Publications: Weapons Cleanup Monitor

The Department of Energy said Thursday it has reached a modified agreement with California officials to dismantle its final eight buildings at the Santa Susana Field Laboratory in Ventura County, Calif. The DOE Office of Environmental Management finished taking down the 10th and final building covered by a May consent order at the former Radioactive […]

An article that appeared in the Oct. 23 Weapons Complex Monitor [“Cesium Removal Unit Returns to Service at SRS”] should have said that the Tank-Closure Cesium Removal unit is a demonstration project to provide an additional means of speeding tank closure. The story also should have said that cesium-rich resin removed from Tank 10 by […]

An Alaska native corporation, Tuknik Government Services, won a $15-million Department of Energy contract for technical support work for the environmental business center in Cincinnati, Ohio. DOE’s Environmental Management Consolidated Business Center (EMCBC) announced the five-year, indefinite-delivery, indefinite quantity contract for information systems technical support Tuesday. The new contractor is scheduled to start Nov. 1, […]

The Department of Energy’s Office of Inspector General said there is not enough vetting of respirator maintenance for environmental cleanup workers at the Portsmouth Site in Ohio, which increases the chance of employees being exposed to radioactive contamination. Decontamination and decommissioning contractor Fluor-BWXT has over 1,300 employees who rely on respirators as part of the […]

The Department of Energy Thursday rolled out a final solicitation for a potential five-year, $100-million technical assistance contract at the Carlsbad Field Office in New Mexico. Bids are due by 4 p.m. Eastern Time on Dec. 14 for the indefinite delivery, indefinite quantity contract to replace the one held by North Wind Portage under a […]

The Department of Energy’s underground disposal site for defense-related transuranic waste is succumbing to mission creep, a critic of the agency told the New Mexico Legislature’s Radioactive and Hazardous Materials Committee last week. The mission at the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) near Carlsbad “is not for defense high-level waste, commercial spent nuclear fuel, or […]

The Department of Energy is entering the final phase of construction at the seventh large saltstone disposal unit at the Savannah River Site in South Carolina, an agency manager said this week. Workers are currently installing a leak-proof rubber liner in the inside of the tank at Saltstone Disposal Unit-7 (SDU-7) before testing of the […]

By early next year, the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board and the Department of Energy could sign a memorandum of understanding about how to share information under a two year-old DOE order that limits interactions between the federal agencies. On Tuesday, the board — a roughly $30-million-a-year agency with a staff of around 100 full-timers […]

There are currently 109 active cases of COVID-19 within the Department of Energy’s Office of Environmental Management cleanup complex, which is 10 more than a week ago, a spokesperson said Thursday. There appears to be a steady rise in coronavirus infections at the 16 Cold War and Manhattan Project cleanup sites overseen by the Environmental […]

A venture led by Oak Ridge, Tenn.-based Navarro Research and Engineering is assured of becoming the new operator of 222-S Laboratory at the Hanford Site in Washington state, now that the window for protesting DOE’s contract award to the team lapsed. The period for contesting the award to the Government Accountability Office ended Monday, two […]

Idaho has now imposed about $9.16 million in fines against the Department of Energy for failing to treat sodium-bearing liquid radioactive waste at the Idaho National Laboratory with the long-delayed Integrated Waste Treatment Unit, a state official said this week. Depending on how COVID-19 plays out, the Integrated Waste Treatment Unit (IWTU) could start radioactive […]

The Department of Energy extended to January the transition periods for the support services and solid-waste cleanup contractors at the Hanford Site in Washington state. Transition periods for both the Leidos-led Hanford Mission Integration Solutions team and the Amentum-led Central Plateau Cleanup Co. are being extended until Jan. 24, the DOE Hanford Richland Operations Office […]

The Department of Energy has yet to decide what exactly it will do about a contested $13-billion tank management contract at the Hanford Site in Washington state that was placed on hold in July. There are issues “that the department is still working our way through,” Hanford’s DOE site manager, Brian Vance, told an online […]

Texas-based Fluor, a major Department of Energy contractor, lost $171 million or $1.22 per share for its first quarter that ended March 31, according to results released Thursday. Since late 2019, the Securities and Exchange Commission and the Department of Justice have been investigating problems with Fluor quarterly data filed during 2019, which prevented the […]

The Department of Energy on Sunday finalized changes to its rule about nuclear safety management that, according to the government’s independent nuclear health and safety watchdog, could encourage contractors to unsafely increase radioactive hazards in old buildings. After about two years of deliberation, the agency published its changes to  Title 10, Part 830 of the Code of […]

The Department of Energy Office of Environmental Management announced Oct. 15 it has resumed operation of the Tank-Closure Cesium Removal module following an extended maintenance outage that started in summer 2019 when an aging transfer pump stopped working.  The pump, used to prepare salt waste inside Tank 10 for cesium removal, was replaced this past […]

South Carolina State University President James Clark said Oct. 16 his institution is part of a team of colleges vying to run the Energy Department’s Savannah River National Laboratory. The historically black public university in Orangeburg, S.C., is a member of a team with Clemson, the University of South Carolina, Georgia Tech and the University […]

The top executive for regulatory and policy at the Department of Energy’s Office of Environmental Management is calling it a career soon. Elizabeth “Betsy” Connell, the associate principal deputy assistant secretary for regulatory and policy affairs, will retire at the end of the month following a career of more than 30 years around the DOE […]

Rep. John Shimkus (R-Ill.) is bidding farewell to Congress after a more than 20 year stint as an Illinois representative, and he says Rep. Jeff Duncan (R-S.C.) could be one of the congressmen to replace him as the lower chamber’s main advocate for a permanent nuclear-waste disposal site. Shimkus credited Duncan for helping secure the […]

Soon after withdrawing its designation of Texas-based Waste Control Specialists as its long-term storage site for elemental mercury, the Department of Energy is seeking information about other potentially suitable sites. Responses are due by 5 p.m. Eastern Time on Nov. 4 to DOE’s request for information (RFI) for a leased facility and services related to […]

Later this year, the National Nuclear Security Administration will begin a formal review of its program to dispose of the 34 metric tons of plutonium once slated to be recycled into commercial reactor fuel, an agency official said. It was unclear whether the agency would heed the advice of the National Academies of Sciences and […]

Dennis Foreman, a frequent critic of Department of Energy decisions at the Portsmouth Site in Ohio is not being appointed to a new term on the Portsmouth Site Specific Advisory Board, he said Tuesday. Foreman, a schoolteacher and member of Piketon Village Council, became a member of the advisory board four years ago and learned […]

Comments are due Nov. 2 on a draft solicitation for a new, potentially decade-spanning contract for more than $600 million worth of work at the Uranium Mill Tailings Remedial Action Project in Moab, Utah, the Department of Energy Office of Environmental Management said this week. The draft request for proposals (RFP) comes after the agency […]

The prime for the Department of Energy’s Waste Isolation Pilot Plant in New Mexico has signed a construction subcontractor to keep a major ventilation project going while a new provider is selected. Nuclear Waste Partnership said Thursday it has awarded a $3-million subcontract to Kiewit US Contractors Co. to support construction of the Safety Significant […]

As of this morning, the Department of Energy’s Savannah River Site in South Carolina has confirmed a total of 609 cases of COVID-19 among its roughly 11,000-member workforce. The numbers, posted online by the Aiken, S.C., site, represent a rise of 18 cases from the prior week’s total of 591. Also, 568 of those employees […]

Bill Moore, a geologist with more than 25 years of experience in the environmental cleanup business, is the new executive director for the Tennessee-based Energy Technology and Environmental Business Association. Bob Eby, the organization’s board president, announced Moore’s appointment this week during the trade group’s first virtual 2020 Business Opportunities and Technical Conference. Moore has […]

The prime at the Department of Energy’s Portsmouth Site in Ohio is offering an early buy-out for up to 75 workers willing to leave the remediation contractor by the end of the year. Fluor-BWXT Portsmouth launched its Self-Select Voluntary Separation Program on Thursday, its second such effort in the past couple of years, seeking 75 […]