Cleanup & Remediation

Mark Gilbertson has replaced Frank Marcinowski as the top policy and regulatory affairs official in the Department of Energy’s Office of Environmental Management (EM), according to an official agency correspondence reviewed by Weapons Complex Morning Briefing. A DOE spokesperson in Washington confirmed Wednesday that Gilbertson is EM’s current acting associate principal deputy assistant secretary for regulatory and […]

The public meeting promised by the Department of Energy on the structural integrity of the Hanford Site’s PUREX Tunnel No. 2 has been set for 6 p.m. July 20., at the Courtyard by Marriott, 480 Columbia Point Drive in Richland, Wash. The workshop will be webcast. Registration information can be found here. DOE and the […]

The Energy Department’s Office of Environmental Management (EM) would start cleaning up three facilities no longer needed for nuclear research or weapons work under a fiscal 2018 spending bill the House Appropriations Committee plans to mark up today. The House Appropriations energy and water development subcommittee’s bill would provide $75 million for EM to start […]

CH2M Hill Plateau Remediation Co. and the Washington state Department of Ecology have reached a settlement agreement over waste storage includes the waiver of a $50,000 penalty against the Hanford Site cleanup contractor. The state had accused CH2M in August 2016 of breaching requirements for the storage of five containers of waste at Hanford’s T […]

The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) last week received grants totaling 19 million euros ($21.7 million) from the European Union for a fund used to support waste management operations at the long-shuttered Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant. The bank’s 24-year-old Nuclear Safety Account provides financing for safety and security activities at Soviet-era nuclear power […]

Stephen Kadenacy on June 30 formally ended his nearly two-year tenure as president and chief operating officer of global engineering firm AECOM, one of the major contractors at Department of Energy nuclear sites around the country. Kadenacy has been with AECOM for nearly a decade, starting as senior vice president for finance in 2008 and […]

Three of the 26 companies recognized for safety excellence in 2016 by the state of South Carolina are contractors at the Department of Energy’s Savannah River Site. The companies are: liquid waste management contractor Savannah River Remediation (SRR); management and operations contractor Savannah River Nuclear Solutions (SRNS); and security provider Centerra. The Energy Department reported June 28 that […]

Stephen Kadenacy on June 30 formally ended his nearly two-year tenure as president and chief operating officer of global engineering firm AECOM, one of the major contractors at Department of Energy nuclear sites around the country. Kadenacy has been with AECOM for nearly a decade, starting as senior vice president for finance in 2008 and […]

Betsy Connell was still employed as chief of staff for the Energy Department’s Office of Environmental Management as of July 3, a government source said. An article in the June 30 issue of Weapons Complex Monitor (“Cange Leads EM Personnel Exodus” Vol. 28, No. 6) cited informed sources saying she was one of three senior DOE officials […]

A large wildfire spread across the security perimeter of the Hanford Site onto the main portion of the facility late Sunday night, burning 1,644 acres. The overall fire was contained to 30,984 acres by Thursday, but the Hanford Fire Department had the blaze on the main portion of the Department of Energy site contained at […]

Days after the transition was set to start, the Energy Department has yet to announce who will take over the next decade of legacy nuclear cleanup at the Los Alamos National Laboratory under a contract that went out to bid in September. In its final request for proposals, DOE’s Office of Environmental Management (EM) advised […]

Stephen Kadenacy on June 30 formally ended his nearly two-year tenure as president and chief operating officer of global engineering firm AECOM, one of the major contractors at Department of Energy nuclear sites around the country. Kadenacy has been with AECOM for nearly a decade, starting as senior vice president for finance in 2008 and […]

Three of the 26 companies recognized for safety excellence in 2016 by the state of South Carolina are contractors at the Department of Energy’s Savannah River Site. The companies are: liquid waste management contractor Savannah River Remediation (SRR); management and operations contractor Savannah River Nuclear Solutions (SRNS); and security provider Centerra. The Energy Department reported […]

Three of the 26 companies recognized for safety excellence in 2016 by the state of South Carolina are contractors at the Department of Energy’s Savannah River Site. The companies are: liquid waste management contractor Savannah River Remediation (SRR); management and operations contractor Savannah River Nuclear Solutions (SRNS); and security provider Centerra. The Energy Department reported June 28 that […]

A large wildfire spread across the Hanford Site’s security perimeter onto the main portion of the Department of Energy complex late Sunday night. It burned from the west across Highway 24 onto the northwest section of the facility, according to Rae Moss, spokeswoman for Hanford support services and firefighting contractor Mission Support Alliance. The Hanford […]

Friday was Stephen Kadenacy’s last day as president and chief operating officer of global engineering firm AECOM, one of the major contractors at Department of Energy nuclear sites around the country. Kadenacy has been with AECOM for nearly a decade, starting as senior vice president for finance in 2008 and rising to president and COO […]

A House subcommittee on Wednesday approved a fiscal 2018 spending bill that would hold the Energy Department’s nuclear cleanup budget roughly even with the current appropriation. That is about all that is known about the lower chamber’s plans for the department’s Office of Environmental Management (EM) for the fiscal year beginnng Oct. 1, as lawmakers will not […]

A venture aimed at expediting remediation of nuclear waste at the Department of Energy’s Savannah River Site in South Carolina could cost more than the original $50 million estimate unless the management team in charge can rein in expenses, a project stakeholder said this week. The site’s management and operations contractor, Savannah River Nuclear Solutions […]

The village of Piketon, Ohio, has renewed calls for the Energy Department to cancel a planned nuclear waste disposal facility at the nearby Portsmouth Site, citing a new report that claims the agency plans to build the landfill on fractured bedrock. Piketon Mayor Billy Spencer, who for years has opposed what is officially known as an […]

Three Washington state Democrats made a last-minute attempt to revive a proposal in the state Legislature to help ill personnel from the Hanford Site win easier approval of workers’ compensation claims. Their bill was scheduled for discussion Wednesday in an executive session of the Senate Commerce, Labor and, Sports Committee, but the meeting was canceled […]

UCOR, prime cleanup contractor for the Energy Department’s Oak Ridge site in Tennessee, took home about 92 percent of its possible award fee for the six-month period that ended March 31, raking in roughly $3.6 million. The company, an AECOM-led consortium now working under the first and final option of a nine-year contract set to expire […]

The Energy Department replaced Susan Cange as the acting head of its nuclear cleanup program this week, the most prominent of a trio of June departures from the Office of Environmental Management’s Washington headquarters. DOE veteran James Owendoff replaces Cange as both acting assistant secretary and principal deputy assistant secretary for the Office of Environmental Management […]

Nearly two months after a decades-old tunnel containing irradiated equipment was found to have partially collapsed at the Energy Department’s Hanford Site in Washington state, the Energy Department said Friday a similar tunnel is also at risk of collapse. Hanford was rocked May 9 when personnel discovered a 20-foot by 20-foot section of Tunnel 1 […]

Susan Cange, who was removed this week as acting head of the Energy Department’s nuclear cleanup program, is headed to her alma mater, Vanderbilt University, to work on developing a sustainable nuclear workforce, an informed source said Wednesday. DOE announced Tuesday that agency veteran James Owendoff would replace Cange as both acting assistant secretary and […]

UCOR, prime cleanup contractor for the Energy Department’s Oak Ridge site, took home about 92 perdent of its possible award fee for the six-month period that ended March 31, raking in roughly $3.6 million. The company, an AECOM-led consortium now working under the first and final option of a nine-year contract set to expire July 31, […]

A venture aimed at expediting remediation of nuclear waste at the Department of Energy’s Savannah River Site in South Carolina could cost more than the original $50 million estimate unless the management team in charge can rein in expenses, a project stakeholder said this week. The site’s management and operations contractor, Savannah River Nuclear Solutions […]

Department of Energy veteran James Owendoff will replace Susan Cange as DOE’s acting assistant secretary for environmental management, the agency announced Tuesday. Owendoff also replaces Cange in her full-time position as principal deputy assistant secretary for environmental management: the second-highest-ranking position in the department’s Office of Environmental Management (EM). As of Tuesday, Cange had been […]

The Los Alamos National Laboratory this week was about one-sixth of the way through treatment of dozens of containers of potentially explosive waste, an official with a watchdog organization said Thursday following a visit to the Department of Energy facility in northern New Mexico. Workers as of Wednesday were processing a ninth container of inappropriately remediated […]

The Department of Energy has racked up more than $1 million in new penalties from the state of Idaho over the failure to begin operation of a liquid waste treatment facility at the Idaho National Laboratory. The total fines levied against DOE and its current and former contractors on the project now stands at just […]

Trial in the lawsuit over worker protection from vapors at the Department of Energy’s Hanford Site in Washington state has been reset for June 11, 2018, at the request of all parties in the case. This is the third time plaintiffs and defendants have jointly requested a delay in the federal trial to allow for […]