Cleanup & Remediation

Los Alamos National Security (LANS), the prime contractor for Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico, won 84 percent of its potential $10.1 million environmental management award fee in the latest contract scorecard from the Department of Energy. That was good for almost $8.46 million in available fees, DOE said Tuesday. The award fee covers […]

The Department of Energy kept mum Tuesday on how many responses it received to a request for information (RFI) from vendors potentially interested in landing a long-term environmental cleanup contract at the Oak Ridge Reservation in Tennessee. Responses were due Nov. 30 for the RFI issued Nov. 13. The Energy Department is looking at potential […]

Details on resumption of salt mining at the Energy Department’s Waste Isolation Pilot Plant in New Mexico should emerge during Wednesday’s WIPP Town Hall, headlined by DOE Carlsbad Field Office Manager Todd Shrader and Nuclear Waste Partnership President and Project Manager Bruce Covert. WIPP expects to remove about 112,000 tons of salt from Panel 8 […]

Washington Closure Hanford has asked a federal judge for summary judgment in the Department of Justice case accusing the former Energy Department cleanup contractor of falsely claiming credit for awarding three subcontracts to women-owned small businesses. A hearing on the motion filed in U.S. District Court for Eastern Washington is set for Jan. 12 at […]

Westinghouse Electric said last week that it has selected Ken Canavan as its chief technology officer. The 53-year-old Canavan, who will start on Jan. 2, was previously director of engineering for the Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI). “We are excited to have Ken join us, especially during this strategic transition point in Westinghouse’s history,” Westinghouse […]

Department of Energy nuclear budgets will stay at fiscal 2017 levels through Dec. 22, under a short-term spending bill the head of the House Appropriations Committee introduced Saturday. The Department of Energy (DOE), like the rest of the federal government, has been held at last-budget spending levels since early September, when Congress signed a continuing […]

The two losing bidding teams have filed supplements to their protests with the Government Accountability Office over the Energy Department’s award on Oct. 12 of a new $4.7 billion liquid waste management contract at the Savannah River Site (SRS) in South Carolina. Savannah River EcoManagement, a joint venture comprised of BWXT Technical Services Group, Bechtel […]

The U.S. Energy Department on Thursday released a draft request for proposals and announced plans for a pre-solicitation conference for the latest contract connected with mercury cleanup at the Y-12 National Security Complex in Oak Ridge, Tenn. The DOE Office of Environmental Management expects to issue a four-year, fixed-price contract for construction of the Outfall […]

The Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board plans to consider at least one nuclear safety recommendation to the Department of Energy during closed-door meetings in early December, according to notices published Monday. The specific topics to be discussed by the five-member Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board (DNFSB) on Dec. 6 and Dec. 18 are unknown. In notices posted online, the […]

Congress has received the Department of Energy’s report on options for disposal of Greater-Than-Class C and Class-C-Like Waste, setting the stage for legislative approval of the department’s preferred alternative to potentially divide the material between commercial sites and DOE’s Waste Isolation Pilot Plant in New Mexico. The Energy Department projects the United States will hold […]

Funding for federal agencies runs out Dec. 8, but Congress is working on another short-term fix to keep the government running for a little while longer, House Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) said Thursday. The new budget year, fiscal 2018, began on Oct. 1, but the federal government for now remains funded at prior-year levels. “We’re […]

The Energy Department last week issued a draft request for proposals for a contract that could be worth up to $4 billion over 10 years to provide various support services to the Hanford nuclear cleanup site in Washington state. The incumbent contractor is Mission Support Alliance, a partnership of Leidos, Jacobs Engineering, and Centerra Group. […]

An executive with Stoller Newport News Nuclear said Wednesday she had not heard of her rumored consideration for nomination as the Department of Energy’s assistant secretary for environmental management. An official in the defense cleanup industry told Weapons Complex Monitor recently that Stoller Vice President Barbara Mazurowski could be under consideration for the EM-1 post […]

Assuming CH2M shareholders approve that company’s acquisition by Jacobs Engineering in a few weeks, Jacobs Chairman and CEO Steve Demetriou sees the combined company getting off to “a running start.” During a conference call with Wall Street analysts on Nov. 21 following release of Jacobs’ quarterly earnings, Demetriou said he has already visited many CH2M […]

The Washington state Department of Ecology has slated a Dec. 7 public meeting on changes to the dangerous waste permit sought by contractor Bechtel National for the Waste Treatment and Immobilization Plant (WTP) being built at the Department of Energy’s Hanford Site. Bechtel is seeking a Class 2 modification to its existing permit from the […]

Cleanup has been completed on one of the most contaminated spots within the sprawling Hanford Site in southeast Washington state, the Energy Department announced Thursday. Hanford contractor CH2M Hill Plateau Remediation has finished the eight-year remediation project at the 618-10 Burial Ground and two nearby waste sites. In all, work crews extracted more than 512,000 […]

There doesn’t seem to be much chatter now on a concern that contractors raised vocally in September about the manner in which the Energy Department doles out payments for work being performed within its nuclear cleanup complex. The problem of DOE contract payments being distributed in small monthly increments, and sometimes creating cash flow problems, […]

An executive with Stoller Newport News Nuclear said Wednesday she had not heard of her rumored consideration for nomination as the Department of Energy’s assistant secretary for environmental management. An official in the defense cleanup industry told Weapons Complex Morning Briefing recently that Stoller Vice President Barbara Mazurowski could be under consideration for the EM-1 […]

The Washington Department of Ecology has slated a Dec. 7 public meeting on proposed changes to the Dangerous Waste Permit being sought by contractor Bechtel National for the Waste Treatment and Immobilization Plant (WTP) being built at the Hanford Site near Richland, Wash. The Department of Energy’s Office of River Protection (ORP) and Bechtel are […]

The Idaho Department of Environmental Quality said Tuesday that it is seeking comment on a revised air quality permit for the Idaho National Laboratory. The proposed air quality permit to construct (PTC) will govern emissions from the sprawling national laboratory overseen by the Department of Energy. Chiefly, this permit consolidates some existing air permits for […]

Medical authorities have given the green light for three workers at the Hanford Site in Washington state to return to work after receiving precautionary medical checks for odors reported Tuesday inside the 271-AW instrument building. That’s according to Washington River Protection Solutions, a Hanford contractor responsible for radioactive and chemical waste stored in 177 underground […]

BWXT has named Regina W. Carter as its senior vice president, government affairs and communications. Carters has been a vice president for the company since 2015. In addition to heading up government affairs and communications, Carter also serves as a member of BWXT’s executive staff and strategic planning team, BWXT President and CEO Rex D. […]

Waste appears to have been emptied to regulatory standards at the first Hanford tank farm, should tests show work has been adequate. Washington River Protection Solutions has used three technologies to their limit, to empty the 16th and final tank in the C Tank Farm. Regulatory requirements require that either three technologies be used to […]

The Department of Energy will release a draft request for proposals for the Hanford Occupational Medical Services Contract between Dec. 6 and Jan. 6, the agency announced Wednesday ahead of the U.S. Thanksgiving holiday. The contract is a follow-on to the six-year contract awarded to HMP Corp., located near Hanford in Kennewick, Wash., in June […]

The Energy Department says it is too early to estimate the total cost for the Mercury Treatment Facility that will be built at the Y-12 National Security Complex in Oak Ridge, Tenn., given that there are has multiple procurements going in connection with the project. A DOE spokesman said Nov. 22 that the department should […]

Assuming CH2M shareholders approve that company’s acquisition by Jacobs Engineering in a few weeks, Jacobs Chairman and CEO Steve Demetriou sees the combined company getting off to “a running start.” During a conference call with Wall Street analysts Tuesday following release of Jacobs’ quarterly earnings, Demetriou said he has already visited many CH2M offices and […]

The Energy Department late Tuesday announced issuance of a draft request for proposals for a contract that could be worth up to $4 billion over 10 years to provide various support services to the Hanford nuclear cleanup site in Washington state. The incumbent contract is held by Mission Support Alliance, a partnership of Leidos, Jacobs […]

The headline on a Nov. 16 Weapons Complex Morning Briefing article about Centrus Energy’s cleanup work on its retired advanced centrifuge demonstration project at Piketon, Ohio, misstated the location of the facility. We regret the error.

A new Mercury Treatment Facility at the Y-12 National Security Complex in Oak Ridge, Tenn., took a step closer to becoming reality Monday as U.S. lawmakers and Energy Department officials participated in a groundbreaking ceremony. The facility is considered necessary for further cleanup at the DOE nuclear-weapon site, because once some of the old buildings […]

Mercury remains present in the Savannah River Site liquid waste system, but officials at the Department of Energy facility in South Carolina say they are closely monitoring the situation and have no major concerns at this time. About 60 metric tons of mercury inhabits the site’s liquid waste processing facilities and tank farms, left behind […]