Cleanup & Remediation

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency appears likely this week to issue its final record of decision for cleanup of the radioactively contaminated West Lake Landfill near St. Louis, Mo. Then-EPA Director Scott Pruitt in February announced the agency’s proposed approach to the project: partial excavation, in which soil contaminated at 52.9 picocuries per gram or […]

Bechtel National is bringing on a new project director for the Waste Treatment Plant at the Department of Energy’s Hanford Site in Washington state, employees were told Friday. Brian Reilly, who joined the project last December, will be replaced by Valerie McCain. Reilly has been reassigned to the position of project director for the Vogtle […]

When President Trump signed a multiagency appropriations package Friday afternoon, it assured the Energy Department’s Office of Environmental Management about $7.2 billion in funding for the 2019 fiscal year starting Oct. 1. The DOE-funding “minibus,” approved by Congress earlier this month, provides the largest budget for the department’s nuclear cleanup office since it received almost […]

The Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board (DNFSB) will hold two more public hearings about a controversial Department of Energy order the independent nuclear health-and-safety watchdog said would prevent it from exercising its lawful authority to inspect nuclear weapons sites. Acting DNFSB Chairman Bruce Hamilton mentioned the meetings in a Sept. 17 letter to Energy Secretary Rick […]

The liquid waste contractor for the Department of Energy’s Savannah River Site in South Carolina is asking a federal judge to dismiss a discrimination lawsuit filed by a former employee. In a Sept. 14 motion for summary judgment, Savannah River Remediation (SRR) said Adrienne Saulsberry was terminated for legitimate reasons. The contractor said its fact […]

Despite threats of severe weather that required the Savannah River Site to brace for impact, the facility emerged unscathed after Hurricane Florence slammed into South Carolina last week. The storm, which has been linked to dozens of deaths in several coastal states, had no impact on missions or facilities at the 310-square-mile Department of Energy […]

The Department of Energy and several other parties on Wednesday signed a settlement agree to a 3-year-old federal lawsuit seeking better protection from chemical vapors for workers at the Hanford Site in Washington state. The agreement, if approved by the court, would freeze the case as Hanford tank farm contractor Washington River Protection Solutions (WRPS) […]

An article in the Sept. 14 Weapons Complex Monitor mischaracterized the nature of the Government Accountability Office’s ruling upholding a contract protest against a liquid waste management contract award at the Department of Energy’s Savannah River Site in South Carolina. The GAO ruled the Energy Department failed to evaluate the viability of the winning bidder’s […]

The Department of Energy on Thursday released the request for proposals for the Hanford Mission Essentials Services Contract. The award has a projected value of $4 billion to $6 billion over 10 years, including option periods. The work is now performed at the Hanford Site in Washington state by Mission Support Alliance, owned by Leidos […]

The Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board (DNFSB) will hold two more public hearings about a controversial Department of Energy order the independent nuclear health-and-safety watchdog said would prevent it from exercising its lawful authority to inspect nuclear weapons sites. Acting DNFSB Chairman Bruce Hamilton mentioned the meetings in a Sept. 17 letter to Energy Secretary Rick […]

The Department of Energy Office of Enforcement has issued a final notice of violation to Bechtel National for a Nov. 4, 2016, industrial accident at the Hanford Site in Washington state. A worker sustained broken vertebrae and cuts to the head when a 12-inch pipe unexpectedly separated at a joint and sprayed a pressurized stream […]

The Energy Department’s Paducah Site in Kentucky lost power for about three hours Saturday. A failed piece of electrical equipment caused one Tennessee Valley Authority power line to fall into other power lines that morning, Scott Brooks, a spokesman for the federal utility, said by email Wednesday. The TVA system provides electricity to the Paducah […]

The Department of Energy and several other parties on Wednesday signed a settlement agree to a 3-year-old federal lawsuit seeking better protection from chemical vapors for workers at the Hanford Site in Washington state. The agreement, if approved by the court, would freeze the case as Hanford tank farm contractor Washington River Protection Solutions (WRPS) […]

The Energy Department’s Paducah Site in Kentucky lost power for about three hours Saturday. A failed piece of electrical equipment caused one Tennessee Valley Authority power line to fall into other power lines that morning, Scott Brooks, a spokesman for the federal utility, said by email Wednesday. The TVA system provides electricity to the Paducah […]

Energy Department employees and contractors, and anyone with a smartphone, can now follow Assistant Secretary of Energy for Environmental Management Anne Marie White on Twitter. White, who made her introductory tweet as DOE cleanup chief on Sept. 12, goes by the handle @EMAssistantSec. As of Wednesday afternoon she had 124 followers and seven tweets. A […]

The Energy Department has renewed a five-year grant worth roughly $7 million to the National Conference of State Legislatures (NCSL) to familiarize state lawmakers and tribal governments with radioactive waste cleanup issues around the nuclear complex. The DOE Environmental Management Consolidated Business Center announced the grant on Monday. The funding is designed to help state […]

The Department of Energy Office of Enforcement has issued a final notice of violation to Bechtel National for a Nov. 4, 2016, industrial accident at the Hanford Site in Washington state. A worker sustained broken vertebrae and cuts to the head when a 12-inch pipe unexpectedly separated at a joint and sprayed a pressurized stream […]

The liquid waste contractor for the Department of Energy’s Savannah River Site in South Carolina is asking a federal judge to dismiss a discrimination lawsuit filed by a former employee. In a Sept. 14 motion for summary judgment, Savannah River Remediation (SRR) said Adrienne Saulsberry was terminated for legitimate reasons. “SRR is entitled to judgment […]

An article in the Sept. 13 Weapons Complex Morning Briefing mischaracterized the nature of the Government Accountability Office’s ruling upholding a contract protest against a liquid waste management contract award at the Department of Energy’s Savannah River Site in South Carolina. The GAO ruled the Energy Department failed to evaluate the viability of the winning […]

Layoffs are expected to start within a couple months at Fluor Idaho’s Advanced Mixed Waste Treatment Project (AMWTP), Idaho Falls Mayor Rebecca Casper said Thursday. The facility workforce at the Department of Energy’s Idaho National Laboratory “is on its way out the door,” Casper said. This is expected “before the New Year, before the holidays,” […]

The Energy Department on Sept. 12 declined a request to extend the bid proposal deadline for a small business contract to deactivate and tear down low-risk and low-complexity structures for the Oak Ridge Office Environmental Management in Tennessee. In questions posted on the procurement website for the potential $25 million contract, an unidentified stakeholder asked […]

ICE Service Group on Monday denied patent infringement claims made in a lawsuit from a competitor, instead accusing the company of “brazen industrial espionage.” Clinton, La.-based PacTec, which makes industrial containment bags used at government and commercial radioactive waste cleanup sites, filed its lawsuit in June in U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of […]

The Department of Energy’s Savannah River Site in South Carolina said it will keep only essential safety and security staff on duty if Hurricane Florence threatens the nearby region inland. The essential staff number fluctuates depending on what is needed at the time, but in recent memory it has been roughly 340 members of the […]

More than 40 companies signed up to attend an industry session last month to learn more about a contract for further cleanup of the Central Plateau at the Department of Energy’s Hanford Site in Washington state. There were more 90 registered participants representing companies including AECOM, Atkins, AVANTech, Bechtel, BWX Technologies, Fluor, Honeywell, Navarro Research […]

The Energy Department’s cleanup office will soon formally post openings for two leadership jobs, Assistant Secretary of Energy for Environmental Management Anne Marie White told Weapons Complex Monitor. This week, the Office of Environmental Management also posted an updated organizational chart on its website, which includes a couple of significant additions to the last revision […]

Demolition-related work could restart next week at the Hanford Site’s Plutonium Finishing Plant, but contractor CH2M Hill Plateau Remediation Co. has been cleared only to resume lower-hazard operations. Most work has been stopped at the highly radioactively contaminated facility since December, when a spread of radioactive material was discovered for the second time in 2017. […]

Scott Anderson has been promoted to president and general manager of the cleanup contractor for the Department of Energy’s West Valley Demonstration Project in New York state, CH2M Hill BWXT West Valley. Anderson has been the No. 2 executive at the West Valley contractor for three years, serving as senior vice president and general manager. […]

After a suspension of several months, Fluor Idaho is again excavating a tranche of Cold War waste at the Energy Department’s Idaho National Laboratory. The Idaho Cleanup Project contractor voluntarily suspended the work in the lab’s Accelerated Retrieval Project 8 space following an April 11 breach of four drums at the Accelerated Retrieval Project 5 […]

President Donald Trump’s signature is the only thing standing between the Energy Department’s nuclear cleanup office and nearly $7.2 billion in funding for fiscal 2019. That would be the highest spending level for DOE’s Office of Environmental Management since fiscal 2005, when it received nearly $7.3 billion. The House of Representatives on Thursday voted 377-20 […]

Contractor Mission Support Alliance has begun a $7.8 million improvement to the water-system infrastructure in the center of the Department of Energy’s Hanford Site in Washington state. Workers are installing about 4 miles of 30-inch pipe to connect the separate water grids of the east and west areas of the nuclear cleanup site. Work is […]