Cleanup & Remediation

Karl Herchenroeder RW Monitor 2/5/2016 The U.S. Senate on Tuesday passed a bill that would transfer remediation authority over the mixed-use West Lake Landfill from the Environmental Protection Agency to the Army Corps of Engineers’ Formerly Utilized Sites Remedial Action Program. Missouri Sens. Roy Blunt (R) and Claire McCaskill (D), who have criticized the EPA’s […]

Karl Herchenroeder RW Monitor 2/5/2016 French waste group Veolia announced Wednesday that it has purchased California-based nuclear waste cleanup technology company Kurion for $350 million. “With the addition of Kurion’s expertise and technology, Veolia is rounding out its portfolio of services to the nuclear industry and will now be able to provide all existing solutions […]

WC Monitor 2/05/2016 Lawmaker Seeks Full FY17 Funding for Hanford Richland Operations Office Rep. Dan Newhouse (R-Wash.) is urging President Barack Obama to request full funding for the Hanford Site’s Richland Operations Office when the administration’s fiscal 2017 appropriations request is released on Feb. 9. Last year the administration proposed a $93 million funding cut […]

WC Monitor 2/05/2016 UCOR Selects New COO Oak Ridge Reservation cleanup contractor URS CH2M Oak Ridge (UCOR) on Tuesday said a recently retired manager is returning to the company as chief operating officer. Fran Williams will succeed Matt Marston, who left UCOR in January to take a high-level job with URS parent company AECOM. Prior […]

Rep. Dan Newhouse (R-Wash.) is urging President Barack Obama to request full funding for the Hanford Site’s Richland Operations Office when the administration’s fiscal 2017 appropriations request is released on Feb. 9. Last year the administration proposed a $93 million funding cut for the Richland Operations Office, “which would have resulted in cleanup delays, increased […]

The Washington state Department of Ecology still has not found even an interim replacement for Jane Hedges, who announced in November she would retire in February after nearly a decade as the state’s nuclear waste program manager.   Hedges gave four months notice because she hoped to overlap with and help train her successor, but […]

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 Rick’s broader responsibilities, I have asked him to take on a […]

French waste group Veolia announced Wednesday that it has purchased California-based waste technology company Kurion for $350 million. In a conference call Wednesday, Kurion CEO William Gallo said discussions of the sale became serious in summer 2015, following collaborations on the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant disaster recovery. “We have been in very deep discussions since […]

The U.S. Senate on Tuesday passed a bill that would transfer remediation authority over the mixed-use West Lake Landfill from the Environmental Protection Agency to the Army Corps of Engineers’ Formerly Utilized Sites Remedial Action Program. Missouri Sens. Roy Blunt (R) and Claire McCaskill (D), who have criticized the EPA’s 25-year effort in cleaning up […]

The Savannah River Site’s salt waste contractor announced Wednesday that it laid 123 workers as construction of the Salt Waste Processing Facility (SWPF) nears 95 percent completion. In a brief statement, Frank Sheppard, Parsons vice president and SWPF program manager, said construction will be completed in the spring, so the company made planned changes to […]

Oak Ridge Reservation cleanup contractor URS CH2M Oak Ridge (UCOR) on Tuesday said a recently retired manager is returning to the company as chief operating officer.   Fran Williams will succeed Matt Marston, who left UCOR in January to take a high-level job with URS parent company AECOM. Prior to her retirement in 2015, Williams […]

One member of the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board thinks the group should not waste its time with a public hearing over the highly contaminated waste dump at the Los Alamos National Laboratory’s (LANL) Area G, according to a voting record released Feb. 2.   The five-member DNFSB voted Friday to hold a public hearing […]

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 why the case should remain […]

Construction of a roughly $100 shipping-and-handling facility for radiologically contaminated equipment and soil at the Los Alamos National Laboratory is generally well run, but the Energy Department and its prime contractor at the New Mexico site should tighten construction standards and increase project oversight, DOE’s Office of Enterprise Assessments (EA) said Jan. 29.   The […]

The Department of Energy has scheduled its second National Cleanup Workshop for Sept. 14-15 of this year at the Hilton Alexandria Mark Center in Alexandria, Va.  “The workshop will bring together senior DOE executives, DOE site officials, industry executives, and other stakeholders to discuss [the DOE Office of Environmental Management’s] progress on the cleanup of the […]

WC Monitor 1/29/2016 SRNS to Address Attrition With 2,000 Hirings in Coming Years Savannah River Nuclear Solutions (SRNS) is looking to address its attrition problem over the next few years by hiring 2,000 workers with the help of partnerships with colleges and universities near the Savannah River Site in Aiken, S.C.  SRNS, the site’s management and […]

WC Monitor 1/29/2016 IEI-PEC, JV, of Lincoln, Neb., has received an indefinite-quantity, indefinite-delivery support services contracts from the Energy Department’s Office of Environmental Management worth up to $4 million over four years, DOE announced Thursday. Most of the work will take place at DOE EM headquarters in Washington and its Germantown, Md., satellite office, the […]

Staff Reports WC Monitor 1/29/2016 The primary ownership of Hanford Site contractor Mission Support Alliance would transfer from Lockheed Martin to the engineering firm Leidos under a deal struck between the two international companies. Leidos Holdings entered into a definitive agreement with Lockheed Martin this week to merge with Lockheed’s realigned Information Systems and Global […]

Staff Reports WC Monitor 1/29/2016 Neither the Department of Energy nor Savannah River Nuclear Solutions (SRNS) has come up with a dollar value for the cost of last year’s SRNS operational safety pause on all nonessential missions. SRNS, the Savannah River Site’s management and operations contractor, initiated the safety pause in September after a plutonium sample headed […]

Dan Leone WC Monitor 1/29/2016 A $74 million settlement finalized with the Energy Department last week has cleared the way for New Mexico to overhaul the rules governing the Department of Energy’s nuclear waste cleanup at Los Alamos National Laboratory. Legally, the settlement resolves civil penalties the state levied on DOE related to an underground […]

Staff Reports WC Monitor 1/29/2016 The Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board is planning one or more hearings in New Mexico around March to address issues with the Los Alamos National Laboratory’s (LANL) Area G, Doug Hintze, manager of the Department of Energy’s Environmental Field Office at the lab said on Wednesday. “We’ve been informed by […]

Staff Reports WC Monitor 1/29/2016 The attorney for the first downwinder claim for radioactive exposure from the Hanford Site in Washington state has objected to a proposal to close the case, saying his client lacks resolution 28 years after filing a claim. It is the only claim to be put forth after U.S. Judge William […]

WC Monitor 1/29/2016 Hanford Guards Approve New Contract The Hanford Guards Union voted Tuesday to approve a proposed contract agreement with Mission Support Alliance. The contract would have expired at the end of October but has been extended three times as negotiations have continued. “We have a long-standing relationship with the guard and greatly value […]

Karl Herchenroeder RW Monitor 01/29/16 The Missouri Department of Natural Resources said this week that further radiological analysis is needed for two soil samples taken from the West Lake Landfill this fall. The agency drew this conclusion in an interim report released this week, after wrapping up results from a radiological survey that took place between […]

The Missouri Department of Natural Resources said this week that further radiological analysis is needed for two soil samples taken from the West Lake Landfill this fall.   The agency drew this conclusion in an interim report released this week, after wrapping up results from a radiological survey that took place between October and November at […]

Savannah River Nuclear Solutions President and CEO Carol Johnson has been recognized this year as one of seven CEOs who “Get It” when it comes to personnel safety.   The nongovernmental, congressionally chartered National Safety Council each year honors CEOs who promote workplace safety based on four crucial fundamentals, according to an SRNS press release: […]

The Hanford Guards Union voted Tuesday to approve a proposed contract agreement with Mission Support Alliance. The contract would have expired at the end of October but has been extended three times as negotiations have continued. “We have a long-standing relationship with the guard and greatly value the critical function they have here at Hanford,” […]

Neither the Department of Energy nor Savannah River Nuclear Solutions (SRNS) has come up with a dollar value for the cost of last year’s SRNS operational safety pause on all nonessential missions. SRNS, the Savannah River Site’s management and operations contractor, initiated the safety pause in September after a plutonium sample headed to the Savannah River National […]

Dan Leone WC Monitor 1/22/2016 Nuclear Watch New Mexico said this week it intends to sue the Energy Department and contractor Los Alamos National Security in federal court for blowing a cleanup deadline at the Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL). Under a legally binding 2005 consent order between DOE, the New Mexico Environment Department, and […]

Savannah River Nuclear Solutions (SRNS) is looking to address its attrition problem over the next few years by hiring 2,000 workers with the help of partnerships with colleges and universities near the Savannah River Site in Aiken, S.C.  SRNS, the site’s management and operations contractor, announced Jan. 22 that a partnership with Aiken Technical College, in […]