Publications: Weapons Cleanup Monitor

Sen. Martin Heinrich (D-N.M.) will leave the Senate Armed Services Committee and join the chamber’s Appropriations Committee, keeping intact an important legislative shield for nuclear sites in the Land of Enchantment. Sen. Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) the majority leader, announced the committee assignments for the Democratic-controlled 117th Congress Tuesday on a call with the Senate’s Democratic […]

While it is still early in the four-year ritual over speculation over key federal jobs, Joyce Connery, a longtime government hand who chairs the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board, is being mentioned as a possible Joe Biden administration choice to head the Department of Energy’s Office of Environmental Management. The Biden administration is just a […]

Jennifer Granholm, President Joe Biden’s nominee for Secretary of Energy, easily cleared the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee Wednesday with a 13-4 bipartisan vote, setting her on course for a floor vote that had not been scheduled at deadline Friday for Weapons Complex Monitor. Sens. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) and Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.), the chair […]

The Huntington Ingalls Industries-led team handling legacy nuclear-waste cleanup at the Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico might get kicked off the site in 2023, halfway through the potential end-date of its contract with the Department of Energy, multiple industry sources said this week. DOE’s Office of Environmental Management awarded Newport News Nuclear BWXT […]

The Department of Energy and the prime contractor for the Waste isolation Pilot Plant on Jan. 31 completed an early test of the long-idle 700-C fan, expected by this summer to augment underground airflow pending completion of a major new ventilation system.  Construction of the Safety Significant Confinement Ventilation System, meant to increase airflow to […]

The House Energy and Commerce Committee released their subcommittee assignments Thursday, including picks for the energy and environment panels with jurisdiction over nuclear waste agencies and programs. In a full committee organizational meeting Thursday afternoon, Rep. Frank Pallone (D-N.J.), the chair, reviewed the assignments, which revealed no major change in Democratic leadership for either subcommittee. […]

The Outfall 200 Mercury Treatment Facility being built at the Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge Site in Tennessee is roughly 25% complete and construction should be finished by the end of 2022, an agency spokesperson said by email this week. A joint venture of APTIM and North Wind Construction was awarded the contract to build […]

James Biggins is now listed as the acting general manager of the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board, according to an organizational chart released late last week. Biggins has served as a special assistant to the chair of the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board (DNFSB) since September 2018 and has also served as general counsel and […]

There were no protests filed over the Department of Energy’s December award of a stand-alone contract for a Battelle-led team to manage the Savannah River National Laboratory, an agency official said this week.  “We are working on getting ready to do the contract transition,” said Michael Budney, the top DOE Office of Environmental Management official […]

Kentucky-based Swift & Staley has appealed a finding by the Small Business Administration deeming it too big to be awarded the new $160-million Paducah Infrastructure Support Services Contract from the Department of Energy. A Small Business Administration (SBA) spokesperson said Friday morning Swift & Staley has filed its action with the agency’s Office of Hearings […]

The Department of Justice wants the U.S. Civilian Board of Contract Appeals to lift a stay with implications for a federal False Claims Act lawsuit against the Department of Energy contractor Mission Support Alliance.  The Leidos-led Mission Support Alliance (MSA), which in the past week ended its nearly 12-year run as landlord for DOE’s Hanford […]

Two new contractors, for Central Plateau remediation and site services, took charge this week at the Hanford Site in Washington state. Sunday was the end of the transition period and today marked the first Monday on the job for both Central Plateau Cleanup Co. as well as Hanford Mission Integration Solutions. Central Plateau is composed […]

Jennifer Granholm, President Joe Biden’s pick for secretary of energy, vowed Wednesday that cleaning up the Hanford Site would be a top priority if she is confirmed by the Senate. “You have my assurance that this is going to be a priority,” Granholm, the former Michigan governor, said in response to questioning from Sen. Ron […]

Sen. Rob Portman (R-Ohio), an advocate for environmental cleanup at the Department of Energy’s Portsmouth Site, said in a statement Monday he will not run for re-election in November 2022. “This doesn’t mean I’m leaving now – I still have two more years in my term and I intend to use that time to get […]

There are currently 391 active COVID-19 cases within the Department of Energy’s nuclear cleanup complex, a spokesperson for the Office of Environmental Management said via email Thursday. The latest figure represents a decrease from the 423 active cases confirmed by Environmental Management (EM) the prior week as well as the 473 from two weeks ago.  […]

The energy and defense mix on the House Appropriations Committee, at least its leadership, will remain essentially unchanged in the 177th Congress, according to rosters released by Democrats and Republicans this week. Reps. Marcy Kaptur (D-Ohio) and Mike Simpson (R-Idaho) will remain chair and ranking member, respectively, of the House Appropriations energy and water development […]

The Department of Energy and Parsons Corp. have finished hot commissioning of the Salt Waste Processing Facility at the Savannah River Site in South Carolina. Parsons, which designed and built the 140,000-square-foot plant to treat salt waste left over from Cold War era nuclear weapons work, will run the facility for a year before turning […]

The Small Business Administration said Friday that Swift & Staley, the Department of Energy’s December winner of the new $160-million Paducah Infrastructure Support Services Contract, does not meet the size requirement for the set-aside contract.  “The SBA performed a Size Determination on Swift & Staley, LLC, and it determined the firm to be “other than […]

The number of active cases of COVID-19 within the Department of Energy’s nuclear cleanup complex dropped by about 50 this week but remained above 400.  There are currently 423 active cases at properties run by the DOE’s Office of Environmental Management (EM), a spokesperson for the cleanup branch said in a Thursday email.  That marks […]

Remaining cleanup costs at the West Valley Demonstration Project site in New York could run anywhere from $1.4 billion to $10.6 billion depending on how much contamination is dug up and shipped off-site, the Government Accountability Office said in its report last week on waste disposal at the site. As of February 2020, the Department […]

Federal career man William ‘Ike” White, who has acted as the top boss at the Department of Energy’s Office of Environmental Management since June 2019, remains in the top job during the early stages of the administration of President Joe Biden. Meanwhile, outside DOE, the new administration appointed Joyce Connery as the new chair of […]

The Department of Energy will not pursue a civil penalty against Fluor-BWXT Portsmouth over nuclear safety violations in fiscal year 2019 after it cut $2.6 million from the company’s potential $6.7-million subjective fee that year. The infractions at the former gaseous diffusion plant complex in Ohio stem from shortcomings in worker radiation protection at the […]

Less than a month after officially calling off a $13-billion liquid-waste cleanup award at the Hanford Site, the Department of Energy has started procurement of a replacement pact called the Hanford Integrated Tank Disposition Contract, with a draft solicitation expected by March. The draft request for proposals (RFP) will, unlike the now-revoked tank-waste contract awarded […]

A federal judge in Virginia this week refused to throw out a lawsuit filed by a Department of Energy subcontractor, Professional Project Services or Pro2Serve, claiming Leidos Integrated Technology wrongly excluded it from a team about to take over site services at Hanford in Washington state. In the November suit filed in the U.S. District […]

For now at least, the compensation for top managers under the next Oak Ridge Reservation Cleanup Contract in Tennessee will be capped at $525,000 annually, the Department of Energy said in a procurement document posted Jan. 15. The DOE issued its final request for proposals for a new Oak Ridge remediation contract last month and […]

Lynchburg, Va.-based BWX Technologies this morning appointed Rob Smith as its president of government operations, which is a newly-created post. In that role, Smith will lead the company’s nuclear operations and nuclear services segments. This includes work for the Department of Energy’s Office of Environmental Management, the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA), the Naval Nuclear […]

Federal staffer Allison Finelli has been officially appointed as deputy chief of staff at the Department of Energy’s Office of Environmental Management since acting in that capacity since March. The promotion was announced in a Tuesday email to staff at the nuclear cleanup branch by William (Ike) White, the senior advisor for the Environmental Management […]