Vol. 27, No. 48

Transuranic Waste

DOE Won’t Commit to Reopening WIPP in December

The Energy Department will not commit to reopening the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) by Dec. 31, an agency official told local stakeholders Thursday. “Our goal, based on everything we know, continues to be December,” Todd Shrader, head of DOE’s Carlsbad Field Office, said in a town hall meeting webcast from Carlsbad, N.M., some 40 miles […]
  • Budget & Policy

    Cantwell Bristles at Trump Transition Team’s DOE Scrutiny

    President-elect Donald Trump’s transition team this week drew a snarl from one of the Senate’s top nuclear policymakers, who vowed to keep a close eye on the incoming administration’s demand that the Energy Department provide target budget and staffing levels its national nuclear cleanup programs. “I intend to closely follow the transition process at the […]

  • Budget & Policy

    Shutdown Averted: DOE Keeps 2016 Budget Through April, Under Temporary Spending Bill

    At the last minute Dec. 9, after deadline for last week’s issue of Weapons Complex Monitor, the Senate passed a stopgap spending bill that will keep the federal government open and funded at fiscal 2016 levels through April 28. An earlier stopgap bill, known officially as a continuing resolution, was set to expire at midnight […]

  • High-Level & Tank Waste

    Bechtel Cries Foul Over Barbed Tweet on WTP Award Fee

    Bechtel National defended its progress on construction of the crucial Waste Treatment Plant at the Energy Department’s Hanford Site in Washington state following a Tuesday Twitter strike from a local nuclear watchdog. The sharply critical Hanford Challenge on Tuesday chided Bechtel for earning a “failing grade” on its work on the Waste Treatment Plant (WTP) in […]

  • Cleanup & Remediation

    At Portsmouth and Paducah: Award Fees Run the Gamut in FY16

    BWXT Conversion Services fared well and Restoration Services Inc. fared better, but Fluor Federal Services hit a skid and netted only half of its latest possible award fee, according to a raft of contract scorecards released recently by the Energy Department’s Portsmouth/Paducah Project Office. Restoration Services earned 96 percent of a possible $397,054 award fee […]

  • Cleanup & Remediation

    SRNS Receives $39M of Possible $44.9M Award Fee

      Savannah River Nuclear Solutions (SRNS) received $39.2 million, or 87 percent, of its annual award fee for fiscal 2016 from the Department of Energy – a total amount earned for both its Environmental Management (EM) and National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) missions. The Savannah River Site’s management and operations contractor could have earned up […]

  • Contracts & Procurement

    Judge Partially Dismisses SRNS Overcharging Lawsuit

    A federal judge has partially dismissed claims that the Savannah River Site’s primary contractor, Savannah River Nuclear Solutions (SRNS), and one of its parent companies, Fluor Federal Services (FFS), unjustly benefited from their contract with the Department of Energy. On March 18, the U.S. Department of Justice sued SRNS, the management and operations contractor for […]

  • Interim Storage & Waste Disposal

    Western Governors Set Out Policy on Radioactive Waste Transport, Storage

    Western states must be given a say in any decisions to establish an interim storage facility for radioactive waste and spent nuclear fuel within their borders, the Western Governors’ Association (WGA) said in a new policy resolution this week. “In the event that centralized interim storage, either private or federal, is deemed necessary, no such […]

  • Cleanup & Remediation

    Hanford Advisory Board Seeks More Funding for Meetings

    The Hanford Advisory Board is asking the Department of Energy to increase its budget to allow more meetings, including sessions around the Pacific Northwest. The federally chartered 32-seat board is tasked with offering advice on key Hanford Site cleanup issues to DOE, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, and the Washington state Ecology Department. It includes […]

  • Cleanup & Remediation

    Wrap Up: Veolia Consolidates Nuclear Cleanup Branches

    French waste management group Veolia announced Wednesday that it’s consolidating its nuclear cleanup businesses into a single entity called Nuclear Solutions. Nuclear Solutions will be made up of Veolia’s Kurion, Alaron, and Asteralis businesses, which offer services in facility restoration, decommissioning, and the treatment of low-and intermediate-level radioactive waste. The entity will focus on site […]

  • Cleanup & Remediation

    Clarification

    A news brief in the Dec. 9 issue of Weapons Complex Monitor (“At Hanford: Hanford ORP Names New Deputy Manager”) should have said Washington Closure Hanford was previously the Energy Department’s prime contractor for river-corridor cleanup at the Hanford Site near Richland, Wash.

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