Vol. 27, No. 7 Hanford Liquid Cleanup OK in Budget, but Big Cuts for Other Areas Proposed
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Transuranic Waste
WIPP Timeline Starts to Gel in 2017 Budget Request
The federal fiscal 2017 budget request unveiled Tuesday proposed a monumental, long-term change for the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) in New Mexico: making the facility the final destination for 34 metric tons of diluted weapon-usable plutonium that would arrive sometime in the early 2020s. In the near term, the White House proposed lowering WIPP’s […]
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Budget & Policy
Budget Proposal Seeks $111M More for Savannah River Site EM missions
Funding for Environmental Management (EM) missions at the Savannah River Site would increase by about $111 million over current funding levels under President Barack Obama’s fiscal 2017 budget plan. The nearly $1.5 billion request includes $822.6 million for the site’s liquid waste program – an uptick from the $783.5 million appropriated in December’s omnibus. The request […]
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Cleanup & Remediation
SRR President Stuart MacVean Announces Resignation
Savannah River Remediation (SRR) President Stuart MacVean has resigned after more than four years with the company and over a year as president and project manager. MacVean sent a letter to his employees on Thursday with details on his resignation. He will be replaced by Mark Schmitz, the chief operating officer for the Savannah River […]
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Defense Low-Level Waste
Waste to be Piled Higher at Hanford Landfill
Hanford Site officials plan to pile waste above grade at the massive central Hanford landfill to expand its capacity rather than digging a new waste cell immediately. Plans call for adding another 20 feet of layered waste and soil to the top of the Environmental Restoration Disposal Facility. Initially, ERDF was planned to stand about […]
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Cleanup & Remediation
Hanford Advisory Board Calls for Cutting Off Risk Study Funding
The Hanford Advisory Board is asking the Department of Energy not to spend any more of the Hanford Site cleanup budget on a Consortium for Risk Evaluation with Stakeholder Participation (CRESP) evaluation of the remaining risk at the DOE facility. Money should be spent on cleanup, not more study, the board said in a letter […]
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Cleanup & Remediation
Q&A: Hedges Celebrates Her Victories at Retirement from Hanford Oversight
The state of Washington’s chief overseer for the massive cleanup of the Hanford Site will leave the job this month with a strong sense of accomplishment, but at least a few frustrations as well. Under Jane Hedges’ watch as the state Department of Ecology’s Nuclear Waste Program manager, the federal government and its contractors have […]
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Decommissioning
K-27 Demolition Project Starts at ETTP
Amid some hoopla and a few dozen VIP onlookers, workers on Monday began tearing down the historic K-27 Building at the East Tennessee Technology Park. K-27 is the last of five gaseous diffusion plants in the East Tennessee valley that once housed the world’s largest uranium-enrichment complex and provided fuel for early generations of nuclear […]
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Cleanup & Remediation
At Hanford
Washington State Appoints Interim Nuclear Waste Program Chief The Washington State Department of Ecology has named an interim manager of its Nuclear Waste Program starting March 1. Tom Tebb, the manager of Ecology’s Office of Columbia River, will do both jobs until the department permanently fills the position that oversees the state’s regulation of the […]
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Cleanup & Remediation
At Portsmouth and Paducah
Fluor Gets 73.6 Percent of Possible Award Fee for 2015 at Portsmouth Fluor-BWXT Portsmouth earned a $10.5 million award fee in fiscal 2015 for cleanup work at the former Portsmouth uranium enrichment facility near Piketon, Ohio, good for 73.6 percent of the total available, DOE said Thursday. In the fiscal year ended Sept. 30, Fluor-BWXT […]
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Uranium Enrichment & Fuel Cycle
Wrap Up
AT DOE As part of a broader effort to make a dent in a roughly $20-billion shortfall for uranium cleanup, the White House in its fiscal 2017 budget plan proposed tapping into a $1.6 billion fund that has been gathering dust since 1996. The three-year drawdown of the United States Enrichment Corp. (USEC) Fund would […]
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Budget & Policy
Correction
An article in the Feb. 9 edition of WC Monitor cited an incorrect amount proposed to be spent in fiscal 2017 for the Department of Energy’s nuclear waste management operations. The amount is $76.3 million. Weapons Complex Monitor regrets the error.