Cleanup & Remediation

New management has been assigned to the Hanford Site Plutonium Finishing Plant and work is being rescheduled after continuing safety problems in ongoing cleanup of the facility. “Over the past few months, we’ve experienced a number of safety-related events that, while they didn’t cause any serious injury, are unacceptable,” said John Ciucci, president of CH2M […]

The Pike County Chamber of Commerce recognized the Portsmouth Site Specific Advisory Board as its 2015 organization of the year, the Energy Department wrote in a Feb. 12 press release. Established in 2008, the board provides community input and recommendations to DOE’s Office of Environmental Management, which is responsible for legacy waste cleanup at the […]

The Army Corps of Engineers’ is requesting $103 million for its Formerly Utilized Sites Remedial Action Program (FUSRAP) in fiscal 2017. FUSRAP was initiated in 1974 to identify, investigate, and clean up or control sites contaminated from the nation’s early atomic weapons and energy programs during the 1940s, 1950s, and 1960s. The program includes 20 […]

AT DOE As part of a broader effort to make a dent in a roughly $20-billion shortfall for uranium cleanup, the White House in its fiscal 2017 budget plan proposed tapping into a $1.6 billion fund that has been gathering dust since 1996. The three-year drawdown of the United States Enrichment Corp. (USEC) Fund would […]

Funding for Environmental Management (EM) missions at the Savannah River Site would increase by about $111 million over current funding levels under President Barack Obama’s fiscal 2017 budget plan. The nearly $1.5 billion request includes $822.6 million for the site’s liquid waste program – an uptick from the $783.5 million appropriated in December’s omnibus. The request […]

Savannah River Remediation (SRR) President Stuart MacVean has resigned after more than four years with the company and over a year as president and project manager. MacVean sent a letter to his employees on Thursday with details on his resignation. He will be replaced by Mark Schmitz, the chief operating officer for the Savannah River […]

The state of Washington’s chief overseer for the massive cleanup of the Hanford Site will leave the job this month with a strong sense of accomplishment, but at least a few frustrations as well. Under Jane Hedges’ watch as the state Department of Ecology’s Nuclear Waste Program manager, the federal government and its contractors have […]

Liquid waste cleanup at the Energy Department’s Hanford Site in Washington state would see relatively stable funding under the fiscal 2017 budget released Tuesday, while funding for other cleanup in the central region of the nearly 600-square-mile site would tumble by nearly 20 percent. For the Office of River Protection (ORP), which focuses on projects […]

Hanford Site officials plan to pile waste above grade at the massive central Hanford landfill to expand its capacity rather than digging a new waste cell immediately. Plans call for adding another 20 feet of layered waste and soil to the top of the Environmental Restoration Disposal Facility. Initially, ERDF was planned to stand about […]

The Hanford Advisory Board is asking the Department of Energy not to spend any more of the Hanford Site cleanup budget on a Consortium for Risk Evaluation with Stakeholder Participation (CRESP) evaluation of the remaining risk at the DOE facility. Money should be spent on cleanup, not more study, the board said in a letter […]

Fluor Gets 73.6 Percent of Possible Award Fee for 2015 at Portsmouth Fluor-BWXT Portsmouth earned a $10.5 million award fee in fiscal 2015 for cleanup work at the former Portsmouth uranium enrichment facility near Piketon, Ohio, good for 73.6 percent of the total available, DOE said Thursday. In the fiscal year ended Sept. 30, Fluor-BWXT […]

Washington State Appoints Interim Nuclear Waste Program Chief The Washington State Department of Ecology has named an interim manager of its Nuclear Waste Program starting March 1. Tom Tebb, the manager of Ecology’s Office of Columbia River, will do both jobs until the department permanently fills the position that oversees the state’s regulation of the […]

The Washington State Department of Ecology has named an interim manager of its Nuclear Waste Program starting March 1. Tom Tebb, the manager of Ecology’s Office of Columbia River, will do both jobs until the department permanently fills the position that oversees the state’s regulation of the Hanford Site. “Tom’s extensive resume at Ecology, including […]

The Weapons Complex Morning Briefing will not be published on Monday in observance of Presidents’ Day. Look for the next edition in your inbox on Tuesday, Feb. 16.

The Army Corps of Engineers request for $103 million for its formerly Utilized Sites Remedial Action Program (FUSRAP) in fiscal 2017 includes significant year-to-year funding differences for numerous sites. FUSRAP was initiated in 1974 to identify, investigate, and clean up or control sites contaminated from the nation’s early atomic weapons and energy programs during the […]

As part of a broader effort to make a dent in a roughly $20-billion shortfall for uranium cleanup, the White House in its fiscal 2017 budget plan proposed tapping into a $1.6 billion fund that has been gathering dust since 1996.   The three-year drawdown of the United States Enrichment Corp. (USEC) Fund would begin […]

  The White House on Tuesday proposed a fiscal 2017 budget that would clear the way to send tons of diluted, weapon-usable plutonium to the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) in New Mexico and shrink the energy the Energy Department’s legacy nuclear-waste cleanup budget by just over 2 percent to about $6.1 billion.   The […]

WC Monitor 2/9/2016 The White House on Tuesday proposed a fiscal 2017 budget that would clear the way to send tons of diluted, weapon-usable plutonium to the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) in New Mexico and shrink the energy the Energy Department’s legacy nuclear-waste cleanup budget by just over 2 percent to about $6.1 billion. […]

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has requested a budget of $6.65 billion for fiscal 2017, which compares to current funding of $6.71 billion through fiscal 2016. The request would include $103 million for the Corps’ formerly Utilized Sites Remedial Action Program (FUSRAP), which was initiated in 1974 to identify, investigate, and clean up or […]

Staff Reports WC Monitor 2/9/2016 The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has requested a budget of $6.65 billion for fiscal 2017, which compares to current funding of $6.71 billion through fiscal 2016. The budget request, released Tuesday, would cover 97.9 percent discretionary and 2.4 percent mandatory spending. The request would include funding for the Corps’ […]

The Hanford Advisory Board is asking the Department of Energy not to spend any more of the Hanford cleanup budget on a Consortium for Risk Evaluation with Stakeholder Participation evaluation of the remaining risk at the Department of Energy site. The study by the independent, multiuniversity group was announced as a $4 million project. Preliminary […]

The Energy Department said Friday it saved close to $500,000 by using a lubricant it already owned to clean a polychlorinated biphenyl-contaminated oil once used in transformers that helped power the now-shuttered Paducah Gaseous Diffusion Plant in Kentucky.   DOE did not say how much the cleanup cost in total.   “In compliance with the […]

The Energy Department said Friday it would for a fifth year open the onetime Portsmouth uranium enrichment facility in Ohio up for public tours. Those interested in touring the facility this year should contact Sandy Childers either by phone at (740) 897-2336 or by email at sandy.childers@fbports.com. Messages should include a name and a daytime […]

An article in the Feb. 4 Weapons Complex Morning Briefing incorrectly stated that Bechtel is a partner in Hanford Site contractor Mission Suppor Alliance. The company in question is Jacobs Engineering. An article in the Feb. 5 Weapons Complex Monitor incorrectly referred to the Mox Fuel Fabrication Facility under construction at the Savannah River Site […]

Staff Reports WC Monitor 2/5/2016 The corrective action program at the Hanford Site’s Waste Treatment Plant needs further improvements, despite past work on the program, according to an audit report released Thursday by the Department of Energy Office of Inspector General. Bechtel National implemented initiatives in August 2014 to address issues with the vitrification plant […]

WC Monitor 2/5/2016 Kacich to Take Over Management of LANL Legacy Cleanup Richard Kacich, who was appointed deputy director of the Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) in November, on Feb. 8 will become the top manager for the lab’s legacy waste cleanup contract with the Energy Department, according to an internal memo.  “In addition to […]

Fluor Idaho has received a five-year, cost-plus Idaho Cleanup Project (ICP) Core contract worth up to $1.4 billion for legacy waste cleanup work at the Idaho National Laboratory, the Energy Department’s Office of Environmental Management (EM) said Thursday. Work will take place at DOE EM’s Idaho Site some 50 miles west of Idaho Falls. The […]

Staff Reports WC Monitor 2/5/2016 A federal judge late last week closed the 1991 downwinder case filed against five early Hanford Site contractors, after declining to allow a final claim to be heard. Judge William Fremming Nielsen indicated in October that he was ready to close the case and ordered anyone who could show cause […]

Staff Reports WC Monitor 2/5/2016 The Department of Energy Office of River Protection (ORP) at the Hanford Site in Washington state has developed a list of 529 vulnerabilities in the design of the Hanford Waste Treatment Plant’s Low-Activity Waste Facility, all of which it says can be addressed. The list was developed after ORP commissioned […]

Staff Reports WC Monitor 2/5/2016 Local government leaders near the Hanford Site have some advice for Washington Gov. Jay Inslee as he picks a new state Nuclear Waste Program manager: choose carefully at this critical time in Hanford cleanup. Jane Hedges, who served in the position for a decade, announced in early November that she […]