Decommissioning

The West Valley Demonstration Project cleanup contractor CH2M Hill-B&W West Valley, LLC, is seeking a subcontractor to develop a plan for shipping three large radioactive items for disposal from the site to either the Nevada National Security Site or Waste Control Specialists in Texas. The packages include a 180-ton vitrification melter and two tanks weighing […]

A project to decommission a set of aging hot cells at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory appears set to come to a premature end because of a lack of funding. Department of Energy officials at Oak Ridge are recommending that the two remaining hot cells at ORNL Building 3026 be placed in a “safe” surveillance-and-maintenance […]

Oak Ridge cleanup contractor URS CH2M Oak Ridge, LLC, announced Friday that it completed demolition of K-25’s east wing and will start work on the former uranium enrichment plant’s north end. That leaves only the building’s smaller north end and a small section of the east wing contaminated with technetium-99 as the only portions of […]

Workers have finished cleanup of the F Reactor area at Hanford, a first for a Hanford reactor area, Washington Closure Hanford and the Department of Energy are expected to announce Wednesday. About 1.5 million tons of contaminated material, including building rubble and soil, were removed from the area around F Reactor and away from the […]

AREVA and engineering and design firm Atkins yesterday announced the formation of a joint venture to compete for Tier 2 contracts in the United Kingdom’s nuclear decommissioning market. French nuclear company AREVA, which with URS and AMEC is part of a team managing the Sellafield site, will work with UK-based Atkins, which has completed consulting […]

B&W-led Idaho Treatment Group, LLC, which runs the Department of Energy’s Advanced Mixed Waste Treatment Project, has proposed that Danny Nichols serve as the contractor’s new Project Manager, WC Monitor has learned. Nichols currently serves as Waste Management Director for Fluor-B&W Portsmouth, LLC, the D&D contractor at the Portsmouth Gaseous Diffusion Plant. If approved by […]

CDM late last week won a sole-source contract worth approximately $11.3 million to continue to aid the Department of Energy in preparing to tackle the cleanup of the Energy Technology Engineering Center (ETEC) site. Under the contract, set to run for three years, CDM will continue with sampling efforts and work to prepare an Environmental […]

Dennis Carr, as widely expected, has been officially tapped as the new head of Fluor-B&W Portsmouth, LLC, effective Aug. 18. Carr, who currently serves as deputy program manager, will replace Jamie Jameson as Program Manager as Jameson’s initial two-year commitment comes to an end. Carr has also previously held senior management positions at Savannah River […]

Workers at the Portsmouth D&D project represented by the United Steelworkers labor union ratified a new contract with Fluor-B&W Portsmouth, LLC, Aug. 14. The new contract was ratified by a margin of 3 ½ to 1, according to USW Local 689. “We are happy about the outcome of the USW ratification vote and we look […]

Savannah River Nuclear Solutions is looking for small businesses interested in work dismantling a coal plant and related buildings at the Savannah River Site, and plans to use scrap from the project to help fund the project. The contractor released a Sources Sought notice earlier this week seeking expressions of interest for dismantling the 484-D […]

Washington Closure Hanford has awarded what it expects to be its final subcontract for the completion of its cleanup work at Hanford’s N Reactor. TerranearPMC has been given a subcontract worth $5.6 million to clean up the remaining waste sites near N Reactor. Already the 113 support buildings and other facilities for N Reactor have […]

URS yesterday issued one of the most detailed reports to date of the company’s financial situation at the Separations Process Research Unit (SPRU) D&D project, where active D&D work has been largely stalled since a set of contaminated incidents occurred in the fall of 2010. According to URS’ latest earnings report, through March 31, 2012, the […]

A tower that was used for above-ground nuclear experiments during the 1960s will finally be demolished next week. The Bare Reactor Experiment-Nevada (BREN) Tower stands 1,527 feet tall, and is larger than the Empire State Building in New York City and Las Vegas’ Stratosphere Tower. The NNSA said it will be the tallest structure to […]

Demolition experts at the Nevada National Security Site toppled a tower yesterday that was once used for above-ground nuclear experiments, bringing the Bare Reactor Experiment-Nevada (BREN) Tower crashing to the desert floor. At 1,527 feet tall, the BREN Tower is taller than the Empire State Building in New York City and Las Vegas’ Stratosphere Tower, […]

When does the Department of Energy’s Office of Environmental Management plan to resume D&D efforts at the Separations Process Research Unit (SPRU) site that have been suspended since a set of contamination incidents occurred almost a year-and-a-half-ago? It’s a question House appropriators appear to be eager to have answered, according to the committee report accompanying […]

Plant operator USEC took another step towards the possible shutdown of the Paducah Gaseous Diffusion Plant yesterday, when executives acknowledged in a call with investors that efforts to keep the plant alive may not be enough and expressed interest in doing decommissioning work at the facility. USEC CEO John Welch said that the company is […]

West Valley Demonstration Project cleanup contractor CH2M Hill B&W West Valley plans to resubmit its baseline to the Department of Energy next week after issues emerged with the baseline it submitted in late December. “After reconsideration, CH2M HILL B&W, together with DOE, decided to retract the original submission in order to made modifications and improve […]

Babcock Dounreay Partnership—made up of Babcock Nuclear Services Ltd, CH2M Hill and URS Holdings (UK) Ltd.—officially took over responsibility for the decommissioning of the Dounreay site in the United Kingdom yesterday. Last fall, Babcock Dounreay Partnership was selected as the preferred bidder in the competition to take ownership of Dounreay Site Restoration Limited after a […]

Members of Ohio and New York’s Congressional delegations are questioning the Department of Energy’s proposed Fiscal Year 2013 funding cuts for cleanup efforts at the Portsmouth and West Valley sites. In a written response to WC Monitor yesterday, Rep. Tom Reed (R-N.Y.) criticized DOE’s proposal to cut cleanup funds for the West Valley Demonstration Project […]

The potential shutdown of the Paducah Gaseous Diffusion Plant appears to be growing closer, with no signs yet of a necessary contract extension between plant operator USEC and the Tennessee Valley Authority. USEC has said it will move to shut down the Paducah plant in May, which would return it back to the Department of […]

While the Department of Energy has proposed a significant funding cut for the West Valley Demonstration Project next year, DOE and site cleanup contractor CH2M Hill-B&W West Valley, LLC, are holding off for now on comment on the potential impacts such a cut would have on cleanup progress and the site’s workforce. In its Fiscal […]

The Department of Energy’s proposal to significantly cut funding for the West Valley Demonstration Project next year is set to result in the slowdown of some cleanup activities, according to a Department spokesman, though the potential impact on the site’s workforce is still to be determined. Under DOE’s FY 2013 request, West Valley would receive […]

The Environmental Protection Agency’s Inspector General is questioning how asbestos-related demolition is conducted at some Department of Energy cleanup sites. In an “early warning” report issued last week, the EPA Inspector General said that alternative asbestos control methods that are less restrictive than EPA regulations have been allowed for use at Hanford and are being […]

The latest version of URS-CH2M Oak Ridge’s Request for Proposals for staff augmentation does not cover the transition of incumbent staff, something that had been included in an initial RFP that the Oak Ridge cleanup contractor cancelled last month. UCOR issued a new version of the contract Thursday that did not include a section on […]

The UK’s Nuclear Decommissioning Authority has selected Babcock Dounreay Partnership—made up of Babcock Nuclear Services Ltd, CH2M Hill and URS Holdings (UK) Ltd.—as the preferred bidder in the competition to take ownership of Dounreay Site Restoration Limited, after a two-year public procurement process. The Babcock team beat out the other prequalified team of Caithness Solutions, made […]

A worker was injured yesterday during D&D work at Brookhaven National Laboratory’s Graphite Research Reactor. The accident occurred when the worker fell approximately 16 feet from a “person lift,” according to a lab statement. The worker was transported to Stony Brook University Medical Center. The extent of his injuries was not known as of yesterday, […]

With the Department of Energy and USEC having wrapped up the final transfer of facilities at the Portsmouth Gaseous Diffusion Plant for inclusion in the D&D project at the site, DOE site manager William Murphie had nothing but positive things to say about the process late last week. “I personally think it went better than […]

URS-CH2M Oak Ridge, LLC (UCOR) President Leo Sain yesterday stressed the need for adequate funding to ensure the demolition of the former K-25 uranium enrichment process building is completed as currently scheduled in the summer of 2014. In remarks at this year’s Decisionsmakers’ Forum, Sain warned that the level of funding for the K-25 D&D […]

The Department of Energy last week issued enforcement letters to two former subcontractors to URS on the Separations Process Research Unit (SPRU) D&D project, warning of potential violations of DOE regulations stemming from radiological contamination events that occurred at the site last year. The letters were sent Oct. 24 to EnergySolutions and Safety and Ecology […]

The Department of Energy, as expected, has extended for another three years Boeing’s contract to provide landlord services at the Energy Technology Engineering Center (ETEC) site in California while decisions are made on the future cleanup of the site. The extension, which will run through Sept. 30, 2014, is valued at $38.5 million. During the […]