Publications: Weapons Cleanup Monitor

The Department of Energy published guidance Wednesday for contractors that need to bill the government for paid time off given to employees unable to report for work due to COVID-19. The new guidance attempts to steer contracting officers through the process of modifying existing deals so that vendors can claim reimbursement under the $2.2 trillion CARES […]

Both chambers of Congress will remain on recess later than scheduled, returning no earlier than May 4, lawmakers said this week. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) announced the upper chamber would add two weeks to its current recess in a Tuesday note to fellow senators, then in a press release. His announcement followed a […]

The Energy Department’s Savannah River Site in South Carolina might have to revisit the schedule for operation of the Salt Waste Processing Facility due to the COVID-19 pandemic, a spokesperson said Thursday. Eight cases of infection by the novel coronavirus 2019 have been confirmed at Savannah River. That is more than half of the 14 […]

Companies in the radioactive waste processing and disposal industry acknowledged this week they are feeling the pinch from the COVID-19 pandemic, but emphasized that they remain fully open for business. At least one industry mainstay confirmed that it has sought federal assistance via the $2.2 trillion CARES Act signed into law on March 27 to […]

A couple of smaller vendors to the nuclear industry say they are prepared to help clients withstand the current COVID-19 pandemic. UniTech Services Group, a provider of personal protective equipment for the nuclear industry in North America, last week predicted no “service disruptions” through the second quarter. “We’re going to take the right preventative measures […]

The Energy Department plans to retain the Jacobs-led incumbent cleanup contractor at the West Valley Demonstration Project in New York state through June 2023. The DOE Office of Environmental Management announced the 39-month extension for CH2M Hill BWXT West Valley (CHBWV) in a Thursday press release. The vendor is working under a $571 million contractor […]

The Moab Uranium Mill Tailings Remediation Action (UMTRA) project in Utah as of this week was the sole Energy Department Office of Environmental Management nuclear cleanup site maintaining normal operations during the COVID-19 crisis. The project’s two work sites are “fully operational” while following Centers for Disease Control and Prevention guidelines to minimize the risk […]

Long-anticipated talks between the Energy Department and Washington state on remediation milestones at the Hanford Site could go forward remotely. “We are moving forward on holistic negotiations, but when they might start depends on the availability of the [federal] mediator, and how successful we are at kicking off the negotiations through remote communications,” Randy Bradbury, […]

The Energy Department on Thursday issued its draft request for proposals for a potential 10-year, $3.8 billion stand-alone contract for management of the Savannah River National Laboratory in South Carolina. The facility is currently run through the $14.8 billion contract held by Fluor-led Savannah River Nuclear Solutions (SRNS) for management of DOE’s entire Savannah River […]

The current COVID-19 public health emergency, which has laid waste to scheduled events great and small, is delaying plans to sample for potential radiological contamination around a Pike County, Ohio, middle school near the Energy Department’s Portsmouth Site. Officials from the DOE Office of Environmental Management said during a March industry conference in Phoenix they […]

Federal and industry sources said this week they don’t foresee major environmental or public safety concerns emerging if the current level of reduced staffing at Energy Department nuclear cleanup sites due to COVID-19 lingers for months. Nearly all of the 16 remediation sites overseen by DOE’s Office of Environmental Management have temporarily reduced their workforce […]

S&K Federal Services, a small tribally owned business based in Montana, has received a potential five-year, $22 million contract to provide technical support services to the Energy Department Office of Environmental Management. The office said in a Wednesday press release the S&K contract supports the Environmental Management Consolidated Business Center (EMCBC) in Cincinnati and small […]

Federal and contractor employees for the Hanford Site in Washington state should be particularly vigilant about cyber threats while they work from home during the COVID-19 pandemic, the Energy Department said this week. An Energy Department spokesperson said last week that 60% of Hanford’s 11,000-person workforce was telecommuting following the March 31 transition to essential […]

A viable program for treating supplemental low-activity waste at the Energy Department’s Hanford Site in Washington state can be developed for any one of three major technologies – vitrification, grouting, and steam reforming, according to an April 1 report from a National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine panel. But grouting and steam reforming would […]

The Energy Department has again extended the deadline for bids on a potential five-year, $250 million support services contract at the Paducah Site in Kentucky. In a notice published last week, DOE’s Environmental Management Consolidated Business Center said proposals are now due by 4 p.m. EDT on April 16. Originally, proposals were due March 19 […]

Constellis, owner of Energy Department contractor Centerra Group, said Monday its lenders have approved an overhaul of the company’s debt package that should strengthen its balance sheet. The debt for equity exchanges received consent from 100% of term loan and revolving lenders, according to a Constellis press release. As a result, Constellis is cutting its […]

One major contractor at the Energy Department’s Savannah River Site in South Carolina settled an age discrimination suit in the past week, while another is the target of newly-filed case, according to court records. Amenetum-led Savannah River Remediation has agreed to settle the age discrimination case against it. Meanwhile, a longtime employee has filed a […]

A subsidiary of Pro2Serve, Enterprise Technical Assistance Services, (E-TAS), on Wednesday started work as the new technical services vendor for the Department of Energy’s Portsmouth/Paducah Project Office cleanup complex, which is comprised of the Portsmouth Site in Ohio, the Paducah Site in Kentucky, and the Lexington, Ky., headquarters. The small-business set-aside has a potential term […]

The Energy Department has said it is not currently looking into the findings of a recent report in the Seattle Times that leaky respirators used by cleanup workers at the Hanford Site in Washington state might have contributed to serious health problems. A DOE spokesperson said by email last week that the alleged respirator problems […]

The Energy Department is temporarily ramping down operations at the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) near Carlsbad, N.M., because of the COVID-19 crisis, a spokesperson said by email Monday. The Energy Department told its Carlsbad Field Office and WIPP contractor Nuclear Waste Partnership (NWP) to start scaling back operations March 27. The disposal site is […]

The Energy Department’s Office of Environmental Management is studying two options for permanent disposition of transuranic waste from the Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico that has been stored for years at a privately held facility in Texas. The Energy Department could either technically confirm the radioactive waste can be safely shipped straight to […]

CH2M Plateau Remediation, the outgoing cleanup contractor for the Central Plateau of the Hanford Site in Washington state, earned $7.8 million of a potential $9.9 million in fees for fiscal 2019, according to a recently released scorecard from the Department of Energy. The fee award of almost 79% for the 12-month period ending Sept. 30, […]

The Defense Nuclear Safety Facilities Board (DNFSB) is urging its inspectors and staff to press their newly bolstered authority to inspect Department of Energy defense-nuclear sites, as codified by Congress last year. Congress, at least in the board’s interpretation, used the National Defense Authorization Act of 2020 to short-circuit DOE Order 140.1, which was written by […]

Energy Department contractors are eager to tap into a portion of the $2.2 trillion COVID-19 relief bill signed into law a week ago to provide paid leave to employees who cannot telecommute. The federal contractor authority provision of the “CARES Act” empowers the energy secretary to ensure that contract employees whose work requires them to […]

Radioactive waste management provider US Ecology said Tuesday it would cut tens of millions of dollars in costs this year to offset the economic uncertainty created by the COVID-19 pandemic. The Boise, Idaho-based company said in a press release that unspecified “cost control initiatives” should save $15 million to $20 million annually. A 30% cut […]

The Department of Energy plans to issue a potential four-year, $1 million contract for consultant Jeffrey Trent to assist in “hot commissioning” of the Waste Treatment Plant at the Hanford Site in Washington state. The notice for the planned no-bid contract was posted earlier this month by the Hanford Office of River Protection on a […]

CH2M HILL BWXT West Valley in New York state is, like other nuclear remediation vendors for the Energy Department, decreasing its work to “mission-essential” tasks for the near future due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Daily on-site staffing at the West Valley Demonstration Project was decreased effective Monday, and many employees will “telework to the extent […]