Publications: Weapons Cleanup Monitor

Concerns about the surging COVID-19 pandemic in New Mexico led the Department of Energy to reduce on-site staffing and slow certain operations at both the Los Alamos National Laboratory and the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant, according to recent documents published by the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board.  At Los Alamos, operations are affected for both […]

The Department of Energy’s Office of Environmental Management on Friday issued its final request for proposals for the Oak Ridge Reservation Cleanup Contract in Tennessee. The potential $8.3 billion indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity contract has an ordering period of 10 years and the completion of the task orders are expected within 15 year, DOE said in a Friday […]

Weapons Complex Monitor will not publish next week in observance of the Christmas holiday, nor the week after, in observance of New Year’s Day. Look for the next issue in your inbox on Friday, Jan. 8. Happy 2021!

The Department of Energy extended the bid deadline for a new Carlsbad Technical Assistance Contract by one week, to Dec. 23. The DOE Office of Environmental Management announced the extra time in a package of questions and answers published Dec. 11 on a procurement website. Previously, bids were due Dec. 14. In a final Q&A […]

President-elect Joe Biden will nominate former Michigan Gov. Jennifer Granholm (D) to be Secretary of Energy, media reported this week. Granholm, who is deeply familiar with U.S. auto-making, will be a key ambassador to industry when Biden enlists the DOE’s help bolstering his agenda to fight climate change, outlets reported, citing people familiar with the […]

The Department of Energy has picked up a six-month option keeping North Wind Portage on the job as the technical assistance contractor at the Carlsbad Field Office in New Mexico until June 2021. The basic contract and associated task orders were extended six months from Dec. 4, last Friday, to June 3, 2021, a spokesperson […]

Among the 106 Republican members of the House of Representatives filing an amicus brief with a Texas lawsuit challenging the results of the 2020 presidential election — which President Donald Trump has claimed without evidence was compromised by widespread fraud — were five lawmakers whose districts include Department of Energy nuclear weapon sites. “This brief […]

Seventy-four employees have agreed to take a voluntary buyout from the decommissioning and demolition contractor at the Department of Energy’s Portsmouth Site in Ohio. Fluor-BWXT Portsmouth announced the results of its Self-Select Voluntary Separation Program in a Wednesday email statement. The voluntary buyout package includes a severance based on years of service and the applicable […]

After reviewing its options, cleanup contractor Fluor Idaho has decided to pay the $580,700 civil penalty issued by the Department of Energy over an April 2018 explosion at the Idaho National Laboratory where four 55-gallon drums overheated and blew off their lids spewing radioactive sludge. “Fluor Idaho chose not to contest the findings” in the […]

The Department of Energy said Thursday that Paducah, Ky.-based incumbent Swift & Staley has won the new $160-million Paducah Infrastructure Support Services Contract. The contract runs about five years with a 60-day transition period, a 34-month base period and 24-month option period, DOE said in the press release announcing the deal. The transition period presumably […]

As of this week, the Department of Energy’s Office of Environmental Management has seen 2,009 members of its workforce contract COVID-19 so far in 2020. The current number of federal and contractor workers infected with the coronavirus is 477, a spokesperson for Environmental Management (EM) said Thursday. At the Hanford Site in Washington state, largest […]

Many members of the Hanford Advisory Board seemed taken aback Thursday by a Department of Energy proposal to add six more slots to the 32-member panel charged with drafting policy recommendations for cleanup of the former plutonium production facility in Washington state. About a dozen Hanford Advisory Board members, who spoke during an online meeting, […]

Fluor, Irving, Texas, reported a dip in total revenue for the 2020 third quarter, even as its government sector enjoyed higher profits in the three months ended Sept. 30. Fluor’s third-quarter revenue was $3.8 billion, down from $4.6 billion during the same quarter in 2019, according to the release. Net earnings from continuing operations attributable […]

The Department of Energy and other federal agencies could operate under their 2021 budgets for at least another week beyond Friday, after the Senate passed a short-term continuing resolution by voice vote Friday afternoon. The Hill reported the vote to avert a government shutdown and keep agencies operating until Dec. 18. The House of Representatives approved […]

An environmental advocacy group’s report that questions safety compliance at the Perma-Fix Northwest waste treatment facility located just outside the Department of Energy’s Hanford Site is “very misleading,” a company spokesman said this week.  The report last week by Hanford Challenge claims the subsidiary of Atlanta-based Perma-Fix has “a checkered and worrisome history of environmental […]

Four weeks after election day, first-term incumbent Rep. Mike Garcia (R-Calif.) has clinched a 333-vote victory over California Assemblywoman Christy Smith (D) in the state’s 25th congressional district. The race concluded this week as Smith conceded a recount was unlikely to overturn the verdict, the Santa Clara Signal and other state newspapers reported. “We exhausted […]

Cleanup contractor Fluor Idaho expects to file a formal response this month to the Department of Energy’s proposed $580,700 civil penalty over an April 2018 accident at the Idaho National Laboratory where four drums of radioactive sludge overheated and blew off their lids. “We are reviewing the preliminary notice of violation and considering our response, […]

The total number of active cases of COVID-19 at nuclear cleanup sites overseen by the Department of Energy’s Office of Environmental Management remained high this week at 282, which is still lower than the 298 active cases during Thanksgiving week, a spokesperson said Thursday.  Active, reported cases were in the double digits as recently as […]

The Department of Energy’s Office of Environmental Management on Thursday awarded five-year basic ordering agreements for nationwide low-level and mixed-low level waste treatment to five firms, including some incumbents. The winning companies are Salt Lake City-based EnergySolutions, Atlanta-based Perma-Fix Environmental Services, Massachusetts-headquartered Unitech Services Group, Waste Control Specialists in Texas and Ohio-based Veolia Nuclear Solutions […]

DOE could soon award the first standalone management and operations contract for the Savannah River National Laboratory, the manager of the DOE Savannah River Site office said this week. In addition to announcing the new stand-alone contractor for management of the laboratory, which is focused on nuclear-cleanup science and technology, DOE could announce the next […]

Leaving 110 stranded drums of potentially combustible transuranic waste from the Department of Energy’s Los Alamos National Laboratory at a commercial waste facility in Texas for two more years poses no significant risk, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission said Tuesday. The commission issued its finding Tuesday in the Federal Register, responding to an August request from […]

The Department of Energy’s Hanford Site in Washington state saw four more employees test positive for the coronavirus Saturday. That is according to an employee advisory posted on the emergency operations website, for Hanford, currently managed by site services contractor Mission Support Alliance. The unofficial total of cases is now 228 based largely upon bulletins […]

Weapons Complex Monitor will not be published on Nov. 27 in observance of the Thanksgiving Day holiday. Look for the next issue in your inbox on Friday, Dec. 4.

Rep. Dan Newhouse (R-Wash.), whose district includes the Department of Energy’s Hanford Site, announced Wednesday he has tested positive for the coronavirus and is experiencing mild symptoms.  Newhouse, who represents Washington’s 4th congressional district, tweeted that he “began to feel a little run down yesterday, so I took a COVID-19 test” and the results came […]

With more than 335,000 ballots cast in California’s 25th congressional district, incumbent Mike Garcia (R) has widened his lead to 466 votes over Christy Smith (D) as of Thursday evening, according to the Santa Clara Signal and other outlets. Garcia’s lead had dipped to slightly over 100 votes at one point, according to news reports. […]

The Department of Energy’s Office of Environmental Management anticipates issuing a solicitation for a new long-term cleanup contract next month at the Oak Ridge Site in Tennessee. That is the last request for proposal (RFP) the agency’s nuclear-cleanup office plans to issue this calendar year, according to a quarterly update posted Thursday on a federal […]

Cleaning up the former plutonium production complex at the Hanford Site in Washington state could be even more costly and take longer than expected, a Department of Energy official said Wednesday during a virtual meeting. The forecast is from DOE’s ninth and latest revision of the River Protection Project System Plan. Brian Harkins, the agency’s […]