Cleanup & Remediation

The contractor in charge of decommissioning and decontamination of the Energy Department’s Portsmouth Site in Piketon, Ohio, earned $24.3 million of a potential fee of almost $33 million for the 16-month period ended Sept. 30, 2017. The Energy Department’s recent release of the performance scorecard for Fluor-BWXT Portsmouth comes a couple weeks after the agency […]

The Department of Energy is offering prospective bidders for the upcoming $6.5 billion Hanford Central Plateau Cleanup Contract the opportunity to discuss remediation goals with state and federal regulators for the Washington state facility. Following the Sept. 27 draft request for proposals, DOE’s Office of Environmental Management is asking potential Central Plateau bidders about their […]

The Energy Department has clarified what it means by the “Notice to Proceed” in its Hanford Site Mission Essential Services Contract, and answered other questions posed by bidders for the business, which could be worth $6 billion over 10 years. After releasing the final request for proposals on Sept. 20 on the contract, DOE posted […]

A federal judge has approved a request to push back the deadlines for extraction of radioactive tank waste set in the court-enforced consent decree governing cleanup of the Hanford Site. Extending the two milestones was a condition of a settlement agreement reached in September in a separate lawsuit in U.S. District Court for Eastern Washington […]

Two assistant managers at one of the Department of Energy offices at the Hanford Site in Washington state have switched positions as part of a plan to build up its capabilities by providing opportunities for professional development. Glyn Trenchard, previously Office of River Protection (ORP) assistant manager for tank farms, has been named assistant manager […]

The Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board (DNFSB) has scheduled a series of meetings, including a closed-door session to brew up a new safety recommendation and two public hearings about a controversial Department of Energy order the board says would weaken its oversight of defense-nuclear sites. In the closed door meeting, scheduled for Oct. 23, the […]

The contractor for legacy cleanup at the Energy Department’s Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico, Newport News Nuclear BWXT-Los Alamos (N3B), has hired a subcontractor to remove telephone poles, old fences, and tons of concrete from Technical Area 21. The $1.5 million contract was awarded to a team of Montana-based Envirocon and Los Alamos-based […]

The contractor in charge of decommissioning and decontamination of the Energy Department’s Portsmouth Site in Piketon, Ohio earned $24.3 million out of a potential fee of almost $33 million for the 16-month period ended Sept. 30, 2017. The Energy Department’s recent release of the scorecard showing Fluor-BWXT Portsmouth earned 74 percent of its potential fee, […]

A story in the Oct. 9 issue of Weapons Complex Morning Briefing (“DOE Expects Benefits From Going With Single Contractor at 222-S Laboratory”) should have said the former Wastren Advantage had its corporate name retired after it was folded into Veolia Nuclear Solutions – Federal Services.

Energy Department contractor Fluor Idaho has found the fourth drum lid from an April 11 accident where four drums of radioactive sludge overheated and ejected their lids inside a building at DOE’s Idaho National Laboratory. The lid was found by an airlock entry door near the floor within Room 106 of the WMF-1617 airlock at […]

CH2M Hill Plateau Remediation will have plenty of work to do over the next year after the Energy Department last month granted it a 12-month extension of its Central Plateau Cleanup contract at the Hanford Site in Washington state. When it issued the draft request for proposals for the upcoming $6.5 billion Central Plateau contract […]

The Energy Department has clarified what it means by the “Notice to Proceed” in its Hanford Site Mission Essential Services Contract, and answered other questions posed by bidders for the business, which could be worth $6 billion over 10 years. After releasing the final request for proposals on Sept. 20 on the contract at the […]

The state of Washington has issued the permits needed for Bechtel National to complete construction of the final support facility at the Hanford Site’s Waste Treatment Plant to allow treatment of low-activity radioactive waste by a federal court deadline of 2023. Construction of the plant has advanced significantly, with the concrete walls of the 18,400-square-foot […]

The federal government has lifted spending restrictions placed on Bechtel National purchasing after it addressed issues raised in a routine audit by the Pentagon’s Defense Contract Management Agency. In an Oct. 5 announcement, Bechtel said it received notification on Oct. 1 that its purchasing system had been reapproved for subcontracting activities, including at the Waste […]

A new legally binding deadline requires cesium and strontium capsules at the Hanford Site in Washington state to be moved to dry storage by August 2025, though some key stakeholders argued the work should done sooner. The Department of Energy and its regulators, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the Washington state Department of Ecology, […]

The Department of Energy on Wednesday issued a request for information (RFI)/sources sought notice for the next stage in cleanup at the West Valley Demonstration Project in New York state. The DOE Office of Environmental Management is officially calling this “Phase 1B” of deactivating and tearing down buildings at West Valley, plus conducting soil remediation. […]

PacTec, a maker of industrial bags for radioactive and hazardous waste, this month reasserted its federal court patent-infringement claim against a rival and fought back against that company’s counterclaim of improper behavior. In an Oct. 1 filing in U.S. District Court, the Clinton, La.-based company acknowledged that an employee in early May photographed work being […]

Valve replacement at the Savannah River Site’s Salt Waste Processing Facility (SWPF) is expected to wrap up this month, according to the Department of Energy. Meanwhile, a new project baseline for the facility submitted earlier this year is still under DOE review. Parsons, the DOE contractor building and initially operating the facility, in April discovered […]

The Energy Department has apparently decided having two contractors running the 222-S Laboratory at the Hanford Site in Washington state is like having too many cooks in the kitchen. The department hopes to improve productivity by not having two contractors “competing for priorities because they are working on the same equipment,” Dawn MacDonald, DOE Office […]

The Department of Energy has paused rollout of a solicitation for a 10-year, $14-billion contract to manage the Savannah River Site for most of the next decade, pending an internal review that could radically reshape the nuclear-weapon mission at the South Carolina facility. The agency announced the move late on Oct. 5 in a post […]

Fluor on Wednesday said its revenue for the quarter ended Sept. 30 will be about $4.6 billion, down a bit from the $4.9 billion during the same quarter in 2017. The figures Fluor announced Thursday were preliminary and the regular, full earnings report will be released Nov. 1. Fluor said to expect its third-quarter 2018 […]

The Savannah River Site in South Carolina sustained minor impacts from Hurricane Michael late Thursday and early Friday, during a 24-hour workforce reduction activated as the storm approached. Effects included minimal damage to some administrative buildings at the 310-square-mile Department of Energy facility near the city of Aiken, along with some loss of power and […]

PacTec, a maker of industrial bags for radioactive and hazardous waste, this month reasserted its federal court patent-infringement claim against a rival and fought back against that company’s counterclaim of improper behavior. In an Oct. 1 filing in U.S. District Court, the Clinton, La.-based company acknowledged that an employee in early May photographed work being […]

The Savannah River Site in South Carolina sustained minor impacts from Hurricane Michael late Thursday and early Friday, during a 24-hour workforce reduction activated as the storm approached. Effects included minimal damage to some administrative buildings at the 310-square-mile Department of Energy facility near the city of Aiken, along with some loss of power and […]

The Department of Energy has paused rollout of a solicitation for a 10-year, $14-billion contract to manage the Savannah River Site for most of the next decade, pending an internal review that could radically reshape the nuclear-weapon mission at the South Carolina facility. The agency announced the move late on Oct. 5 in a post […]

Fluor on Wednesday said its revenue for the quarter ended Sept. 30 will be about $4.6 billion, down a bit from the $4.9 billion during the same quarter in 2017. The figures Fluor announced Thursday were preliminary and the regular, full earnings report will be released Nov. 1. Fluor said to expect its third-quarter 2018 […]

The Savannah River Site (SRS) on Wednesday night restricted operations to essential staff as Hurricane Michael approached the Aiken, S.C., region where the 310-square-mile Department of Energy facility is located. In an advisory sent Wednesday afternoon, SRS said it would close its gates to nonessential personnel at 8 p.m. for at least 24 hours. A […]

Valve replacement at the Savannah River Site’s Salt Waste Processing Facility (SWPF) is expected to wrap up this month, according to the Department of Energy. Parsons, the DOE contractor building and initially operating the plant, in April discovered it would need to replace 460 valves after the apparatus that controls the valves malfunctioned. The valves […]

The Department of Energy on Wednesday on Tuesday issued a request for information (RFI)/sources sought for the next stage in cleanup at the West Valley Demonstration Project in New York state. The DOE Office of Environmental Management is officially calling this “Phase 1B” of deactivating and tearing down buildings at West Valley, plus conducting soil […]

The state of Washington has issued the permits needed for Bechtel National to complete construction of the final support facility at the Hanford Site’s Waste Treatment Plant to allow treatment of low-activity radioactive waste by a federal court deadline of 2023. Construction of the plant has advanced significantly, with the concrete walls of the 18,400-square-foot […]