Cleanup & Remediation

The legacy cleanup contractor at the Department of Energy’s Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico won 70% of its subjective fee and 77% of its overall fee during fiscal 2022. Newport News Nuclear BWXT (N3B) won about $7.2 million out of a potential $9.3 million for the 12-month period ended Sept. 30. The DOE […]

Idaho Environmental Coalition won 86% of its subjective fee and 94% of its total potential fee for five months of cleanup work in 2022 at the Department of Energy’s Idaho National Laboratory, including preparing a nuclear waste treatment plant for startup. Idaho Environmental Coalition, which took over from Fluor Idaho on the Idaho Cleanup Project […]

Amentum-led Washington River Protection Solutions claimed 82% of its subjective fee and 87% of its total potential fee for its tank management work at the Department of Energy’s Hanford Site in Washington state for the 2022 fiscal year, the agency reported Tuesday. Also on Tuesday, DOE officials at Hanford issued the latest fee performance documents […]

Weapons Complex Monitor will not publish on Friday, Dec. 30, 2022 in observance of the New Year’s holiday. Happy holidays to everyone!

Savannah River Mission Completion, the BWX Technologies-led liquid waste contractor, received high marks for its opening months on the job at the Department of Energy’s Savannah River Site in South Carolina. Also this week, DOE issued fee scorecards for three other contractors at the federal complex adjacent to the Georgia state line. The liquid-waste contractor […]

The Department of Energy’s nuclear cleanup branch would see its annual budget increase to nearly $8.3 billion, or $359 million than the $7.9 billion it received during fiscal 2022, under an omnibus 2023 spending bill released Tuesday and passed by the Senate Thursday. It’s the same figure the Senate Appropriations Committee recommended this summer and […]

The Department of Energy last week issued a task order for Jacobs-led Four Rivers Nuclear Partnership to continue with shipment and destruction of legacy R-114 refrigerant, better known under the brand name Freon, from the Paducah Site in Kentucky. Four Rivers, which also has Fluor and BWX Technologies on its team, received its $16 million […]

Washington Gov. Jay Inslee (D) took to Twitter Tuesday to praise an increase in cleanup funding for the Department of Energy’s Hanford Site in the fiscal 2023 omnibus bill, and remind President Joe Biden’s White House more is expected in the future. “The federal funding bill includes a $141 million funding INCREASE for the Hanford […]

The long-running, closed-door talks between Washington state and federal agencies over future cleanup of the Department of Energy’s Hanford Site are continuing, a Washington state Department of Ecology spokesman said Tuesday. “Holistic negotiations are still ongoing,” Ryan Miller, communications manager for Ecology said in a Tuesday email response to an Exchange Monitor inquiry. “The parties […]

Amentum-led Washington River Protection Solutions claimed 82% of its subjective fee and 87% of its total potential fee for its tank management work at the Department of Energy’s Hanford Site in Washington state for the 2022 fiscal year, the agency reported Tuesday. Also on Tuesday, DOE officials at Hanford issued the latest fee performance documents […]

The Hanford Site in Washington state and other Department of Energy nuclear facilities in the northern United States could see single-digit temperatures and cold winds in the days leading up to Christmas, according to forecasts from the National Weather Service. For example, the Richland, Wash., area, where Hanford is located, could see a Wednesday night […]

Inching forward with plans to dispose of surplus plutonium at the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant, the National Nuclear Security Administration plans public hearings after New Year’s on its just-released draft environmental review of the project, the agency said Friday. The nuclear-weapons agency on Friday released a draft environmental impact statement about its planned Surplus Plutonium […]

Although a drone used to probe the innards of a highly-radioactive calcine storage facility at the Department of Energy’s Idaho National Laboratory got stuck inside last month, it poses no threat to successful removal of the calcine, federal officials said recently. “On the third flight, in which the drone attempted to collect radiological data, a […]

The Department of Energy last week issued a task order for Jacobs-led Four Rivers Nuclear Partnership to continue with shipment and destruction of legacy R-114 refrigerant, better known under the brand name Freon, from the Paducah Site in Kentucky. Four Rivers, which also has Fluor and BWX Technologies on its team, received its $16 million […]

Sam Brinton, hired over the summer to lead the Department of Energy’s efforts to find a disposal solution for the nation’s spent nuclear fuel, was fired from the agency following multiple accusations of felony theft, according to reports. Brinton was removed from their post as DOE’s deputy assistant secretary for spent fuel and waste disposition, […]

Former Miamisburg, Ohio mayor and a founding member of the Energy Communities Alliance, Dick Church, has died at age 81, the advocacy group for Department of Energy localities said Dec. 9. Church “was a founding member that led the organization through transition and helped it grow from an idea into an organization that works for […]

The Department of Energy reiterated this week that solicitations for a new occupational healthcare contract at the Hanford Site in Washington state as well as a national small business contract for nuclear cleanup could both drop as early as February. The DOE’s Environmental Management Consolidated Business Center provided its latest procurement update on Wednesday.   The […]

The newly-appointed second-in-command at the Department of Energy’s Office of Environmental Management, Jeffrey Avery, will formally assume his new job next month, a spokesperson said Monday. Avery, most recently director of regulatory and security affairs with the Office of Naval Reactors, is already listed as principal deputy assistant secretary or EM-2, in the latest org […]

The Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board last week appointed Nichole Huntington a new resident inspector at the Department of Energy’s Hanford Site in Washington state. Huntington’s first day on the job was Dec. 5, according to a press release from the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board (DNFSB) acting executive director of operations Christopher Roscetti. Huntington […]

The Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board last week appointed Nichole Huntington a new resident inspector at the Department of Energy’s Hanford Site in Washington state. Huntington’s first day on the job was Dec. 5, according to a press release from the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board (DNFSB) acting executive director of operations Christopher Roscetti. Huntington […]

The newly-appointed second-in-command at the Department of Energy’s Office of Environmental Management, Jeffrey Avery, will formally assume his new job next month, a spokesperson said Monday. Avery, most recently director of regulatory and security affairs with the Office of Naval Reactors, is already listed as principal deputy assistant secretary or EM-2, in the latest org […]

Former Miamisburg, Ohio mayor and a founding member of the Energy Communities Alliance, Dick Church, has died at age 81, the advocacy group for Department of Energy localities said Friday. Church “was a founding member that led the organization through transition and helped it grow from an idea into an organization that works for and […]

A Hanford contractor and the U.S. Department of Labor agreed for the company to pay 151 Hispanic job applicants $157,621 for not complying with federal non-discrimination regulations, Labor announced last week. In a press release and other records, the federal department said Washington River Protection Solutions (WRPS) discriminated in 2019 against Latino applicants to become […]

Washington River Protection Solutions, tank prime at the Department of Energy’s Hanford Site in Washington state, has extended its bid deadline until Thursday for subcontractors to assist with quality assurance on the Tank Side Cesium Removal project.  Responses to the request for proposals were originally due on Monday, Dec. 12. But in a Dec. 8 […]

The Department of Energy’s nuclear cleanup branch is urging businesses interested in providing worker healthcare services at the Hanford Site in Washington state, to provide feedback on portions of a draft solicitation by Jan. 4. The information will be used by DOE’s Environmental Management Consolidated Business Center in Cincinnati as it prepares a final request […]

The Department of Energy’s nuclear cleanup branch should not see a significant near-term decrease in its budget for the Savannah River Site in South Carolina because control of the federal complex is being transferred to the National Nuclear Security Administration, a budget and planning official said last week. “Most of our funding is for liquid […]

The United Kingdom’s Nuclear Decommissioning Authority wrapped up most spent fuel reprocessing during 2022, one of the major advances for the agency charged with cleaning up the kingdom’s early nuclear sites, according to a new report. The U.K. National Decommissioning Authority (NDA) “strategy is to bring the reprocessing programme to an end,” according to the […]

The Department of Energy will apply a little extra scrutiny to a worker’s heat exhaustion during legacy nuclear waste cleanup at the Los Alamos National Laboratory, the agency’s Office of Enterprise Assessments said recently. The worker “experienced heat exhaustion while supporting corrugated metal pipe retrieval operations at the Los Alamos National Laboratory on September 8, […]

The administration of President Joe Biden has yet to submit its legal response to a brief filed in November in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit over legality of a COVID-19 vaccination requirement for most workers at the Department of Energy’s Hanford Site. The current deadline for the government’s answering briefing in […]

Small businesses on the hunt for a share of assorted nationwide nuclear cleanup work at government sites are encouraged to team up by the Department of Energy’s Office of Environmental Management. “DOE is issuing this notification to encourage offerors to consider the establishment of contractor teaming arrangements,” in pursuit of small business set-aside awards for […]