Contracts & Procurement

The U.S. Energy Department is conducting additional sampling to detect any radioactive contamination at a school near its Portsmouth Site in Pike County, Ohio, while local officials seek to be kept in the loop. Energy Secretary Rick Perry dispatched a technical team to do an assessment of the school, the Cincinnati Enquirer reported Saturday. Energy […]

Former Kennewick, Wash., mayor and Hanford Site executive Steve Young died Thursday at the age of 69 from complications from cancer. Young was a four-term mayor of the city near Hanford. He was serving as a city councilman and had filed for re-election. He was also vice chairman of the Energy Communities Alliance, a Washington, […]

After 11 years with Westinghouse, José Emeterio Gutiérrez will resign as president and CEO effective July 31 and will be succeeded Aug. 19 by Patrick Fragman, group senior vice president at ABB Limited, an international technology company involved with electrification, industrial automation, and other fields. An executive committee of senior managers will run Westinghouse daily […]

Bechtel National last week and early this week conducted sweeping drug and alcohol testing of workers at the Waste Treatment Plant (WTP) the company is building at the Hanford Site in Washington state. The testing targeted all of the approximately 2,000 workers who have unescorted access to the plant’s job site. Four other major Hanford […]

The U.S. House Appropriations Committee on Wednesday approved legislation that would increase the fiscal 2020 funding for cleanup at the Hanford Site in Washington state by about $380 million from the Trump administration’s request. However, the funding is still about $37 million below current spending levels, according to initial figures, which do not include security […]

The fiscal 2020 energy and water funding bill approved Tuesday by the House Appropriations Committee would slash funding for a $50 million facility intended to reduce the cost and time of cleaning up nuclear waste at the Department of Energy’s Savannah River Site in South Carolina. The Energy Department requested all $50 million for the […]

Officials in southern Ohio met Thursday to narrow the list of potential third-party contractors to sample for potential radioactive contamination at a middle school near the Energy Department’s Portsmouth Site. The Pike County General Health District said Tuesday it is working with DOE, along with local and state agencies, to establish a procedure outlining “when […]

Anne Marie White is stepping down as head of the Department of Energy’s Office of Environmental Management, multiple industry sources said Thursday afternoon. They linked her departure to friction with her immediate superior, Undersecretary of Energy for Science Paul Dabbar, exacerbated by concerns about radioactive contamination near a DOE facility in Ohio. White became assistant […]

The U.S. National Nuclear Security Administration this week appealed a court decision in a lawsuit to let some 20 employees of contractor MOX Services retain access to vital project information about on the canceled Mixed Oxide Fuel Fabrication Facility in South Carolina. The federal government filed its appeal with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the […]

Bechtel National last week and early this week conducted sweeping drug and alcohol testing of workers at the Waste Treatment Plant (WTP) the company is building at the Hanford Site in Washington state. The testing targeted all of the approximately 2,000 workers who have unescorted access to the plant’s job site. Four other major Hanford […]

Officials in southern Ohio are scheduled to meet today to narrow the list of potential third-party contractors to sample for potential radioactive contamination at a middle school near the Energy Department’s Portsmouth Site. The Pike County General Health District said Tuesday it is working with DOE, along with local and state agencies, to establish a […]

The Navy on Monday awarded General Dynamics Electric Boat a $497 million modification for a submarine industrial base development and expansion to support the Columbia-class ballistic missile submarines. According to the contract announcement, the award also covers the overall nuclear shipbuilding enterprise, which includes Virginia-class attack submarines and Gerald R. Ford-class aircraft carriers. This is part of the “integrated […]

President Donald Trump announced May 21 that he is nominating Barbara Barrett to become the next Air Force secretary, as current Secretary Heather Wilson completes her final weeks on the job. “I am pleased to announce my nomination of Barbara Barrett of Arizona, and former Chairman of the Aerospace Corporation, to be the next Secretary of […]

The Pike County, Ohio, General Health District hopes this week to select a third-party laboratory to conduct air and water sampling near the Energy Department facility suspected of being the source of radioactive contaminants found recently at a local middle school. “We are working as fast as possible along with performing our due diligence to […]

Former Kennewick, Wash., mayor and Hanford Site executive Steve Young died Thursday at the age of 69 from complications from cancer. Young was a four-term mayor of the city near Hanford. He was serving as a city councilman and had filed for re-election. He was also vice chairman of the Energy Communities Alliance, a Washington, […]

Westinghouse Electric announced Thursday it will change CEOs this summer. After 11 years with Westinghouse, José Emeterio Gutiérrez will resign as president and CEO effective July 31 and will be succeeded Aug. 19 by Patrick Fragman, group senior vice president at ABB Limited, an international technology company involved with electrification, industrial automation, and other fields. […]

On Friday, a U.S. attorney representing the National Nuclear Security Administration in a contractor lawsuit appealed a court decision to let some 20 MOX Services employees retain access to vital project information about cancelled Mixed Oxide Fuel Fabrication Facility in South Carolina. The federal government had not filed its appeal with the U.S. Court of […]

Oral arguments are set for Thursday between the contractor for the canceled Mixed Oxide Fuel Fabrication Facility (MFFF) and its customer, the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA), over some $800,000 in interest the contractor says it is owed. CB&I AREVA MOX Services sued the NNSA in 2016, and repeatedly afterward in cases that have been […]

Deployed nuclear weapons do not contain the underperforming commercial capacitors blamed for delaying delivery of the first B61-12 and W88 Alt 370 nuclear weapons, the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) said Friday. The semiautonomous Department of Energy weapons agency “has verified that these components are not in use in other deployed weapons, nor will they […]

As expected, major Energy Department contractor Fluor has formally selected longtime executive Carlos Hernandez as its permanent CEO, about two weeks after he took the job on an interim basis. Fluor’s Board of Directors also announced Thursday in a press release that Hernandez, previously the company executive vice president and chief legal officer, would serve […]

The Energy Department’s Office of Environmental Management could issue a half-dozen major contract nuclear cleanup awards, collectively worth up to $35 billion, by the end of 2019. The office’s ’s latest procurement schedule, dated May 10, outlines an ambitious schedule of contract deals this year. Environmental Management updates its timelines every few months and the […]

The Energy Department Office of Environmental Management has delayed completion of the draft record of decision on a proposed new landfill facility for the Oak Ridge Reservation in Tennessee until August. Previously, the draft ROD was expected May 7. State and federal regulators approved a three-month extension for submitting the document for the proposed Environmental […]

A Washington state information-technology and staff augmentation company faces a second civil lawsuit over claims it accepted pay for work at the Department of Energy’s Hanford Site but failed to pay the subcontractor hired to provide the services. E2 Consulting Engineers of California filed the lawsuit Monday in Benton County, Wash., Superior Court against i-3 […]

The Energy Department contractor for the West Valley Demonstration Project in New York state won 75% of its available fee, $345,810 of a potential $461,080, in its latest six-month performance scorecard. Contractor CH2M Hill BWXT West Valley (CHBWV) recorded no significant achievements or deficiencies during the period from Aug. 29, 2018, through Feb. 28 of […]

A trace of a radiological contaminant was discovered on a plutonium shipping container as it was returned last month to the Department of Energy’s Savannah River Site in South Carolina. There were no leaks, spills, or exposures to workers or the environment, according to an April 25 DOE occurrence report. The 5-gallon shipping container held less than 40 milliliters of a […]

The Department of Energy was criticized Wednesday for failing to provide important information for discussion at a meeting on the fiscal 2021 budget for environmental remediation at the Hanford Site in Washington state. Participants at the meeting in the nearby city of Richland said they did not receive specific information on work that will be […]

About $8.5 million in contractor costs approved by the company that manages the Department of Energy’s Savannah River Site were initially deemed improper in a recent Department of Energy audit. But in a manager response attached to the audit by the Department of Energy inspector general, the federal agency and the contractor, Savannah River Nuclear […]

By John Stang Perma-Fix Environmental Services has borrowed $2.5 million from one of its shareholders to be used for general working capital. The Atlanta-based nuclear services provider recorded the April 1 transaction in a May 9 10-Q filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. The unsecured loan is from shareholder Robert Ferguson, who is […]

The Advanced Mixed Waste Treatment Project (AMWTP) at the Idaho National Laboratory (INL) should complete its transuranic waste processing mission this summer, although some work remains beyond fiscal 2019. Roughly 6,500 cubic meters of material, or about 10% of the original total, still requires certification and transport to the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) in […]

As expected, major Energy Department contractor Fluor has formally selected longtime executive Carlos Hernandez as its permanent CEO, about two weeks after he took the job on an interim basis. Fluor’s Board of Directors also announced Thursday in a press release that Hernandez, previously the company executive vice president and chief legal officer, would serve […]