Cleanup & Remediation

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 yesterday, resolves an investigation DOE began last summer into potential deficiencies related to proper handling and […]

Amid announcing an operating loss for 2014, Perma-Fix Environmental Services CEO Lou Centofanti indicated revenue in 2015 would be a little “lumpy,” according to remarks made during the company’s earnings call yesterday. Perma-Fix announced an operating loss of $2.99 million for 2014, better than the $34.4 million operating loss in 2013, but the company did […]

The Department of Energy this week issued a final Request for Proposals for the new contract to manage Nuclear Regulatory Commission-licensed facilities at the Department’s Idaho site and in Colorado. The final RFP drops the commitment for the three key personnel from four years to a two-year period, a provision that had been a concern […]

Moab Uranium Mill Tailings project contractor Portage earned about 76 percent of its available award fee in Fiscal Year 2014, according to a fee determination scorecard recently posted by the Department of Energy. Portage earned $1,065,483 out of $1,401,951 in total available award fee. That’s a drop from FY 2013, when the contractor earned 96 […]

Risk reduction activities at Savannah River’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 Manager Dave Moody told WC Monitor yesterday. The Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board urged action at the former plutonium processing facility in a 2012 recommendation, and DOE […]

The Department of Energy has scheduled for the week of April 13 a pre-proposal conference and site tour for the new contract to manage Nuclear Regulatory Commission-licensed facilities at the Department’s Idaho site and in Colorado. More information on the pre-proposal conference can be found here. The new contract, which is being set aside for […]

Perma-Fix Environmental Services has scheduled its 2014 full-year and fourth quarter earnings call for this Tuesday, the company announced late last week. The conference call will take place at 2:00 p.m. on Tuesday, March 31, 2015. The call will be available on the Company’s website at www.perma-fix.com, or by calling 877-407-0778. 

Looking to improve security culture at the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant, the Department of Energy is seeking companies able to covertly evaluate management practices and staff for the Carlsbad Field Office, according to a sources sought notice posted Friday. The site’s operational security policy requires the protection of “critical information,” the notice states. ”However, the […]

Jeremy L. Dillon WC Monitor 2/27/2015 President Barack Obama this week authorized the separation of defense high-level nuclear waste from commercial high-level waste and spent nuclear fuel, otherwise known as “de-comingling,” paving the way for a defense waste-only repository. De-comingling would be the best solution for nuclear waste issues due due to the differences in […]

Kenneth Fletcher WC Monitor 3/27/2015 As the Department of Energy’s Office of Environmental Management moves away from the use of management & operating contracts, the head of DOE’s Savannah River Operations Office said last week that he is “a fan” of how the site’s M&O contract has performed during budget uncertainties. There are only two […]

Mike Nartker WC Monitor 3/27/2015 As the competition for the new Idaho Cleanup Project (ICP ) Core contract moves forward, the Department of Energy is gearing up to extend the two current cleanup contracts at the Idaho site. This week, DOE notified CH2M-WG Idaho (CWI) and Idaho Treatment Group, LLC, that it plans to “pursue […]

Kenneth Fletcher WC Monitor 3/27/2015 Senators from Washington state and New Mexico pressed Secretary of Energy Ernest Moniz  over cleanup programs in their states at a Senate Energy and Water Appropriations Subcommittee hearing this week. Sen. Patty Murray (D-Wash.) led with concerns about DOE’s Fiscal Year 2016 budget  request for Hanford’s Richland Operations Office, which […]

Kenneth Fletcher WC Monitor 3/27/2015 LATA Environmental Services of Kentucky, LLC, the cleanup contractor for the Paducah site, earned about 83 percent of its available award fee in Fiscal Year 2014, for a total of $918,639 out of $1.1 million available, according to fee information the Department of Energy released this week. In the subjective […]

Kenneth Fletcher WC Monitor 3/27/2015 A Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board review has found significant issues with the Department of Energy’s software used to determine radioactive transportation packages, according to a DNFSB report released late last week. The DNFSB staff identified deficiencies with oversight, maintenance and use of the software, called “Radcalc,”which is used across […]

Activist Groups Hold Their Own ‘State of the Site’ Meetings WC Monitor 3/27/2015 Four Pacific Northwest groups are holding their own versions of Hanford State of the Site meetings after learning that the Department of Energy did not plan any this spring. Columbia Riverkeeper, Hanford Challenge, Heart of America Northwest and Washington Physicians for Social […]

DOE, Regulators in Dispute Over Planned Mercury Treatment Facility WC Monitor 3/27/2015 The Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation and the Environmental Protection Agency are in dispute with the Department of Energy over the design of the proposed water-treatment facility at Y-12’s Outfall 200, where much of the plant’s mercury runoff and discharges reach the […]

WC Monitor 3/27/2015 IN THE INDUSTRY Three members of Babcock & Wilcox’s Board of Directors will be up for re-election at the company’s annual shareholder’s meeting May 1, B&W said in a Securities and Exchange Commission filing late last week. The members up for reelection include Jan Bertsch, the executive vice president and chief financial […]

Jeremy L. Dillon RW Monitor 2/27/2015 President Barack Obama this week authorized the separation of defense high-level nuclear waste from commercial high-level waste and spent nuclear fuel, otherwise known as “de-comingling,” paving the way for a defense waste-only repository. De-comingling would be the best solution for nuclear waste issues due due to the differences in […]

Paducah environmental cleanup contractor LATA Environmental Services of Kentucky, LLC, earned about 84 percent of its available award fee in Fiscal Year 2014, according to fee information the Department of Energy released this week. The contractor earned $337,329 out of $443,854 in total available award fee, and 87 percent of its performance based incentive fee, […]

Potential bidders on the new Idaho Cleanup Project (ICP) Core contract now have until April 7 to submit questions to the Department of Energy. Previously, questions were due by March 27. The extra time was provided in an amendment issued yesterday to the final Request for Proposals for the new contract. The amendment made no […]

President Barrack Obama yesterday authorized the “de-comingling” of defense high-level nuclear waste from commercial high-level waste and spent nuclear fuel, paving the way for a defense waste-only repository. The Department of Energy had produced a report late last year that endorsed the safety and political case for dividing the two waste streams, mainly to engender […]

A Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board review has found significant issues with the Department of Energy’s software used to determine radioactive transportation packages, according to a March 16 DNFSB letter released late last week. The DNFSB staff identified deficiencies with oversight, maintenance and use of the software, called “Radcalc,”which is used across the complex. “These […]

Todd Jacobson WC Monitor 3/20/2015 Fourteen vacant National Nuclear Security Administration facilities have languished since 2009 without being decontaminated or decommissioned due to a lack of funding, and the Department of Energy’s Office of Environmental Management may not be properly prioritizing the facilities it takes from the NNSA, the Government Accountability Office said in a […]

Bids Due By May 12 Mike Nartker and Todd Jacobson WC Monitor 3/20/2015 With the procurement for the new Idaho Cleanup Project (ICP) Core contract ramping up with the recent release of a final Request for Proposals, acting Department of Energy cleanup chief Mark Whitney said this week that he is “comfortable” with the expected […]

Kenneth Fletcher WC Monitor 3/20/2015 PHOENIX, Ariz.—In order to limit the impacts of proposed budget cuts to new processing missions at Savannah River’s H-Canyon facility, the Department of Energy’s Savannah River Operations Office is working with the National Nuclear Security Administration on H-Canyon funding, DOE Savannah River Manager Dave Moody said here this week. Programs […]

Kenneth Fletcher NS&D Monitor 3/20/2015 PHOENIX, Ariz.—In order to limit the impacts of proposed budget cuts to new processing missions at Savannah River’s H-Canyon facility, the Department of Energy’s Savannah River Operations Office is working with the National Nuclear Security Administration on H-Canyon funding, DOE Savannah River Manager Dave Moody said here this week. Programs […]

DOE to Stand Up New Los Alamos EM Field Office Next Week Kenneth Fletcher and Mike Nartker WC Monitor 3/20/2015 PHOENIX, Ariz.—As the Department of Energy’s Office of Environmental Management prepares to stand up its new Los Alamos Site Office next week, the top EM procurement official said here this week that he is “fairly […]

Director Jack Craig Heading to SRS Kenneth Fletcher WC Monitor 3/20/2015 Management changes are underway at the Department of Energy Office of Environmental Management’s Consolidated Business Center, with DOE announcing this week that EMCBC Director Jack Craig has been named to head up the Savannah River Operations Office. Craig is expected to transition to the […]

ERDF Reaches New Waste Disposal Milestone WC Monitor 3/20/2015 The Environmental Restoration Disposal Facility has reached a new milestone of 17 tons of hazardous chemical and low level radioactive waste from across Hanford disposed since it opened in 1996. “Reaching 17 million tons of material disposed at ERDF shows the excellent cleanup work being done […]

WC Monitor 3/20/2015 IN CONGRESS Acting DOE cleanup chief Mark Whitney is among those scheduled to testify before the House Armed Services Strategic Forces Subcommittee during a hearing set for next week. The March 24 hearing is also set to include National Nuclear Security Administration chief Frank Klotz and Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board Vice […]