Cleanup & Remediation

WC Monitor 1/22/2016 Grouting Begins for SRS Tank 12 A three-month process has begun to grout and close Tank 12 at the Savannah River Site, continuing a longstanding effort to rid South Carolina of more than 30 million gallons of radioactive liquid waste. SRS announced Tuesday that its liquid waste contractor, Savannah River Remediation (SRR), […]

Staff Reports WC Monitor 1/22/2016 The Y-12 site’s Alpha-5 Building has been characterized as the “worst of the worst” of the excess facilities awaiting cleanup at Department of Energy sites around the country, and deactivation and decommissioning of the highly contaminated, highly deteriorated site is still years from happening. However, Consolidated Nuclear Security – the […]

Staff Reports WC Monitor 1/22/2016 A federal judge this week combined two lawsuits filed against the Department of Energy and its Hanford Site waste storage tank farm contractor over worker protection from chemical vapors. Lawsuits were filed in September by the state of Washington and by Hanford Challenge filing jointly with Plumbers and Steamfitters Local […]

Dan Leone WC Monitor 1/22/2016 Savannah River Nuclear River Solutions (SRNS) in fiscal 2015 earned a $37.8 million fee on its Savannah River Site management and operations contract with the Energy Department, or 82 percent of what it could have earned, DOE announced late Tuesday. The company — an industry team comprised of Fluor, Honeywell […]

Chris Schneidmiller WC Monitor 1/22/2016 Eight million tons of uranium mill tailings have been extracted from the Moab site in Utah through the Department of Energy’s Uranium Mill Tailings Remedial Action Project as of this week. That is half of the roughly 16 million tons of tailings from the former uranium ore processing site that […]

Staff Reports WC Monitor 1/22/2016 A Hanford Fire Department employee who handled potentially contaminated vortex coolers used at the Hanford Site’s Plutonium Finishing Plant has received a preliminary positive result for radioactive uptake. Preliminary bioassay results for eight other fire department employees were negative. Results are pending for 101 additional Hanford workers who have requested […]

WC Monitor 1/22/2016 Waste Shipments Temporarily Halted at Oak Ridge Off-site waste shipments from Oak Ridge were put on hold for a month last year after “deficiencies” were identified in the shipments made by URS-CH2M Oak Ridge (UCOR), the Department of Energy’s cleanup manager for the Tennessee facility. DOE’s Oak Ridge Office of Environmental Management […]

WC Monitor 1/22/2016 AT DOE Portsmouth Mission Alliance of Idaho Falls, Idaho, will provide infrastructure support services at the Portsmouth Gaseous Diffusion Plant in Piketon, Ohio, under a Department of Energy contract worth up to $140 million over about five years, the agency announced Jan. 15. Under the firm-fixed-price deal, Portsmouth Mission Alliance will provide […]

A New Mexico watchdog organization said late Wednesday it had submitted an official notice of its intent to file a lawsuit over missed milestones in the cleanup of the Department of Energy’s Los Alamos National Laboratory.   Nuclear Watch New Mexico said the notice to DOE and the lab manager Los Alamos National Security is […]

The Energy Department on Wednesday said it had awarded a maximum three-year, $1.14 million task order to North Wind Solutions of Knoxville, Tenn., for technology support services at the West Valley Demonstration Project in New York state.     The order is part of the indefinite delivery/indefinite quantity West Valley Technical Assistance contract North Wind […]

Savannah River Nuclear River Solutions (SRNS) in fiscal 2015 earned a $37.8 million fee on its Savannah River Site management and operations contract with the Energy Department, or 82 percent of what it could have earned, DOE announced late Tuesday.   The company — an industry team comprised of Fluor, Honeywell International, and Huntington Ingalls […]

March 3            Meeting: Portsmouth Site Specific Advisory Board, Piketon, Ohio. 28-29     Meeting: Savannah River Site Citizens Advisory Board, New Ellenton, S.C. .

Off-site waste shipments from Oak Ridge were put on hold for a month last year after “deficiencies” were identified in the shipments made by URS-CH2M Oak Ridge (UCOR), the Department of Energy’s cleanup manager for the Tennessee facility.   DOE’s Oak Ridge Office of Environmental Management made a reference to the problems in its review […]

The Y-12 National Security Complex’s Alpha-5 building has been characterized as the “worst of the worst” of the excess facilities awaiting cleanup at Department of Energy sites around the country, and decommissioning and deactivation of the highly contaminated, highly deteriorated site is still years from happening.   However, Consolidated Nuclear Security – the government’s managing […]

January 20-22                United States Conference of Mayors’ 84th Winter Meeting; Capital Hilton, 1001 16th St NW, Washington, DC 20036       21                     U.S. Energy Association’s State of the Energy Industry Forum; National Press Club 529 14th Street NW Washington, DC 20005; 12-5:30 p.m. 20                     House of Commons Select Committee on Energy and Climate Change evidence session: Future […]

Removing the last of two large, radiologically contaminated glove boxes at the Hanford Site’s Plutonium Finishing Plant — one of the final steps necessary for demolition of the nearly 70-year-old facility — could take up to three months longer than expected, the Energy Department said last week.   As recently as November, DOE said it […]

Staff Reports WC Monitor 1/15/2015 The managers of the Los Alamos National Laboratory lost their $2 billion a year contact by the narrowest of margins, leaving $20 billion or so on the table. First came the news on Dec. 17 that the management contract for the Los Alamos National Laboratory would expire at the end […]

Staff Reports WC Monitor 1/15/2018 Savannah River Nuclear Solutions (SRNS) added more employees to its emergency preparedness staff after the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board (DNFSB) reported last year that a lack of workers was hurting the Savannah River Site’s ability to remain ready for emergencies. The board reported similar findings for liquid waste contractor […]

Staff Reports WC Monitor 1/15/2016 Negotiators reached a tentative agreement this week on a new contract for the Hanford Guard Union. Security forces have been working under contract extensions with Mission Support Alliance since early November. The latest extension, supplementing one that expired this week, will be good through a vote on the proposed new […]

WC Monitor 1/15/2016 Hanford Tri-Party Agreement Milestones Comment Period Extended The comment period for proposed new Tri-Party Agreement milestones for the Hanford’s Site’s Central Plateau and 300 Area has been extended again. The comment period was to end Jan. 15 under an earlier extension but now will continue to Feb. 12 at the request of […]

WC Monitor 1/15/2016 IN DOE The Department of Energy on Dec. 23 officially selected its preferred alternative for a permanent ventilation system to be installed at the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant in New Mexico, the head of DOE’s Carlsbad Field Office (CBFO) said last week. A total of 24 alternatives were considered as the department […]

The Weapons Complex Morning Briefing will not be published on Monday in observance of Martin Luther King Jr. Day. Look for the next edition in your inbox on Tuesday, Jan. 19.

U.S. Sen. Robert Casey (D-Pa.) is pushing for the federal government to increase funding for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers’ Formerly Utilized Sites Remedial Action Program, which oversees cleanup of 24 nuclear waste dump sites. In a letter to the Office of Management and Budget on Monday, Casey drew attention to one site that […]

Savannah River Nuclear Solutions (SRNS) added more employees to its emergency preparedness staff after the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board (DNFSB) reported last year that a lack of workers was hurting the Savannah River Site’s ability to remain ready for emergencies. The board reported similar findings for liquid waste contractor Savannah River Remediation (SRR), which […]

Republic Services, owner of the West Lake Superfund site, said late last week that it remains “ready” as the Environmental Protection Agency moves forward with plans to build an isolation barrier at the landfill meant to prevent a nearby underground fire from reaching nuclear waste material.   Republic Services spokesman Richard Callow weighed in on […]

HPM Corp., the Hanford Site’s occupational medical services provider, has received 89.9 percent of the available incentive fee for fiscal 2015, the Department of Energy announced. “The contract exceeded the majority of performance goals and objectives for the performance period,” DOE said in a summary of the fee determination results. The small business contractor has […]

Staff Reports WC Monitor 1/8/2016 Unlike many of the Department of Energy’s big cleanup projects, radioactivity is not the concern during preparations for demolition of the K-1037 building in Oak Ridge, Tenn. The challenge is to do the cleanup while protecting the classification issues at the 380,000-square-foot facility, where the so-called “barrier” – a key […]

WC Monitor 1/8/2016 IN DOE Final preparations are being made for demolition of the former K-27 uranium enrichment plant at Oak Ridge, Tenn., the Department of Energy’s Office of Environmental Management announced. The building is the last of five structures that once enriched uranium for nuclear weapons and commercial nuclear fuel at what is now […]

Congress was out and Washington was empty, but that didn’t stop news from breaking during our annual holiday publication break. As chronicled in the Weapons Complex Morning Briefing, here are a few stories that we’ve been following. DOE Formally Begins Nuclear Waste Storage Siting Process The Department of Energy on Monday said it is formally […]

Staff Reports WC Monitor 1/8/2015 The New Mexico Environment Department in a recent report said it found 421 instances of noncompliance by the Los Alamos National Laboratory with its state hazardous waste facility permit in fiscal 2015. That was up significantly from 76 instances of noncompliance reported the year before, 193 in fiscal 2013, and […]