Cleanup & Remediation

After a fraud case resulting in prison time for a subcontractor, the Energy Department’s Office of Inspector General recommended URS-CH2M Oak Ridge (UCOR) strengthen financial audits of firms employed to support cleanup of the Oak Ridge Site in Tennessee. The manager of the DOE Oak Ridge Office of Environmental Management, Jay Mullis, agreed more in-depth […]

Department of Energy contractor Honeywell on Thursday attributed a 15% drop in first-quarter revenue primarily to the spinoff of two business lines, saying organic growth was otherwise up by 8%. Company-wide sales dropped from $10.4 billion in the first quarter of 2018 to $8.9 billion in the same period of 2019. “The difference between reported […]

EnergySolutions said Thursday it has finished on-site remediation of the Southwest Experimental Fast Oxide Reactor (SEFOR) near Fayetteville, Ark. “The application of the EnergySolutions Decommissioning Management Model at SEFOR produced results that exceeded our expectations,” EnergySolutions Chief Nuclear Officer John Sauger said in a press release. “A site that pioneered research for reactivity control in […]

In a reversal, the current Energy Department contractor will start tearing down the Main Plant Process Building at the West Valley Demonstration Project in New York state. The Energy Department said earlier this year the demolition would be conducted under a successor to the current site cleanup contract held by CH2M HILL BWXT West Valley […]

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) this week called for nearly tripling the Trump administration’s fiscal 2020 funding proposal for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers’ Formerly Utilized Sites Remedial Action Program (FUSRAP). The $250 million plus-up advocated by Schumer would bring funding to $400 million for the nuclear cleanup program, compared to $150 million […]

Mission Support Alliance (MSA) has asked a federal judge to dismiss a lawsuit brought by 13 current and former fire captains or platoon sergeants at the Hanford Site who are seeking overtime pay for routinely working beyond 40 hours per week. The case was filed against the Hanford support services contractor in April 2018 in […]

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) this week called for a $250 million increase in funding for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers’ Formerly Utilized Sites Remedial Action Program (FUSRAP). The plus-up would bring funding in fiscal 2020 to $400 million for the nuclear cleanup program, compared to $150 million in the current federal budget […]

EnergySolutions said Thursday it has finished on-site remediation of the Southwest Experimental Fast Oxide Reactor (SEFOR) near Fayetteville, Ark. “The application of the EnergySolutions Decommissioning Management Model at SEFOR produced results that exceeded our expectations,” EnergySolutions Chief Nuclear Officer John Sauger said in a press release. “A site that pioneered research for reactivity control in […]

The National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) on Wednesday revealed new details about its proposed dilute-and-dispose plan to eliminate 34 metric tons of weapon-usable plutonium — including that the agency is close to beginning a yearlong environmental review of its new approach. The agency will release its draft dilute-and-dispose supplemental environmental impact statement “in the very […]

The Idaho Department of Environmental Quality is reviewing Fluor Idaho’s plan to restart sludge waste repackaging at the site where four drums of radioactive waste overheated and blew off their lids at the Energy Department’s Idaho National Laboratory a year ago. The state agency received formal submittal of the corrective action plan last Thursday and […]

Michael Graham, a principal vice president at Bechtel and general manager of its environmental, nuclear, security and environmental business line, is retiring this month. “After a distinguished, 40-year career, 23 of them with Bechtel, Michael Graham is retiring,” company spokesman Fred deSousa said by email Tuesday. “Michael has held senior environmental leadership roles at many […]

The Energy Department’s Office of Inspector General would not confirm or deny this week whether it is investigating a regional organization in New Mexico that advocates for local governments around the Los Alamos National Laboratory. The office does not comment on the existence of any “investigative matters,” the DOE IG’s Felicia Jones said by telephone […]

A bipartisan pair of senators last week introduced a bill to tighten ethics and transparency requirements for members of federal advisory committees: expert groups that advise federal agencies including the Department of Energy. The bill from Sens. Rob Portman (R-Ohio) and Maggie Hassan (D-N.H.) would require, among other things, that agencies creating and maintaining such committees openly […]

Watchers of the Department of Energy’s defense nuclear waste and weapons budgets will endure two more weeks of added uncertainty about those programs after Congress blew town for an extended spring break without making progress on a deal to avert automatic spending cuts that will kick in on Oct. 1. The House did make an […]

In a reversal, the current Energy Department contractor will start tearing down the Main Plant Process Building at the West Valley Demonstration Project in New York state . The Energy Department said earlier this year the demolition would be conducted under a successor to the current site cleanup contract held by CH2M HILL BWXT West […]

An April 11 article in Weapons Complex Morning Briefing should have said that: Fluor Idaho holds the five-year, $1.6 billion Idaho Cleanup Project contract, which runs through May 2021; and Spectra Tech has a five-year, $41 million contract for work at Nuclear Regulatory Commission licensed facilities at Idaho National Laboratories, through March 2021.

After a fraud case resulting in prison time for a subcontractor, the Energy Department’s Office of Inspector General recommends URS-CH2M Oak Ridge (UCOR) strengthen financial audits of firms employed to support cleanup of the Oak Ridge Site in Tennessee. The manager of the DOE Oak Ridge Office of Environmental Management, Jay Mullis, agreed more in-depth […]

The Energy Department is extending the deadline for bids on the paramilitary security services contract at the Savannah River Site in South Carolina from April 22 until May 7. In a question-and-answer exchange posted online April 5, a prospective contractor asked for a two-week extension, noting the pre-bid meeting and tour on March 26, “coupled with Good […]

The U.S. Department of Energy is seeking the $50 million it believes it needs to design and build a facility intended to reduce the cost and time of cleaning up nuclear waste at the Savannah River Site near Aiken, S.C. The request in the fiscal 2020 budget rollout comes after a two-year standstill regarding the […]

WASHINGTON — The head of the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board (DNFSB) told members of Congress here Tuesday he hopes the Department of Energy will “fix” a controversial rule that could limit board access to nuclear weapons facilities during the agency’s upcoming one-year review of the directive. In May 2018, the department issued the controversial […]

Contractors at the Hanford Site in Washington state overlooked some factors in conducting cost analyses before deciding whether to lease rather than purchase office trailers and other space for their work, according to a recent audit by the Department of Energy inspector general of the agency’s leased space. Those omissions included failing to ensure trailers […]

The Energy Department is extending the deadline for bids on the paramilitary security services contract at the Savannah River Site in South Carolina from April 22 until May 7. In a question-and-answer exchange posted online April 5, a prospective contractor asked for a two-week extension, noting the pre-bid meeting and tour on March 26, “coupled […]

The Energy Department has until April 24 to decide whether to exercise a 22-month option to keep North Wind-led Portsmouth Mission Alliance (PMA) on the job as the infrastructure support contractor for the Portsmouth Site in Ohio. The $140 million contract for the North Wind-Swift & Staley joint venture began in March 2016 and runs […]

The Energy Department and Parsons are saying little about their recent spat over missed deadlines at the Savannah River Site’s Salt Waste Processing Facility (SWPF), including whether the federal agency has begun imposing up to $33 million in penalties against the contractor. One milestone has already passed: a March 31 deadline for Parsons to submit a declaration of readiness to […]

Fluor Idaho said Tuesday it intends in the next few months to shrink the workforce at the Advanced Mixed Waste Treatment Project (AMWTP) at the Idaho National Laboratory by 190 employees. The contractor will first offer a voluntary separation package in two phases to reduce headcount as the facility nears the end of its mission. […]

The Department of Energy is asking the head of the Environmental Protection Agency, Andrew Wheeler, to overrule an EPA regional office in a dispute over water discharge standards for radionuclides at the Oak Ridge Site in Tennessee. Jay Mullis, manager of DOE’s Oak Ridge Office of Environmental Management, said in an April 5 letter to […]

Open-air demolition using heavy equipment of the Plutonium Finishing Plant (PFP) at the Hanford Site in Washington state resumed on Thursday. It is the first demolition at the plant since an airborne spread of radioactive contamination was discovered in December 2017. Workers with cleanup contractor CH2M Hill Plateau Remediation Co. were ready to restart teardown […]

Three teams are believed to be vying for the 10-year, $13 billion Tank Closure Contract at the Energy Department’s Hanford Site in Washington state, according to an industry source. Proposals by vendor teams hoping to succeed AECOM-led Washington River Protection Solutions were due March 21. The Energy Department is scheduled to hear oral presentations by […]

The Department of Energy has issued a small business sources-sought notice on nuclear remediation activities currently provided by Fluor Idaho and Spectra Tech at the Idaho National Laboratory. Fluor Idaho holds the full five-year, $1.6 billion Idaho Cleanup Project contract, which runs through May 2021. Spectra Tech has a five-year, $41 million contract for environmental […]

Limited record keeping at the old Rocky Flats nuclear weapons plant in Colorado might have factored into an April 2018 waste drum “explosion” at the Idaho National Laboratory, Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board (DNFSB) Chairman Bruce Hamilton said Tuesday. There were “marginal records kept” on drums of Rocky Flats-origin sludge waste buried at INL for […]