Publications: Weapons Cleanup Monitor

The Energy Department has delayed publication of a draft record of decision (ROD) for a new 2.2-million-cubic yard landfill for the Oak Ridge Site in Tennessee by up to six months. Energy Department Office of Environmental Management officials at Oak Ridge agreed in April, after consulting with state and federal regulators, to push back publication […]

A key part of the selection process for a new Idaho Cleanup Project contractor should happen in-person next month in Idaho Falls, according to the Department of Energy. Barring an uptick in COVID-19 cases near the Idaho National Laboratory, vendors vying for the $6.4 billion remediation award should be ready for oral presentations at the […]

The Energy Department last week said it plans up to yearlong extensions to existing contracts at the Hanford Site in Washington state for management of underground tank waste and laboratory testing services. Washington River Protection Solutions’ (WRPS) long-term contract, now valued at about $7.8 billion, could be extended to Sept. 30, 2021, according to a […]

Three nuclear cleanup sites have received approval from the Energy Department to bring back more staff who have been at home for months during the COVID-19 pandemic. The Energy Department announced the status change for the Portsmouth Site in Ohio, the Paducah Site in Kentucky, and the West Valley Demonstration Project in New York in […]

The Senate last week adopted language that would scale back, but not eliminate, some of the new oversight and influence the chamber’s Armed Services Committee proposed to give the Pentagon over civilian nuclear weapons budgets via the fiscal 2021 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA). On July 2, the Senate unanimously adopted an amendment from Sens. […]

Navarro Research and Engineering faces no challenges to Energy Department contract it won last month for a potential 10-year, $350 million contract to continue providing environmental services at the Nevada National Security Site. The Energy Department awarded the contract to the incumbent on June 17. The window for protest to the Government Accountability Office (GAO) […]

The House Armed Services Committee gave a more than $700 million potential boost to nuclear cleanup funding at the Department of Energy just before midnight Wednesday, unanimously passing its version of the fiscal 2021 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA). The chairman’s mark that provided the framework for the defense policy bill would authorize the addition to […]

Nuclear spending debates in Congress often pit active weapons programs against the remediation of shuttered Manhattan Project and Cold War production sites, but this year’s proceeding has lawmakers on both sides of the aisle on guard against a provision they say could permanently subordinate legacy environmental programs to the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA). Sen. […]

The cleanup contractor for the Oak Ridge Site in Tennessee earned 94%, or $10.4 million, of a potential $11 million fee for its work during the six-month period ended March 31, the Energy Department said in a new performance scorecard. In the process, URS-CH2M Oak Ridge (UCOR) earned kudos from the DOE Office of Environmental […]

Rep. Joe Wilson (R-S.C.) said last week he favors increasing funding for the Department of Energy’s Savannah River Site in South Carolina by more than $51 million above the Donald Trump administration’s fiscal 2021 budget request, mostly to finance improvements at the H Canyon complex. Wilson noted that H Canyon is the only hardened nuclear […]

Navarro Research and Engineering earned roughly 93% of its total potential fee for its environmental work at the Energy Department’s Nevada National Nuclear Site (NNSS) over a 16-month period ended Jan. 31. That’s the crux of a recently published fee performance scorecard from the DOE Office of Environmental Management. Oak-Ridge, Tenn.-based Navarro earned about $1.13 […]

The Energy Department intends to retain Swift & Staley for up to six more months as the infrastructure support services provider at the Paducah Site in Kentucky. Paducah-based Swift & Staley’s $192 million contract dates to December 2015 and is set to expire in September 2020. As the firm’s initial three-year base period was expiring […]

The Energy Department Office of Environmental Management on Wednesday announced a set of nine contracts to provide nationwide deactivation, decommissioning, and removal (DD&R) services for excess facilities. The indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity contracts have a 10-year ordering period and collectively have a maximum value of $3 billion, the Energy Department said in a press release. Winners of the […]

The Energy Department Office of Environmental Management is expected to decide soon whether to keep Nuclear Waste Partnership in place as the prime contractor for the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) in New Mexico. The joint partnership between Amentum (formerly AECOM Management Services) and BWX Technologies is working under the first option of its $2.4 […]

The Energy Department’s Hanford Site in Washington state will continue in Phase 1 of restart operations next week, Manager Brian Vance announced Thursday as the facility moves toward more normal work levels while simultaneously trying to avoid the spread of COVID-19. However, there will be a “marginal increase” in on-site staffing at the Waste Treatment […]

A Knoxville, Tenn.-based firm has landed a four-year, $4 million contract to provide business and administrative support to the Energy Department Office of Environmental Management at the Oak Ridge Site. The award to Management Solutions LLC, a woman-owned small business, was announced Tuesday by the Environmental Management office for the Tennessee facility. The contract will […]

Oak Ridge-Tenn.-based Isotek Systems has inked a $254 million contract modification with the Energy Department to continue disposing of uranium-233 (U-233) through 2024 at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL). Isotek has overseen the inventory of U-233 since October 2003, removing the material from Oak Ridge National Laboratory Building 3019. The 1940’s era building is […]

All 16 nuclear cleanup sites overseen by the Energy Department Office of Environmental Management have at least initiated Phase 1 remobilization operations, after on-site work was drastically scaled back this spring in an effort to reduce the potential spread of COVID-19 among the workforce. In addition, Phase 2 is now underway at the Idaho National […]

The Energy Department contractor for the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant near Carlsbad, N.M., earned 83%, or $14.3 million, of a potential $17.3 million fee for its work during fiscal 2019. The DOE fee scorecard for the period from Oct. 1, 2018, through Sept. 30, 2019, was recently posted online for Nuclear Waste Partnership, a joint […]

Centerra Group, the incumbent provider of paramilitary security at the Energy Department’s Savannah River Site in South Carolina, has withdrawn a Government Accountability Office (GAO) protest over procurement of a follow-on contract. Centerra filed the protest May 8, but then withdrew it on June 9, according to a notice posted on the GAO website. The […]

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) has formally accepted for review an Energy Department proposal to dispose of vitrified low-activity waste inside the fence at the Hanford Site in Washington state. The Energy Department on April 23 filed its draft Waste Incidental to Reprocessing (WIR) evaluation with the NRC, which in this case is serving as […]

The Energy Department expects by mid-August to issue a request for proposals (RFP) for treatment of low-level and mixed-level radioactive wastes, according to procurement documents published June 18. The DOE Office of Environmental Management said an RFP should be issued within 15 to 60 days of publication of the notice. The agency plans to issue […]

Radioactive contamination is more widespread than first thought along a road outside the Energy Department’s Los Alamos National Laboratory, according to the New Mexico Environment Department (NMED). The area is part of a tract of land, which includes the site of a planned housing development, transferred from LANL to Los Alamos County a few years […]

The Energy Department is lagging behind schedule for deactivation and demolition of the C-400 complex at the Paducah Site in Kentucky, the DOE Inspector General’s Office said in an audit report released Tuesday. The 134,000-square-foot C-400 building was chiefly employed to clean equipment used in uranium enrichment at the former Paducah Gaseous Diffusion Plant. A […]

The Senate Armed Services Committee’s version of the 2021 National Defense Authorization Act would allow $100 million more in the primary funding tranche for the Energy Department’s Office of Environmental Management than requested by the Donald Trump administration. The legislation would authorize $5.1 billion for defense environmental cleanup for the fiscal year starting Oct. 1 […]

The Los Alamos National Laboratory got whacked with some $300,000 in fines this month for failing to notify the New Mexico state government about eight off-site waste shipments in 2017 and 2018. The eight shipments, comprising 18 containers, happened while contractor Los Alamos National Security was still in charge of the northern New Mexico nuclear-weapon lab. […]

The Department of Energy on Friday issued the final request for proposals (RFP) for a stand-alone management contract for the Savannah River National Laboratory in South Carolina. The laboratory contract is expected to be worth $380 million per year, or potentially $3.8 billion over 10 years. The agreement carries a five-year base period and an […]

The Senate Armed Services Committee on Wednesday reported out two nominations to the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board (DNFSB) via voice vote. The nominations of serving DNFSB member Joyce Connery and new nominee Thomas Summers now advance to the full Senate, which had not scheduled a floor vote at deadline Friday for Weapons Complex Monitor. […]