Cleanup & Remediation

Kenneth Fletcher WC Monitor 6/19/2014 While both the House and Senate versions of the Fiscal Year 2015 Energy and Water Appropriations bills would boost funding overall for the Department of Energy’s Office of Environmental Management above DOE’s budget request, House appropriators are looking to provide less than what DOE is seeking for liquid waste cleanup […]

The following interview with Deputy Energy Secretary Dan Poneman, who announced this week plans to leave DOE in the fall, was conducted by ExchangeMonitor Publications Editor-in-Chief Mike Nartker. WC Monitor 6/20/2014 To start things off, I think one of the things you’ll be remembered for during your time at DOE is the Department’s efforts to […]

This is an idea whose time has come at last: The Department of Energy needs to break out cleanup work at Los Alamos National Laboratory and other National Nuclear Security Administration sites under separate contracts managed by the Office of Environmental Management. The Department’s national transuranic waste program has been brought to its knees in […]

Kenneth Fletcher WC Monitor  6/20/2014 URS moved this week to shuffle the top leadership at two of its major cleanup contracts. Ken Reuter, president of Savannah River Remediation, LLC, the liquid waste contractor at Savannah River, is moving back to URS-CH2M Oak Ridge, LLC, to take over for outgoing President Leo Sain. At SRR, Chief […]

John Ciucci to Serve as New Head of CHPRC  WC Monitor 6/20/2014 John Ciucci has been picked to be president of CH2M Hill Plateau Remediation Co. at Hanford effective Oct. 1. He will replace John Fulton, who last week announced his retirement from the position effective Sept. 30. Ciucci came to Hanford in 2011 as […]

WC Monitor 6/20/2014 IN DOE Mildred López-Ferré has been named deputy assistant manager for safety and technical services at the Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge office. She began her DOE career in 1991 as a program manager in the former Environmental Restoration Division at the Oak Ridge office. Most recently, she was special projects assistant […]

This is an idea whose time has come at last: The Department of Energy needs to break out cleanup work at Los Alamos National Laboratory and other National Nuclear Security Administration sites under separate contracts managed by the Office of Environmental Management. The Department’s national transuranic waste program has been brought to its knees in […]

Overall the Senate bill would provide $5.942 billion for the Department of Energy’s Office of Environmental Management,  $320 million above DOE’s budget request, while the House bill would boost cleanup funds by $6.7 million above the budget request. The Senate Energy and Water Appropriations Subcommittee has not provided further detail at this point, but the […]

Savannah River Remediation President Ken Rueter will be the next president of URS CH2M Oak Ridge in a move to replace Leo Sain, while SRR Chief Operating Officer Stuart MacVean will take over duties at SRR. The change comes less than a year after last September Rueter moved to lead the Savannah River liquid waste […]

Mike Nartker WC Monitor 6/13/2014   House appropriators are looking to spend less next year than what the Department of Energy is seeking for work at its set of major cleanup sites. The House version of the Fiscal Year 2015 energy appropriations bill, reported out of subcommittee this week, would provide a total of approximately […]

Mike Nartker WC Monitor 6/13/2014 As the Department of Energy and contractor CH2M-WG Idaho continue to move forward with startup testing at the Idaho Integrated Waste Treatment Unit, Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board Technical Director Steve Stokes said this week that it’s too early to say whether the facility will be able to begin processing […]

Mike Nartker WC Monitor 6/13/2014   Work underway to set up the Department of Energy’s new Office of Independent Enterprise Assessment (IEA) is slowing down ongoing DOE enforcement investigations, IEA Director Glenn Podonsky said late this week. The new office, which was created as part of a reorganization of DOE’s safety and security functions, contains […]

Lawmaker Calls for Quick Action on New DOE Manager WC Monitor 6/13/2014 Rep. Doc Hastings (R-Wash.) is calling on the Department of Energy to move quickly to name a new Manager for the Richland Operations Office at Hanford, following the retirement of Matt McCormick last week. “I believe the Richland Operations Office needs a Manager […]

Mike Nartker NS&D Monitor 2/17/2014 URS officially announced this week a set of top-level management changes in its Global Management & Operations Services Business Group, which is responsible for URS’ work in the Department of Energy and U.K. Nuclear Decommissioning Authority marketplaces. As NW&M Monitor first reported, James Taylor has been named as GMOS General […]

WC Monitor 3/07/2014 IN DOE The Department of Energy’s Office of Environmental Management has launched a new interactive timeline tracing the history of DOE’s cleanup efforts. The timeline, available on the EM website, stretches from the beginning of the Manhattan Project in the 1940s to the closure of underground waste tanks at the Savannah River Site […]

John Fulton, the president of CH2M Hill Plateau Remediation Co. at Hanford, told workers Wednesday morning that he plans to retire Sept. 30. A new leader for the central plateau and groundwater contractor should be named by next week, he said. Fulton, a native of the Tri-Cities area, has worked at Hanford off and on […]

Rep. Doc Hastings (R-Wash.) is calling on the Department of Energy to move quickly to name a new Manager for the Richland Operations Office at Hanford, following the retirement of Matt McCormick last week. “I believe the Richland Operations Office needs a Manager who can hold firm to legal commitments made by DOE in the […]

Bob Cochran, President of CB&I Federal Services, was elected as the new Chair of the Board of Directors of the Energy Facilities Contractors Group at its 2014 annual Executive Council meeting, held in Washington this week. Cochran replaces Bechtel’s Susan Stiger, who has been elected to the EFCOG Board. Michael Graham, General Manager, Environmental, at […]

SRNS EARNS 84 PERCENT OF FY’13 AWARD FEE NS&D Monitor 1/10/2014 Savannah River Nuclear Solutions, the managing contractor for the Savannah River Site, earned 84 percent of its total available award fee in Fiscal Year 2013, earning about $47 million out of $56 million, according to information the Department of Energy released this week. The […]

The Army Corps of Engineers’ Formerly Utilized Sites Remedial Action Program (FUSRAP) would receive the amount of money it requested for fiscal year 2015 under the FY 2015 Energy and Water Appropriations bill set to be marked up by a House panel today. The Corps had requested $100 million for cleanup activities for FUSRAP, down from […]

EPA FINES CONTRACTORS OVER ASBESTOS WC Monitor 4/04/2014 Two Hanford contractors will pay more than $175,000 in fines after an Environmental Protection Agency investigation found alleged violations of federal asbestos handling regulations, the EPA announced this week. CH2M Hill Plateau Remediation Co. will pay $131,594 and Washington Closure Hanford will pay $44,000 in settlement agreements […]

CWI ADDRESSING RESULTS OF DOE ASSESSMENT AT IWTU WC Monitor 4/04/2014 CH2M-WG Idaho is ready to move to the next stage of preparing the Idaho Integrated Waste Treatment Unit to begin full operations after addressing some of the pre-start findings the Department of Energy identified during a recent readiness assessment. The DOE assessment, performed in […]

NEW WATCHDOG GROUP FORMED WC Monitor 4/04/2014 Savannah River Site Watch, a new South Carolina-based watchdog group for nuclear issues, was launched this week. The group plans to focus on nuclear cleanup activities at the Savannah River Site, as well as other projects including the H-Canyon facility, the Mixed Oxide Fuel Fabrication Facility and nuclear […]

WC Monitor 4/04/2014 IN THE INDUSTRY Randy Garver, the head of the protective force at the Savannah River Site, is retiring next month and will be replaced by Mark Bolton. Garver, who joined protective force contractor WSI-SRS in 2004, has served as the company’s senior vice president and general manager since September of 2008. He […]

Mike Nartker WC Monitor 3/28/2014 Major changes are in the works for B&W’s Technical Services Group, with President George Dudich leaving the company, WC Monitor has learned. B&W is also moving to combine its Technical Services Group with the company’s Nuclear Operations Group to create a new Government Operations division that will be headed by […]

Mike Nartker WC Monitor 3/28/2014 A set of self-assessments of safety conscious work environment (SCWE) performed by Department of Energy sites and contractors suffered from several weaknesses that may reduce their overall usefulness, according to a report released last week. The DOE Office of Health, Safety and Security performed an evaluation of the self-assessments and […]

Mike Nartker WC Monitor 3/28/2014 As lawmakers begin considering the Department of Energy’s Fiscal Year 2015 budget request, DOE cleanup chief David Huizenga stressed this week the need for technology development funds to aid the Office of Environmental Management in developing new cleanup technologies that can reduce costs. “With the large to-go costs [remaining], we’re […]

Kenneth Fletcher WC Monitor 3/28/2014 Shifting focus to groundwater contamination for its next cleanup campaign, Los Alamos National Laboratory is seeking $31 million to begin a Chromium Pump and Treat Remedy Project that will be launched in Fiscal Year 2015. Los Alamos is taking a campaign approach to cleanup work at the lab, and is […]

Kenneth Fletcher WC Monitor 3/28/2014 Contractors at the Savannah River Site are undertaking corrective actions after a damaging freeze shut down the site’s steam lines, and a review released this week showed poor communication following the event and an over-dependence on steam at facilities. The Jan. 7 freeze shut down the site’s biomass plant and […]

ITG SEEKS TO RECOVER WITHHELD FEE WC Monitor 3/28/2014 The Department of Energy is considering a request from Idaho Treatment Group, LLC, the managing contractor for the Advanced Mixed Waste Treatment Project, to recover $150,000 in fee withheld for safety concerns. ITG requested the fee in a letter sent in late February to DOE outlining […]