Cleanup & Remediation

South Carolina wants a U.S. District Court judge to reconsider her recent opinion that she has no jurisdiction to rule on the $100 million the state is seeking in its lawsuit over disposition of DOE plutonium stored at the Savannah River Site near Aiken, S.C. State Attorney General Alan Wilson sued the Energy Department, Energy Secretary […]

BWX Technologies, a top contractor in the Department of Energy’s nuclear cleanup and security operations, said Tuesday it is promoting its chief operating officer to the position of president and CEO. Rex Geveden will take the job, along with a position on the BWXT Board of Directors, on Jan. 1 of next year. He will take […]

An article in Monday’s Weapons Complex Morning Briefing (“Bechtel, AECOM Settle WTP Claims for $125M) should have said Bechtel National released a statement about its decision to settle a whistleblower lawsuit on Wednesday,  Nov. 23.

Waste Control Specialists is seeking leniency from federal regulators after apparently violating its federal waste-storage permit to prevent a possible radiation release in 2014, according to an official account the company filed with the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. The 12-page account, the most detailed Waste Control Specialists (WCS) has offered publicly on the situation, is printed […]

A local advisory board wants the Department of Energy to expedite processing of aluminum-clad spent nuclear fuel (SNF) stocks at the Savannah River Site in South Carolina. During its bimonthly meeting on Nov. 15, the SRS Citizens Advisory Board (CAB) approved a recommendation asking DOE to “accelerate plans and decisions to process its entire inventory of […]

The Environmental Protection Agency said last week it is indefinitely extending the schedule for proposing a final soil cleanup remedy at the West Lake Landfill Superfund site in Missouri. The agency cited delays in submission of technical documents by the site’s potentially responsible parties (PRPs). “We have been working very hard to achieve this goal and I […]

Hanford Site tank farm contractor Washington River Protection Solutions (WRPS) has reached a settlement agreement with the Department of Energy Office of Enforcement over a subcontractor worker who fell into an abandoned septic system. The company has agreed to pay $45,000 and take actions to improve safety, including with its subcontractors, according to a consent […]

Weapons Complex Morning Briefing will not be published for the remainder of the week in observance of the Thanksgiving holiday. Look for the next edition in your inbox Monday, Nov. 28.

A story in Tuesday’s Weapons Complex Morning Briefing (“Moab Tech Assistance Contract Conference Scheduled,” Nov. 22, 2016) should have said groundwater remediation at the site is handled by the site’s Technical Assistance Contractor, S&K Logistics Services.

A federal judge is giving the Energy Department and South Carolina about another week to explain why a lawsuit over DOE’s failure to move plutonium out of the state should — or shouldn’t — be transferred to the U.S. Court of Federal Claims, according to court papers filed Monday. The parties, in court since February […]

The Department of Energy has scheduled a pre-solicitation conference and site tour for the Moab, Utah, Uranium Mill Tailings Remedial Action (UMTRA) technical assistance contract. The event is scheduled for 9 a.m. local time on Dec. 14 in Moab. The registration deadline is Wednesday, Dec. 7. Interested parties must send their name, title, and organization to […]

Republic Services, owner of the West Lake Landfill, on Friday dismissed claims in a lawsuit filed last week that radioactive contamination from the controversial Superfund site in Missouri has entered a couple’s nearby home. “We have not seen the suit, or any scientific data to support its foundation,” Republic Services spokesman Russ Knocke said in by email. […]

Perma-Fix Environmental Services said Friday it is is partnering with Waste Control Specialists in its program to enter the market for treatment of high-level radioactive waste. The Atlanta-based nuclear services specialist, which already provides treatment of low-level and mixed waste, this year plans to complete a demonstration test involving processing up to 5 gallons of high-level waste from […]

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission is going through the process of review for the transport of spent nuclear reactor fuel from Canada to the Department of Energy’s Savannah River Site (SRS) in South Carolina. In a Nov. 9 letter to a spent fuel transport company, NRC Fuel Cycle and Transportation Security Branch chief William Gott said the […]

Executives with radioactive waste management specialist Perma-Fix Environmental Services on Friday acknowledged rough earnings numbers for the latest quarter and entirety of 2016. But they said the outlook is improving, particularly with an opportunity to treat large amounts of waste at the Department of Energy’s Hanford Site in Washington state. “We’ve been very disappointed with […]

U.S. A St. Louis, Mo.-area couple is suing the owner of the West Lake Landfill, among other companiess, claiming that contamination from the controversial Superfund site has been recorded in their home. Michael and Robbin Dailey filed the lawsuit Tuesday in St. Louis County Circuit Court against nine companies, including current landfill owner Republic Services. […]

Executives with radioactive waste management specialist Perma-Fix Environmental Services on Friday acknowledged rough earnings numbers for the latest quarter and entirety of 2016. But they said the outlook is improving, particularly with an opportunity to treat large amounts of waste at the Department of Energy’s Hanford Site in Washington state. “We’ve been very disappointed with […]

Advocates for the Mixed Oxide Fuel Fabrication Facility at the Savannah River Site in South Carolina hope President-elect Donald Trump’s upcoming term will put to rest attempts to shut down the troubled project. The MFFF would be used to honor a 2000 bilateral agreement that requires the U.S. and Russia to each dispose of 34 […]

Weapons Complex Monitor will not be published next week in observance of the Thanksgiving holiday. Look for the next edition in your inbox on Friday, Dec. 2.

A federal judge on Tuesday denied a motion for a preliminary injunction to increase protections from chemical vapors for Hanford Site workers until a lawsuit is decided. Judge Thomas Rice of U.S. District Court for Eastern Washington denied all three of the measures requested by Washington state, the local watchdog organization Hanford Challenge, and Plumbers and […]

The Department of Energy has completed the amendment process for the request for proposals for the technical services contract at the Oak Ridge Office of Environmental Management (OREM) in Tennessee, according to a notice posted Wednesday. The RFP was issued in early October, and DOE made three amendments through Nov. 15. “No further amendments to […]

A redesigned version of the large screw-like component designed to break up chunks of solid waste in the troubled Integrated Waste Treatment Unit (IWTU) in Idaho will undergo testing from November to January, the Energy Department announced Thursday. The so-called augur-grinder breaks up solid waste for processing in the IWTU, which was built by former […]

After the Energy Department’s inspector general prodded the company for failing to communicate openly with its workforce, the president of Washington River Protection Solutions on Wednesday threw open his door to employees working on the waste tank farm at DOE’s Hanford Site in Washington state. “If you have any concerns, I invite you to share them […]

Advocates for the Mixed Oxide Fuel Fabrication Facility at the Savannah River Site in South Carolina hope President-elect Donald Trump’s upcoming term will put to rest attempts to shut down the troubled project. The MFFF would be used to honor a 2000 bilateral agreement that requires the U.S. and Russia to each dispose of 34 […]

The Department of Energy has completed the amendment process for the request for proposals for the technical services contract at the Oak Ridge Office of Environmental Management (OREM) in Tennessee, according to a notice posted Wednesday. The RFP was issued in early October, and DOE made three amendments through Nov. 15. “No further amendments to […]

The Energy Department’s prime contractor at the Hanford Site tank farms found affirmation in a federal judge’s ruling this week that workers at the Washington state site do not immediately need extra protection from the noxious vapors that sometimes leak from the site’s Cold War-era liquid waste tanks. U.S. District Judge Thomas Rice ruled against […]

A federal judge on Tuesday denied a motion for a preliminary injunction to increase protections from chemical vapors for Hanford Site workers until a lawsuit is decided. Judge Thomas Rice of U.S. District Court for Eastern Washington denied all three of the measures requested by Washington state, the local watchdog organization Hanford Challenge, and Plumbers and […]

An article in the Nov. 4 edition of Weapons Complex Monitor should have said that Fluor leads Savannah River Nuclear Solutions, the management and operations contractor for the Department of Energy’s Savannah River Site.

The press has been abuzz this week about what, according to the common wisdom, was the surprise election of Donald Trump as the 45th president of the United States. Here’s something not so surprising: All of the congressional races Weapons Complex Monitor looked at last week turned out as expected, with incumbents triumphing and the […]

Nuclear cleanup veteran John Eschenberg will take charge of salt waste disposition at the Department of Energy’s Savannah River Site for liquid waste contractor Savannah River Remediation, parent company AECOM announced Thursday. In his new position, Eschenberg  will “focus on Salt Waste Processing Facility integration and new technology demonstration for tank cesium removal,” AECOM spokesman […]