Cleanup & Remediation

Weapons Complex Morning Briefing will not be published on Monday, Sept. 4, 2023 in observance of the U.S. Labor Day holiday. Look for the next issue in your inbox on Tuesday, Sept. 5, 2023.

The Department of Energy’s nuclear cleanup office is shopping around for potential providers of Transportation Emergency Preparedness Program support. According to a sources sought notice posted online Tuesday, the agency’s Cincinnati-based Environmental Management Consolidated Business Center said the contractor will tackle “preparedness issues for shipments of DOE radiological material and waste,” across the weapons complex. […]

On Tuesday the Department of Energy rolled out a draft solicitation for the next stage of remediation at the West Valley Demonstration Project in Western New York, a contract potentially worth $3 billion over a decade. The new indefinite-delivery, indefinite-quantity contract would replace the existing pact held by a team of Jacobs and BWX Technologies […]

William “Ike” White, senior adviser and acting head of the Department of Energy’s Office of Environmental Management, spoke Monday to an international forum in Japan on Decommissioning of the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station, the nuclear cleanup office said Tuesday. The 7th annual international forum on Fukushima cleanup sponsored by Japan’s Nuclear Damage Compensation and […]

The Environmental Protection Agency said in a recent letter it has not agreed to change cleanup plans for Building 324 and the contaminated soil under it at the Department of Energy’s Hanford Site in Washington state. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) “does not concur on any activities towards placing the 324 Building in a […]

A March incident where a subcontractor at the Paducah Site in Kentucky might have been overexposed to a chemical will trigger an internal investigation at the Department of Energy, , according to a notice from the agency’s Office of Enterprise Assessments. On Aug. 21, the office notified Atkins-led Mid-America Conversion Services and two of its […]

A Department of Energy subcontractor who was injured while clearing trees on Aug. 11 at the Oak Ridge Site in Tennessee has died, an agency spokesperson confirmed Monday evening. The DOE “offers its condolences to the deceased’s family and colleagues,” the spokesperson for DOE’s Office of Science field site at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory […]

The Department of Energy’s solid-waste cleanup contractor at the Hanford Site in Washington state now recommends tearing down the above-ground portion of the decaying 324 Building before digging up radioactively-contaminated soil under the structure’s B cell. In an Aug. 23 presentation to the Hanford Advisory Board, Central Plateau Cleanup Co. President John Eschenberg said he […]

A $1.4-billion facility that since April has solidified more than 60,000 gallons of sodium-bearing waste at the Department of Energy’s Idaho National Laboratory received “minor superficial damage” from a crane accident in July, an agency spokesperson said Wednesday. The Integrated Waste Treatment Unit (IWTU) was repaired and the IWTU maintenance crane was returned to service […]

Thanks to retirements, the Department of Energy and its Washington state regulator have some new managers at the Hanford Site, the Hanford Advisory Board heard Wednesday. Hanford Advisory Board member Pam Lasen also announced during the start of the two-day board meeting that a former longtime board member from Oregon, Norma Jean Germond, died this […]

As a byproduct of Post-Tropical Cyclone Hilary, some normally arid Department of Energy weapons complex sites out West experienced unusually heavy rain or wind, according to the latest from the National Weather Service. However, a DOE Office of Environmental Management spokesperson said Tuesday morning no significant weather-related damage or disruptions have been reported at the […]

Members of United Steelworkers Local 1-689 employed in cleanup at the Department of Energy’s Portsmouth Site in Ohio voted Monday to extend their existing collective bargaining deal with Fluor-BWXT Portsmouth until March, a union official said. The extension includes a retroactive 2% raise, a $1,500 cash bonus and buys time until a new Amentum-led team […]

Southeast New Mexico College in Carlsbad is receiving $11.7 million in Department of Energy grant money over five years to develop employee training programs for the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant, the agency said Monday. The college will collaborate with DOE and the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP), to provide training and education for current and […]

Weapons Complex Monitor will not be published on Friday Aug. 18, 2023 and Friday Aug. 25, 2023, as part of the Exchange Monitor’s annual August recess.

Weapons Complex Morning Briefing will be published on Tuesday and Thursday only during the weeks of Aug. 14, 2023 and Aug. 23, 2023, as part of the Exchange Monitor’s annual August recess.

Veolia Nuclear Solutions Federal Services this week identified itself as an integrated subcontractor on the new Amentum-led cleanup contractor at the Department of Energy’s Portsmouth Site near Piketon, Ohio. The prime, Southern Ohio Cleanup Company also includes Fluor and Cavendish Nuclear. The team on July 13 received a Portsmouth Decontamination and Decommissioning contract from DOE […]

Severe thunderstorms along the East Coast knocked out power and damaged property near Department of Energy nuclear sites from South Carolina to Washington, but much service was restored by Friday. Federal employees in the Washington region got an early dismissal on Monday as storms rolled in, but federal offices returned to normal operating schedules for […]

Severe thunderstorms along the East Coast knocked out power and damaged property near Department of Energy nuclear sites from South Carolina to Washington, but much service was restored by Friday. Federal employees in the Washington region got an early dismissal on Monday as storms rolled in, but federal offices returned to normal operating schedules for […]

Secretary of Energy Jennifer Granholm this week traveled to Missouri where she visited with the congresswoman whose district includes Jana Elementary School, which was closed and vacated due to radioactive contaminants from the Manhattan Project discovered in Coldwater Creek, just outside the school. The school is near the Formerly Utilized Sites Remedial Action Program cleanup […]

The Department of Energy on Friday released a little more than $3.5 million in funding for Four Rivers Nuclear Partnership to demolish facilities at the shuttered Paducah Gaseous Diffusion Plant in Kentucky. The task order calls for demolition of the C-727 and C-146-A facilities. Parts of each formerly housed hazardous waste, so the Kentucky Energy & […]

Secretary of Energy Jennifer Granholm this week traveled to Missouri where she visited with the congresswoman whose district includes Jana Elementary School, which was closed and vacated due to radioactive contaminants from the Manhattan Project discovered in Coldwater Creek, just outside the school. The school is near the Formerly Utilized Sites Remedial Action Program cleanup […]

The Department of Energy on Friday released a little more than $3.5 million in funding for Four Rivers Nuclear Partnership to demolish facilities at the shuttered Paducah Gaseous Diffusion Plant in Kentucky.  The task order calls for demolition of the C-727 and C-146-A facilities. Parts of each formerly housed hazardous waste, so the Kentucky Energy […]

Here are some events related to defense and civilian nuclear matters that Exchange Monitor staff are tracking this week. 06-09: Utility Working Conference and Vendor Technology Expo, American Nuclear Society. JW Marriott, Marco Island, Marco Island, Fla. Participants include Petro Kotin, president of Ukraine’s State Enterprise National Nuclear Energy Generating Company, or “Energoatom,” who will […]

After acting as the lone deputy manager for 17 months at the Department of Energy’s Hanford Site in Washington state, Brian Stickney is now officially the agency’s sitewide second-in-command, DOE said Monday. In 2019, DOE made Brian Vance the sole site manager for the former plutonium production complex, overseeing both Hanford’s Richland Operations Office and […]

A three-person military bomb squad blew up a segment of an anti-aircraft shell after midnight Tuesday at the Department of Energy’s Hanford Site in Washington state, a U.S. Army spokesperson confirmed Wednesday. The artillery fuse did appear to pose an explosion risk, but was blown up as a precautionary move in keeping with standard procedures […]

While the Department of Energy and the occupational medical services provider for the Hanford Site in Washington state are at odds over how much data should be shared during an audit, DOE’s refusal to mediate the dispute is no sign of bad faith, a federal contracting board ruled. A DOE contracting officer told HPM Corp. […]

The Fluor-led operations contractor at the Department of Energy’s Savannah River Site in South Carolina promoted Dennis Carr to CEO following Stuart MacVean’s retirement on Thursday July 27, a company spokesperson said via email. Carr becomes president and CEO of Savannah River Nuclear Solutions after serving as an executive vice president and chief operating officer […]

The Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board, which already has two vacant seats on the five-member panel, said recently it is happy the White House this month formally nominated Patricia Lee to serve. Lee is currently a manager at the Department of Energy’s Savannah River National Laboratory.  “Her expertise with defense nuclear facilities will be a […]

After months of negotiation with four major Department of Energy contractors at the Hanford Site in Washington state, union members with the Hanford Atomic Metal Trades Council have voted to approve a new five-year contract, the president of the organization said Thursday. Because the new contract replaces one that expired in November 2022, the 2,500 […]

A three-person military bomb squad blew up a segment of an anti-aircraft shell after midnight Tuesday at the Department of Energy’s Hanford Site in Washington state, a U.S. Army spokesperson confirmed Wednesday. The artillery fuse did appear to pose an explosion risk, but was blown up as a precautionary move in keeping with standard procedures […]