Vol. 27, No. 42 
West Valley Marks Milestone, Ships Vitrification Equipment Out for Disposal
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Budget & Policy
SRS Stakeholders Say Temporary Funds Come With Uncertainty
Uncertainty and stress may be on the horizon for the Savannah River Site (SRS) workforce if Congress does not provide adequate and timely funding for operations at the Department of Energy facility in South Carolina, SRS stakeholders said earlier this week. Congress on Sept. 29 passed a stopgap funding measure, known as a continuing resolution […]
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Cleanup & Remediation
CH2M Hits FY 2016 Groundwater Cleanup Goal at Hanford
CH2M HILL Plateau Remediation Co. said Monday it hit its goal of removing nearly 200,000 pounds of contaminants from groundwater at the Energy Department’s Hanford Site in fiscal 2016. CH2M treated 2.1 billion gallons of groundwater at the facility in Washington state that has been contaminated with radionuclides and toxic chemicals left over from plutonium production […]
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Cleanup & Remediation
Longtime Hanford Cleanup Project Formally Finished
One of the Hanford Site’s longest-running cleanup projects has been completed, leaving the Columbia River better protected from contamination from carbon tetrachloride. The Environmental Protection Agency has agreed that a plume of the carcinogenic chemical in central Hanford has been cleaned up to legal standards after more than three years of monitoring to ensure that […]
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Cleanup & Remediation
Washington State Wants More Details on Cost of Respirator Use at Hanford
The Washington Ecology Department wants more details about a contractor estimate that requiring workers to wear supplied air respirators at the Hanford Site’s waste storage tank farm could add years and hundreds of millions of dollars to cleanup of the Cold War-era Department of Energy site, according to official correspondence published online Wednesday. Earlier this year, some […]
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Cleanup & Remediation
DOE Doc Spells Out Changes for Environmental Management Personnel in Nevada
A small cadre of Energy Department Environmental Management personnel based at the National Nuclear Security Administration’s (NNSA) Nevada Field Office may soon get their own private office space to insulate them from NNSA personnel at the former nuclear weapons-testing site, according to an internal DOE document. Weapons Complex Monitor obtained a copy of the undated, unsigned […]
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Transuranic Waste
DOE Pressing Ahead With Plans for Above-Ground WIPP Facility
The Energy Department sped along with plans to build an above-ground waste storage building at the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) with a public meeting on the proposed structure Thursday — a legal requirement of the agency’s WIPP operating permit that moves the facility one small step toward approval. The agency has long desired the logistical breathing space that […]
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Cleanup & Remediation
Fluor Installs More Groundwater Monitoring at Paducah
Fluor Federal Services has installed nine new well monitors to measure the amount of toxic trichloroethene in the groundwater at the Energy Department’s Paducah Site in Kentucky, DOE said. The nine wells will help DOE prepare for future groundwater treatment at the site, which is contaminated by the toxic industrial solvent used to clean equipment […]
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Cleanup & Remediation
A New Face for DOE Environmental Management (Stationary)
The Energy Department’s Office of Environmental Management unveiled a logo Tuesday morning that promotes a concept the agency calls “One EM.” The minimalist header — featuring a green mountain range and a stylized, flowing river set against the backdrop of an orange, sunswept sky — includes branding similar to the “One EM Team” concept employees of the EM […]
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Cleanup & Remediation
Introducing “Your Voice/Our Voice”: Weekly Opinions and Commentary From Across the DOE Complex
Dear Reader, Some things go beyond the news of the day, and some questions are too big to be answered with a snappy quote. That’s why the ExchangeMonitor is launching the “Your Voice/Our Voice” section in our widely read Weapons Complex Monitor weekly e-newsletter. If we were a newspaper, we’d call it the opinion page. […]
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Cleanup & Remediation
Commentary — Remembering the Fernald Cleanup, 10 Years Later
By Dennis Carr It was the proverbial mouse that roared: The Feed Materials Production Center in Ohio, a seemingly insignificant 1,050-acre Department of Energy uranium metals plant nestled between farmland and cow pastures just 18 miles northwest of downtown Cincinnati. It was puny by DOE standards, where sites like Hanford, Savannah River, Oak Ridge, and […]
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Nuclear Weapons & Stockpile
Correction
A story in the Oct. 14 Weapons Complex Monitor (“Bechtel Looks to Cap WTP Off-Gas Installation This Fall,” Vol. 27, No. 40) should have said the melters for the Low-Activity Waste Facility Bechtel National is building for the Energy Department’s Waste Treatment Plant at the Hanford Site were delivered to the site in 2010.