Weapons Complex Vol. 26 No. 46 New Facility Could Expedite SRS Cleanup Mission
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Transuranic Waste
New Contractor Takes Over Oak Ridge TRU Waste Processing Center
Staff Reports WC Monitor 12/11/2015 A Department of Energy official confirmed that the transition of contractors at the Transuranic Waste Processing Center at Oak Ridge would be completed this week, with North Wind Solutions officially taking over responsibility for management and operations at 6 a.m. Friday. North Wind received the $123.9 million contract – with […]
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Cleanup & Remediation
DOE Exec Discusses Cleanup Challenges, Successes
Staff Reports WC Monitor 12/11/2015 Mark Whitney, the No. 2 officer in the Department of Energy’s Office of Environmental Management, was the keynote speaker Wednesday at the Energy, Technology, and Environmental Business Association’s annual Business Opportunities Conference in Knoxville. He gave attendees – many of them contractors in the department’s cleanup programs – an overview […]
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Cleanup & Remediation
Key Waste Cleanup Deadline Passes at LANL
Staff Reports WC Monitor 12/11/2015 Officials at the Los Alamos National Laboratory have known more than two years that the facility would not meet a key deadline in a fence-to-fence cleanup of radioactive and hazardous waste that their predecessors agreed to more than a decade ago under a binding court-ordered consent decree. A settlement for […]
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High-Level & Tank Waste
Hanford Vit Plant Construction Hits New Milestones
Staff Reports WC Monitor 12/11/2015 Bechtel National has reached at least the 80 percent mark for design, procurement, and construction of the buildings at the Hanford Site Waste Treatment Plant that will not deal with high-level radioactive waste, according to an update from the Department of Energy. DOE and Washington state would like the Low-Activity […]
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Cleanup & Remediation
DOE Investigating Incident at Separations Process Research Unit
Chris Schneidmiller WC Monitor 12/11/2015 The Department of Energy’s Office of Enterprise Assessments (EA) this week said it is investigating an incident in which a worker at the Separations Process Research Unit decommissioning and demolition project suffered symptoms of heat stress. The Aug. 15 event raises questions about possible “deficiencies” by contractor URS Energy & […]
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Cleanup & Remediation
Hanford Contractor Receives DOE Letter of Enforcement
Staff Reports WC Monitor 12/11/2015 The Department of Energy’s Office of Enterprise Assessments (EA) has sent a letter of enforcement to Hanford Site services and infrastructure contractor Mission Support Alliance. The letter questions the contractor’s response to a May 2015 accident involving a crane rigger, but imposes no requirements on MSA. Steven Simonson, director of […]
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Transuranic Waste
Research Suggests Problems With Storing Nuclear Waste in Rock Salt
Chris Schneidmiller WC Monitor 12/11/2015 Rock salt could be less effective than believed as a subsurface container for nuclear waste, according to new research from the University of Texas at Austin. Salt beds are already used for safe holding of low-level nuclear waste at the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant in New Mexico, and have been […]
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Innovation & Infrastructure
Kurion Buys U.K. Robotics Company
Chris Schneidmiller WC Monitor 12/11/2015 Nuclear waste cleanup technology specialist Kurion on Tuesday announced its third acquisition in four years – Oxford Technologies, a robotic systems maker based in the United Kingdom. Oxford Technologies provides expertise and technology for remote handling, complex plant assembly, and operations in irradiated areas. Its remote tools have been used […]
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Cleanup & Remediation
Wrap Up
WC Monitor 12/11/2015 IN EM Workers have installed more than 5,400 steel bolts in the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant in New Mexico in the year since ground control operations resumed at the subterranean transuranic waste storage site, the Department of Energy said last week. The bolts are one element of the advancing program to increase […]