Publications: Weapons Cleanup Monitor

The Department of Energy on Feb. 14 confirmed the potential $21-billion integrated mission contract for the Savannah River Site in South Carolina will last up to 15 years. “Task orders may be placed any time during the 10 year ordering period and the execution of the actual work may extend up to 5 years” afterward, […]

At the urging of the Government Accountability Office (GAO), the Department of Energy will conduct a root cause analysis of the May 2017 partial collapse of Tunnel 1 of the Plutonium Uranium Extraction (PUREX) Plant at the Hanford Site in Washington. The evaluation should be completed by the end of the year. The GAO called […]

Higher taxes led Leidos to report a slight dip in its fourth quarter earnings, but sales were strong and adjusted earnings easily topped analysts’ estimates. Net income in the quarter fell nearly 4% to $181 million, $1.26 earnings per share (EPS), from $188 million ($1.25 EPS) a year ago. Per-share results rose a penny due to […]

Engineering and procurement giant Fluor seemingly caught its peers in the nuclear contracting complex off-guard Tuesday in announcing it would not proceed with the sale of its government services business. As recently as last week some managers within Fluor were still talking as if the sale was going forward, an executive with a rival Energy […]

An independent team of experts on Friday said more homework is needed before the Department of Energy can pick a reliable and cost-effective means to treat low-activity tank waste at the Hanford Site in Washington state that cannot be accommodated through vitrification. A National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine panel issued its fourth and […]

Federal law may allow a $3.5 million discrimination lawsuit against the security contractor for the Savannah River Site in South Carolina to continue even after a federal judge found the statute of limitations had passed for the case, according to newly hired legal counsel for the plaintiff. Marcialena Brown, an African-American woman, did not realize […]

The Department of Energy on Feb. 14 issued a potential contract extension of up to two years, through July 2022, to the incumbent vendor for cleanup of the Oak Ridge Site in Tennessee. The Energy Department posted a notice of intent to award a sole-source deal to URS/CH2M Oak Ridge (UCOR) in the form of […]

After winning $1.475 million in an initial jury decision and another $295,000 in front pay in a post-trial ruling, a former employee for the Savannah River Site’s liquid waste contractor is seeking nearly $270,000 more in a discrimination suit to cover attorney fees and litigation costs. In a Feb. 6 request in U.S. District Court […]

The remaining stockpile of uranium-233 at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) in Tennessee could be processed for disposal as low-level waste by 2025, according to an executive with the company managing the operation. Cleaning out the uranium from Building 3019 is the top cleanup priority at ORNL because, among other things, storing the fissile […]

Huntington Ingalls Industries on Thursday posted lower fourth-quarter earnings despite a strong increase in sales due in part to an impairment charge stemming from the company’s decision to put its oil and gas business up for sale. Net income sank 30% to $149 million, $3.61 earnings per share (EPS), from $212 million ($4.94 ESP) a […]

President Donald Trump on Thursday said he plans to nominate Undersecretary of Energy Mark Menezes to take over as deputy secretary for the Department of Energy. Menezes would succeed Dan Brouillette, who in December was confirmed and sworn in as secretary of energy. The nomination for the No. 2 spot at DOE had not been […]

A transportation provider for the cleanup contractor at the Energy Department’s Oak Ridge Site in Tennessee was involved a January fender-bender while moving low-level radioactive waste along a highway in Arkansas. No injuries resulted and no radioactive soil spilled in the accident, according to a Feb.7 DOE accident report. The subcontractor, Metler Hauling & Rigging, […]

A nuclear watchdog and the Washington, D.C.-based Energy Communities Alliance (ECA) differ on a Department of Energy proposal to ship up to 10,000 gallons of recycled wastewater from the Savannah River Site to a commercial low-level radioactive waste facility somewhere outside South Carolina. In December, DOE published an environmental assessment, and invited public comments, on […]

The Energy Department’s Office of Environmental Manage on Thursday issued procurement-related documents for the planned “integrated mission” contract at the Savannah River Site in South Carolina. To speed the award, the nuclear cleanup office said it will not issue the standard draft version of the request for proposals for the potential 10-to-15-year, $21 billion award […]

Liquid waste management and the first year of operations of the Salt Waste Processing Facility (SWPF) would consume a large chunk of the $1.7 billion proposed for Environmental Management (EM) operations in fiscal 2021 at the Department of Energy’s Savannah River Site in South Carolina. At deadline Friday, DOE had not released a budget justification […]

The Donald Trump administration on Monday requested $6.1 billion for the Energy Department Office of Environmental Management during fiscal 2021, which would be an 18% reduction from the $7.5 billion enacted by Congress in the current budget year. It also represents a $400 million slice from the $6.5 billion the White House sought last March […]

Key Pacific Northwest lawmakers in the House and Senate pledged this week to ensure the Energy Department’s Hanford Site in Washington state gets more than the nearly $2 billion proposed in President Donald Trump’s fiscal 2021 budget. The two DOE offices that oversee cleanup and radioactive waste management at the former plutonium manufacturing complex would […]

The Energy Department on Tuesday issued a draft request for proposals for the potential 10-to-15-year, $6.4 billion contract for the Idaho Cleanup Project. The work at the Idaho National Laboratory includes operation of the Integrated Waste Treatment Unit, management and disposal of both low-level radioactive and transuranic waste, decommissioning old facilities, and spent fuel management […]

The Department of Energy last week appealed a $1 million fine filed by the Washington state Department of Ecology for allegedly withholding safety information regarding the Hanford Site. The notice of appeal was filed Feb. 6 with the state’s Pollution Control Hearings Board. The federal agency on Jan. 3 appealed the underlying violation. The first […]

A lawsuit claiming the Savannah River Site’s security contractor discriminated against a former employee should be dismissed because it was filed past the time allowed under the statute of limitations, a federal magistrate judge recommended. Judge Paige Gossett also noted on Jan. 30 that Marcialena Brown’s $3.5 million complaint covers both Centerra-SRS and two company […]

Energy Department Office of Environmental Management leaders on Thursday said three longtime supervisors are getting new roles. Dae Chung will become the new associate principal deputy assistant secretary for corporate services; Connie Flohr will head DOE’s Idaho Cleanup Project; and Candice Roberson will be the new senior site liaison coordinator within Environmental Management’s (EM) Field […]

Vendors have recently updated protests filed with the Government Accountability Office over two new contract awards, together potentially worth $14 billion, for work at the Energy Department’s Hanford Site in Washington state. Both additions were filed since Jan. 27 by corporate teams that days earlier filed protests against DOE awards for Hanford Site Mission Essential […]

The Energy Department and a contractor are gearing up to seek renewal of their 10-year state hazardous waste facility permit for the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant in New Mexico. The current state permit was issued to DOE and WIPP management contractor Nuclear Waste Partnership on Nov. 30, 2010, becoming effective one month later, according to […]

While Amentum is a new company, it is far from a new face doing business for government nuclear and environmental agencies, a senior executive said Tuesday. The former AECOM Management Services division officially became Amentum on Jan. 31 with the closure of the $2.4 billion sale to affiliates of New York-based investment firms Lindsay Goldberg […]

Engineering and construction giant AECOM has completed the $2.4 billion sale of its Management Service business to an affiliate of two New York investment firms. Sale of the subsidiary to American Securities LLC and Lindsay Goldberg LLC closed on Jan. 31, according to an AECOM press release Monday. The new company, called Amentum, is now […]

The Energy Department on Tuesday issued a request for proposals (RFP) for a new small business set-aside contract to provide support services at the Paducah Site in Kentucky. Incumbent Swift & Staley’s five-year, $185 million contract expires in September. The DOE Office of Environmental Management said last month it could soon issue a solicitation for […]

WASHINGTON, D.C. – A hyper-partisan political climate, as reflected by the impeachment trial of President Donald Trump and the start of presidential primaries, reduces the chances of timely passage of appropriations bills to fund the government for fiscal 2021, issue watchers said last week. The Energy Department and other federal agencies are likely to be […]

Long-anticipated talks between the Department of Energy and the Washington state Department of Ecology on cleanup issues at the Hanford Site should finally begin by early March. The two sides have agreed on the scope of the talks, Ecology Nuclear Waste Program Manager Alex Smith said Wednesday during a meeting of the Hanford Advisory Board. […]