Cleanup & Remediation

Hanford contractor CH2M HILL Plateau Remediation Company released a Request for Proposals late last week for a tasks in support of the Decommissioning, Waste, Fuels And Remediation Services Project. The cost plus award fee contract includes work at a number of facilities, including the Waste Receiving and Processing Facility, the T Plant Complex, the Central […]

Washington state Governor Jay Inslee (D) is scheduled to visit Hanford this week. The purpose of the March 6 visit is so Inslee can learn more about the six underground high-level waste tanks that appear to be leaking and other Hanford facilities. Inslee has been pushing the Department of Energy to address the leaking tanks […]

With concerns over the integrity of Hanford’s aging underground waste tanks once again in the news, the Obama Administration new choice to lead the Department of Energy will be no stranger to the issue if confirmed. Yesterday, the White House announced, as expected, the choice of former DOE official Ernest Moniz to serve as the […]

Cleanup contractors across the Department of Energy complex have begun providing insight into the impacts of the sequestration funding cuts on their workforces. At Hanford, at least 1,900 workers are set to experience either furloughs or layoffs. Funding for work overseen by the Department of Energy’s Richland Operations Office is set to go down by […]

More insights emerged yesterday as the impacts of the millions of dollars of sequestration funding cuts on the Department of Energy’s contractor workforce. DOE yesterday sent a set of letters to governors of several states, including Washington, Idaho, Nevada, New Mexico, Tennessee and South Carolina, among others, outlining the anticipated funding cuts sequestration is set […]

Perma-Fix Enviromental Services announced yesterday a new partnership with Kurion Inc. to employ that company’s GeoMelt In-Container Vitrification (ICV) system at Perma-Fix’s facility in Richland, Wash., near the Department of Energy’s Hanford site. Perma-Fix hopes to use the technology to treat both federal and commercial waste, with an eye to eventually treating some low activity […]

Oak Ridge cleanup contractor URS-CH2M Oak Ridge, LLC, did well in the second part of Fiscal Year 2012, according to a Department of Energy fee determination released yesterday that shows that UCOR earned about 90 percent of its available award fee. UCOR earned about $3.6 million out of $4 million in available award fee between […]

Kurion, Inc. announced yesterday that William Gallo has been appointed Chief Operating Officer.  Most recently Gallo served as CEO of AREVA Solar, Inc., and was previously CEO of AREVA Federal Services where he worked with the Department of Energy at various weapons complex sites, Kurion wrote in a release.  Gallo also served as a director […]

The Department of Energy would like to send 3.1 million gallons of Hanford waste in up to 20 tanks to the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant, giving it more flexibility to deal with possibly leaking single-shell tanks, it announced Wednesday. “This alternative, if implemented, would not impact the continued safe operations and performance of the WIPP […]

CH2M Hill has agreed to pay $18.5 million to settle civil and criminal violations related to widespread timecard fraud at the Hanford tank farms, according to the Department of Justice. The settlement includes $16.55 million to resolve civil liability under the False Claims Act and a refund of $1.95 million in wrongfully obtained incentive fees. […]

Kurion, Inc. announced yesterday that William Gallo has been appointed Chief Operating Officer. Most recently Gallo served as CEO of AREVA Solar, Inc., and was previously CEO of AREVA Federal Services where he worked with the Department of Energy at various weapons complex sites. “Bill is a highly respected executive in the power and environmental […]

Rep. Joe Wilson (R-S.C.), whose district includes the Savannah River Site, yesterday urged the House Budget Committee to provide adequate funding for Department of Energy programs at the site. Wilson noted in testimony before the Committee that the impacts of sequestration will be felt heavily at the site, with the furloughs of thousands of employees […]

Normal 0 false false false MicrosoftInternetExplorer4 The Nuclear Regulatory Commission in its latest annual review of the Mixed Oxide Fuel Fabrication Facility did not identify any areas needing improvement. “The applicant performance review concluded that overall MFFF construction activities were conducted in a manner that was consistent with the Commission’s rules and regulations and the […]

The Department of Energy has begun conducting market research for a new prime laundry decontamination services contractor at Hanford. According to a sources sought notice issued late last week, the work would entail wet wash laundry and decontamination services for regulated Radiological Protective Clothing (RPC), non-regulated items, and respirator face pieces. If a solicitation is […]

House appropriators are gearing up to hold hearings next week on Fiscal Year 2014 funding for the Department of Energy’s Office of Environmental Management, as well as on how EM and the National Nuclear Security Administration oversee major projects. On March 19 at 10 a.m., DOE cleanup chief David Huizenga is scheduled to be the […]

The Department of Energy’s Office of Environmental Management announced the award or modification of tasks to three small, disadvantaged businesses yesterday under Indefinite Delivery/Indefinite Quantity contracts awarded last summer. North Wind Solutions was awarded a $1 million time and materials task order to provide technical support to EM over a three year performance period, according […]

Department of Energy cleanup chief David Huizenga said yesterday he had originally been supportive of a plan to preserve the north end of the K-25, the former gaseous diffusion at Oak Ridge. Historic preservation groups for years had lobbied to keep that portion standing, and during negotiations with DOE a hold had prevented major demo […]

Salt Waste Processing Facility contractor Parsons has made a management change at the project, removing Deputy Project Manager Joe Pecoraro and replacing him with Frank Sheppard, who currently serves as the project’s Business Manager. Pecoraro has moved to a position in the company’s Washington, D.C. office. The change comes just a few weeks after a […]

Bechtel Corp. CEO Riley Bechtel visited Hanford yesterday in a trip intended to show Bechtel’s corporate commitment to the workers at the Waste Treatment Plant project. The visit comes as Bechtel has faced increased scrutiny over the past several weeks for its performance at the WTP, one of the Department of Energy’s largest projects. Last […]

Oak Ridge cleanup contractor URS-CH2M Oak Ridge, LLC (UCOR), laid off 91 workers late last week, mainly at the K-25 project, as part of an ongoing workforce restructuring. UCOR has said that it is reducing the workforce as a result of budget constraints at the site under the newly enacted Continuing Resolution, as well as […]

Jeffrey Trent, who formerly served as the federal project director for the High-Level Waste Facility sub-project at the Hanford Waste Treatment Plant, has joined Longenecker & Associates as a senior associate. Trent retired from DOE in July after a one-year stint as the Waste Treatment Plant project liaison for the Office of Environmental Management. Prior […]

The West Valley Demonstration Project cleanup contractor CH2M Hill-B&W West Valley, LLC, is seeking a subcontractor to develop a plan for shipping three large radioactive items for disposal from the site to either the Nevada National Security Site or Waste Control Specialists in Texas. The packages include a 180-ton vitrification melter and two tanks weighing […]

The Department of Energy needs to perform more analysis before moving forward with any proposal for the early start-up of the Hanford Waste Treatment Plant’s Low Activity Waste Facility, according to a report by DOE’s Inspector General released yesterday. The IG Office examined what DOE has dubbed the “2020 Vision” for the Hanford vit plant, […]

The Department of Energy is gearing up to expand a review now underway of technical issues at the Hanford Waste Treatment Plant, WC Monitor has learned. At an all-hands meeting at Hanford yesterday, Office of River Protection Manager Scott Samuelson outlined DOE’s plans to add additional technical teams to the review, which is being performed […]

A federal judge yesterday granted URS Energy & Construction’s request to throw out a lawsuit filed by Walter Tamosaitis, a former contractor executive at the Hanford Waste Treatment Plant who has alleged he was removed from the WTP for raising safety concerns. In his ruling, Judge Lonny Suko found that Tamosaitis had failed to abide […]

In the face of potentially crippling cuts, all six current members of South Carolina’s House delegation signed onto a letter drafted by Rep. Joe Wilson (R-S.C.) urging the Obama Administration to prioritize the Mixed Oxide Fuel Fabrication Facility currently under construction at the Savannah River Site. Wilson sent the letter to President Obama yesterday, and […]

URS appears set to make some management changes on its existing cleanup contracts in the event it is successful in winning the Department of Energy’s new contract to manage the Strategic Petroleum Reserve. Earlier this week, a version of the transition website prepared by Energy Security Partners, LLC—the team of URS, Parsons Brinckerhoff and Buckeye […]

The Mixed Oxide Fuel Fabrication Facility is facing a funding cut of about 75 percent for Fiscal Year 2014, according to a White House Office of Management and Budget “passback” recently sent to the National Nuclear Security Administration, according to a report yesterday by the Project on Government Oversight. Such a cut would likely slow […]

The Hanford Advisory Board has picked Susan Leckband as its vice chair after she served six years as chairwoman. The position has a six-year term limit. She agreed to continue serving on the leadership team with new chairman Steve Hudson, but said she plans to work with board members interested in leadership positions to prepare […]

A former chariman of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission is calling on the Department of Energy to move forward “expeditiously” with developing and implementing a path forward for completing the Hanford Waste Treatment Plant. In a letter sent yesterday to Secretary of Energy Steven Chu, former NRC Chairman Nils Diaz decried what he described as “a […]