Cleanup & Remediation

Jacobs Engineering intends to compete for two major environmental remediation projects at the Department of Energy’s Hanford Site in Washington state, a senior executive said Tuesday. That demonstrates the Dallas-based company’s commitment to working at the massive cleanup program for the long term, according to Terry Hagen, Jacobs’ chief operating officer and president for its […]

Cathy Hickey has departed her post as president of Westinghouse Government Services, 17 months after the company opened a new office just outside of Washington, D.C., to increase its visibility within the Energy Department contracting world. Hickey “chose to leave via a voluntary separation package,” Westinghouse Electric spokeswoman Sarah Cassella said by email Wednesday. Company […]

The Department of Energy could be at risk of millions of dollars of additional unnecessary costs at the Hanford Site in Washington state if it does not improve its oversight at the massive nuclear cleanup project, the agency’s inspector general said in a report this week. The Office of Inspector General released a summary of […]

The lead attorney at the Savannah River Site was honored by the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) for helping the agency pivot away from processing surplus weapon-usable plutonium at the South Carolina facility’s now-canceled Mixed Oxide Fuel Fabrication Facility (MFFF). Mary-Ellen Noone, counsel for the NNSA Savannah River Field Office, won the NNSA General Counsel […]

By John Stang Perma-Fix Environmental Services said Wednesday its GeoMelt radioactive waste treatment system is scheduled to complete its testing by Dec. 31 and should begin operating in the first quarter of 2019. “We are making progress with the GeoMelt system,” Perma-Fix President and CEO Mark Duff said during the company’s quarterly earnings conference call. […]

A second defendant has been added to a lawsuit seeking to recoup costs for the remediation of the radioactively contaminated West Lake Landfill in Missouri. Then, in a petition filed Thursday, landfill owner Bridgeton Landfill LLC suggested it would add yet another defendant to the complaint: multinational investment bank Citigroup. On Oct. 23, Bridgeton Landfill […]

Weapons Complex Morning Briefing will not be published Monday in observance of Veterans Day. Look for the next issue in your inbox on Tuesday, Nov. 13.

Perma-Fix Environmental Services said Wednesday its GeoMelt radioactive waste treatment system is scheduled to complete its testing by Dec. 31 and should begin operating in the first quarter of 2019. “We are making progress with the GeoMelt system,” Perma-Fix President and CEO Mark Duff said during the company’s quarterly earnings conference call. In January, the […]

BWX Technologies has rolled up a trio of big “wins” in the Energy Department’s cleanup complex during the past 12 months and is hoping for more, President and CEO Rex Geveden said Wednesday. “There remain significant pending opportunities including the re-award of the Savannah River [Site] liquid waste contract, Savannah River management and operations,” along […]

While Rep. Mike Simpson (R-Idaho) easily won re-election Tuesday, his ability to influence the money flow to the Energy Department’s Idaho National Laboratory, and federal nuclear cleanup operations as a whole, appears to be on the decline. Simpson took more than 60 percent of the vote in Idaho’s 2nd Congressional District to decisively defeat Democrat Aaron […]

BWX Technologies on Tuesday reported third-quarter 2018 revenue of $426 million, 1.5 percent more than the $419 million recorded for the same period in 2017. The Lynchburg, Va.-based contractor to the Energy Department and the nuclear industry also said its net income for the quarter ended Sept. 30 was $77.9 million, or $0.78 per diluted […]

Jeff Griffin is the new head of field operations for the agency’s Office of Environmental Management (EM). Griffin, previously associate director for environmental management at the Savannah River National Laboratory in South Carolina, has been named EM’s new associate principal deputy assistant secretary for field operations. Assistant Secretary for Environmental Management Anne Marie White made […]

Nuclear industry veteran Bob Cochran has been named president of Westinghouse Government Services, effective Nov. 1. He succeeds Cathy Hickey, who on Nov. 1 became executive vice president at Department of Energy contractor Navarro Research and Engineering in Oak Ridge, Tenn. Cochran has been a director for Virginia-based Westinghouse Government Services for about 18 months, […]

A second defendant has been added to a lawsuit seeking to recoup costs for remediation of the radioactively contaminated West Lake Landfill in Missouri. On Oct. 23, landfill owner Bridgeton Landfill LLC sued Mallinckrodt LLC for an unspecified portion of prior and future cleanup costs for the waste disposal facility near St. Louis. In a […]

The lead attorney at the Savannah River Site was honored by the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) for helping the agency pivot away from processing surplus weapon-usable plutonium at the South Carolina facility’s now-canceled Mixed Oxide Fuel Fabrication Facility (MFFF). Mary-Ellen Noone, counsel for the NNSA Savannah River Field Office, won the NNSA General Counsel […]

Lynchburg, Va.-based BWX Technologies will issue its quarterly earnings report for the three months ended Sept. 30 after market close Tuesday, then will discuss the results in a conference call at 8:30 a.m. EST Wednesday. In August, BWX Technologies reported $439 million in revenue for the second quarter of 2018, a 7.1 percent uptick from […]

A familiar face in Energy Department nuclear cleanup circles, Cathy Hickey, has joined Tennessee-based Navarro Research and Engineering as executive vice president. Hickey joined the company Nov. 1 and will work out of Navarro’s Oak Ridge, Tenn., office, a spokesperson said by email Friday. Hickey succeeds Bob Eby, who will remain with the company on […]

A comparative analysis of different supplemental treatment methods for low-level radioactive waste at the Department of Energy’s Hanford Site should be included in the results of an ongoing study, according to the second review report on the study by a National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine panel. The panel is independently reviewing a study […]

The Energy Department contractor at the West Valley Demonstration Project near Buffalo, N.Y., recently finished shipping the last of the site’s legacy low-level radioactive waste for disposal. Contractor CH2M HILL BWXT West Valley (CHBWV) finished the shipments on Sept. 6, seven months ahead of the April 2019 deadline, a spokesman said by email. The waste, […]

The Energy Department must address concerns about potential water contamination before the Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation (TDEC) is ready to sign off on a new waste disposal landfill at the Oak Ridge Reservation. “To gain the state’s support, DOE may need to revise the landfill design, because groundwater near the land surface could […]

Extensive mediation has not resolved a dispute over the amount of money former Department of Energy cleanup contractor Washington Closure must pay Savage Logistics in attorney fees and other legal costs as part of a lawsuit settlement, according to federal court documents. In mid-June, Washington Closure Hanford agreed to pay $3.2 million to settle a […]

The Department of Energy said this week it has started work to move a metric ton of plutonium out of South Carolina, after three federal appeals judges affirmed a lower court’s order to remove the material from the state by Jan. 1, 2020. Barring an escalation to the U.S. Supreme Court, or a rehearing in the U.S. […]

Fluor Chairman and CEO David Seaton on Thursday lauded two Department of Energy contract extensions for programs led by the company and expressed optimism about winning more business during the fourth quarter. The Fluor-led Savannah River Nuclear Solutions team, which manages the Savannah River Site in South Carolina, received a 12-month contract extension from in […]

The head of the Department of Energy’s Office of Environmental Management will attend a Nov. 28 public hearing about a controversial agency order the independent Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board (DNFSB) fears will limit its access to defense-nuclear sites across the country. Anne Marie White, assistant secretary for environmental management, accepted the invitation on or […]

Workers at the Hanford Site on Wednesday resumed stabilizing the second PUREX Plant radioactive waste storage tunnel with concrete-like grout to prevent its possible collapse. The project was suspended for several days after an Oct. 26 incident in which steam was spotted coming from a small building attached to the tunnel, leading to a precautionary […]

The Energy Department said this week it is reviewing a new baseline laying out an updated cost and schedule for completion of the Salt Waste Processing Facility (SWPF) at the Savannah River Site in South Carolina. The agency has not released details of the baseline submitted in June by SWPF contractor Parsons or said when […]

The head of the Department of Energy’s Office of Environmental Management will attend a Nov. 28 public hearing about a controversial agency order the independent Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board (DNFSB) fears will limit its access to defense-nuclear sites across the country. Anne Marie White, assistant secretary for environmental management, accepted the invitation on or […]

Contractors and other observers are still waiting to see who will be selected as permanent second in command for the U.S. Energy Department’s Office of Environmental Management (EM). “We are all waiting on an EM-2” to be named, one industry source said Monday, using the common term for the principal deputy assistant secretary to the […]

Computer Sciences Corp. (CSC) has agreed to pay $389,355 to settle a civil lawsuit related to its former work as the prime medical services provider for the Department of Energy’s Hanford Site in Washington state. The lawsuit, filed in U.S. District Court for Eastern Washington and joined this week by the Department of Justice, claimed […]

The state of Idaho has now assessed the Energy Department $4.77 million in penalties for its failure to start treating sodium-bearing waste at the Idaho National Laboratory. Fluor Idaho has estimated it could be well into 2019 before it begins operation of DOE’s Integrated Waste Treatment Unit (IWTU), Natalie Creed, hazardous waste unit manager at […]