Decommissioning

Dounreay site license company Dounreay Site Restoration Limited has awarded Amec Foster Wheeler a 12-month contract for the design, safety basis, and environmental assessment of a new higher activity store to hold waste arising from decommissioning activities at the Scotland nuclear site, Amec Foster Wheeler announced yesterday. “The decommissioning of the Dounreay site is an […]

Chris Schneidmiller RW Monitor 11/13/2015 Removal of low-level radiological waste began last month from the STURGIS barge, the world’s first floating atomic energy facility, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers said on Friday. The one-time World War II Liberty Ship earlier this year was towed 1,750 miles from the James River Reserve Fleet in Virginia […]

Staff Reports WC Monitor 11/13/2015 An electrical switchyard that was part of the early uranium enrichment work in Oak Ridge is about to be eliminated from the landscape at the sprawling site now known as the East Tennessee Technology Park. The Department of Energy’s Office of Environmental Management earlier this year awarded a $2.1 million […]

URS/CH2M Oak Ridge expects in December to declare deactivated the K-27 gaseous diffusion plant at what is now the East Tennessee Technology Park, UCOR President Ken Rueter said on Tuesday. Demolition would then begin the following month. “We are presently on track to putting yellow iron to K-27 in the first or second week of […]

Brian Bradley WC Monitor 10/16/2015 If the American Centrifuge Plant is shut down in line with Energy Department plans, the city of Portsmouth, Ohio, would lose $40,000 in annual revenue, and if Portsmouth Site decontamination and decommissioning work does not move forward, the city would lose $100,000 in yearly income tax, Portsmouth City Auditor M. […]

Brian Bradley WC Monitor 10/9/2015 The Department of Energy’s Office of Environmental Management on Wednesday announced the demolition of a building at the Los Alamos National Laboratory as part of the ongoing remediation of the New Mexico site’s Technical Area 21. This demolition is the latest of several TA-21 dismantlement projects. The American Recovery and […]

Brian Bradley WC Monitor 10/9/2015 The Department of Energy has issued a revised funding direction that enables Portsmouth Site contractor Fluor-BWXT Portsmouth to postpone up to 500 previously announced layoffs at least until Congress passes its final fiscal 2016 appropriations bill, after which DOE is expected to review the legislative language and make a final […]

Brian Bradley WC Monitor 10/9/2015 Washington Closure Hanford is scheduled next week to start leveling the last standing facility marked for demolition as part of the company’s River Corridor Cleanup project, specifically in the Hanford Site’s 300 Area, WCH President Scott Sax said last week during the Energy Department’s first National Cleanup Workshop in Arlington, […]

The Energy Department is “getting close to finalizing” a three-month to one-year plan intended to allow the avoidance of some 500 previously expected involuntary layoffs of workers performing decontamination and decommissioning (D&D) work at the Portsmouth Site in Piketon, Ohio, Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz told senators yesterday. President Barack Obama last week signed into law […]

Staff Reports WC Monitor 10/2/2015 Work began this week to demolish the vertical pipe units at Hanford’s high-hazard 618-10 Burial Ground. Remediation of the burial ground and the similar 618-11 Burial Ground have been left for last in Hanford’s river corridor to let workers gain experience with other burial grounds that were expected to be […]

Brian Bradley and Jeremy Dillon WC Monitor 10/2/2015 Congress this week passed a continuing resolution that will fund the federal government through Dec. 11 at fiscal 2015-enacted levels and avoids a government shutdown. The CR gives Congress an additional 10 weeks to work toward a budget solution, but with uncertainty in the House following Speaker […]

Brian Bradley WC Monitor 9/25/2015 A proposed three-month federal continuing resolution released this week could head off hundreds of layoffs among workers on the cleanup project at the Portsmouth Gaseous Diffusion Plant site in Piketon, Ohio. The Senate Appropriations Committee on Tuesday issued the federal funding plan to keep the federal government open when fiscal 2016 […]

Staff Reports WC Monitor 9/25/2015 The Hanford Advisory Board has sent a letter of congratulations to the Department of Energy on progress toward tearing down the Hanford Site’s Plutonium Finishing Plant. The project remains at risk of missing a Tri-Party Agreement milestone to reduce the plant to slab on grade by the end of fiscal 2016. But the state […]

The Senate Appropriations Committee (SAC) yesterday proposed funding the federal government through a three-month continuing resolution to start fiscal 2016, which could authorize the Energy Department to advance ongoing defense nuclear cleanup programs, “particularly at the Portsmouth Gaseous Diffusion Plant” in Piketon, Ohio. That could prevent the hundreds of pending layoffs that site contractor Fluor-BWXT announced […]

Chris Schneidmiller WCM Monitor 9/4/2015 Local officials in Ohio and their congressional representatives are campaigning to persuade the Department of Energy to provide the funding needed to prevent hundreds of layoffs at the Portsmouth Gaseous Diffusion Plant cleanup site. Fluor-BWXT said last week that a budget shortfall of up to $81 million in fiscal 2016 […]

Staff Reports WCM Monitor 9/4/2015 URS/CH2M Oak Ridge (UCOR), the Department of Energy’s cleanup manager in Oak Ridge, is stepping up the pace of pre-demolition activities at the K-27 building – the last of five gaseous diffusion plants slated for demolition at a former uranium enrichment site. UCOR confirmed that it has begun removing the […]

Void limits for radiological work permits for the ongoing remediation of the Hanford Site’s Plutonium Finishing Plant (PFP) were breached on two occasions in early August, according to a Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board site representative report released this week. One case involved damage to ductwork that led to a radiation release, and the other […]

Four Republican lawmakers from Ohio last week sent a letter calling on Secretary of Energy Ernest Moniz and White House Office of Management and Budget Director Shaun Donovan to secure sufficient funds to prevent the looming layoffs of hundreds of workers at the Portsmouth Gaseous Diffusion Plant Site decontamination and decommissioning. Project contractor Fluor-BWXT said […]

Chris Schneidmiller WC Monitor 8/28/2015 Up to 500 Fluor-BWXT Portsmouth employees working on the decontamination and decommissioning of the Portsmouth Gaseous Diffusion Plant in Ohio are facing layoffs in coming weeks. The company on Wednesday sent Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act notices to 1,400 employees. The notices are required 60 calendar days ahead of […]

Up to 500 Fluor-BWXT Portsmouth employees working on the decontamination and decommissioning of the Portsmouth Gaseous Diffusion Plant in Ohio are facing layoffs in coming weeks. The company on Wednesday sent Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act notices to 1,400 employees. The notices are required 60 calendar days ahead of any large-scale layoffs. Between 325 […]

Perma-Fix Environmental Services announced yesterday the awarding of a $1 million decommissioning contract to wholly owned subsidiary Safety and Ecology Corp. The contract calls for demolition and decommissioning services at a technology development laboratory in Knoxville, Tenn., that served as an analytical and engineering laboratory for the government. Duties will include: supporting closure of the […]

Jeremy L. Dillon RW Monitor 8/7/2015 The Tokyo Electric Power Co. announced on Sunday the successful removal of the “the largest and most complex piece of rubble” from the damaged Unit 3 reactor building at the Fukushima Daiichi site, enabling the clearing of remaining rubble and the rest of the 514 spent fuel assemblies in […]

The Tokyo Electric Power Company announced on Sunday the successful removal of the “the largest and most complex piece of rubble” from the damaged Unit 3 reactor building at the Fukushima Daiichi cleanup, enabling the clearing of remaining rubble and the rest of the 514 spent fuel assemblies in the pool. TEPCO successfully removed the […]

Lance Moore WC Monitor 7/31/2015 The Department of Energy on Thursday said it had reached agreement with the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency (Ohio EPA) on a plan for demolition of the process buildings and other structures at the Portsmouth Gaseous Diffusion Plant Site (PORTS). The buildings will be destroyed as part of the decontamination and […]

September 2016 Milestone Still Uncertain Kenneth Fletcher WC Monitor 6/19/2015 Significant progress is being made in the demolition of Hanford’s Plutonium Finishing Plant, and though it is set to be one of the Department of Energy’s major cleanup achievements in 2016 it is not clear if it will meet its completion milestone, DOE Richland Operations […]

Jeremy L. Dillon RW Monitor 7/10/2015 The Ohio Environmental Protection Agency and the Department of Energy have come to an agreement on the Record of Decision for the planned Portsmouth on-site disposal cell, the two agencies announced this week. The ROD paves the way for the disposal of more than two million cubic yards of […]

Staff Reports WC Monitor 7/10/2015 The Department of Energy estimates it will cost about $292 million to complete the demolition of K-27 – the last of five gaseous diffusion plants still standing at the Oak Ridge site that once was the world’s largest uranium-enrichment complex. Ben Williams, a spokesman for DOE’s Office of Environmental Management […]

The Ohio Environmental Protection Agency and the Department of Energy have come to an agreement on the Record of Decision for the planned Portsmouth on-site disposal cell, the two agencies announced yesterday. The ROD paves the way for the disposal of more than two million cubic yards of waste that would be generated from the […]

The Department of Energy’s Office of Environmental Management (EM) successfully completed further demolition of at least 32 inactive uranium enrichment sites associated with the Feed Plant and buildings complex of the Paducah Gaseous Diffusion Plant (GDP). Demolition included removal of 2,600 panels of cement asbestos siding and 9,000 feet of pipe. The siding panels are […]

The Department of Energy and its cleanup manager in Oak Ridge, UCOR, staged another milestone Friday with the final demolition of the former K-31 uranium-enrichment facility, and officials – during sideline interviews at the ceremony – confirmed that DOE had exercised the option that extends the UCOR management contract until mid-2020.“It demonstrates our confidence in […]