Cleanup & Remediation

AECOM reported Tuesday $4.4 billion in revenue for the third quarter of its fiscal 2016, down 3 percent from $4.5 billion the same period last year. It also reported net income of $67.4 million and earnings per share of $0.43 for the period ending June 30, an 11 percent and 10 percent increase, respectively, from […]

Carol Johnson will retire as president and CEO of Savannah River Nuclear Solutions (SRNS), the Energy Department confirmed Wednesday, ending the nuclear veteran’s two-year tenure at the head of DOE’s prime management and operations contractor for the Savannah River Site near Aiken, S.C. “On July 21, 2016 SRNS notified the [Savannah River Site] Contracting Officer […]

A massive wildfire burned almost 35,000 acres of the Hanford Site last week, but flames were stopped before they crossed from the Department of Energy facility’s security buffer zone onto the contaminated portion of Hanford east and northeast of Highway 240. By Friday the 275-square-mile wildfire was considered contained within a 117-mile line around the fire footprint. The […]

The Energy Department said Thursday it has pulled the trigger on the final two options of Savannah River Nuclear Solutions’ management and operations contract for the Savannah River Site near Aiken, S.C., keeping the partnership on the job for almost two more years of work. The options just exercised are the last two on the deal and […]

Outgoing New Mexico Environment Secretary Ryan Flynn says he’s going to have a late-morning coffee and a midafternoon beer after his three-and-a-half-year tenure in Gov. Susana Martinez’s (R) Cabinet officially ends on Aug. 12. There’s a nap planned, too, the 38-year-old, soon-to-be former Cabinet secretary told Weapons Complex Monitor Tuesday in a brief farewell telephone interview. […]

Like Congress, the ExchangeMonitor is going on recess in August, and Weapons Complex Monitor will not be published during the second and third weeks of the month. We’ll still be in the office, so keep the news tips coming, and look for the next weekly newsletter in your inbox on Friday, Aug. 26.

The manager of a former subcontractor for UCOR — the URS-CH2M conglomerate priming decontamination and decommissioning at the Energy Department’s Oak Ridge site near Oak Ridge, Tenn. — faces five years in prison and a $250,000 fine after pleading guilty to conspiracy to defraud the government, court documents filed July 18 show. Joseph Armes, manager […]

Personnel were ordered to leave a Hanford Site tank farm Wednesday morning and access was restricted after three workers reported smelling odors consistent with chemical vapors associated with tank waste. The incident occurred despite Hanford tank farm contractor Washington River Protection Solutions complying with a federal court order issued Tuesday in an effort to prevent […]

Huntington Ingalls Industries (HII) on Thursday reported lower earnings in its second quarter due to a favorable litigation settlement that inflated the bottom line a year ago, but the company’s operating results were still strong and earnings beat consensus estimates. Net income slid 15 percent to $133 million, $2.80 earnings per share (EPS), from $156 […]

Fluor Corp. missed its mark for second-quarter earnings Thursday, posting a profit of $102 million, or 72 cents a share, down almost 30 percent from a year ago on a pair of underperforming projects unrelated to the company’s nuclear decommissioning work for the Energy Department. Revenue in the three months ended June 30 was $4.9 […]

Personnel were ordered to leave a Hanford Site tank farm Wednesday morning and access was restricted after three workers reported smelling odors consistent with chemical vapors associated with tank waste. The incident occurred despite Hanford tank farm contractor Washington River Protection Solutions complying with a federal court order issued Tuesday in an effort to prevent […]

Weapons Complex Morning Briefing will be published on Tuesdays and Thursdays during the ExchangeMonitor’s publishing recess in the second and third week of August. The regular daily publishing schedule will resume on Monday, Aug. 22.

Firefighters expect on Thursday to contain the wildfire that has threatened the Hanford Site in Washington state. Tuesday night they kept the fire from spreading during a red flag fire weather warning issued by the National Weather Service due to wind and low humidity. The size of the fire remained at about 275 square miles […]

A federal judge on Tuesday ordered the Department of Energy and contractor Washington River Protection Solutions (WRPS) to take interim steps already proposed by DOE to protect Hanford Site workers from chemical vapors at the waste storage tank farms. Washington state, the nongovernmental Hanford Challenge, and Plumbers and Steamfitters Local Union 598 last month filed […]

Firefighters on Tuesday kept a large wildfire near the Hanford Site in Washington state within the already burned footprint. The edge of the fire area was outside the contaminated area of Hanford but within the Department of Energy facility’s security buffer, which is now managed as a national monument. The National Weather Service on Tuesday […]

An article in Monday’s Weapons Complex Morning Briefing misreported the date of New Mexico Environment Secretary Ryan Flynn’s resignation, which is effective Aug. 12.

Nuclear projects were again a bright spot in an otherwise disappointing quarter for Dallas-based engineering services company CH2M, which on Monday announced a net loss of $62 million, or $2.53 cents a share, as delays with big capital projects translated to big losses, and an ongoing slump in the company’s oil and gas business continued. The […]

A large wildfire spreading toward the Hanford Site was stopped Monday with a backfire set at the security perimeter to prevent the blaze from entering the areas of the Department of Energy facility left contaminated from plutonium production. The fire, called the Range 12 Fire, started Saturday on the Yakima Training Center west of Hanford and […]

New Mexico Environment Secretary Ryan Flynn is resigning effective Aug. 12 after more than two years as the state’s top environmental official, New Mexico Gov. Susana Martinez (R) announced late Friday. Flynn will be replaced on an acting basis by his deputy, Butch Tongate, according to Martinez’s press release. The outgoing secretary is leaving Martinez’s cabinet […]

CH2M has paid almost $471,000 to the Department of Energy as part of a March 2013 agreement to settle civil and criminal allegations of time card fraud at the Hanford Site in Washington state. DOE may only spend the money on systems at Hanford that would detect or deter time card fraud and abuse. CH2M […]

A Wednesday presentation from the top cleanup official at the Energy Department’s Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) indicates DOE believes it will take another 19 years and $2.9 billion to clean up remaining legacy waste at the 70 year-old nuclear weapons lab — billions of dollars less than what the state of New Mexico wants devoted to […]

Buddhist monks will lead their annual walk to the Hanford Site to pray and beat a drum outside the 300 Area gate on Thursday. It is part of a two-week Pacific Northwest Interfaith Peace Walk organized by the monks of the Nipponzan Myohoji Buddhist temple on Bainbridge Island, Wash., as they call for abolition of […]

The Savannah River Site has not yet been submitted a request to restrict airspace to the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) after about a month of workers spotting drones flying above key areas of the Department of Energy facility. A 10th sighting occurred Friday when workers witnessed an unmanned aircraft system (UAS) flying over the site’s […]

The Department of Energy (DOE) has submitted its informational memorandum on open emergency management deficiencies at defense nuclear facilities as part of the DOE’s implementation of its complex-wide emergency preparedness and response improvement program. The department has been developing its implementation plan since the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board (DNFSB) recommended in 2014 that the […]

Among the few details released publicly about the changes contractor CH2M Plateau Remediation will make to its strategy for tearing down the Plutonium Finishing Plant at the Energy Department’s Hanford Site was tucked into a recent report by the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board, which says the company will now remove additional glove boxes before […]

The Savannah River Site has not yet been submitted a request to restrict airspace to the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) after about a month of workers spotting drones flying above key areas of the Department of Energy facility. A 10th sighting occurred Friday when workers witnessed an unmanned aircraft system (UAS) flying over the site’s […]

The Department of Energy (DOE) has submitted its informational memorandum on open emergency management deficiencies at defense nuclear facilities as part of the DOE’s implementation of its complex-wide emergency preparedness and response improvement program. The department has been developing its implementation plan since the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board (DNFSB) recommended in 2014 that DOE […]

Buddhist monks will lead their annual walk to the Hanford Site to pray and beat a drum outside the 300 Area gate on Thursday. It is part of a two-week Pacific Northwest Interfaith Peace Walk organized by the monks of the Nipponzan Myohoji Buddhist temple on Bainbridge Island, Wash., as they call for abolition of […]

The Department of Energy (DOE) has submitted its informational memorandum on open emergency management deficiencies at defense nuclear facilities as part of the DOE’s implementation of its complex-wide emergency preparedness and response improvement program. The department has been developing its implementation plan since the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board (DNFSB) recommended in 2014 that the […]

The Savannah River Site has not yet been submitted a request to restrict airspace to the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) after about a month of workers spotting drones flying above key areas of the Department of Energy facility. A 10th sighting occurred Friday when workers witnessed an unmanned aircraft system (UAS) flying over the site’s […]