Cleanup & Remediation

The Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board is scheduled to hold a public meeting at its Washington headquarters on June 3. Topics to be discussed during the meeting include an overview of planned responses to matters raised in recent Organizational Assessments, existing Board performance metrics, existing Board policies and technical organizational structure. The meeting is set […]

Funding for the Department of Energy’s cleanup programs would see a boost in the Senate Energy and Water Fiscal Year 2016 Appropriations legislation that cleared the subcommittee yesterday, but would be slightly cut for the National Nuclear Security Administration. DOE’s Office of Environmental Management would receive $6 billion under the bill, compared to DOE’s FY’16 […]

Kenneth Fletcher WC Monitor 5/15/2015 The Senate Armed Services Committee late this week completed its version of the Fiscal Year 2016 National Defense Authorization Act, which sets authorized funding levels for defense environmental cleanup. The bill authorizes $5.5 billion in funding for the Department of Energy’s defense environmental management programs, matching the administration’s FY’16 budget […]

Reductions Could Have $65 Million Impact in FY’16 Kenneth Fletcher WC Monitor 5/15/2015 Members of Ohio’s Congressional delegation expressed concern this week over the impact on Portsmouth cleanup of the Department of Energy’s recent decision to reduce its uranium transfers. D&D funding at Portsmouth comes in a large part from the sale of DOE-owned uranium […]

Staff Reports WC Monitor 5/15/2015 Hanford cleanup contractor CH2M Hill Plateau Remediation Co. has been awarded 98 percent of the possible fee it could earn from the Department of Energy for its performance in Fiscal Year 2014. That was slightly better than the 95 percent of possible fee it earned for work performed in FY’13. […]

Kenneth Fletcher WC Monitor 5/15/2015 In the face of a White House veto threat over concerns including nuclear policy provisions, the House late this week passed its version of the Fiscal Year 2016 National Defense Authorization Act in a vote of 269 to 151. The bill sets authorized funding levels and policy for defense environmental […]

Staff Reports WC Monitor 5/15/2015 An Eastern Washington District U.S. Court judge has agreed to intervene in the Hanford consent decree signed in 2010 and consider proposals by all three litigants in the case to modify it. The Department of Energy, the state of Oregon and the state of Washington had asked the federal court […]

CHPRC Announces New Vice Presidents WC Monitor 5/15/2015 Hanford cleanup contractor CH2M Hill Plateau Remediation has named two new vice presidents, splitting up the work of Ty Blackford, the former vice president of decommissioning, waste and fuels, and remediation services. Blackford was named tank closure and regulatory director at Savannah River Remediation, the liquid waste […]

Site Breaks Ground on New Biomass Heating Plant WC Monitor 5/15/2015 Officials this week celebrated the groundbreaking of an expansion to the Savannah River Site’s Biomass Cogeneration Facility that will involve adding a new heating plant. The biomass plant, built and operated by Ameresco, began operation in 2012 and provides energy and steam for Savannah […]

Jeremy L. Dillon RW Monitor 5/15/2015 A new round of sampling at the West Lake Landfill began this week as the Environmental Protection Agency Region Seven attempts to understand exactly where all the radiologically-impacted material at the site is located. According to the EPA, this effort is a continuation of the investigation performed in late […]

A new round of sampling at the West Lake Landfill is set to begin this morning as the Environmental Protection Agency Region Seven attempts to understand exactly where all the radiologically-impacted material at the site is located. According to the EPA, this effort is a continuation of the investigation performed in late 2013 and early […]

GAO Questions DOE’s Planning for New Hanford Vit Plant Facilities Mike Nartker WC Monitor 5/8/2015 The price tag for key portions of the Hanford Waste Treatment Plant long seen as being less difficult to accomplish may be set to significantly increase, with contractor Bechtel National having estimated that the work could cost up to almost […]

Kenneth Fletcher WC Monitor 5/8/2015 The Department of Energy’s Carlsbad Field Office is having a tough time filling 22 new full-time positions, many of them in safety and oversight, that were created in response to last year’s incidents at the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant, DOE officials said last week. “I have the highest incentive authority […]

Mike Nartker WC Monitor 5/8/2015 Hanford cleanup contractor CH2M Hill Plateau Remediation Co. (CHPRC) is facing a lawsuit from one of its subcontractors alleging it has experienced more than $12 million in damages for work on the K West Basin Annex construction project. Federal Engineers and Constructors (FE&C) filed the suit on April 21 in […]

Contractor Still Conducting Analysis of Chemical Spill Accident Mike Nartker WC Monitor 5/8/2015 B&W Conversion Services, LLC, is so far holding off on setting a schedule for the resumption of full operations at the Portsmouth depleted uranium hexafluoride (DUF) conversion plant in the wake of a chemical spill accident, saying late this week that the […]

Kenneth Fletcher WC Monitor 5/8/2015 After nearly two years of talks with Nevada officials regarding disposal of a batch of uranium-233 from Oak Ridge at the Nevada National Security Site, the Department of Energy is moving ahead with the shipments by conducting a trial run this week.  DOE had originally hoped to complete in 2013 […]

Wash. State University to Oversee Hanford Artifacts WC Monitor 5/8/2015 Mission Support Alliance has awarded a subcontract to Washington State University Tri-Cities for professional curatorial and archivist services, plus storage, of the Department of Energy’s collection of Hanford artifacts and archive materials. The university will make the items available for research, education and public exhibitions. […]

DOE Awards Contract for Los Alamos Scope Planning  WC Monitor 5/8/2015 The Department of Energy this week awarded a contract to IEI-PEC, JV, for scope planning at the Office of Environmental Management’s Los Alamos Field Office.  EM is currently standing up a new field office at Los Alamos and is the midst of planning a […]

DOE Holds ‘Productive’ Talks With Regulators on Mercury Facility WC Monitor 5/8/2015 A settlement to the dispute over a new mercury-treatment facility at Y-12 could be on the way following an April 21 meeting with environmental regulators that a Department of Energy spokesman termed “productive.” Representatives from the DOE’s Office of Environmental Management in Oak […]

WC Monitor 5/8/2015 IN DOE Melanie Kent has been named director of human resources at the Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge Office.  Kent began her federal career in 1979, and she has been chief of the Federal Human Resources Branch at the Oak Ridge Office for the past 14 years. She has a degree in […]

Jeremy L. Dillon RW Monitor 5/8/2015 The United States will place $13.2 million into an environmental response trust that will pay for evaluations of 16 priority abandoned uranium mines located across Navajo lands, the Department of Justice announced late last week. Because the U.S. government could not identify responsible parties for these 16 sites, the […]

While the Department of Energy is moving to dispose of a batch of uranium-233 at the Nevada National Security Site with the consent of state officials, Las Vegas Mayor Carolyn Goodman (D) spoke out this week against the transport of the material near that city. The 403 canisters of Consolidated Edison Uranium Solidification Project will […]

After nearly two years of talks with Nevada official regarding disposal of a batch of uranium-233 from Oak Ridge at the Nevada National Security Site, the Department of Energy is moving ahead with the shipments by conducting a trial run this week.  DOE had originally hoped to complete in 2013 the first shipments of the […]

The Army Corp of Engineers Huntsville District issued a pre-solicitation notice last week for an indefinite delivery/indefinite quantity (IDIQ) contract to provide services related to the preparation of environmental documents and remediation for hazardous/toxic radioactive wastes studies and the military munitions response program in the Pacific Ocean Division. Terms and length of the contract have […]

The Department of Energy is so far staying quiet on whether or not a formal enforcement investigation will be launched into an accident that occurred at the Portsmouth depleted uranium hexafluoride (DUF6) conversion plant in late March that exposed two workers to dangerous chemicals. DOE has not answered multiple questions submitted over the past two […]

FY 2017 Budget Would Need to Double to Meet Requirements, Officials Say WC Monitor 5/1/2015 The Fiscal Year 2017 budget for the Richland Operations Office at Hanford would need to double to meet environmental cleanup requirements, according to the Department of Energy. DOE Hanford officials presented budget information for public comment this week in advance […]

Mike Nartker WC Monitor 5/1/2015 In a move that prompted mixed reaction from industry officials, the Department of Energy late last week inadvertently released the identities of companies that have submitted questions on the Request for Proposals for the new contract to manage Nuclear Regulatory Commission-licensed facilities at the Department’s Idaho site and in Colorado. […]

Mike Nartker WC Monitor 5/1/2015 Warning that the Department of Energy’s current contracting approaches are “increasingly insupportable,” local officials near DOE sites expressed concern this week over the Department’s procurement policies. “Our concern is that DOE is departing from the most successful contract mechanisms and past practices that cleaned up Rocky Flats, Fernald and the […]

Kenneth Fletcher WC Monitor 5/1/2015 The Department of Energy and the New Mexico Environment Department this week reached a $73 million settlement in lieu of fines related to violations at Los Alamos National Laboratory and the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant. The settlement funds will go to a number of community and environmental projects near WIPP […]

Kenneth Fletcher WC Monitor 5/1/2015 CARLSBAD, N.M.—In an effort to increase Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board oversight following the 2014 incidents at the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant, the Board approved a proposal here this week that would increase DNFSB staff reviews at several Department of Energy sites. The Board does not have on-site representatives at […]