Contracts & Procurement

The federal government on Friday was within hours of its first shutdown in years as leaders in Washington scrambled for a last-minute deal on another short-term budget. If that fails, the Department of Energy and its Office of Environmental Management could shortly be forced to furlough most employees and suspend many operations. While the House […]

The Savannah River Site’s management and operations contractor hired about 550 employees last year in an effort to offset personnel lost due to retirement. Some of the new Savannah River Nuclear Solutions (SRNS) hires are operators, who assist in the operation of a process or equipment within a nuclear facility at the Department of Energy […]

Concerns are growing over safety violations at the Savannah River Site’s defense facilities, the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board said in a recent letter to Energy Secretary Rick Perry. The Jan. 4 letter, signed by DNFSB Chairman Sean Sullivan, said safety issues identified in a Sept. 8, 2017, report from staff at the DOE watchdog […]

URS-CH2M Oak Ridge (UCOR) earned an award fee of $3.28 million of a potential $3.78 million for the second half of fiscal 2017 under its cleanup contract for the Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge Reservation in Tennessee, according to a scorecard from DOE’s Office of Environmental Management. The document, dated Dec. 5, 2017, graded UCOR […]

Washington Closure Hanford has reached a settlement agreement in principle with the U.S. Department of Justice in a civil lawsuit over subcontracting at the Energy Department’s Hanford Site in Washington state. The Justice Department has accused the former Hanford cleanup prime contractor of awarding small business subcontracts to front companies. Washington Closure’s contract for environmental […]

A total of $211 million was spent on procurements for the Hanford Waste Treatment Plant in fiscal 2017, according to contractor Bechtel National. The plant is being built to turn up to 56 million gallons of radioactive waste held in underground tanks into a stable glass form for disposal. “Procurement opportunities have changed as work […]

Concerns are growing over safety violations at the Savannah River Site’s defense facilities, the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board said in a recent letter to Energy Secretary Rick Perry. The Jan. 4 letter, signed by DNFSB Chairman Sean Sullivan, said safety issues identified in a Sept. 8, 2017, report from staff at the DOE watchdog […]

About 100 workers at the Hanford Site’s Plutonium Finishing Plant are being moved to new offices outside of an expanded control zone around the facility. The move is due to “the overwhelming presence of naturally occurring radon in the PFP trailer village area,” workers were told in a message Wednesday. A spread of radioactive contamination […]

Wastren Advantage Inc. (WAI) took home 96.1 percent of the potential award fee for its laboratory analysis and testing contract at the Hanford Site in Washington state for the period from Nov. 21, 2016, to Sept. 20, 2017, according to a recent performance scorecard from the Energy Department’s Office of Environmental Management. Wastren took in […]

Sen. John Barrasso (R-Wyo.) injected a bit of drama into an otherwise routine confirmation hearing Thursday by saying he would not support the nomination of Anne Marie White to be assistant secretary of energy for environmental management until the Energy Department agrees to discontinue its “uranium barter” program. Barrasso made his comments during a Senate […]

The Savannah River Site’s management and operations contractor hired about 550 employees last year in an effort to offset personnel lost due to retirement. Some of the new Savannah River Nuclear Solutions (SRNS) hires are operators, who assist in the operation of a process or equipment within a nuclear facility at the Department of Energy […]

A $100-million-plus project to dramatically increase the computing power available for the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory’s simulated nuclear weapons tests has cleared its final environmental hurdle, the Department of Energy said Tuesday. In a regulatory document called a supplement analysis, the agency’s National Nuclear Security Administration said “no further NEPA [National Environmental Protection Act] documentation […]

Wastren Advantage Inc. (WAI) took home 96.1 percent of its potential award fee for its laboratory analysis and testing contract at the Hanford Site in Washington State for the period from Nov. 21, 2016, to Sept. 20, 2017, according to a recent performance scorecard from the Energy Department’s Office of Environmental Management. Wastren took in […]

The Savannah River Site’s management and operations contractor hired about 550 employees last year in an effort to offset personnel lost due to retirement. Some of the new Savannah River Nuclear Solutions (SRNS) hires are operators, who assist in the operation of a process or equipment within a nuclear facility at the Department of Energy site in […]

Washington Closure Hanford has reached a settlement agreement in principle with the U.S. Department of Justice in a civil lawsuit over subcontracting at the Energy Department’s Hanford Site in Washington state. The Justice Department has accused the former Hanford cleanup prime contractor of awarding small business subcontracts to front companies. Washington Closure’s contract for environmental […]

URS-CH2M Oak Ridge (UCOR) earned an award fee of $3.28 million of a potential $3.78 million for the second half of fiscal 2017 under its cleanup contract for the Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge Reservation in Tennessee, according to a scorecard from DOE’s Office of Environmental Management. The document, dated Dec. 5, 2017, said UCOR […]

As part of a joint procurement with the U.S. Navy, the Department of Energy last week solicited bids for a potentially 10-year contract to manage the Naval Nuclear Laboratory. Incumbent Bechtel Marine Power Corp. has been on the job since 2009. The current and follow-on contract includes management and operation of DOE’s Bettis Atomic Power […]

The liquid waste contractor for the Department of Energy’s Savannah River Site and a former employee have received additional time to produce names and contact information for potential witnesses in a discrimination suit against the company. U.S. Magistrate Judge Paige Gossett on Wednesday granted the joint request submitted five days earlier by plaintiff Adrienne Saulsberry and defendant […]

Several management changes have been made at the Hanford Site tank farms and Waste Treatment Plant project to help meet the Department of Energy’s goal of vitrifying tank waste as soon as 2022. A new general manager has been named for Waste Treatment Completion Co. (WTCC), the subcontractor created for construction, startup, and commissioning of […]

A Washington state judge has refused to grant a new trial or reduce an $8.1 million jury verdict against Hanford Site support services contractor Mission Support Alliance (MSA) and one of its managers. The company and Steve Young, an MSA manager and also mayor of the largest city near Hanford, were sued in 2015 for […]

Federal and state regulators this week directed the U.S. Energy Department not to resume radiologically hazardous demolition at the Hanford Site’s Plutonium Finishing Plant until the agencies agree corrective actions are sufficient to protect workers and the public in the wake of a contamination spread. Contractor CH2M Hill Plateau Remediation Co. suspended teardown on Dec. […]

Contract management and technical expertise are the major reasons the Energy Department’s Office of Environmental Management (EM) will now report to DOE’s Office of Science, officials said Tuesday during a congressional hearing. Energy Secretary Rick Perry announced EM’s move from the Office of the Undersecretary for Management and Performance to Science on Dec. 15 as […]

Oak Ridge, Tenn.-based Restoration Services, which was purchased by another company in October 2016, announced Monday it has changed its name to RSI EnTech. “We are excited about rebranding the company as RSI EnTech LLC while retaining the RSI brand that is synonymous with our exceptional service delivery and being an employer of choice,” said […]

With fewer than six months left on the incumbent’s contract, the Department of Energy still has not started competition for the next Savannah River Site management and operations deal — the pact that includes running the National Nuclear Security Administration’s tritium program. The NNSA extracts tritium gas, which boosts the yield of nuclear weapons, at the […]

The Hanford Site has five major procurements in the pipeline between now and fiscal 2020, according to an announcement published Jan. 3 by the Department of Energy’s Environmental Management Consolidated Business Center (EMCBC). Three of the five solicitations could extend for up to 10 years; a fourth for up to seven years; and the length […]

The liquid waste contractor for the Department of Energy’s Savannah River Site and a former employee have received additional time to produce names and contact information for potential witnesses in a discrimination suit against the company. U.S. Magistrate Judge Paige Gossett on Wednesday granted the joint request submitted five days earlier by plaintiff Adrienne Saulsberry and defendant […]

Bechtel National (BNI) has met a contract milestone in construction of the Hanford Site Waste Treatment Plant worth an incentive fee of $4.275 million, the company and the Department of Energy announced Tuesday. The milestone was for electrical work at the plant’s Low-Activity Waste (LAW) Facility, with bulk cable electrical installation completed nearly four months […]

Contract management and technical expertise are the major reasons the Energy Department’s Office of Environmental Management (EM) will now report to DOE’s Office of Science, officials said Tuesday during a congressional hearing. Energy Secretary Rick Perry announced the new home for EM on Dec. 15 as part of a larger DOE reorganization. EM had been […]

Washington River Protection Solutions (WRPS), waste storage tank operations contractor at the Hanford Site in Washington state, received 89 percent of its available fee for fiscal 2017, the Department of Energy noted in a recently issued performance scorecard. WRPS earned $11.89 million of the available $13.35 million for the budget year ended Sept. 30, 2017. […]

As part of a joint procurement with the U.S. Navy, the Department of Energy last week solicited bids for a potentially 10-year contract to manage the Naval Nuclear Laboratory. Incumbent Bechtel Marine Power Corp. has been on the job since 2009. The current and follow-on contract includes management and operation of DOE’s Bettis Atomic Power […]