Cleanup & Remediation

Perma-Fix Environmental Services announced yesterday the addition of two new industry officials to the company’s team. Jeff Bowers, who previously operated his own small business consulting on decommissioning sites in Canada will serve as Vice President of Nuclear Services Performance Assurance & Business Development, and Tony Mason, formerly a principal health physicist with Cabrera Services, […]

The Department of Energy’s Savannah River Operations Office has named Michael Mikolanis Assistant Manager for Infrastructure and Environmental Stewardship, starting Jan. 11. He replaces assistant manager Karen Guevara, while most recently Angelica Adams has been the acting assistant manager. Mikolanis currently serves as DOE-SR’s Chief Engineer. “Mr. Mikolanis has nearly 30 years of engineering and […]

The Army Corps of Engineer’s Formerly Utilized Sites Remedial Action Program’s (FUSRAP) cleanup of the Shallow Land Disposal Area (SLDA) site in Armstrong County, Pa. will cost approximately seven times more than previously thought and take an additional 20 months to complete, according to the Record of Decision amendment released yesterday. The Corps needed to […]

New York Senator Charles Schumer (D-NY) yesterday called on the Army Corps of Engineers’ Formerly Utilized Sites Remedial Action Program (FUSRAP) to release the remediation plan for the Tonawanda Landfill while promising to push for more federal funding for the cleanup program. USACE had said it would develop a feasibility study for remediation at the […]

Oak Ridge cleanup contractor URS-CH2M Oak Ridge, LLC, earned $3.67 million in award fee out of a total of $3.83 million available, about 96 percent, for the six-month period marking the second half of Fiscal Year 2014. That is on par for UCOR’s fee in the first half of FY’14, when the contractor earned  $3.2 […]

Jay Rhoderick, a former senior official in the Department of Energy’s Office of Environmental Management, has joined the consulting firm Longenecker & Associates as a Senior Associate, effective Jan. 5. Rhoderick retired from federal service at the beginning of this month, with his last position in EM having been Associate Deputy Assistant Secretary for Tank […]

The Department of Energy last week awarded a $2.5 million task order to Sage Energy Trading, LLC, to supply natural gas to the Portsmouth site. The award to a woman-owned small business is under a one-year firm fixed unit rate task order. 

The Department of Energy and Nevada have signed a memorandum of understanding formalizing the working group to address issues at the Nevada National Security Site. The state and DOE established the group of senior-level officials in 2013 after concern from Nevada regarding a batch of uranium-233 from Oak Ridge that DOE had been slated for […]

The U.S. Department of Justice has requested that criminal charges related to Hanford timecard fraud be dismissed against the final defendant who had pleaded not guilty. The federal government has reached a civil settlement with Patrick Brannan, the base operations radiological control manager for former Hanford tank farms contractor CH2M Hill Hanford Group, according to […]

Rep.-elect Dan Newhouse (R-Wash.), who will replace longtime Hanford Rep. Doc Hastings (R-Wash.) when he retires in January, toured the Hanford site yesterday for the first time since the November elections. The full-day tour included stops at River Corridor, K Area, the Plutonium Finishing Plant, 200 West Pump and Treat, the Waste Treatment Plant, the […]

A final Request for Proposals for the new Idaho Cleanup Project (ICP) Core contract is anticipated to be released in February, the Department of Energy said yesterday. DOE also issued yesterday a full version of the draft RFP for the new contract, with comments due by Jan. 14. Among the areas where DOE is seeking […]

Perma-Fix Environmental Services late last week appointed Larry Shelton chairman of the board of directors, replacing current Chair Lou Centofanti, the company announced. Centofanti will still remain on the board, as well as continue his other responsibilities as President and CEO of Perma-Fix. The company said the move was “good corporate governance” by adding an […]

The Washington State Supreme Court has declined to consider the dismissal of a case brought by Hanford whistleblower Walter Tamosaitis against Bechtel National, effectively ending that case filed in Benton County Superior Court. The state Supreme Court issued an order on Dec. 19 denying Tamosaitis’ petition for review without providing a reason. “We agree with […]

Savannah River Site security contractor G4S Government Solutions, Inc.-Wackenhut Services Incorporated earned about 90 percent of its available award fee for Fiscal Year 2014, according to a scorecard released by the Department of Energy Friday. WSI earned $4.97 million out of a total of $5.5 million in available award fee. “WSI-SRS has demonstrated an excellent […]

Congress Adjourns Without Voting on Choice to Head Cleanup Program Mike Nartker WC Monitor 12/19/2014 Monica Regalbuto’s nomination to serve as the next Assistant Secretary of Energy for Environmental Management has been returned to the White House after Congress adjourned this week without the Senate holding a vote. Regalbuto was one of three pending DOE […]

Kenneth Fletcher WC Monitor 12/19/2014 The Department of Energy is still assessing  potential impacts to Savannah River Site projects and workers after cleanup funds were cut about $29 million below the DOE request in the Fiscal Year 2015 spending bill recently passed by Congress. While most cleanup sites in the DOE complex saw a funding […]

Kenneth Fletcher WC Monitor 12/19/2014 After months of uncertainty regarding hundreds of potential layoffs for Portsmouth cleanup workers, contractor Fluor B&W Portsmouth, LLC, cancelled the workforce reduction planned for this week after the site received a $76.4 million funding boost in the spending bill recently approved by Congress. Contractor officials had warned that without $92.5 […]

Mike Nartker WC Monitor 12/19/2014 A federal fund used to help cover cleanup costs at the Oak Ridge, Paducah and Portsmouth sites remains on track to be empty by Fiscal Year 2020, at which point the Department of Energy will need to find other Congressional funding sources to pay for the work, according to a […]

Kenneth Fletcher WC Monitor 12/19/2014 A new long-term campaign to downblend 1,200 bundles of spent fuel at Savannah River’s H-Canyon is well underway, site officials said this week. In September, the site’s managing contractor, Savannah River Nuclear Solutions, began initial processing in an eight-to-10-year campaign to downblend highly enriched uranium from research reactor fuel stored […]

Kenneth Fletcher WC Monitor 12/19/2014 After delays and cost increases at Hanford’s Plutonium Finishing Plant were highlighted in a recent Department of Energy Office of Inspector General report, DOE has directed cleanup contractor CH2M Hill Plateau Remediation Company to complete a corrective action plan due in mid-January. The IG report, released in September, found issues […]

Settlement Reached in Time Card Fraud Case WC Monitor 12/19/2014 Charges related to timecard fraud are expected to be dropped for two former high-level managers and a former supervisor of CH2M Hill Hanford Group after they agreed to pay civil fines, according to the Department of Justice. Ryan Dodd, who was vice president of the […]

Contractor Requests New Roof for REDOX Plant WC Monitor 12/19/2014 After a failing roof is leading to leaking and contamination migration in the Reduction-Oxidation Plant at Hanford, site cleanup contractor CH2M Hill Plateau Remediation Company has requested funding for a new roof totaling about $7 million. Though the facility has not operated since the 1960s […]

DOE Should Increase Outreach on SRS Monitoring, Lab Report Finds WC Monitor 12/19/2014 Though existing environmental monitoring programs in South Carolina and Georgia are sufficient to protect the public from potential Savannah River radiological releases, an independent lab report found that the Department of Energy should increase outreach efforts on the topic. The Savannah River […]

Contractor Fluor B&W Portsmouth, LLC, has cancelled planned layoffs after the site received a $76.4 million funding boost in cleanup funding over the previously enacted level of funding, FBP Site Project Director announced in a message to employees yesterday. Contractor officials had warned that without $92.5 million in additional about 675 layoffs could occur due […]

A site tour is scheduled for Jan. 7 for those companies interested in bidding on the new Portsmouth infrastructure contract. Additional tours may be held on Jan. 8 if necessary, according to the Department of Energy. Attendance for the tour is limited to no more than three individuals from each prime contractor or teaming arrangement […]

The S.M. Stoller Corporation is being renamed and rebranded as Stoller Newport News Nuclear, or SN3 for short, Stoller president Nick Lombardo announced in a Dec. 15 message to employees. Stoller has operated as a subsidiary of Huntington Ingalls Industries under its Newport News Shipbuilding division since an acquisition that was wrapped up last January […]

WIPP Recovery Funded, Savannah River Sees Cuts Kenneth Fletcher WC Monitor 12/12/2014 Most sites in the Department of Energy’s cleanup program would receive a funding boost in the Fiscal Year 2015 omnibus spending bill Congress released this week, with an increase that could stave off looming layoffs at Portsmouth, though in the meantime the Savannah […]

Mike Nartker WC Monitor 12/12/2014 In a move welcomed by potential bidders, the Department of Energy has dropped plans to include a cost cap in the new Idaho Cleanup Project (ICP) Core contract. The draft Request for Proposals for the new contract had included a provision that would have made contractors responsible for all costs […]

Mike Nartker WC Monitor 12/12/2014 Sen. John Barrasso (R-Wyo.) has dropped his hold on Monica Regalbuto’s nomination to serve as the next Assistant Secretary of Energy for Environmental Management, but it remains to be seen if she’ll be confirmed by the Senate before the current Congress goes out of session, expected next week. Barrasso chose […]

Kenneth Fletcher WC Monitor 12/12/2014 After New Mexico levied $54.3 million in fines for violations this year at Los Alamos and the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant and warned of potentially even larger fines down the road, the Department of Energy is examining its path forward. The New Mexico Environment Department levied a $17.7 million fine […]