hanford Advisory Board to expect the new […]

The draft Record of Decision on a proposed 2.2-million-cubic yard landfill for the Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge Site in Tennessee is being delayed once again, with the new publication target being next July. The document was previously scheduled for publication this week by the DOE Office of Environmental Management at Oak Ridge. But spokespeople […]

An article in Weapons Complex Morning Briefing [“Meeting on LANL Stormwater Scheduled for This Week,” Dec. 15, 2020] should have identified Huntington Ingalls Industries as the lead partner in Newport News Nuclear BWXT Los Alamos (N3B). An article in Weapons Complex Morning Briefing [“Law Pausing Ohio Nuclear Plant Subsidies To Be Heard Tuesday,” Dec. 14, […]

The Department of Energy’s manager for the Hanford Site in Washington state expects the stabilization of three crumbling underground waste structures near the Plutonium Finishing Plant to be shored up by the end of January. “We expect to complete that project by the end of January,” Hanford’s site manager Brian Vance told a meeting of […]

The Department of Energy and its legacy cleanup contractor for the Los Alamos National Laboratory will discuss 2021 plans for improved stormwater runoff around the lab during a public meeting Wednesday evening. It is the second of two required semiannual meetings by DOE’s Office of Environmental Management at the federal complex and remediation contractor, Newport […]

Fourteen new cases of the coronavirus were confirmed at the Department of Energy’s Hanford Site in Washington state over the weekend, putting the site’s cumulative case count at more than 500 since the pandemic hit the U.S. in January. Eight workers at the former plutonium production facility informed management Friday they had tested positive for […]

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 […]

The Department of Energy extended the bid deadline for a new Carlsbad Technical Assistance Contract by one week, to Dec. 23. The DOE Office of Environmental Management announced the extra time in a package of questions and answers on the business published Friday on a procurement website. Previously, bids were due today. The DOE acknowledged […]

The Department of Energy has picked up a six-month option keeping North Wind Portage on the job as the technical assistance contractor at the Carlsbad Field Office in New Mexico until June 2021. The basic contract and associated task orders were extended six months from Dec. 4, last Friday, to June 3, 2021, a spokesperson […]

Among the 106 Republican members of the House of Representatives filing an amicus brief with a Texas lawsuit challenging the results of the 2020 presidential election — which President Donald Trump has claimed without evidence was compromised by widespread fraud — were five lawmakers whose districts include Department of Energy nuclear weapon sites. “This brief […]