Cleanup & Remediation

Funding for the Department of Energy’s cleanup efforts next year would be set at a total of approximately $5.91 billion under the House version of the Fiscal Year 2016 Energy and Water Appropriations bill, set to undergo subcommittee markup today. The bill would provide approximately $100 million more than the Department of Energy’s budget request […]

House appropriators are proposing an increase in funding next year for the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board. The House version of the FY 2016 Energy and Water Appropriations bill, set to undergo subcommittee markup today, would provide a total of $29.9 million for the Board. That’s approximately $1.4 million more than the Board’s current funding […]

The Department of Energy late last week awarded to IEI-PEC a support services contract for the Department of Energy’s Office of Environmental Management. The indefinite delivery/indefinite quantity contract has a maximum value of $4 million over five years, and will consist of firm fixed-price and time and material task orders, according to a DOE release. […]

The Department of Energy’s Office of Environmental Management has scheduled one-on-one meetings with industry for next week and its next Business Opportunity Forum for June 10. The one-on-ones will be on April 22 and 23 with EM Deputy Assistant Secretary for Acquisition and Project Management Jack Surash and are rescheduled after being cancelled last month. […]

Mike Nartker WC Monitor 4/10/2015 Despite marking an upturn in fee performance after years of steady decline, Fluor-B&W Portsmouth, LLC, is considering challenging its Fiscal Year 2014 award fee determination for the Portsmouth D&D project, WC Monitor has learned. At issue is DOE’s decision to give FBP a rating of only “satisfactory” in one of […]

Todd Jacobson WC Monitor 4/10/2015 President Barack Obama made it official this week, announcing that he intends to nominate White House nuclear energy official Joyce Connery and nuclear industry veteran Bruce Hamilton to serve on the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board. WC Monitor first reported last week that the two were the top candidates to […]

WTP Pulse Jet Mixing Tests Going Well, Officials Say WC Monitor 4/10/2015 Hanford officials have seen encouraging results in half-scale tests of a system to keep high-level radioactive waste well mixed within certain tanks in the Hanford Waste Treatment Plant, according to Bechtel National. “We’ve had a few surprises when we’ve been doing this testing,” […]

WC Monitor 4/10/2015 IN CONGRESS The Congressional Nuclear Cleanup Caucus will hold its second meeting of the year on April 15 with a panel of Department of Energy Office of Environmental Management officials focusing on “progress through partnership.” The meeting, to be held in Room 2325 of the Rayburn House Office Building from 5:00 pm. […]

Todd Jacobson NS&D Monitor 4/10/2015 President Barack Obama made it official this week, announcing that he intends to nominate White House nuclear energy official Joyce Connery and nuclear industry veteran Bruce Hamilton to serve on the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board. NS&D Monitor first reported last week that the two were the top candidates to […]

DNFSB Reveals More Details on SRS Puncture Incident Investigation NS&D Monitor 4/10/2015 A puncture incident earlier this year at the Savannah River Site’s Tritium Facilities occurred because the site’s managing contractor, Savannah River Nuclear Solutions, lacked a tool control/sharps program, didn’t completely analyze hazards, and was noncompliant in operations, including “weaknesses with procedure compliance, pre-job […]

Several Companies Interested in Supplying Y-12 With Depleted Uranium NS&D Monitor 4/10/2015 Consolidated Nuclear Security, the government’s managing contractor at Y-12, said this week that it has received “several” responses to a notice issued in mid-January seeking up to 6,800 tons of high-purity depleted uranium for production purposes. Contractor spokeswoman Ellen Boatner said those responses […]

NS&D Monitor 4/10/2015 IN CONGRESS Rep. Chuck Fleischmann has been named the vice chairman of the House Energy and Water Appropriations Subcommittee, giving the Tennessee Republican more clout on the powerful panel. Fleischmann’s district includes the Y-12 National Security Complex, Oak Ridge National Laboratory and other Oak Ridge Department of Energy facilities, and he’s been […]

President Obama made it official, nominating White House nuclear energy official Joyce Connery and nuclear industry veteran Bruce Hamilton to serve on the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board. Connery is currently the director of Nuclear Energy Policy in the National Security Council’s Office of International Economics, and she has been nominated to be the chair […]

The Congressional Nuclear Cleanup Caucus will hold its second meeting of the year on April 15 with a panel of Department of Energy Office of Environmental Management officials focusing on “progress through partnership.” The meeting, to be held in Room 2325 of the Rayburn House Office Building from 5 pm. to 6:30 p.m., will be […]

Five-Year Contract Extension for ORNL Finalized NS&D Monitor 4/3/2015 UT-Battelle, which has managed Oak Ridge National Laboratory since 2000, has signed a new five-year contract with the Department of Energy. ORNL Director Thom Mason confirmed March 30 that the extension had been signed. The existing contract was due to expire April 1. DOE announced in late 2013 its […]

A puncture incident earlier this year at the Savannah River Site’s Tritium Facilities occurred because contractor Savannah River Nuclear Solutions lacked a tool control/sharps program, didn’t completely analyze hazards, and was noncompliant in operations, including “weaknesses with procedure compliance, pre-job briefings, complacent reliance upon skill of the craft, and execution of the immediate procedure change […]

Richard Lambert, who headed up the Knoxville FBI office before serving as the head of counterintelligence for the Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge Field Office, is suing the Department of Justice and the FBI for $2.5 million, alleging that an FBI lawyer cost him his Oak Ridge job. In the lawsuit, filed April 2 in […]

Joe Franco is stepping down as head of the Department of Energy’s Carlsbad Field Office, which oversees the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant, to take a senior position at DOE’s Richland Operations Office, according to a message acting DOE cleanup chief Mark Whitney sent to employees yesterday. Franco is leaving the Carlsbad Field Office for “a […]

The chairs of the various DOE Office of Environmental Management Citizens Advisory Boards are scheduled to meet April 22-23 in Augusta, Ga. The meeting is scheduled to involve discussions on several topics, including EM’s budget, waste disposition and safety culture, among other topics, according to a notice posted in the Federal Register yesterday. 

The Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board has scheduled hearings April 29 in Carlsbad, N.M., on last year’s incidents at the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant. The Board has scheduled four sessions from noon to 9 p.m. In the first session, a Department of Energy official will testify on recovery actions at WIPP following the salt haul […]

Todd Jacobson WC Monitor 4/3/2015 Richard Reback, the acting general counsel of the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board, was placed on administrative leave last month after the Department of Energy revoked his security clearance, WC Monitor has learned. DOE’s decision to revoke Reback’s clearance was sparked by an investigation by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission Inspector […]

Todd Jacobson WC Monitor 4/3/2015 White House nuclear energy official Joyce Connery and nuclear industry veteran Bruce Hamilton have emerged as the top candidates to fill the two vacant spots on the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board, WC Monitor has learned. Connery, who most recently has served as the director of Nuclear Energy Policy for […]

Kenneth Fletcher WC Monitor 4/3/2015 Portage saw a significant drop in Fiscal Year 2014 in the award fee earned for work at the Moab uranium mill tailings remediation project, according to a fee determination scorecard recently posted by the Department of Energy. For FY 2014, Portage earned approximately 76 percent of the available fee, or […]

Kenneth Fletcher WC Monitor 4/3/2015 Risk reduction activities at the Savannah River Site’s 235-F facility would be largely put on hold in Fiscal Year 2016 under the Department of Energy’s budget request, DOE Savannah River Operations Office Manager Dave Moody told WC Monitor this week. The Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board urged action at the […]

Kenneth Fletcher WC Monitor 4/3/2015 The Department of Energy this week awarded a $1.5 million contract option to CH2M Hill Constructors, Inc., for the design of a mock test facility for Oak Ridge’s Sludge Processing Facility Buildouts project. This comes after CH2M Hill’s selection in September as the “most highly qualified” contractor in the procurement, […]

Three New Tank Farm Workers Report Vapor Exposure Symptoms WC Monitor 4/3/2015 Three more Hanford workers reported symptoms late this week consistent with those caused by exposure to chemical vapors. Few incidents have been reported since workers have been required to wear supplied air respirators for much of the work at the Hanford tank farms […]

FBP Agrees to Pay $50,000 to Settle Asbestos-Related Concerns WC Monitor 4/3/2015 Fluor-B&W Portsmouth, LLC, has agreed to implement corrective actions and pay $50,000 to resolve asbestos-related safety concerns at the Portsmouth D&D project under a consent order reached with the Department of Energy’s Office of Enforcement. The consent order, released this week, resolves an […]

Company Making Strides in Tc-99m Development Jeremy L. Dillon RW Monitor 4/3/2015 After announcing a nearly $3 million operating loss for 2014, Perma-Fix Environmental Services CEO Lou Centofanti indicated this week that revenue in 2015 would be a little “lumpy.” Perma-Fix announced an operating loss of $2.99 million for the full-year 2014, an improvement from […]

Jeremy L. Dillon RW Monitor 4/3/2015 The Army Corps of Engineers issued a pre-solicitation notice late last week for two Indefinite Delivery/Indefinite Quantity (IDIQ) contracts to provide Hazardous Toxic Radiologic Waste Architect-Engineering Services in support of its North Atlantic Division. Each contract could have a value up to $10 million dollars over a five-year ordering […]

RW Monitor 4/3/2015 IN NRC The Nuclear Regulatory Commission proposed this week a $17,500 civil penalty against Dominion Energy’s Kewaunee Nuclear Power Plant for a security-related violation. According to the NRC, the violation stemmed from a routine agency security inspections that occurred between June and December of last year. Details about security-related violations were not […]