High-Level & Tank Waste

Furloughs will still be necessary at the Hanford tank farms even as the Department of Energy works to address budgetary issues by shifting funds among cleanup projects and sites, according to Washington River Protections Solutions President and Project Manager Mike Johnson. As a result of sequestration, WRPS’ funding for the remainder of this fiscal year […]

Bechtel National has been able to avert at least one week of possible furloughs at the Hanford Waste Treatment Plant thanks to Congress’ recent approval of a Department of Energy request to shift funds among cleanup projects. The request, in part, shifted approximately $115 million from the WTP’s Pretreatment Facility, where work has largely been […]

Top-level management changes are in the works at the Department of Energy’s two main tank waste contractors, URS confirmed late yesterday. Mike Johnson is set to retire at the end of June as president of URS-led Washington River Protection Solutions, the tank farms contractor at Hanford. Johnson is set to be replaced by Dave Olson, […]

As the Department of Energy evaluates options for preparing a portion of Hanford’s tank waste believed to be transuranic material for disposal, Perma-Fix Environmental Services met with Washington state Governor Jay Inslee (D) and members of the state legislature last week to discuss the company’s proposed method. “We were asked to meet with a bipartisan […]

Leaking waste tanks at Hanford would not present a risk to visitors to Hanford’s historic B Reactor, said Kennewick Mayor Steve Young in response to questioning at a congressional hearing April 12 on creating a new Manhattan Project Historical Park. The bill to create a national park with sites at Hanford, Los Alamos and Oak […]

The Nuclear Waste Technical Review Board is scheduled to visit Hanford this week to learn more about vitrification as a way to address high-level waste and to discuss other issues. The Board’s meeting is scheduled to be held April 16, and is set to involve presentations from senior officials in the Department of Energy’s offices […]

As the Department of Energy works to obtain approval to shift funding at its cleanup projects to address current budgetary issues, workers at the Hanford Waste Treatment Plant may start seeing furlough notices in the next few weeks unless DOE’s reprogramming request is soon finalized. The threat of worker furloughs at the WTP was raised […]

Bechtel National warned employees at the Hanford Waste Treatment Plant yesterday of possible furloughs due to budgetary issues. In a message to employees, Bechtel National Project Manager Frank Russo said two weeks of furloughs may be necessary this summer if the Department of Energy is unsuccessful in its efforts to shift funding around at the […]

The Department of Energy has for months been weighing a fine or other enforcement action against Waste Treatment Plant contractor Bechtel National related to nuclear safety issues on the project, but questions have arisen related to the one of the main rationales for such a fine and DOE Chief Health, Safety and Security Officer Glenn […]

Parsons has made some changes to its management team at the Salt Waste Processing Facility Project, removing Integration Manager Charles Hanson from the project and moving some SWPF managers to focus on other projects. The decision comes after the Department of Energy made its own management change at the project, late last week officially naming […]

The Department of Energy is in the final stages of bringing on B&W executive Pam Horning to serve as the new federal project director for the Savannah River Site Salt Waste Processing Facility project, WC Monitor has learned. Horning could start at SRS as early April 1. She would replace Tony Polk, who is set […]

Salt Waste Processing Facility contractor Parsons and subcontractor EnergySolutions are locked in a dispute over Parsons’ decision to reverse course and return $20 million in provision fee to the Department of Energy, with EnergySolutions telling Parsons last week that it will not return its $6 million share of the fee, WC Monitor has learned. In […]

Department of Energy cleanup chief David Huizenga hinted yesterday that DOE and contractor Parsons may be close to developing a path forward for completing the Savannah River Site Salt Waste Processing Facility. The two have been in talks for months over the development of a revised baseline for the project, which is neccessary because of […]

Rep. Marcy Kaptur (D-Ohio), the new ranking member for the House Appropriations Energy and Water Subcommittee, had strong words for the Hanford Waste Treatment Plant yesterday, describing the project and its history of cost increases as an “open-ended bleeding wound” for the Department of Energy. Kaptur’s comments, which came during a subcommittee hearing in which […]

A federal grand jury has returned indictments against 10 upper managers and supervisors for former Hanford tank farm contractor CH2M Hill Hanford Group for their alleged roles in enabling timecard fraud. Ryan Dodd, the former vice president of retrieval and closure operations for CH2M Hill; Terrence Hissong, the former tank farms management director; and Patrick […]

A set of environmental activist groups is calling on the Department of Energy to drop plans to ship Hanford tank waste deemed to be transuranic material to the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant for disposal. Instead, the Department should move forward with the construction of new waste tanks at Hanford, the groups said in a March […]

Parsons on Saturday rejected what has been described as the Department of Energy’s ‘best and final offer’ on a new baseline for the Salt Waste Processing Facility at the Savannah River Site, WC Monitor has learned, leaving the path forward for the project uncertain. DOE and SWPF contractor Parsons have been in talks for months […]

Six of Hanford’s single shell tanks are leaking waste into the ground, Washington Gov. Jay Inslee announced Friday afternoon after meeting with Energy Secretary Steven Chu. That announcement came a week after Chu told Inslee that one of the tanks, T-111, appeared to be leaking, a first since pumpable liquids were removed in 2004. Whether […]

In the wake of the announcement late last week that six of Hanford’s underground single-shell waste tanks appear to be experiencing active leaks, Department of Energy cleanup chief David Huizenga said yesterday that “it’s too early to say” whether or not additional tanks may also be in a similar situation. “’We’re doing a comprehensive review […]

Given the recent revelation that at least six tanks of high level waste at the Hanford site appear to be leaking, Senate Energy and Natural Resources Chairman Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) yesterday requested a Government Accountability Office investigation into the Department of Energy’s tank maintenance and monitoring procedures at Hanford. Wyden toured Hanford on Feb. 19, […]

In remarks that came just days after the Department of Energy officially announced that at least six of Hanford’s underground waste tanks now appear to be leaking, a former top Hanford tank farms contractor executive yesterday called into question the technology used to detect such leaks. “The technology that we use to decide whether they’re […]

The Department of Energy and Salt Waste Processing Facility contractor Parsons are in the midst of contract negotiations at the Office of Environmental Management’s Consolidated Business Center this week. Parsons SWPF Project Manager Lou Jackson and Parsons Water and Infrastructure Group President Tony Leketa are at the CBC in Cincinnati this week with a negotiations […]

The Department of Energy would like to send 3.1 million gallons of Hanford waste in up to 20 tanks to the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant, giving it more flexibility to deal with possibly leaking single-shell tanks, it announced Wednesday. “This alternative, if implemented, would not impact the continued safe operations and performance of the WIPP […]

Salt Waste Processing Facility contractor Parsons has made a management change at the project, removing Deputy Project Manager Joe Pecoraro and replacing him with Frank Sheppard, who currently serves as the project’s Business Manager. Pecoraro has moved to a position in the company’s Washington, D.C. office. The change comes just a few weeks after a […]

Bechtel Corp. CEO Riley Bechtel visited Hanford yesterday in a trip intended to show Bechtel’s corporate commitment to the workers at the Waste Treatment Plant project. The visit comes as Bechtel has faced increased scrutiny over the past several weeks for its performance at the WTP, one of the Department of Energy’s largest projects. Last […]

The Department of Energy needs to perform more analysis before moving forward with any proposal for the early start-up of the Hanford Waste Treatment Plant’s Low Activity Waste Facility, according to a report by DOE’s Inspector General released yesterday. The IG Office examined what DOE has dubbed the “2020 Vision” for the Hanford vit plant, […]

The Department of Energy is gearing up to expand a review now underway of technical issues at the Hanford Waste Treatment Plant, WC Monitor has learned. At an all-hands meeting at Hanford yesterday, Office of River Protection Manager Scott Samuelson outlined DOE’s plans to add additional technical teams to the review, which is being performed […]

In final recommendations released yesterday, the Idaho Leadership in Nuclear Energy (LINE) Commission wrote that the state should consider allowing the Idaho National Lab to store additional quantities of spent fuel for research purposes, and should reconsider the agreement with the Department of Energy to remove calcine wastes from INL by 2035. The state made […]

The Department of Energy has broken off talks with Salt Waste Processing Facility contractor Parsons on a potential cost cap or fixed-price contract for the project, leaving SWPF without a clear path forward, WC Monitor has learned. The talks, which have been conducted directly between Deputy Secretary of Energy Dan Poneman and Parsons Chief Executive […]

A former chariman of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission is calling on the Department of Energy to move forward “expeditiously” with developing and implementing a path forward for completing the Hanford Waste Treatment Plant. In a letter sent yesterday to Secretary of Energy Steven Chu, former NRC Chairman Nils Diaz decried what he described as “a […]