Cleanup & Remediation

Leading up to the House Energy and Water Appropriations Subcommittee hearing this Thursday, one lawmaker on the pointed posed some pointed questions on how cuts from the Mixed Oxide Fuel Fabrication Facility may be used to fund weapons programs. In a Feb. 8 letter to NNSA Acting Administrator Neile Miller, who is set to testify […]

The Department of Energy needs to make additional progress securing spent fuel in the Savannah River Site’s L-Basin, according to a Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board technical report released last week. “The limited inspection data indicate that many of the cans have significant corrosion and that some have failed leading to fuel degradation. Gas is […]

Sites across the DOE cleanup complex risk missing regulatory milestones and will face furloughs of thousands of contractor workers if the across-the-board cuts known as sequestration are implemented, according to a report released yesterday by Democrats on the House Appropriations Committee. “Up to 30 compliance milestones across the complex would be delayed which could result […]

A project to decommission a set of aging hot cells at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory appears set to come to a premature end because of a lack of funding. Department of Energy officials at Oak Ridge are recommending that the two remaining hot cells at ORNL Building 3026 be placed in a “safe” surveillance-and-maintenance […]

Donna Busche, a senior contractor official at the Hanford Waste Treatment Plant, is escalating her efforts against Bechtel National and URS for allegedly conducting a campaign of retaliation against her for raising technical and safety concerns. Earlier this week, Busche, a URS employee who holds the position of Environmental and Nuclear Safety Manager at the […]

In the wake of the Department of Energy’s new disclosure that one of Hanford’s underground high-level waste tanks appears to be leaking, Washington state officials say they are considering new means to compel DOE to abide by existing cleanup obligations at the site. DOE’s disclosure “underscores the vital importance of a continued commitment by the […]

The Department of Energy’s Office of Enforcement has declined to fine Los Alamos National Laboratory contractor for an incident at the lab last August that led to 30 workers being contaminated with radioactive Technetium-99. A Federal Accident Investigation issued after the incident called the contamination completely preventable and described a culture of lax adherence to typical […]

The due date passed Friday for an annual report on the Mixed Oxide Fuel Fabrication Facility from the National Nuclear Security Administration to Congress without any word from the Obama Administration on whether it has been submitted. Under 2002 legislation establishing the MOX project, a report is due every Feb. 15 on the implementation of […]

Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) will use his leadership of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee to make issues at Hanford a higher priority in the Senate, he said Tuesday. “There is not going to be a shortage of hearings as long as I am the chairman,” he said. He’ll be questioning the nominee for […]

The Department of Energy appears set to make a change in the Federal Project Director position for the Salt Waste Processing Facility at the Savannah River Site, WC Monitor has learned. The current FBD is Tony Polk, but the poor relationship between DOE project officials and executives with SWPF contractor Parsons have been the subject of […]

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission noted a minor violation regarding construction of the Mixed Fuel Fabrication Facility in its latest quarterly inspection report, posted Friday. Contractor Shaw AREVA MOX Services failed to meet “MOX Project Quality Assurance Plan requirements for welding of safety-related ventilation ductwork,” according to a Feb. 14 letter from the NRC to the […]

New Mexico environmental regulators are concerned that the Department of Energy won’t have enough funding next year to meet cleanup obligations at the Los Alamos National Laboratory. In a letter sent late last week to members of the state’s Congressional delegation, New Mexico Environment Secretary David Martin said he had been informed by officials with […]

Oak Ridge cleanup contractor URS CH2M Oak Ridge, LLC, announced Friday that it completed demolition of K-25’s east wing and will start work on the former uranium enrichment plant’s north end. That leaves only the building’s smaller north end and a small section of the east wing contaminated with technetium-99 as the only portions of […]

Close to 288 Hanford workers will receive layoff notices this week, with most receiving the bad news already on Monday. The layoffs were expected, with final or updated numbers announced Monday. Layoff notices this week are being handed out to 157 workers at CH2M Hill Plateau Remediation Co., up to 120 employees of Bechtel National […]

After safety violations were uncovered at the Tennessee Valley Authority’s Brown’s Ferry plant, officials for the utility are planning to wait another three to four years to make a decision on whether to burn mixed oxide fuel in its reactors. The utility has faced a host of issues recently with its reactors and is in […]

Workers have finished cleanup of the F Reactor area at Hanford, a first for a Hanford reactor area, Washington Closure Hanford and the Department of Energy are expected to announce Wednesday. About 1.5 million tons of contaminated material, including building rubble and soil, were removed from the area around F Reactor and away from the […]

Secretary of Energy Steven Chu met last week with Bechtel Corp. Chairman and CEO Riley Bechtel to discuss, in part, Bechtel’s work on one of DOE’s largest projects—the Hanford Waste Treatment Plant. Exact details of what was discussed at the meeting, though, remain unclear. “Secretary Chu and Riley Bechtel have met regularly over the last […]

Jeff Mousseau, as expected, has been officially named Los Alamos National Laboratory’s new associate director of environmental programs, where he will oversee cleanup activities, the lab announced yesterday. Mousseau, who last served as a senior project manager for Los Alamos’ transuranic waste disposition program, replaces Michael Graham, who left Los Alamos last month to oversee […]

The Department of Energy is looking to increase cooperation with Russia on the development of cleanup-related technologies. Earlier this week, Secretary of Energy Steven Chu and Sergei Kiriyenko, director general of Russia’s State Corporation for Atomic Energy, signed a “statement of intent” on collaboration on “innovative technologies for environmental restoration and radioactive waste management,” according […]

The Department of Energy has approved a recovery plan developed by Idaho Treatment Group, LLC, to help improve waste processing rates at the Advanced Mixed Waste Treatment Project. The recovery plan was developed in response to a strongly worded letter DOE sent ITG this spring warning of performance concerns that could result in the contractor […]

The Department of Energy has awarded a $20 million indefinite delivery/indefinite quantity contract to NOVA Corp. for support services at the Savannah River Operations Office. The firm fixed price small business contract to the Native American-owned firm based in Arizona has a two-year performance period. Services under the contract include information technology, moving and transportation, […]

Citing budgetary constraints, liquid waste contractor Savannah River Remediation yesterday announced that it is launching a voluntary separations program. “SRR has accomplished much since taking over as the SRS Liquid Waste contractor in July 2009. However, as some projects come to a close and budgets continue to be reduced, we have to realign our workforce […]

The Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board has named new site representatives for Hanford and the Y-12 National Security Complex. David Gutowski will be the Board’s new representative at Hanford, replacing William Linzau who is moving to Y-12. Gutowski joined the Board’s technical staff in June 2003, and last served as the Board’s Cognizant Engineer for […]

The cost of building the Mixed Oxide Fuel Fabrication Facility at the Savannah River Site is expected to rise by more than $2 billion and the projected schedule for completing the project would slip “significantly” according to a new estimate by MOX contractor Shaw AREVA MOX Services, NW&M Monitor has learned. The project’s 2007 baseline […]

The Department of Energy announced yesterday that it has finalized a long-planned three-year extension for CH2M-WG Idaho, the cleanup contractor for DOE’s Idaho site. CWI’s initial seven-year contract for the Idaho Cleanup Project was set to expire on Sept. 30. According to DOE, the anticipated value of the extension is approximately $730 million. "Over the […]

B&W-led Idaho Treatment Group, LLC, which runs the Department of Energy’s Advanced Mixed Waste Treatment Project, has proposed that Danny Nichols serve as the contractor’s new Project Manager, WC Monitor has learned. Nichols currently serves as Waste Management Director for Fluor-B&W Portsmouth, LLC, the D&D contractor at the Portsmouth Gaseous Diffusion Plant. If approved by […]

The Department of Energy has awarded a contract to Chenega Global Services for administrative and technical support at the West Valley Demonstration Project. The small business contract to the Anchorage-based company has a performance period of one year with a $1.3 million value, with two one-year options totaling $4.12 million.

The Department of Justice is taking over a civil lawsuit filed against former Hanford contractor CH2M Hill Hanford Group and its parent corporation for alleged timecard fraud. The lawsuit was filed in Eastern Washington U.S. District Court by former CH2M Hill worker Carl Schroeder on behalf of the United States under the False Claims Act. […]

AFL-CIO Building and Construction Trades Department President Sean McGarvey toured the Mixed Oxide Fuel Fabrication Facility under construction at the Savannah River Site on Friday. The union official touted the employment provided by the project, which has a local workforce of more than 2,100. “The employment opportunities offered at the MOX project are important to […]

The DOE Office of Environmental Management’s Consolidated Business Center went on an award spree late last week, doling out two new small-value contracts and one cooperative agreement. TerranearPMC won an Indefinite Delivery/Indefinite Quantity-type contract worth approximately $2 million to provide waste handling services at Los Alamos National Laboratory. The contract is set to run for […]