High-Level & Tank Waste

Whistleblower Calls on Dept. of Labor to Enforce Order on Reinstatement WC Monitor 8/29/2014 A former employee at Hanford tank farms contractor Washington River Protection Solutions who was found to be improperly terminated from her job called on the Department of Labor this week to move to enforce an order directing her immediate reinstatement. Last […]

Sellafield Limited has completed construction of a new storage facility for intermediate level waste generated through decommissioning and fuel reprocessing. The Encapsulated Product Store 3 is an above ground storage building that can store over 29,000 waste drums. “The completion of EPS 3 marks a major milestone in the decommissioning of Sellafield. This facility is […]

SRR Begins Process Vessel Ventilation System Project WC Monitor 8/22/2014 Savannah River Site liquid waste contractor Savannah River Remediation has kicked off a year-long project aimed at improving SRR salt disposition efforts and ready the site for the Salt Waste Processing Facility. SRR said it began installing a new process vessel ventilation system earlier this […]

Savannah River Site liquid waste contractor Savannah River Remediation has kicked off a year-long project aimed at improving SRR salt disposition efforts and ready the site for the Salt Waste Processing Facility. SRR said it began installing a new process vessel ventilation system earlier this month, utilizing a facility that contains salt solution receipt tanks […]

Jeremy L. Dillon RW Monitor 8/1/2014 The United Kingdom’s Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC) released a white paper last week outlining the nation’s new approach to siting a geological disposal facility for the nation’s high-level nuclear waste. The white paper aims to rejuvenate the nation’s siting search after a planned site in West […]

SRNL Vapor Team Makes First Visit to Hanford WC Monitor 7/25/2014 The Hanford Tank Vapor Assessment Team led by the Savannah River National Laboratory arrived late this week for its first visit to Hanford. The team has work planned through July 29 that will include tours, briefings, procedure reviews, observation of work at the tank […]

DOE Faces Skepticism Over Hanford Tank Vapor Concerns WC Monitor 7/18/2014 Current and former workers at a meeting the watchdog group Hanford Challenge hosted this week on chemical vapors were skeptical that the Department of Energy really knows what workers are exposed to at the Hanford tank farms. Hanford officials have said sampling has found […]

Efforts Continue to Startup Idaho Facility Mike Nartker WC Monitor 7/11/2014 As the Department of Energy continues to work to get the Idaho Integrated Waste Treatment Unit up and operating to address liquid waste at the Idaho site, the Department also appears to be already considering future uses for the facility, which could include the […]

Mike Nartker WC Monitor 7/3/2014 A second deadline came and went late last week without resolution for the Department of Energy and the state of Washington on how to modify a court-enforced consent decree that helps govern the cleanup of Hanford’s tank waste. The two sides have proposed differing approaches for modifying the consent decree […]

Mike Nartker WC Monitor 7/3/2014 Some potential bidders on the new contract to provide analytical and testing services at Hanford’s 222-S Laboratory appear to be worried that Hanford tank farms contractor Washington River Protection Solutions may have an unfair advantage if it chooses to participate in the procurement. In a recently released set of Q&As […]

Delay Hits First Planned Trial Over Alleged Time Card Fraud WC Monitor 7/3/2014 The first of three trials related to alleged timecard fraud at Hanford will not start next week as planned. The only defendant remaining in the group of two that had been scheduled to go to trial July 9 will undergo a competency […]

Some potential bidders on the new contract to provide analytical and testing services at Hanford’s 222-S Laboratory appear to be worried that Hanford tank farms contractor Washington River Protection Solutions may have an unfair advantage if it chooses to participate in the procurement. In a recently released set of Q&As for the 222-S lab procurement, […]

A second deadline came and went late last week without resolution for the Department of Energy and the state of Washington to reach an agreement on how to modify a court-enforced consent decree that helps govern the cleanup of Hanford’s tank waste. The two sides have proposed differing approaches for modifying the consent decree after […]

DNFSB Raises Issues With Hanford Evaporator Safety Basis WC Monitor 6/27/2014   The Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board last week raised issues with the safety basis for an evaporator at Hanford’s tank farms. In a March review, the DNFSB found several concerns with the safety basis for the 242-A Evaporator, which is used to concentrate […]

Despite Years of Effort to Improve Safety Culture, New Assessment Finds Little Progress Made Mike Nartker WC Monitor 6/27/2014 Employees at the Department of Energy’s Office of River Protection do not appear to be fully on board with Manager Kevin Smith’s new, more collaborative approach to managing Bechtel National at the Hanford Waste Treatment Plant, […]

Despite years of effort by the Department of Energy and contractor Bechtel National to improve the safety culture at the Hanford Waste Treatment Plant, there has been little meaningful change and, in some instances, things appear to have gotten worse, according to the results of a new study the DOE Office of Independent Enterprise Assessment […]

The Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board last week raised issues with the safety basis with an evaporator at Hanford’s tank farms. In a March review, the DNFSB found several concerns with the safety basis 242-A Evaporator, which is used to concentrate liquid tank waste at Hanford.  “Specifically, a number of identified hazards are not properly […]

The Savannah River National Laboratory yesterday released information on the members of a panel assembled to examine the chemical vapors program at the Hanford tank farms. The SRNL study was commissioned amid new concerns over worker exposure to hazardous vapors at the Hanford tank farms; according to recent media reports at least 37 workers have […]

Kenneth Fletcher WC Monitor 6/20/2014 South Carolina is continuing to push against the Department of Energy’s latest plan for the closure of high-level waste tanks at the Savannah River Site, warning this week of hundreds of millions of dollars in penalties if the Department does not request enough funding for Savannah River cleanup. DOE recently […]

The following interview with Deputy Energy Secretary Dan Poneman, who announced this week plans to leave DOE in the fall, was conducted by ExchangeMonitor Publications Editor-in-Chief Mike Nartker. RW Monitor 6/20/2014 As the Department of Energy looks to move forward with a consent-based approach to siting new interim and permanent facilities for high-level waste, how […]

Kenneth Fletcher WC Monitor  6/20/2014 Parsons last week rejected the Department of Energy’s “best and final” offer for a new agreement for commissioning and startup of the Salt Waste Processing Facility, leaving uncertainty in the path forward for startup, WC Monitor has learned. SWPF startup talks have been ongoing since last summer, when a new […]

Jeremy L. Dillon RW Monitor 6/20/2014 The Department of Energy’s loss of credibility in the handling of the nation’s high-level nuclear waste was the dominate obstacle impeding  a successful waste management program identified last week during the Bipartisan Policy Center’s first regional meeting held in Boston. The BPC’s project, named “America’s Nuclear Future: Taking Action […]

Group Calls on State to Order Protections for Tank Farm Workers WC Monitor 6/20/2014 As concerns continue to grow over workers at the Hanford tank farms being exposed to hazardous vapors, the watchdog group Hanford Challenge is calling on the Washington state Attorney General’s Office to use the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act to order […]

House appropriators are looking to provide less than what the Department of Energy is seeking for next year to begin work on a new interim pretreatment capability for the Hanford Waste Treatment Plant. In its FY 2015 request, DOE asked for $23 million to begin work on the Low Activity Waste Pretreatment System, which is […]

South Carolina continues to push back against the Department of Energy’s latest Savannah River high level waste tank closure plan, warning that it will not extend regulatory milestones solely based on inadequate funding requested for the site. The DOE’s latest liquid waste system plan “would result in a total cumulative delay of over 200 years […]

Parsons has rejected the Department of Energy’s ‘best and final offer’ for a new agreement for commissioning and startup of the Salt Waste Processing Facility, WC Monitor has learned. SWPF startup talks have been ongoing since last summer, when a new agreement-in-principle was reached that covered only construction. DOE and Parsons have been negotiating a […]

The Nuclear Waste Technical Review Board announced late last week that it will host a meeting later this summer to discuss the Department of Energy’s plans for the packaging, transportation, and disposal of high-level waste. The meeting is scheduled for Aug. 6, 2014 in Idaho Falls, Idaho. The Board will discuss DOE’s latest research plans […]

Kenneth Fletcher WC Monitor 6/13/2014 Responding to criticism from South Carolina regulators of a new Savannah River Site liquid waste plan with lengthy delays, the site’s top official emphasized this week that the site is still committed to closing tanks. The Department recently released the latest revision of the site’s liquid waste system plan, which […]

Staff reports WC Monitor 6/13/2014   Washington state and federal officials will continue to discuss changes to the Hanford court-enforced consent decree, rather than taking the matter back to court, they announced this week. The initial 40-day dispute resolution period expired June 2, which allowed either the state or the Department of Energy to ask […]

Washington state and federal officials will continue to discuss changes to the Hanford court-enforced consent decree, rather than taking the matter back to court. The initial 40-day dispute resolution period expired June 2, which allowed either the state or the Department of Energy to ask a federal judge to intervene. Now the state and federal […]