Cleanup & Remediation

The bench trial in a lawsuit demanding better protection for Hanford Site workers has been delayed by about six weeks to allow the parties more time to pursue a settlement agreement. The trial now is set for July 25, 2018, in the Richland courthouse of U.S. District Court for Eastern Washington. This is the fourth […]

Longenecker & Associates’ director of technology and international programs has been promoted to the new position of vice president for corporate programs, the consulting firm and Energy Department contractor said Tuesday. The Las Vegas-based company in 2015 hired Laurie Judd away from NuVision Engineering, where he was vice president for government programs. Judd will retain […]

Weapons Complex Morning Briefing will not be published Monday in observance of Labor Day. Look for the next issue in your inbox on Tuesday, Sept. 5.

The Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico has as of this week treated half of its stock of containers filled with a combustible mix of remediated nitrate salts and organic kitty litter, a spokesman said Tuesday. Thirty of 60 drums have been processed at the Energy Department site’s Waste Characterization, Reduction, and Repackaging Facility. […]

Don’t be surprised to see acting Assistant Energy Secretary for Environmental Management James Owendoff continue to lead the Energy Department’s nuclear cleanup program for several more months, a longtime industry observer told Weapons Complex Morning Briefing on Tuesday. “I think they have got a clean slate at DOE on EM-1 candidates,” the source said. Owendoff, […]

The Sept. 6-7 meeting of the Hanford Advisory Board has been canceled after Department of Energy officials in Washington, D.C., did not approve membership applications and renewals for more than a third of the board positions. The meeting, to be held in Hood River, Ore., was the fourth and final meeting of the full board […]

The Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico last week halted treatment of remediated nitrate salts for two days after a fire suppression system was damaged at the facility where the work is being conducted. The Department of Energy lab is treating 60 drums filled with a combustible mix of organic kitty litter and irradiated salt […]

Kevin Smith, the manager of the Department of Energy Office of River Protection at the Hanford Site in Washington state, plans to retire Sept. 30. He gave the word to Energy Secretary Rick Perry on Aug. 15 when the DOE chief visited Hanford. “The Department of Energy is grateful for Kevin’s service and wishes him […]

The state of Idaho and the Department of Energy have resolved a $648,000 fine levied for the federal agency’s failure to start operating a liquid waste treatment facility at the Idaho National Laboratory (INL). The Integrated Waste Treatment Unit (IWTU) was built to process 900,000 gallons of liquid sodium-bearing waste produced during Cold War-era spent […]

Management at the Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico has acknowledged it will not meet upcoming contractual milestones for treatment of nitrate salts, according to a recently released site report from the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board. The news comes just days ahead of the scheduled period for the Department of Energy to award […]

Atkins executive Alan Parker has voluntarily withdrawn his name from consideration as a candidate for the position of Energy Department assistant secretary for environmental management, industry sources said. Parker, president and project manager for the Atkins-led DOE contractor Mid-America Conversion Services (now providing depleted uranium hexafluoride conversion at facilities in Ohio and Kentucky), was reported in […]

One of the primary cleanup contractors at the Department of Energy’s Hanford Site in Washington state has finished its assessment of the June spread of contamination during demolition of the Plutonium Finishing Plant. The evaluation by CH2M Hill Plateau Remediation identified a need to augment the “work package hazard control set” and to improve measures […]

The Department of Energy is taking additional steps to stabilize two decades-old underground tunnels filled with radioactive waste at the Hanford Site in Washington state, after one of them partially collapsed earlier this year. Hanford cleanup contractor CH2M Hill Plateau Remediation Co. announced Tuesday that it had selected a subcontractor to fill the damaged PUREX […]

HBO’s satirical “Last Week Tonight” on Sunday gave over much of its 30-minute broadcast time to the potential threat posed to the United States by its growing stockpile of nuclear waste. Using data from sources including the Nuclear Energy Institute and U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, host John Oliver called attention to more than 71,000 tons of spent […]

A stop work order was issued at the Hanford Site’s Plutonium Finishing Plant after workers learned that plutonium and americium were found in high-volume air samples collected at the Energy Department facility’s Rattlesnake Barricade. The samples were collected by the Washington state Department of Health on June 8, the day workers were ordered to take […]

Hanford Site workers have begun the push to empty most of the remaining waste in the final tank at the C Tank Farm, 19 years after preparations for waste retrieval at the farm began. If work goes as planned, Tank C-105 could be emptied to regulatory standards by the end of the year. C-105 is […]

The parties to a federal lawsuit on protection of Hanford Site workers from chemical vapors are requesting another trial delay while they pursue a settlement agreement. Plaintiffs and defendants asked U.S. District Judge Thomas Rice on Wednesday to postpone the trial from June 11, 2018, to July 25, 2018. It is the fourth trial delay […]

Congress skipped town, and so did many other readers, but that didn’t stop news from breaking during the ExchangeMonitor’s annual August publication break. As chronicled in the Weapons Complex Morning Briefing, here are a few stories that we’ve been following. Fluor Posts Job Ad For SRS Liquid Waste Work Ahead of Contract Award Fluor Corp. […]

HBO’s satirical “Last Week Tonight” on Sunday gave over much of its 30-minute broadcast time to the potential threat posed to the United States by its growing stockpile of nuclear waste. Using data from sources including the Nuclear Energy Institute and U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, host John Oliver called attention to more than 71,000 tons of spent […]

Congress skipped town, and so did many other readers, but that didn’t stop news from breaking during the ExchangeMonitor’s annual August publication break. As chronicled in the Weapons Complex Morning Briefing, here are a few stories that we’ve been following. NRC Planning Yucca Info Gathering for Fall Although it has yet to officially rematerialize, the […]

The Department of Energy has established its panel of experts to help guide planning to stabilize an underground tunnel filled with radioactive waste from the Hanford Site’s PUREX Plant. The eight-person group – consisting of DOE officials, representatives from Hanford cleanup contractor CH2M, U.S. academics, and a Canadian Nuclear Laboratories executive — will meet first […]

A discrimination lawsuit filed in April against the liquid waste contractor for the Savannah River Site in South Carolina has been recommended for dismissal because the accuser failed to respond by Aug. 15 to the plaintiff’s request to quash the case. U.S. District Judge J. Michelle Childs ultimately will decide whether to dismiss Jimmy Rouse’s […]

Los Alamos Technical Associates (LATA), of New Mexico, said Tuesday it has secured a contract to build a groundwater treatment system for the site of the onetime uranium processing plant at Fernald, Ohio. The Energy Department’s Office of Environmental Management completed remediation of the site more than a decade ago, shifting 1,050 acres to the Office […]

The Department of Energy’s proposed plan to remove plutonium from the Savannah River Site does not include hold the agency accountable if it misses deadlines, South Carolina said this week in its latest filing in a federal lawsuit on the dispute. While the state wants the court to hold DOE’s feet to the fire, the […]

The partially collapsed waste storage tunnel at the Department of Energy’s Hanford Site in Washington state should be additionally stabilized by the end of the year, cleanup contractor CH2M Hill Plateau Remediation Co. said Tuesday. The company announced the award of a $2.8 million subcontract to Intermech Inc., of Richland, Wash., to fill PUREX Plant […]

The state of Idaho and the Department of Energy have resolved a $648,000 fine levied for the federal agency’s failure to start operating a liquid waste treatment facility at the Idaho National Laboratory (INL). The Integrated Waste Treatment Unit (IWTU) was built to process 900,000 gallons of liquid sodium-bearing waste produced during Cold War-era spent […]

HBO’s “Last Week Tonight” on Sunday gave over much of its 30-minute broadcast time to the threat posed to the United States by its growing stockpile of nuclear waste. Using data from sources including the Nuclear Energy Institute and U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, host John Oliver called attention to more than 71,000 tons of spent […]

Pike County, Ohio, Auditor Erica J. Snodgrass has added her voice to the growing list of opponents of a nuclear waste disposal facility to be built at the Department of Energy’s Portsmouth Site. “I want to see more economic development in Pike County. I want more jobs in Pike County. However, we should pursue these […]

One of the primary cleanup contractors at the Department of Energy’s Hanford Site in Washington state has finished its assessment of the June spread of contamination during demolition of the Plutonium Finishing Plant. The evaluation by CH2M Hill Plateau Remediation identified a need to augment the “work package hazard control set” and to improve measures […]

The secondary bottom of a double-shell tank at the Hanford Site “has likely failed,” the Washington state Department of Ecology said last week in a letter to the Department of Energy. There is no sign, though, that any radioactive waste is leaking out of the tank into the environment, officials said Friday. The specific concern is that […]