Cleanup & Remediation

DOE TO SHUT DOWN WSCF LAB WC Monitor 3/21/2014 The Department of Energy plans to stop operating the Waste Sampling and Characterization Facility in central Hanford within a year, it told employees this week. About 80 people work at the laboratory, including 18 employees of Mission Support Alliance and about 60 employees of its subcontractor, […]

WC Monitor 3/21/2014 IN DOE Terry Tyborowski, who currently serves as Deputy Assistant Secretary for Budget and Program Planning in the Department of Energy’s Office of Environmental Management, is moving next month to take a job in the Department’s Chief Financial Officer’s office. Tyborowski will serve as Deputy Director for Budget Analysis, effective April 21. […]

Kenneth Fletcher WC Monitor 3/14/2014 Los Alamos National Laboratory will continue a short-term campaign approach based on risk with future cleanup efforts after the success so far of the aboveground transuranic waste campaign, officials said here last week. New Mexico Environment Department Secretary Ryan Flynn called for the continuation of such an approach in September […]

DOE CHANGING WASTE HAULING PRACTICES WC Monitor 3/14/2014 The Department of Energy is making changes to improve the safety of how it moves mixed waste on 12.3 miles of roads open to the public on Hanford land and in north Richland, Wash. They include closing all lanes of those roads when waste shipments are moved […]

DOE BEGINS IWTU READINESS ASSESSMENT WC Monitor 3/14/2014 Efforts to start up the Idaho Integrated Waste Treatment Unit took another step forward this week, with the Department of Energy launching a readiness assessment expected to take two weeks to complete. The purpose of the assessment is to help evaluate whether the facility is ready for […]

REMOVAL OF K-25 DEBRIS COMPLETE WC Monitor 3/14/2014 The Department of Energy’s unprecedented D&D effort at the Oak Ridge K-25 plant reached another milestone this week with the removal of all demolition debris from the site that once produced the majority of the nation’s enriched uranium. The demolition of the K-25 building—a U-shaped structure that […]

WC Monitor 3/14/2014 IN CONGRESS This year’s set of House Cleanup Caucus briefings on the Department of Energy’s cleanup program is scheduled to get underway March 27, with an overview presentation from DOE cleanup chief David Huizenga. The briefing is scheduled to be held in Room 1324 of the Longworth House Office Building in Washington […]

The Obama Administration’s new nominee to the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board is intended to replace current Board Member Joseph Bader, rather than fill a current vacancy. Late last week, the White House announced its intent to nominate Daniel Santos, a Senior Technical Advisor at the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, to the DNFSB for a term […]

Wash. Closure Removes Chromium Source WC Monitor 6/6/2014 The largest source of chromium contamination near the Columbia River at Hanford has been removed after workers excavated contaminated soil down to groundwater 85 feet deep. Over the years Hanford officials had talked about finding the mother lode of chromium in the soil that was contaminating groundwater […]

Martin Schneider ExchangeMonitor Publications CEO 6/6/2014 Exactly 25 years ago today, the FBI raided the Rocky Flats site, symbolically kicking off what would become the largest environmental cleanup project in the world—the cleanup of the U.S. nuclear weapons complex run by the Department of Energy’s Office of Environmental Management. The last two-and-a-half decades have seen […]

Mike Nartker WC Monitor 6/6/2014 Twenty-five years after federal agents conducted a raid on the Rocky Flats site in Colorado—widely seen as the symbolic start of the Department of Energy’s cleanup efforts—DOE has “come of age” when it comes to transparency, a former Department cleanup chief told WC Monitor this week. “I see a tremendous […]

Mike Nartker WC Monitor 6/6/2014 Monica Regalbuto, the White House’s choice for the next head of the Department of Energy’s cleanup program, is soon set to get an early start in the senior management of the Department’s Office of Environmental Management. Effective June 16, Regalbuto will serve as Associate Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary, where she […]

Jessie Roberson to be Renominated as Vice-Chair of Defense Board Mike Nartker WC Monitor 6/6/2014 The Obama Administration has tapped an official at the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to fill an open vacancy on the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board. The Administration announced late this week its intent to nominate Daniel Santos  to the Board as […]

Staff reports WC Monitor 6/6/2014 The clock ran out June 3 on a 40-day dispute resolution period for Hanford’s court-enforced consent decree. The Department of Energy would like to continue discussions on proposed amendments to the 2010 consent decree, it said. The state of Washington said it is considering its options but that no decision […]

Kenneth Fletcher WC Monitor 6/6/2014 As the Moab uranium mill tailings remediation project in Utah continues progress on shipments, the Department of Energy is wrapping up contract modifications for a new year-round work schedule for contractor Portage. When Portage took over the contract in 2012 an annual three-month work curtailment was planned due to funding […]

Final RFP Out for New 222-S Lab Contract WC Monitor 6/6/2014 The Department of Energy this week issued a final Request for Proposal for the new contract to provide analytical and testing services at Hanford’s 222-S Laboratory. The final RFP, which is being set-aside for small businesses, contains few changes from a draft version issued […]

WC Monitor 6/6/2014 IN DOE The Department of Energy  later this month plans to hold an industry day event for the new Paducah infrastructure services contract. During the week of June 23, DOE plans to hold “a pre-solicitation conference, site tour, and one-on-one sessions with interested parties,” according to a recently posted notice. A draft […]

More Details on Plans for German HEU Processing WC Monitor 6/6/2014 The Department of Energy has released more details on plans to process highly enriched uranium from Germany at the Savannah River Site. The 900 kilograms of U.S.-origin highly enriched uranium comes in the form of graphite spheres from the pebble bed AVR gas-cooled research […]

DOE ISSUES DRAFT RFP FOR NEW 222-S LAB CONTRACT WC Monitor 3/07/2014 The Department of Energy has released a draft Request for Proposals for a new small business set-aside contract to provide analytical services and testing work for five years at the Hanford 222-S Laboratory and operate the lab. DOE is proposing that the type […]

URS TO STUDY BENEFITS OF SMR FOR HANFORD WC Monitor 3/07/2014 URS Corp. has been picked by the Tri-City Development Council to study the possible benefits of building a small modular nuclear reactor system on leased land at Hanford to possibly produce power for the site. The study is expected to be completed in five […]

UCOR REASSIGNS SOME TOPS WORKERS WC Monitor 3/07/2014 Oak Ridge cleanup contractor URS-CH2M Oak Ridge, LLC, has reassigned to other subcontractors about 25 workers of Transportation, Operations and Professional Services, Inc., (TOPS) a protégé firm to UCOR. “TOPS, in addition to providing waste hauling services to UCOR, also provides professional services to UCOR,” UCOR spokesman […]

Mike Nartker WC Monitor 2/28/2014 A senior Department of Energy official late this week confirmed DOE has been examining the possible creation of a new organization that would be responsible for major line-item construction projects, but stressed that the idea was one among many under consideration to help improve how DOE manages projects. “There are […]

Report Describes Apparent Tensions Between Technical Director, Staff Mike Nartker WC Monitor 6/28/2014 There appear to be significant tensions between the technical staff at the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board and the Board’s Office of the Technical Director (OTD), according to a report WC Monitor obtained this week. The report provides the full, unredacted version of […]

Mike Nartker and Todd Jacobson WC Monitor 2/28/2014 Labor union officials are so far taking a wait-and-see stance toward the Department of Energy’s recently announced plans for reorganizing its health, safety and security functions, though the anticipated role going forward of DOE’s current Chief Health, Safety and Security Officer, Glenn Podonsky, is giving organized labor […]

Staff Reports WC Monitor 2/28/2014 The Department of Energy has proposed a promising approach to treating Hanford’s low activity tank waste, Washington State Governor Jay Inslee (D) said during a press conference late this week. But he remains concerned about how DOE plans to treat the high-level radioactive tank waste, he said. He may know […]

Kenneth Fletcher WC Monitor 2/28/2014 Hanford cleanup contractor CH2M HILL Plateau Remediation Co. is still holding fast to its 2016 milestone for the Plutonium Finishing Plant D&D project and is gaining more certainty in its schedule since a technical study last fall gave it a 50 percent probability for meeting that date. “PFP is continuing […]

Kenneth Fletcher WC Monitor 2/28/2014 The Department of Energy has made “significant progress” on commitments for improving work planning and control in response to concerns from the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board, DOE told the DNFSB this month. In August 2012 the DNFSB sent a letter to DOE detailing issues with the implementation of work […]

HANFORD TOUR REGISTRATION OPENS NEXT WEEK WC Monitor 2/28/2014 Registration will open March 3 for all site-wide tours this year of Hanford, and a day later registration will open for tours just of Hanford’s historic B Reactor. Reservations are on a first-come, first-served basis, and seats for the tours, particularly of Hanford, go quickly. It […]

NNSA LOOKING TO ACCELERATE RLWTF UPGRADE WC Monitor 2/28/2014 The National Nuclear Security Administration is looking at options to potentially accelerate the schedule for a project to upgrade Los Alamos National Laboratory’s aging Radioactive Liquid Waste Treatment Facility. NNSA and the lab plan to replace the current facility with two new ones—one that would address […]

URS COMPLETES SLUDGE REMOVAL WC Monitor 2/28/2014 URS late this week completed an effort to treat and remove the remaining radioactive sludge waste from the Separations Process Research Unit (SPRU)—a project the Department of Energy says eliminates the majority of the remaining radioactivity at the site. Since the work began last spring, URS has solidified […]