Publications: Weapons Cleanup Monitor

Waste disposal sites in up to three states could be the final destination for the Energy Department’s depleted uranium oxide from retired gaseous diffusion plants in Piketon, Ohio, and Paducah, Ky. The DOE Office of Environmental Management said Friday it has published the record of decision (ROD) for disposal of material generated from conversion of […]

The House Armed Services Committee plans to mark up the 2021 National Defense Authorization Act from June 22 to July 1, giving the chamber’s Democratic majority an opportunity to weigh about the dramatic increase proposed for active nuclear weapons programs at the Department of Energy and potential cuts to its nuclear cleanup budget. The annual […]

A federal judge in South Carolina has dismissed the $3.5 million racial discrimination lawsuit filed by a former employee of the security provider at the Energy Department’s Savannah River Site. U.S. District Judge Sherri Lydon ruled May 28 that plaintiff Marcialena Tremble Brown missed the deadline to file her case against her former employer, Centerra-SRS. […]

While some other federal agencies are bringing personnel back into the workplace, there is no timetable for Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board (DNFSB) staff to return to their offices in downtown Washington, D.C. “No date has been set for a return” to board headquarters on Indiana Avenue, DNFSB spokeswoman Tara Tadlock said in a Thursday […]

The Energy Department’s Savannah River Site (SRS) in South Carolina as of Friday has confirmed 23 cases of COVID-19 among its workforce. That is up from 22 reported at the end of last week. Sixteen of those employees have recovered and returned to work, a spokeswoman for the DOE’s SRS operations said by email. Savannah […]

Bechtel National earned $5 million of the potential $7.87 million 2019 fee for ongoing construction on the Waste Treatment Plant at the Hanford Site in Washington state, the Energy Department said Tuesday. By claiming an overall score of “good” and winning roughly 64% of the maximum available fee for the 12 months ended Dec. 31, […]

The Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board (DNFSB) might lose credibility in the eyes of Department of Energy site host communities if it does not explain its opposition to proposed changes to federal nuclear safety standards in plain words, a community interest group said. “It would be in the best interest for sites and communities to […]

The fire chief for the Department of Energy’s Hanford Site in Washington state has died, contractor Mission Support Alliance announced this week. Norbert Kuhman died May 29 at age 63, according to an obituary published Wednesday in the Tri-City Herald newspaper. Kuhman had served in the position since February 2014. Management of the 145-person Hanford Fire […]

Starting Monday, more than half of the Energy Department’s nuclear cleanup sites will be in Phase 1 of a gradual return to normal operations that have been effectively suspended since March during the COVID-19 pandemic. Environmental remediation operations at the Portsmouth Site in Ohio, the Paducah Site in Kentucky, and the Los Alamos National Laboratory […]

With the outcome of the Republican primary still uncertain, Teresa Leger Fernandez has won the Democratic Party nomination to succeed Rep. Ben Ray Luján (D-N.M.) as the House member for the congressional district covering the Energy Department’s Los Alamos National Laboratory. Leger Fernandez, an attorney with deep New Mexico roots and endorsements from national party […]

A worker at the Savannah River Site this month settled his federal personal injury lawsuit against the Energy Department’s operations contractor for the South Carolina facility. Henry Bradley, who was employed by another contractor at Savannah River, in November 2018 filed the $75,000 suit in U.S. District Court in South Carolina against site manager Savannah […]

The Department of Energy confirmed this week that the Savannah River Site in South Carolina, as well as the cleanup vendor at the Nevada National Security Site, are gradually restarting operations scaled back two months ago to curb the spread of COVID-19 among workers. At press time Friday, there have been 32 confirmed cases of […]

There is about one month left on the temporary indemnity determination the Department of Energy allowed nuclear-weapon sites to add to their management and operations contracts after the COVID-19 pandemic forced mass telework in mid-March. The determination, which Secretary of Energy Dan Brouillette issued on March 26, will lapse on June 30. The decision specified […]

The Energy Department’s Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) in New Mexico received 47 shipments of transuranic waste during the first four months of 2020. That is down from 83 for the same period in 2019, according to the Energy Department’s public database for the waste disposal facility. In late March, WIPP reduced operations due to […]

The Energy Department intends to keep security contractor Centerra Group on the job at the Savannah River Site in South Carolina into 2021, according to a Tuesday procurement notice. The update landed on the same day the company seemingly objected to the procurement for the follow-on contract for paramilitary security services at the 310-square-mile complex […]

The Energy Department’s Office of Environmental Management on Wednesday released the final request for proposals for the potential $6.4 billion Idaho Cleanup Project contract. The solicitation covers environmental remediation at the Idaho National Laboratory, as well as spent fuel management there and at the retired Fort Saint Vrain nuclear power plant near Platteville, Colo. The […]

The Department of Energy indicated in a draft report issued Tuesday that vitrified low-activity waste at the Hanford Site in Washington state can be disposed of at the facility, rather than requiring transfer to another location. Conversion of low-activity waste from Hanford’s 177 underground storage tanks into a glass form for disposal is expected to […]

Two runners-up for a potential $13 billion tank closure contract at the Energy Department’s Hanford Site in Washington state filed protests Wednesday with the Government Accountability Office (GAO). Hanford Tank Closure Co. and Tank Closure Partnership LLC both objected to DOE’s May 14 award to Hanford Works Restoration, which is comprised of BWX Technologies, Fluor, […]

The first employees who return to Department of Energy headquarters buildings in Washington, D.C., and nearby Maryland, whenever that might be, will get a taste of the new normal their colleagues at nuclear sites have experienced for weeks amid the COVID-19 pandemic, new agency guidance shows. Temperature checks, pre-arrival symptom questionnaires, and continued social distancing […]

Tim Griffin, executive director of the Oak Ridge, Tenn.-based Energy, Technology, and Environmental Business Association for nearly five years, has left to take another job. Griffin’s last day was May 8 at the trade group that represents about 170 firms and individuals doing business with the Energy Department or its semiautonomous National Nuclear Security Administration […]

After weeks of speculation, three Department of Energy nuclear sites are entering the first phase of the full resumption of remediation amid the COVID-19 pandemic, the agency’s Office of Environmental Management confirmed Friday. The Hanford Site in Washington state, the Idaho National Laboratory, and the Oak Ridge Site in Tennessee are the first to take […]

There’s a good chance of a protest against the recent win by a BWX Technologies team of an Energy Department contract for radioactive waste tank closure at the Hanford Site in Washington state, two industry sources said this week. One one source said he would expect a challenge if for no other reason that one […]

The Energy Department has yet to issue a notice to proceed to the new services contractor selected late last year for the Hanford Site in Washington state, Leidos-led Hanford Mission Integration Solutions (HMIS). Typically, most new vendors receive the notice to start transition shortly after either winning the award or prevailing in any protest against […]

The Energy Department anticipates the Savannah River National Laboratory in South Carolina will be better able to “engage with the research community” by having a its own operations contract, according to documents recently posted online. The slides used for an April 28 virtual online meeting on the draft request for proposals for the potential 10-year, […]

Senate leaders continued this week to work on liability protections for businesses that reopen during the COVID-19 pandemic, after the House’s Democratic majority pushed through a $3-trillion COVID-19 economic relief bill the White House has threatened to veto. The Health and Economic Recovery Omnibus Emergency Solutions (HEROES) Act, H.R. 6800, passed the House in a 208-199 […]

The Energy Department has reached a deal with the state of California to tear down and remove 10 contaminated buildings at the Santa Susana Field Laboratory (SSFL) in Ventura County. Eliminating decaying buildings within the Radioactive Materials Handling Facility Complex should avoid a release of hazardous substances and minimize risk to the public in the […]

The Energy Department intends to issue a sole-source contract to Waste Control Specialists (WCS) for continued administrative support for certain radioactive material already stored at its Andrews County, Texas, facility. In a pair of notices published Monday and Tuesday on a federal procurement website, the Energy Department said it wants to prevent a lapse in […]