Cleanup & Remediation

Members of the Savannah River Site Citizen’s Advisory Board narrowly voted Monday night to back a paper opposing interim storage of commercial spent nuclear fuel. The CAB’s draft position paper against any interim storage was supported by 12 members, compared to 10 members who voted for a moderate position paper that supported exploring possible incentives […]

With some of the Department of Energy’s spent fuel monitoring plans at the Savannah River Site’s L-Basin facility on hold due to funding issues, the DOE Inspector General yesterday called for a firm timeframe for completing monitoring plans. The aging wet storage facility is used to hold about 15,000 spent fuel assemblies and could be […]

The Department of Energy is bringing on Idaho National Laboratory official Betsy Connell to serve as a senior policy advisor to Secretary of Energy Ernest Moniz for cleanup-related issues, with an initial focus on tank waste, Weapons Complex Morning Briefing has learned. Connell currently holds the position of senior policy advisor at Battelle Energy Alliance, […]

Perma-Fix Northwest yesterday announced they will pay a $187,620 penalty and “improve onsite waste handling practices” as part of a settlement with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. The payment, due within 30 days, was negotiated down from a proposed fine of $215,000 related to violations discovered during a full site inspection of the company’s facility […]

Kurion has tapped Steve Piccolo as its new Executive Chairman of its Board of Directors, Weapons Complex Morning Briefing has learned. Piccolo will replace Ralph DiSibio, who will remain a director of the company and will chair the governance and human capital committees. Piccolo served as executive vice president for the URS Global Management & […]

A Savannah River Site worker did not “improperly” use the personal information of 12,600 Savannah River employees after an unauthorized release of data earlier this year, the Department of Energy stated yesterday. On March 5, DOE Savannah River notified employees of the unauthorized release of the data and said the incident was under investigation by […]

Hanford cleanup contractor CH2M Hill Plateau Remediation Co. yesterday abruptly changed out its manager for one of the main cleanup projects underway at the site—D&D of the Plutonium Finishing Plant. CHPRC President and CEO John Fulton now also holds the position of PFP Vice President, replacing Jerry Long, who is no longer on the project. […]

Perma-Fix earned significantly less in the first quarter of 2013 than it did in the same quarter last year, reporting Friday revenue of $19.8 million, compared to $37.9 million in first quarter of 2012. The company reported a profit of $537,000 in the first quarter versus $4.4 million for the first quarter of 2012. Perma-Fix […]

The Nuclear Cleanup Caucus briefing for the Oak Ridge site that had been set for Wednesday has been moved to Thursday morning. The briefing will take place at 8:30 a.m. in Room 1334 of the Longworth House Office Building, and will feature an update from Oak Ridge officials on cleanup efforts at the site.    

Rep. Steve Pearce (R-N.M.) earlier this week urged House Appropriations Committee Chairman Hal Rogers to consider the Department of Energy’s Office of Environmental Management reprogramming request, as well as a planned upcoming request to move $21 million in funding from the National Nuclear Security Administration to the Office of Environmental Management for cleanup of Los […]

If the Obama Administration wants support for plans to ship Hanford tank waste believed to be transuranic material to the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant in New Mexico, it will have to do more to help with funding for WIPP and with Los Alamos cleanup efforts, New Mexico Sen. Tom Udall (D) said yesterday at a […]

A coalition of activist groups are opposing the Department of Energy’s proposed shipment of liquid highly enriched uranium from Canada’s Chalk River Laboratories to the Savannah River Site, planning a protest yesterday outside the National Transportation Stakeholder’s Forum in Buffalo, New York. The 23,000 liters of material would be downblended at Savannah River’s H-Canyon facility […]

  Perma-Fix announced late last week that senior vice president and president of Safety and Ecology Holdings Corporation, Christopher Leichtweis, has retired from the company. The retirement is effective May 24, according to a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission, though Leichtweis has entered into a consulting arrangement with Perma-Fix through July 2014.   

On May 21, the House Cleanup Caucus is scheduled to hear a briefing on the Department of Energy’s Richland Operations Office at Hanford. The briefing is set to be held at 4:00 p.m. in Room 1334 of the Longworth House Office Building in Washington.

The Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Subcommittee on Financial and Contracting Oversight is gearing up to hold a hearing on the Department of Energy’s major cleanup contracts next month. In preparation for the June 20 hearing, the panel has sent letters seeking a variety of information to DOE’s Office of Environmental Management and a […]

Paducah cleanup contractor LATA Environmental Services of Kentucky, LLC, is suspending, for now, plans for a significant workforce restructuring thanks to Congress’ recent approval of a Department of Energy request to shift funds among cleanup projects. Earlier this month, LATA Kentucky said it would have to look to eliminate 145 positions, out of the company’s […]

Newport News Shipbuilding announced yesterday that it has appointed John Temple as vice president of contracts management for Savannah River Nuclear Solutions. Temple had previously served as director of contracts administration at SRNS, the Savannah River management-and-operations contractor comprised of Fluor, Honeywell and Newport News. In the last few months, the SRNS reporting structure was […]

Rep. Doc Hastings (R-Wash.) called on the Department of Energy late last week to be more open about its plans for its cleanup efforts, warning that a lack of transparency could hurt the Department with lawmakers as work begins on Fiscal Year 2014 spending bills. “These are complicated projects, there’s no question about that. The […]

The Oak Ridge site’s Environmental Management Waste Management Facility, a group of onsite disposal cells, may have incurred more than $14.4 million in unnecessary disposal costs, according to a Department of Energy Inspector General report released Friday. The Oak Ridge Office of Environmental Management “permitted its contractors to send minimally contaminated waste1 to EMWMF that […]

After finding a batch of piping in July that did not meet safety standards, the Mixed Oxide Fuel Fabrication Facility’s contractor reported this week that a large amount of piping it acquired can not be used “in certain applications” at the plant. “Through independent testing, MOX Services has identified nine heats/sizes of 304L and 316L […]

The Department of Energy’s Office of Environmental Management may soon be able to submit a long-planned reprogramming request to Congress after having this week resolved an issue concerning funds for cleanup activities at the Los Alamos National Laboratory with the White House Office of Management and Budget, WC Monitor has learned, though other issues still […]

The Department of Energy late Friday evening submitted its long-anticipated request to reprogram funds among cleanup projects to Capitol Hill for approval. The request is necessary to address budgetary issues at a number of sites resulting from the Continuing Resolution and sequestration and to help prevent further layoffs and other workforce impacts. Overall, the requests […]

The region surrounding the Savannah River Site could contribute to the back end of the nuclear fuel cycle through R&D, reprocessing and consolidated storage of used fuel, according to a study released yesterday by the SRS Community Reuse Organization. However, any new nuclear facility must be supported by a community consensus, the report states, following […]

New Mexico Rep. Ben Lujan (D) took advantage of a hearing the House Energy and Commerce Oversight and Investigations Subcommittee held yesterday on last summer’s security breach at Y-12 to press senior Department of Energy officials on the need for increased cleanup funding for sites in his state. Lujan called on DOE to ensure that […]

A delegation of Russians from the state nuclear company Rosatom plans to visit the Savannah River Site today and tomorrow and visit a number of cleanup projects, but will not tour the Mixed Oxide Fuel Fabrication Facility under construction at the site. MOX is part of an agreement with Russia to dispose of surplus plutonium, […]

The impacts of prolonged sequestration funding cuts at the Savannah River Site could include a curtailment of missions at the H-Canyon facility, a halt of waste shipments to the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant and a shutdown of other projects, according to a presentation given Thursday by the Department of Energy Savannah River Site Manager Dave […]

The Department of Energy is in the final stages of bringing on B&W executive Pam Horning to serve as the new federal project director for the Savannah River Site Salt Waste Processing Facility project, WC Monitor has learned. Horning could start at SRS as early April 1. She would replace Tony Polk, who is set […]

A Department of Energy investigation has substantiated allegations of safety culture issues at the Idaho Advanced Mixed Waste Treatment Project. An investigation performed by the DOE Idaho Operations Office Employee Concerns Program in response to an anonymous concern found that an AMWTP employee “did not foster an environment for workers to openly raise safety concerns,” […]

Hanford contractors laid of 235 workers Monday because of sequestration, most of them union workers. In addition, about 2,500 nonunion workers will be required to take furloughs. The layoffs do not include some subcontractor workers who may lose their jobs as several contractors cut back on their subcontracted work. The largest number of layoffs were […]

Almost two years after the last Assistant Secretary of Energy for Environmental Management stepped down from the position, the Department of Energy needs to move forward with nominating a replacement, Rep. Mike Simpson (R-Idaho) said yesterday. At a House Appropriations Energy and Water Subcommittee hearing, Simpson told current DOE cleanup chief David Huizenga, “It would […]