Vol. 32, No. 44 
Savannah River Ops RFP Goes on Deep Backburner as DOE Cites NNSA Work
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Contracts & Procurement
Vaccine Refusers at SRNS Just Don’t Want to Take the Shot, Company Says
Ninety people suing the contractor over a COVID-19 vaccine mandate lack valid legal arguments or safety concerns and “simply do not want to do what is being asked,” the manager of the Department of Energy’s Savannah River Site in South Carolina said in a legal filing this week. That is the thrust of Fluor-led Savannah […]
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Cleanup & Remediation
Unvaxed Portsmouth Contractor Staff Could be Sent Home in Coming Week, USW Says
A United Steelworkers local president at the Department of Energy’s Portsmouth Site in Ohio expects about 100 of his members employed by cleanup contractor Fluor-BWXT Portsmouth will be sent home in the coming week, with firings coming a few weeks afterward, for refusal to be vaccinated against COVID-19. The workers who for various reasons don’t […]
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Recommissioning & Restarts
EM Los Alamos Wrap: Area G Restart; EM Los 90% Vaccinated; Pothole Cleanup
The Department of Energy’s nuclear-weapons remediation contractor at the Los Alamos National Lab will resume normal operations at the lab’s Area G next week, DOE’s local cleanup fed told a citizens advisory board this week. “We are resuming normal operations, processing operations at Area G next week,” Michael Mikolanis, manager of the DOE Environmental Management […]
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National Laboratories
Judge Declines to Block Los Alamos Lab Vax Mandate
Declining to block the lab’s COVID-19 vaccine mandate, a judge ruled Monday that Los Alamos National Laboratory Employees who will not take a required COVID-19 vaccine and are unsatisfied with receiving unpaid leave as their religious exemption from the shot must hash things out with the lab in arbitration. Pending the outcomes of other lawsuits […]
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High-Level & Tank Waste
SWPF Can Process Savannah River Salt Waste by 2033, Local Fed Says
Under current projections, the Department of Energy could process nearly all of the salt waste inventory from 43 high-level radioactive waste tanks at the Savannah River Site by 2033, the top official for the agency’s Office of Environmental Management there said recently. The 2033 date cited by Michael Budney, manager of the Savannah River Operations […]
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Transuranic Waste
WIPP Critic Appeals New Mexico Ruling on Underground Shaft
The Santa Fe-based Southwest Research and Information Center, a frequent critic of the Department of Energy’s operation of the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant, has appealed an Oct. 27 ruling by the New Mexico Environment Department authorizing completion of a new underground utility shaft at the transuranic waste disposal facility. Southwest Research Information Center (SRIC) attorney […]
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High-Level & Tank Waste
DOE Working Troublesome Pre-start Finding for Tank-Side Cesium Removal at Hanford
The Department of Energy does not expect a delay to a crucial cesium-removal demonstration at the Hanford Site’s tank farms, despite the discovery last month that parts of the system might be prone to leaks, an agency spokesperson said this week. The “leak-tightness” issue, as the Defense Nuclear Facility Safety Board (DNFSB) called it in […]
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Cleanup & Remediation
Draft RFP for Portsmouth Cleanup Coming Soon, DOE Says
As soon as next week, the Department of Energy’s Office of Environmental Management should issue a draft solicitation for a Decontamination and Decommissioning Contract at the Portsmouth Site in Ohio, the agency said recently. The draft request for proposals (RFP) should show up sometime between Nov. 17 and Dec. 17, the agency’s nuclear-weapons cleanup office […]
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Defense Low-Level Waste
Low-level Waste Shipments to Nevada Starting to Rebound, Panel Told
The volume of low-level radioactive waste shipped to the Nevada National Security Site from Department of Energy cleanup sites is picking up again after dipping to half of its normal level of more than 1 million cubic feet per year during the pandemic, an agency official at the site told the Nevada Site Specific Advisory […]
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Cleanup & Remediation
Wrap Up: Centrus Earnings Up; Amentum Fills Post: Ex-DOE Secretary Chided
Centrus Energy, Bethesda, Md., on Wednesday posted net income of about $41.5 million, or $2.95 a share for the 2021 third quarter, up from a loss of $7 million or 83 cents a share, in the year-ago period. Quarterly revenue was about $91 million, up from more than $57.5 million a year ago, mostly due […]
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Cleanup & Remediation
Editor’s Note: The New Exchangemonitor.com
Exchangemonitor.com has refreshed its website and now posts news and commentary from across the defense- and civilian-nuclear industries in (near) real time. If you haven’t gotten used to checking exchangemonitor.com throughout the day, we could hardly blame you. Our old website didn’t allow us to push updates to you as quickly as we could write […]