Office of Environmental Management (EM)

Representatives from incumbent Navarro Research and Engineering were among the 37 participants registered for an Aug. 14 presolicitation meeting with Energy Department officials on the next Nevada Environmental Program Services contract. Among the other companies that sent staffers to Henderson, Nev., to learn more about the draft request for proposals posted by DOE in July: […]

While two reports made public this month in New Mexico have illustrated poor accounting practices at the Regional Coalition of LANL Communities, Los Alamos County Manager Harry Burgess rejects the suggestion county employees, acting as the group’s fiscal agency, have engaged in wrongdoing. The New Mexico attorney general is investigating any potential fraud in reimbursements […]

There is a diminishing likelihood that the long-awaited Integrated Waste Treatment Unit (IWTU) at the Idaho National Laboratory will begin operations this year, as had been hoped in some quarters, the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board indicated recently. The Energy Department and lab cleanup contractor Fluor Idaho have yet to announce a startup date, but […]

Los Angeles-based engineering giant AECOM on Monday announced that it has promoted former Department of Energy official Mark Whitney to lead its nuclear and environment business unit, filling the slot vacated by Todd Wright. Wright recently retired as executive vice president and general manager of the AECOM branch, but is staying on at the company […]

The Energy Department last week issued a request for proposals (RFP) for a small business set-aside contract, potentially worth almost $25 million over five years, to tackle low-risk, low-complexity characterization and remediation for the Oak River Office of Environmental Management in Tennessee. The Y-12 National Security Complex, the Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL), and the […]

The Energy Department has temporarily halted salt mining at the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) disposal site near Carlsbad, N.M. Mining has gone slower than expected since it resumed in January, DOE also recently told the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board (DNFSB). The Energy Department and WIPP management contractor Nuclear Waste Partnership (NWP) have stopped […]

The California Department of Toxic Substances Control (DTSC) confirmed Friday the cleanup road map for the entire Santa Susana Field Laboratory site, due this year, will now not be published until 2019. State spokesman Sanford Nax confirmed by email the DTSC now expects to issue the program management plan (PMP) for the 2,800-acre site in early […]

The Department of Energy’s Savannah River Site in South Carolina earlier this month sent its first shipment of transuranic (TRU) waste for 2018 to the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) in New Mexico, ending a yearlong layoff in waste exports. The DOE facility said in a press release it shipped “five standard waste boxes” to […]

A major infrastructure replacement at the Savannah River Site’s Salt Waste Processing Facility (SWPF) is inching toward completion, though the Department of Energy is hesitant to state when that might occur. The agency first reported in April that Parsons, the contractor that constructed the facility and is preparing it for operations, would need to replace […]

A truck carrying equipment contaminated at the Hanford Site’s Plutonium Finishing Plant traveled to two other sites on the Energy Department property and then off-site before the problem was discovered. Employees at the cleanup site in eastern Washington state received a DOE message about the incident in early August. The incident occurred amid preparations to […]

BWX Technologies still hopes its team can win the multibillion-dollar liquid waste management contract for the Energy Department’s Savannah River Site in South Carolina, executives said Aug. 7. The Lynchburg, Va., company partnered with Bechtel and Honeywell in Savannah River EcoManagement, which last fall initially won a 10-year, $4.7 billion contract to take over the […]

The Department of Energy’s oversight of contractors building the Waste Treatment and Immobilization Plant (WTP) at the Hanford Site in Washington state is improving, according a recent review by DOE’s Office of Enterprise Assessments (EA). In a separate report, the DOE oversight office gave WTP prime contractor Bechtel National a clean review for recent development […]

A dispute over irregularities in expense reimbursements for the former executive director of the Regional Coalition of LANL Communities (RCLC) has attracted the attention of the New Mexico attorney general. “We can confirm the Office of the Attorney General has received a public referral and this matter is under review,” David Carl, spokesman for New […]

The Government Accountability Office dismissed a bid protest over a $137 million consolidated technical support contract at the Energy Department’s Portsmouth/Paducah Project Office because the award is being reconsidered. That is according to the Aug. 17 decision document issued by the GAO after Albuquerque, N.M.-based Strategic Management Solutions protested the June contract award to a […]

William Cooper, the Trump administration’s nominee to become Energy Department general counsel, was passed out of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee on a voice vote Thursday afternoon. The vote came after the panel’s business meeting was postponed Thursday morning, a committee staffer said. The nominee will now await action by the full Senate. […]

The Department of Energy does not have effective processes, procedures, and controls over the workers’ compensation program at the Hanford Site in Washington state, the DOE Office of Inspector General said Thursday. Concerns ranged from inadequate communication with workers filing claims for illnesses and injuries to letters of credit issued without adequate controls to a […]

The August doldrums in Washington weren’t quite as quiet as in past years, and there was plenty of news during the ExchangeMonitor’s annual publication break. As chronicled in the Weapons Complex Morning Briefing, here are a few stories we’ve been following. Hanford Treats Over 2 Billion Gallons of Contaminated Groundwater in FY18 Workers at the Hanford […]

Most work resumed Monday on the Hanford Site’s SX Tank Farm after a stop-work order was lifted. One or more workers called a halt to work Friday in the radioactive waste storage area out of safety concerns that a hole discovered the day before could impair the integrity of a nearby underground tank. However, a […]

The Energy Department’s Office of River Protection expects the workload will increase significantly during the next contract period at the 222-S Laboratory at the Hanford Site in Washington state. The Office of Environmental Management on July 30 issued a draft request for proposals (RFP) for a potential seven-year, $904 million contract for analytical work, testing, […]

John Stang Perma-Fix expect its GeoMelt radioactive waste treatment system to go into fuller production in late 2018 at its Washington state location, according to President and CEO Mark Duff. Early this year, the Atlanta-based waste management company entered into a contract with Veolia Nuclear Solutions to install its patented vitrification technology in Perma-Fix’s Richland […]

Longtime Energy Department hand Jim Owendoff has left his job as the No. 2 official in the Office of Environmental Management (EM) to become a special adviser on nuclear cleanup issues at the Savannah River Site in South Carolina. Mark Gilbertson, associate principal deputy assistant secretary for EM’s Office of Regulatory and Policy Affairs, will […]

The Department of Energy this week released a draft solicitation for a Savannah River Site management and operations contract that could be worth nearly $15 billion over 10 years, including construction of new tritium facilities to power up U.S. nuclear weapons. Interested parties can meet DOE officials on site for two days of one-on-one meetings and […]

Restructuring the independent federal agency charged with health and safety oversight at Department of Energy nuclear-weapon and cleanup sites will not involve layoffs, according to the head of the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board. “We are not going to have to involuntarily separate anyone,” acting DNFSB Chairman Bruce Hamilton said in an Aug. 16 telephone […]

The Government Accountability Office dismissed a bid protest over a $137 million consolidated technical support contract at the Energy Department’s Portsmouth/Paducah Project Office because the award is being reconsidered. That is according to the Aug. 17 decision document issued by the GAO after Albuquerque, N.M.-based Strategic Management Solutions protested the June contract award to a […]

It would be “logical” for the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) to take over as landlord of the Savannah River Site in Aiken, S.C., “at some point,” the site’s top federal manager told attendees of a local group’s breakfast meeting Wednesday. Savannah River Site Manager Michael Budney’s remarks before the Citizens for Nuclear Technology Awareness […]

The New Mexico State Auditor’s Office has questioned whether the Regional Coalition of LANL Communities (RCLC) is improperly engaged in lobbying. Most press attention generated by an Aug. 7 report from State Auditor Wayne Johnson has focused on reimbursement of travel and entertainment expenses by the nongovernmental group’s former executive director, Andrea Romero. The organization […]

The Department of Energy on Tuesday released a draft solicitation for a Savannah River Site management and operations contract that could be worth nearly $15 billion over 10 years, including construction of new tritium facilities to power up U.S. nuclear weapons. Interested parties can meet DOE officials on site for three days of one-on-one meetings beginning […]

Most work resumed Monday on the Hanford Site’s SX Tank Farm after a stop-work order was lifted. One or more workers called a halt to work Friday in the radioactive waste storage area out of safety concerns that a hole discovered the day before could impair the integrity of a nearby underground tank. However, a […]

The Energy Department is expected to review its June award of a contract worth up to $137 million over five years for consolidated technical support services at the Portsmouth/Paducah Project Office (PPPO) to a subsidiary of Professional Project Services (Pro2Serve). The Government Accountability Office on Friday dismissed a bid protest of the contract award, brought […]

The Energy Department’s Office of River Protection expects the workload will increase significantly during the next contract period at the 222-S Laboratory at the Hanford Site in Washington state. The Office of Environmental Management on July 30 issued a draft request for proposals (RFP) for a potential seven-year, $904 million contract for analytical work, testing, […]