Defense Low-Level Waste

Jeremy L. Dillon RW Monitor 1/17/2014 EnergySolutions and Waste Control Specialists each remain on track to receive new Type-B casks— capable of shipping Class B and C low-level radioactive waste—in the first quarter of this year, spokesmen for both companies said this week.  EnergySolutions, which owns and operates the four Type-B casks that currently service […]

Kenneth Fletcher RW Monitor 1/17/2014 Taking the time pressure off talks with the state of Nevada over disposal of a controversial batch of uranium-233, the Department of Energy last week unloaded material from shipping casks it had planned to send to the Nevada National Security Site for disposal. The shipping containers were due for recertification […]

Jeremy L. Dillon RW Monitor 1/17/2014 EnergySolutions and Waste Control Specialists each remain on track to receive new Type-B casks— capable of shipping Class B and C low-level radioactive waste—in the first quarter of this year, spokesmen for both companies said this week.  EnergySolutions, which owns and operates the four Type-B casks that currently service […]

Kenneth Fletcher RW Monitor 1/17/2014 Taking the time pressure off talks with the state of Nevada over disposal of a controversial batch of uranium-233, the Department of Energy last week unloaded material from shipping casks it had planned to send to the Nevada National Security Site for disposal. The shipping containers were due for recertification […]

DOE-State Working Group Again Met This Week to Discuss Issues Kenneth Fletcher WC Monitor 5/9/2014 While a Department of Energy and Nevada working group met again this week to discuss controversial proposed shipments of uranium-233, there is still no timeline for disposal of the material at the Nevada National Security Site, a DOE official said […]

The Department of Energy awarded Waste Control Specialists a task order yesterday to dispose of Class C mixed low level waste from the Los Alamos National Laboratory Legacy Waste Project. The fixed-price task order calls for the disposal of 364.9 cubic yards of waste generated at the DOE Los Alamos National Laboratory from cleanup and […]

Perma-Fix Environmental Services continued its struggles in the third quarter as revenue decreased and net loss increased, according to the company’s preliminary unaudited results for the third quarter. Revenues for the quarter were $19.1 million, compared to $29.2 million in the same period in 2012, and revenue for nine months is $61.7 million, compared to […]

The Department of Energy is not ruling out a privatization option for a proposed onsite disposal cell for the Portsmouth D&D project, DOE Portsmouth Paducah Project Office Manager Bill Murphie told WC Monitor yesterday.  “We’re looking at all of our options, so that’s something I’ll be talking to headquarters about,” Murphie said when asked yesterday […]

A majority of NRC Commissioners have voted to reduce the standard for the time of compliance in its 10 CFR Part 61 waste classification system, RadWaste Monitor has learned. The new revision would reduce the initial time of compliance for a disposal site to 1,000 years, compared to the 10,000 years proposed by the NRC staff in the […]

Five drums holding low-level radioactive waste fell off a flatbed truck in the center of Hanford Monday morning. The 55-gallon drums were among 74 on the truck that were being shipped from the Effluent Treatment Facility at Hanford to Perma-Fix Northwest’s plant just off Hanford. The truck was in the 200 East Area, where the […]

The Department of Energy is considering a privatization approach for the construction and operation of an on-site disposal cell for the Portsmouth D&D project and has discussed the option with companies including EnergySolutions and Fluor, WC Monitor has learned. The privatization option, which appears to be in the early stages of discussion, would entail a […]

The Department of Energy’s final environmental impact statement on disposal of Greater-Than-Class-C radwaste could be published as soon as July, Associate Deputy Assistant Secretary for Waste Management Christine Gelles said at the Electric Power Research Initiative’s International Low-Level Waste Conference yesterday. “We’ve been working since 2005 … and we still haven’t published the final EIS,” […]

The Washington State Department of Health is reportedly considering whether Hanford shipments of plutonium-contaminated gloveboxes to Perma-Fix Northwest in Richland should be temporarily suspended. The suspension is being considered after a June 19 incident with a container holding glovebox sections, in which contamination was allegedly spread at the plant. The Department of Health said in […]

The Department of Energy late last week awarded both EnergySolutions and Waste Control Specialists fixed-price unit rate Indefinite Delivery/Indefinite Quantity multiple-award contracts for the permanent disposal of low-level and mixed low-level waste. The contracts would run for five years and include Contract Line Item Numbers for federal waste streams including: Class A, B and C […]

B&W Y-12, LLC, has released an expression of interest for liquid waste management services at the Y-12 National Security Complex. “The seller will perform all necessary functions to manage, treat, and disposition the existing inventory of wastewater and sludge within the first two years of the subcontract as well as all wastewater received and sludge […]

The Department of Energy’s Office of Environmental Management is in the final stages of completing work on the final environmental impact statement for Greater-than-Class-C waste disposal, officials said yesterday at the 2013 Waste Management Symposia. EM is “within a month or two” of finalizing the EIS, which will identify DOE’s preferred alternative for a Greater-than-Class-C […]

  The Army Corps of Engineers is seeking companies able to transport and permanently dispose of low-level radioactive waste not regulated by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, according to a sources sought notice posted Friday. Transport of the material, which would be mainly soil and debris in volumes up to “tens of thousands of cubic yards,” […]

After a record-setting year in 2011, Perma Fix continued a downward slide that has typified its 2012 year to date in its second quarter earnings release yesterday. Though revenue for the second quarter of 2012 increased 17.5 percent to $34 million versus $28.9 million for the same period last year, Perma Fix reported an operating […]

The Department of Energy yesterday released a new set of questions and answers on its recently issued Request for Proposals for low-level waste/mixed low-level waste disposal, clarifying how companies should address pricing information. One firm asked if DOE would be open to tiered pricing. DOE said no, though it noted: “offeror may include volume discount […]

The Department of Energy yesterday issued its final Request for Proposals for disposal of low-level radioactive waste across the complex. DOE plans to award one or more five-year Indefinite Delivery Indefinite Quantity contracts. “Each ID/IQ contract will be for multiple selected types of waste and more than one contractor may receive a contract for permanent […]

Nuclear Regulatory Commission Chairman Gregory Jaczko yesterday made clear that he does not consider low-level radioactive waste issues, including work on updating the 10 CFR Part 61 waste classification tables, to be a particularly pressing matter. The anniversary of the nuclear disaster at Japan’s Fukushima nuclear plant, and what the U.S. is doing to develop […]

The Department of Energy yesterday posted the first set of questions and answers on the recently issued Request for Proposals for low-level waste/mixed low-level waste disposal, clarifying how companies should address pricing information. One firm asked if DOE would allow pricing based on license amendments that have been submitted but not approved, to which DOE […]

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission will hold a meeting with the Organization of Agreement States and the Conference of Radiation Control Program Directors today, at 9:30 A.M. in Rockville, Md. Among the items on the agenda is the topic of Compatibility—the varying degrees of mandatory compliance that the NRC can place on its rules—as well as […]

The Department of Energy said yesterday that within a month it will issue the final Request for Proposals for disposal of low-level radioactive waste across the complex. In a pre-solicitation notice, DOE said it plans to award one or more five-year Indefinite Delivery Indefinite Quantity contracts. “Each IDIQ contract will be for multiple selected types […]

Nuclear Regulatory Commission staff yesterday gave stakeholders some insight into potential changes that will appear in the draft Branch Technical Position on Concentration Averaging that will be released for public comment in May. At the Waste Management conference in Phoenix, Jim Kennedy, lead on the BTP revision group for NRC, said that the agency is […]

The National Nuclear Security Administration may look to the Department of Energy’s cleanup program for advice on how to minimize waste generation going forward, NNSA Deputy Administrator for Defense Programs Don Cook said last week. In remarks at this year’s Weapons Complex Monitor Decisionmakers’ Forum, Cook called for advice on ways to change processes to […]