Publications: Weapons Cleanup Monitor

Moving transuranic waste stored at the Department of Energy’s Hanford Site in Washington state to an underground disposal site in New Mexico would be completed by September 2050 instead of 2030 under a proposed change by agencies involved in remediating the former plutonium production complex. The delayed schedule for moving transuranic waste from Hanford to […]

In May the Department of Energy expects to begin a 60-day public comment period on modifying dangerous waste permit for the Hanford Site in Washington state to allow disposal of mixed low-level waste in one of its main landfills, according to a notice published Monday by the state. The proposed permit change addresses Hanford’s Integrated […]

To date 21 individuals employed at Department of Energy nuclear cleanup worksites have died as a result of the coronavirus pandemic, a federal spokesperson said this week. The DOE Office of Environmental Management (EM) spokesperson provided the fatality figure Thursday in response to an inquiry from Weapons Complex Monitor. Since the United States started tracking […]

More than three years after buying Westinghouse Electric from Toshiba, Brookfield Business Partners is reportedly considering selling a minority interest in the nuclear company. Reuters reported April 23 that the international asset management firm is looking at options that include taking on a minority partner in Westinghouse, which Brookfield purchased from Toshiba for $4.6 billion […]

Department of Energy contractors and other groups seeking a more diverse workforce might consider starting with a self-examination, speakers told the Oak Ridge Small Business Diversity Summit Wednesday. Many organizations seem to be looking for “quick fixes” to promote hiring of racial and ethnic minorities, Claudia Caballero, president and CEO of Centro Hispano de East […]

President Joe Biden on Thursday announced plans to nominate Geraldine Richmond as undersecretary for science at the Department of Energy. Richmond is currently a presidential chair in science and professor of chemistry at the University of Oregon, according to the White House press release. Richmond’s research focuses on the molecular characteristics of water surfaces, which […]

The Department of Energy this week published the highly-anticipated draft solicitation for a potential 10-year, $21.5-billion management and operations contract for the Savannah River Site in South Carolina. The draft request for proposals (RFP) was published Wednesday on a federal procurement website to solicit questions and comments from prospective bidders by 4 p.m. Eastern time […]

The Department of Energy said Thursday a single-shell underground radioactive waste tank at its Hanford Site in Washington state is probably leaking at the rate of about 3.5 gallons daily. The DOE concluded the B-109 tank is leaking after monthly monitoring “detected a small drop in the level of liquid in the tank, and a […]

The Department of Energy said this week it plans to extend the current Waste Control Specialists agreement for storing some potentially combustible drums of transuranic waste in Texas beyond the June 7 expiration date. The DOE Office of Environmental Management published the notice of award for extension of the current sole-source contract Wednesday on a […]

The Department of Energy’s decision to issue a sole-source contract for construction of a nuclear cleanup research center in South Carolina to an affiliate of North Wind Group is justified in part because it helps the agency meet its annual obligation to small businesses, according to a recent procurement notice. The contract for construction of […]

The National Nuclear Security Administration and the prime contractor for the Y-12 Nuclear Security Complex at Oak Ridge, Tenn., are working with the Department of Energy’s Office of Environmental Management to shrink the high-security protected area around Y-12 by almost  half. Ground was broken April 7 on the $160-million West End Protected Area Reduction project, […]

The Department of Energy said this week the solicitation for a new five-year, $100-million transportation contract for its Waste Isolation Pilot Plant in New Mexico should be released in the next 25-to-60 days. As a result, the final request for proposals (RFP) for the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) Transportation Services Procurement should be out […]

he Department of Energy’s prime contractor for the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant in New Mexico has hired a Kiewit affiliate, The Industrial Co. or TIC, as the replacement subcontractor to complete construction of a major underground ventilation project. Nuclear Waste Partnership in a Wednesday press release it has awarded the subcontract, worth about $163 million, […]

For the second time in two years, many groups associated with the Energy Communities Alliance — as well as a labor union at the Department of Energy’s Hanford Site in Washington state — are pushing for more than $7-billion in additional cleanup spending around the weapons complex. “As the federal government looks to stimulate the […]

The Department of Energy’s nuclear cleanup sites will stick with “maximum telework” for the time being, the No. 2 boss at the Office of Environmental Management said Tuesday. “As of right now there is no change in our status that we have been in for several months of maximum telework,” Todd Shrader, DOE’s principal deputy […]

The changeover in presidential administrations has slowed appointments to Site Specific Advisory Boards for the Department of Energy’s Office of Environmental Management, a federal executive said this week. Appointments to the Savannah River Site’s Citizens Advisory Board have “ground to a halt,” Gregg Murray, a member of that panel, told an online meeting of Environmental […]

It was not quite a year ago when Huntington Ingalls Industries (HII) reorganized its Technical Services segment to include three distinct business units.  Nuclear and Environmental Services, the unit in charge of business development at Department of Energy nuclear-weapons sites, got an unambiguously DOE-styled spear tip in Michael Lempke, a former procurement honcho from the […]

The Department of Energy, apparently not quite ready to make a decision on an award, is asking bidders for a new $6.4-billion cleanup contract at the Idaho National Laboratory to extend the expiration dates on their proposals, sources said this week. Other than asking teams to extend their bids on the Idaho Cleanup Project, apparently […]

The number of confirmed active cases of COVID-19 among the federal and contractor workforce for the Department of Energy’s Office of Environmental Management is up from last week, according to figures provided Thursday by a spokesperson. There are currently 116 cases across the Environmental Management (EM) complex, which represents an increase from last week’s total […]

Barring extensions, the Department of Energy’s Office of Environmental Management has four contracts set to expire within the next 60 days, according to the contract summary page for the $7-billion-plus nuclear cleanup branch. Portsmouth Mission Alliance, a partnership between North Wind Group and Swift & Staley, has the roughly five-year, $190-million infrastructure service contract at […]

The Texas Commission on Environmental Quality this week published a minor amendment to Waste Control Specialists’s state radioactive material license, allowing the company to keep potentially combustible drums of Department of Energy transuranic waste at a commercial site in Andrews County until Dec. 23, 2022. The amendment proposed Dec. 9 by Waste Control Specialists (WCS) […]

Leidos-led Mission Support Alliance, the former landlord services contractor at the Department of Energy’s Hanford Site in Washington state, settled a fraud lawsuit, reportedly for $6-million, in a case brought two years ago by the Department of Justice. “I can confirm that this case has been settled,” Bob Miller, a spokesman for the Leidos-Centerra joint […]

The New Mexico Environment Department recently gave its blessing to a Department of Energy’s plan to commence remediation of radioactive contamination along a public road just outside Los Alamos National Laboratory property. The work plan stipulates that DOE will start its field work on Middle DP Road in April and it should last six months, […]

The Waste Isolation Pilot Plant’s planned revival of an underground ventilation fan that has been idle for years is targeted for late July, officials for the Department of Energy and its prime contractor in Carlsbad, N.M. said Thursday night. The summer target timeframe was shared by Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) operations manager Don McBridge […]

With the conclusion of a 100-day transition on Thursday, Navarro-led Hanford Laboratory Management and Integration has taken over the 222-S Laboratory from two separate contractors, Veolia and Amentum-led Washington River Protection Solutions, at the Department of Energy’s Hanford Site in Washington state. The “transition is complete… effective today,” a DOE spokesperson said in a Thursday […]

The next contractor in charge of moving defense-related transuranic to the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant near Carlsbad, N.M., under a planned five-year contract may handle 500-to-800 shipments annually, the Department Energy said in comments posted online recently. “Over the last 10 years, WIPP carrier miles have varied greatly from roughly 300,000 miles to more than […]

The Department of Energy expects to issue the final solicitation for a new prime contract for the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant in New Mexico between now and June, according to a procurement notice this week.  The agency said the final request for proposals (RFP) for the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) should be out between […]

Work crews have finished shoring up three old liquid waste disposal structures in danger of collapse at the Hanford Site in Washington state, the Department of Energy and contractor Central Plateau Cleanup Co. said Thursday. “With this work completed, Hanford has ensured the stability of these structures and reduced risks to workers and the environment,” […]