Cleanup & Remediation

In the latest challenge to Navarro Research and Engineering’s recent win of the new contract to provide environmental program services at the Nevada National Security Site, Portage has filed a protest with the Government Accountability Office over the award, with the GAO currently set to render a decision by late January. Officials with Portage and […]

Department of Energy Inspector General Gregory Friedman named environmental cleanup and contract administration as the top two areas of concern for DOE in a Washington Post interview published yesterday. When asked what issues have raised the most concern lately, Friedman first named cleanup. “There have been lots of problems in terms of project management and […]

The schedule for hearings on amending the Hanford consent decree has been set, with arguments by the state of Washington and the Department of Justice to be heard Feb. 19 in Eastern Washington District U.S. Court in Richland. If the state of Oregon intervenes in the lawsuit, its motion to modify the consent decree and […]

The Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board is scheduled to hold on Oct. 30 a public meeting on the Board’s work plans for Fiscal Year 2015. The meeting will involve presentations on draft work plans in several areas, including nuclear weapons programs, nuclear materials processing and stabilization, nuclear facility design and infrastructure and nuclear programs and […]

B&W Technical Services last week hired David Swale as director of business development. Most recently Swale was vice president of business development for EnergySolutions, and he has also worked at Idaho’s Advanced Mixed Waste Treatment Project, waste management at Savannah River and at the U.K.’s Sellafield and Drigg sites. “I am pleased to welcome Dave […]

The 26th Annual Weapons Complex Monitor Decisionmakers’ Forum kicks off this evening in Amelia Island, Fla., and will run through Thursday. Keynote speakers this week include Rep. Doc Hastings (R-Wash.), Mark Whitney, the Department of Environmental Management’s acting assistant secretary, Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board Chairman Peter Winokur, DOE Associate Deputy Secretary of Energy Bruce […]

WC Monitor 10/17/2014 An article in the Oct. 10 edition of WC Monitor incorrectly reported that the Department of Energy failed to empty waste from 13 of the 16 C Farm single-shell tanks at Hanford by the end of Fiscal Year 2014. DOE did empty the waste from the 13 tanks by the end of […]

Board to Undergo Safety Culture Assessment of Itself Mike Nartker WC Monitor 10/17/2014 Employee dissatisfaction at the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board has hit a four-year low, according to the results of the 2014 Federal Employee Viewpoint Survey, which the DNFSB posted on its website this week. The survey found a drop in positive responses […]

Company Also Has Pending Size Standard Challenge Mike Nartker WC Monitor 10/17/2014 INTERA intends to file a protest with the Government Accountability Office next week over Navarro Research and Engineering’s win of the new contract to perform environmental program services at the Nevada National Security Site. INTERA President and CEO Marsh Lavenue confirmed the company’s […]

Kenneth Fletcher WC Monitor 10/17/2014 With no time frame yet as to when uranium-233 from Oak Ridge may be sent to the Nevada National Security Site for disposal, the Department of Energy still has not submitted a Congressionally-mandated analysis that was due in April on options for the material. Concerns from Nevada officials led DOE […]

Kenneth Fletcher WC Monitor 10/17/14 Infrastructure modernization and deferred maintenance are a “special concern” in the Department of Energy Inspector General’s latest annual report on DOE management challenges, released late last week. Infrastructure modernization was not listed as a management challenge, but instead on a lower level watch list. However, the topic is a “special […]

Board to Undergo Safety Culture Assessment of Itself Mike Nartker NS&D Monitor 10/17/2014 Employee dissatisfaction at the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board has hit a four-year low, according to the results of the 2014 Federal Employee Viewpoint Survey, which the DNFSB posted on its website this week. The survey found a drop in positive responses […]

Penalty As Much As $10,000 Per Week Staff Reports WC Monitor 10/17/2014 The Environmental Protection Agency has begun to fine the Department of Energy up to $10,000 for each week it fails to start moving radioactive sludge away from the Columbia River at Hanford. The Tri-Party Agreement required DOE to begin removing sludge from the […]

New Judge Named in Consent Decree Suit WC Monitor 10/17/2014 U.S. Judge Fred Van Sickle has recused himself from continuing to hear the Hanford consent decree case and Judge Rosanna Malouf Peterson has been assigned. Van Sickle, who was the judge in the case when it was filed by the state in 2008, notified Eastern […]

Wash. Closure Works to Backfull Excavated Areas WC Monitor 10/17/2014 Washington Closure Hanford is in the midst of a major backfill campaign as much of the Hanford river corridor cleanup nears completion. In the last 20 months, workers under a DelHur Industries subcontract have placed 3 million tons of backfill. That’s enough to fill an […]

Kenneth Fletcher NS&D Monitor 10/17/14 Infrastructure modernization and deferred maintenance are a “special concern” in the Department of Energy Inspector General’s latest annual report on DOE management challenges, released late last week. Infrastructure modernization was not listed as a management challenge, but instead on a lower level watch list. However, the topic is a “special […]

UCOR Says It’s Saved $90 Million to Date WC Monitor 10/17/2014 URS-CH2M Oak Ridge (UCOR), the Department of Energy’s cleanup manager in Oak Ridge, says efficiencies and accelerated missions have saved the federal government about $90 million over the past three years. UCOR President Ken Rueter, who assumed the top position a few months ago, […]

Jeremy L. Dillon RW Monitor 10/17/2014 Sen. Robert Casey (D-Pa.) last week called on the Army Corps of Engineers to publicly release the Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) that would allow the remediation of the Shallow Land Disposal Area (SLDA) site in Armstrong County, Pa. to continue. The MOU is needed to clarify the roles of […]

U.S. Judge Fred Van Sickle recused himself from continuing to hear the Hanford consent decree case and Judge Rosanna Malouf Peterson has been assigned. Van Sickle, who was the judge in the case when it was filed by the state in 2008, notified Eastern Washington District U.S. Court earlier this week that another judge should […]

Employee dissatisfaction at the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board has hit a four-year low, according to the results of the 2014 Federal Employee Viewpoint Survey, which the DNFSB posted on its website yesterday. The survey found a drop in positive responses from Board employees in four key areas—leadership and knowledge (48 percent compared to 54 […]

Sen. Robert Casey (D-Pa.) last week called on the Army Corps of Engineers to publicly release a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) that would allow the remediation of the Shallow Land Disposal Area (SLDA) site in Armstrong County, Pa. to continue. The MOU is needed to clarify the roles of the Corps, the Department of Energy’s […]

With the Department of Energy and South Carolina in dispute over extensions for Savannah River tank closure milestones, the state Department of Health and Environmental Control is urging the Department to implement new waste treatment technologies. That would include full scale capacity in current treatment facilities at the site, the Next Generation Solvent in the […]

Staff Reports WC Monitor 10/10/2014 The state of Washington and the Department of Energy  have each filed motions asking the federal court to intervene in the 2010 Hanford consent decree and set new milestones  after they failed to reach agreement by an Oct. 5 deadline. “While the department and the State of Washington share the […]

K-31 Demolition Moving Forward WC Monitor 10/10/2014 URS-CH2M Oak Ridge, LLC, the cleanup contractor at the Oak Ridge site, reached a new demolition milestone this week as the contractor began taking down the skeleton of the former K-31 uranium enrichment facility. The equipment inside the 750,000-square-foot building was removed a decade ago, along with most […]

DOE Agrees to Pay Boeing $4.5 Million in Rocky Flats Legal Fees WC Monitor 10/10/2014 After nearly 10 years of dispute on the matter, the Department of Energy last week agreed to pay Boeing $4.5 million for legal fees the company paid fighting claims related to the Rocky Flats Nuclear Plant. In 1996 Boeing merged […]

Acting DOE Cleanup Chief Says Yes, DNFSB Appears Skeptical Mike Nartker WC Monitor 10/10/2014 In the face of at times tough questions from the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board, acting Assistant Energy Secretary for Environmental Management Mark Whitney said this week that he believes DOE’s cleanup program is a “leader” when it comes to ensuring […]

Kenneth Fletcher WC Monitor 10/10/2014 As the Department of Energy seeks milestone extensions for Savannah River high level waste tanks, liquid waste contractor Savannah River Remediation is “optimistic” that it can close the next tank by its milestone date. The Department is entering dispute resolution with South Carolina on its request to extend the closure […]

Mike Nartker WC Monitor 10/10/2014 B&W Conversion Services fell just short of achieving its Fiscal Year 2014 production goals at the Department of Energy’s two depleted uranium hexafluoride (DUF6) conversion plants. BWCS reported a total production of 22,596 metric tons, compared to a goal of 22,700 metric tons, according to the DOE Portsmouth/Paducah Project Office. […]

Kenneth Fletcher WC Monitor 10/10/2014 While new technologies could potentially reduce the Department of Energy’s cleanup costs by billions, given flat budgets and pressing milestone commitments, securing enough technology development funding is a major challenge, officials said this week at a Secretary of Energy Advisory Board task force meeting. The panel convened to discuss technology […]

Mike Nartker WC Monitor 10/10/2014 While contractors have made management changes in connection with the current shutdown of the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant, the federal government doesn’t appear likely to follow suit anytime soon. Both WIPP’s managing contractor and the Los Alamos National Laboratory, where waste processing issues are suspected of being a factor in […]