Decommissioning

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 […]

Oak Ridge cleanup contractor URS-CH2M Oak Ridge, LLC, plans to complete demolition of the K-25 former gaseous diffusion plant at a ceremony today at the site with Department of Energy officials and lawmakers. DOE officials consider the completion of demolition of the mile-long structure, once one of the largest buildings in the world, to be […]

Oak Ridge cleanup contractor URS-CH2M Oak Ridge, LLC, earned about 90 percent of its available award fee in the period from April through September 2013, receiving about $3.11 million out of a total of $3.43 million. “During this six-month performance rating period, UCOR has done a very good job executing the scope under the East […]

The Department of Energy late last week issued a final Request for Task Proposals for the new Energy Technology Engineering Center environmental monitoring contract. Among the changes in the final RTP from previously issued drafts, according to DOE, is a consolidation of non-radiological facility D&D activities from three contract line items (CLINs) to one CLIN; […]

Contractor Washington Closure Hanford has completed removal of the massive Plutonium Recycle Test Reactor from the site’s 300 area, the contractor announced yesterday. The 1,538 ton reactor will be disposed of at Hanford’s onsite landfill, the Environmental Restoration Disposal Facility. “Removing the reactor was one of the most complex and hazardous projects Washington Closure has […]

The U.K. Nuclear Decommissioning Authority yesterday officially asked the four teams in the running for the Magnox contract to submit bids, which will be due in early November. The contract award, which is expected to be announced in March, will be for the management and cleanup of the U.K.’s 10 Magnox power plants, along with […]

The U.K. Nuclear Decommissioning Authority doesn’t expect the contract for cleanup and management of its Magnox sites to face the same set of challenges that Sellafield has experienced in its first few years, NDA CEO John Clarke told WC Monitor Friday. Bids are due Nov. 1 for the NDA’s new contract to decommission and manage […]

Two new speakers from the UK Nuclear Decommissioning Authority addressing geologic disposal and decommissioning have been added to the agenda for the 25th Annual Decisionmakers’ Forum, set for Oct. 21-24 in Amelia Island, Fla. While the current government shut-down is preventing the Department of Energy from speaking, there will be a full agenda packed with […]

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 U.K.’s Nuclear Decommissioning Authority has missed its target for efficiency savings during Sellafield’s first contract period by £173 million, a U.K. government audit released yesterday found, but the NDA so far has provided “moderate assurance” of reported overall savings. The National Audit Office reviewed claimed savings at Sellafield since the contract with Nuclear Management […]

U.K. government officials faced a harsh grilling over cost overrruns at Sellafield from Margaret Hodge, chair of the U.K. Parliament’s Public Accounts Committee, at a hearing Monday on the Sellafield site. “What is extraordinary is that you have an absolutely rotten performance,” Hodge said. “In Sellafield, you sign a contract that does not meet your […]

The cost for completing D&D efforts at the Separations Process Research Unit appears to be continuing to grow, although there is no sign in sight as to when a final price tag for the project will be set or decisions made on how costs will be allocated between the Department of Energy and project contractor […]

West Valley cleanup contractor CH2M HILL B&W West Valley, LLC, has awarded a $2.6 million contract to Butler Construction for building a pad to store vitrified high-level waste canisters at the site. The western New York firm has completed several projects at West Valley, including construction of the remote-handled waste facility, according to CHBWV. There […]

Work has begun to tear down the massive X-600 coal-fired steam plant at the Portsmouth Gaseous Diffusion Plant. The project is being performed by crews from MCM Industrial Services under a subcontract with Fluor-B&W Portsmouth, LLC, the D&D contractor for the Portsmouth site, with the work scheduled to be completed by Sept. 30. The X-600 […]

After delays earlier this year due to funding issues, the Department of Energy has set a schedule for its implementation of recommendations to minimize risk at the Savannah River Site’s former plutonium facility, 235-F. The Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board released a recommendation in May 2012 finding that a fire or earthquakes at the facility could […]

West Valley Demonstration Project cleanup contractor CH2M Hill B&W West Valley, LLC, announced yesterday the completion of its first major nuclear facility demolition project, the 01-14 Building. After starting closure activities of the facility  in 2011, open-air demolition began in December and was completed in May. The four-story building was used to support vitrification of […]

Most of the Department of Energy’s major cleanup sites would see boosts to their authorized funding levels above what DOE proposed in its Fiscal Year 2014 budget request under the Senate FY 2014 Defense Authorization Act, more details of which were released yesterday. The bill, which has been approved by the Senate Armed Services Committee, […]

The balance of a Department of Energy research, development and deployment program supporting USEC’s American Centrifuge could be funded by a DOE reprogramming, USEC CEO John Welch said late last week. The RD&D program is set to wrap up at the end of 2013, but current funding runs out at the end of the fiscal […]

Approximately five teams are believed to have formed to go after the Department of Energy’s new deactivation contract for the Paducah Gaseous Diffusion Plant, according to industry officials. Among the potential bidders is a team of CH2M Hill with B&W and URS; a team of Fluor with LATA; a team of Bechtel with EnergySolutions and […]

The Department of Energy yesterday released for industry comment the draft Request for Task Proposal for the new Paducah deactivation contract. The draft RTP envisions a three-year cost-plus-award-fee contract with firm-fixed price elements. Work to be performed under the contract will include facility deactivation, surveillance and maintenance and utility operations; deactivation, decontamination and demolition; the […]

In a move likely to come as little surprise, the U.S. nuclear industry has quickly come out against the Department of Energy’s latest proposal to reauthorize payments into the federal uranium enrichment D&D fund. DOE included the proposal as part of its Fiscal Year 2014 budget, released yesterday, which envisions a federal payment of approximately […]

The Department of Energy has released more details on its deactivation contract for the Paducah Gaseous Diffusion Plant, including plans for it to replace the work cleanup contractor LATA Environmental Services of Kentucky, LLC, when its contract runs out. The Department is developing the procurement in preparation for the imminent return of the facility to […]

Nuclear Management Partners, the URS-led contractor that manages the Sellafield site in the United Kingdom, announced this week that it is bringing in Jack Devine as chief decommissioning officer. Devine, who served as chief closure officer for URS at the Savannah River Site, starts next month and is taking over for Jim French after his […]

The United Kingdom’s Nuclear Decommissioning Authority yesterday awarded a five year extension to URS-led UK Nuclear Waste Management to manage the National Low Level Waste Repository in West Cumbria and to develop and implement a national LLW strategy. The contractor, which in addition to URS includes Studsvik UK, AREVA and Serco, took over in 2008 […]

Magnox Limited has awarded a three-year integrated facilities management contract worth £80 million to Interserve, a U.K. support services and construction firm. The contract covers services including mechanical and engineering maintenance, office services, grounds maintenance and civil works at the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority’s 10 Magnox reactor sites, and includes an option for a three-year extension.  […]

The Department of Energy last week heralded the completion two months ahead of schedule of the demolition of the C-340 Metals Complex at the Paducah Site. The effort by Paducah cleanup contractor LATA Environmental Services of Kentucky began in September 2012 and covered a plant totaling about 1.5 million cubic feet.  “This is a major […]

The Department of Energy is planning to release a draft Request for Task Proposals within 60 days for deactivation of the Paducah Gaseous Diffusion Plant under the nationwide unrestricted Indefinite Quantity/Indefinite Delivery contracts, according to a notice posted by the Department yesterday. As first reported in WC Monitor in October, the task would be the […]

URS is seeking approximately $4.5 million in fee for some of the work it has performed at the Separations Process Research Unit (SPRU) site, according to a recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. After a set of contamination incidents disrupted D&D work at SPRU in 2010, URS lost all of the originally available […]

The United Kingdom’s Nuclear Decommissioning Authority published on Friday a plan to nearly double the amount of subcontracting to small and medium enterprises over the next three years to 20 percent. That would add up to at least £300 million out of the NDA’s current annual budget of £3 billion—about half of which is spent […]

Department of Energy cleanup chief David Huizenga said yesterday he had originally been supportive of a plan to preserve the north end of the K-25, the former gaseous diffusion at Oak Ridge. Historic preservation groups for years had lobbied to keep that portion standing, and during negotiations with DOE a hold had prevented major demo […]