Publications: Weapons Cleanup Monitor

The Department of Energy’s 2020 groundwater sampling goals for the Hanford Site in Washington state are going to miss their target largely because of the COVID-19 pandemic, an agency official said this week. . Out of the 2,500 or so groundwater samples normally taken at the former plutonium production complex in the course of a […]

A federal magistrate judge has set a status conference Dec. 8 to discuss discovery issues in a lawsuit brought by Southern Ohio residents against current and former contractors at the Department of Energy’s Portsmouth Site in Ohio. U.S. Magistrate Judge Elizabeth Preston Deavers set the conference to discuss issues in the lawsuit brought in May […]

The Department of Energy’s Waste Isolation Pilot Plant near Carlsbad, N.M., received 25 shipments of transuranic waste during October, which is marginally better than the 21 shipments during the same month in 2019. That is according to DOE’s public database for the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP), which also shows shipments for this pandemic-hobbled year […]

The Department of Energy’s Waste Isolation Pilot Plant could run out of space if the number of waste drums bound for the New Mexico site keeps increasing, or if a new underground accounting system is thrown out by the courts, the Government Accountability Office said Thursday. The report landed as the site, DOE’s only deep-underground […]

As is the case nationally, the COVID-19 pandemic continues to take a heavy toll on the 16 nuclear cleanup properties overseen by the Department of Energy’s Office of Environmental Management, including a death at the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant that, a state regulator said, showed the site cannot protect people from the disease. The prime […]

Las Vegas-based Department of Energy subcontractor Longenecker & Associates announced this week that retired Jacobs nuclear executive, Terry Hagen, has joined the Longenecker advisory board. Hagen retired effective in June 2019 chief operating officer and president for Jacobs Aerospace, Technology, and Nuclear group. Hagen led Jacobs’ work for the DOE, the Department of Defense, the […]

With the Department of Energy and other federal agencies now working under a continuing budget resolution keeping spending at 2020 levels, the Senate Appropriations Committee finally released its fiscal 2021 budget proposal Tuesday that would keep nuclear cleanup at the 2020 level of nearly $7.5 billion. The Senate Appropriations’ Energy and Water Development bill would […]

The Department of Energy’s Idaho National Laboratory has a new director, John Wagner, who is being promoted from his current post as associate director for nuclear science and technology. Wagner has been Idaho National Laboratory’s associate director since 2017. Battelle Energy Alliance, the lab prime, announced his elevation to the top job last week. Battelle […]

Mark Gilbertson, a longtime Department of Energy manager, is the new associate principal deputy assistant secretary for regulatory and policy affairs for nuclear cleanup. Gilbertson takes over the post vacated through the Oct. 30 retirement of Elizabeth “Betsy” Connell at the Office of Environmental Management (EM). His appointment was reflected in both an updated organization […]

Editor’s note: The Department of Energy recently finalized the first changes in more than 15 years to its Nuclear Safety Management rule, codified in Title 10, Part 830 of the Code of Federal Regulations. This rule governs the conduct of DOE contractors and civil servants — not the conduct of contractors or employees of other […]

More than a week after the Nov. 3 elections, a California Congressional race with implications for the Department of Energy’s nuclear weapons complex remains undecided.  With 86% of the votes counted and more than 330,000 votes cast, incumbent Mike Garcia (R-Calif.), who won a special election in May to claim the open seat, leads Christy […]

The contractor for the Salt Waste Processing Facility at the Savannah River Site in Aiken, S.C. fixed a problem pump flagged by a federal watchdog, and the newly opened facility has now received 86,000 gallons of waste from the site’s H Tank Farm in its first month of radioactive operations, according to the Department of […]

There are 194 active cases of COVID-19 across the Department of Energy’s nuclear cleanup complex as of Thursday. The number represents an increase of 53 over the 141 active cases a week ago, a DOE Office of Environmental Management (EM) spokesperson said by email. It also means that the number of active cases has increased […]

The Washington Department of Ecology, the state regulator for the Department of Energy’s Hanford Site, has selected David Bowen as its new nuclear waste Program manager. Bowen, currently a water quality supervisor with the Ecology Department’s central region, replaces Alex Smith. Smith, who has held the nuclear post for more than five years, recently left […]

Fluor Corp., the financially troubled, Dallas-based Department of Energy contractor, continued to narrow its losses from continuing operations in the second quarter and first six months of 2020, the company said in a long-delayed second-quarter earnings report. Fluor’s second-quarter loss from continuing operations was about $20 million, an improvement from a loss of more than […]

The Department of Energy’s manager for the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant in New Mexico expects to reply by Thanksgiving to a $32-million breach-of-contract suit filed late last month by a joint venture hired to build a major new underground ventilation system. “Nuclear Waste Partnership will file a response to CAA’s lawsuit by November 21, 2020, […]

There is a decent chance, perhaps 50/50, of the lame duck session of Congress reaching a deal on a major omnibus appropriations package for fiscal 2021, a Department of Energy-savvy panel of Washington watchers said Thursday. Both House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), hope to pass a 2021 spending […]

Leidos-led Mission Support Alliance, the landlord services provider at the Department of Energy’s Hanford Site in Washington state, awarded a $13-million subcontract for local firm Fowler General Construction to build a new water treatment plant. The new facility would replace the current 1940s vintage plant and automate water services and support treatment of tank waste […]

Among the many subplots of the still-undecided White House contest between President Donald Trump (R) and former vice president Joe Biden (D) is the makeup of the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board. Matthew Moury, the Department of Energy’s associate undersecretary for environment, health, safety, and security, was nominated to a post on the maximum-five-member Defense […]

Andrea Romero (D), once forced out as chief of a group to support communities around the Department of Energy’s Los Alamos National Laboratory, easily won a second term Tuesday in the New Mexico legislature. Romero won 77% of the vote to win re-election in District 46 of the state House of Representatives, according to figures […]

The director of the Washington state Department of Ecology Laura Watson hopes to have a new person in charge of nuclear waste cleanup by the end of the year. The agency had not settled on a replacement as of Thursday, spokesman Randy Bradbury said in an email.  After spending five-and-a-half years in charge of Washington’s […]

Should former Vice President Joe Biden (D) ultimately prevail over President Donald Trump (R) in the presidential race, several women — including a Republican — and a black man could be shortlisted as candidates for Biden’s first secretary of energy, a source with experience in both government and industry said this week. As of Friday […]

For the second time in less than two years, Fluor is naming a new chief executive officer. The Texas-based company said in a Monday filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission that it has named a board of directors member, David Constable, as the new CEO replacing Carlos Hernandez who has only been in the […]

As Friday deadline approached for Weapons Complex Monitor, the Associated Press had not declared a winner in the presidential election between President Donald Trump (R) and the former vice president, Joe Biden (D).  Biden was leading in electoral votes. Whomever is declared president-elect an intense legal challenge is expected, according to media outlets. While a […]

In an online session set for Nov. 10, the Department of Energy will discuss the final solicitation for a new technical assistance contract potentially worth $100 million at the Carlsbad Field Office in New Mexico. The DOE Office of Environmental Management issued the final request for proposals (RFP) last week. In a notice posted Tuesday, […]

Twelve people representing 11 companies showed up at the Department of Energy’s Savannah River Site Oct. 21 to take a physical tour and learn more about a potential $21-billion, long-term contract for liquid waste cleanup. In addition to Amentum, the lead partner for incumbent Savannah River Remediation, other firms who turned out are Aecon-Wachs, Akima, […]

Although the Department of Energy has put the award on hold, BWX Technologies President and CEO Rex Geveden likes his company’s chances of retaining the potential $13-billion Tank Closure Contract at the Hanford Site in Washington state. “We feel good about our prospects there,” Geveden said during the Lynchburg, Va.-based company’s third-quarter earnings call Monday […]

Across the Department of Energy’s Office of Environmental Management complex, there are currently 141 active cases of COVID-19, a spokesperson for the office said Thursday. That is 32 more than the active case count for the Environmental Management (EM) office last week, and more than double the 61 acknowledged a month ago. The EM office […]