Publications: Weapons Cleanup Monitor

The vendor providing paramilitary security for the U.S. Department of Energy’s Savannah River Site in South Carolina received its second four-month contract extension this week, keeping it on the job at least through June 7. The option with DOE was signed Thursday, Suzanne Piner, a spokeswoman for Centerra Group parent company Constellis, said by email. […]

Lynchburg, Va. -based BWX Technologies has promoted Richard Loving to a newly created post of senior vice president and chief administrative officer (CAO). Loving has been senior vice president for human resources at BWXT since mid-2016. He has about 40 years of management experience in manufacturing, energy, and government operations, according to a press release. […]

A Bechtel-led joint venture filed a protest Tuesday with the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) over the December award of a potential 10-year, $10-billion cleanup contract at the Hanford Site in Washington state. The Project W Restoration partnership is headed by Bechtel National, and the other members are Tetra Tech and EnergySolutions, an industry source […]

Jackie Quintyne, a Chicago native with 19 years of conference planning experience, has been named conference manager for the Waste Management Symposia in Phoenix. The annual WM Symposia in March is considered the largest international conference for the management of radioactive material and related topics. It provides a forum for discussing cost-effective and environmentally responsible […]

The new technical support services contractor for the U.S. Department of Energy’s Portsmouth/Paducah Project Office (PPPO) has received its formal notice to proceed with the transition from its predecessors. The formal notice to proceed was issued to Pro2Serve subsidiary Enterprise Technical Assistance Services (E-TAS) on Jan. 6, a DOE spokesperson said in a Jan. 10 […]

An article in the Jan. 10 issue of Weapons Complex Monitor, “Pit TRU Waste Would Take Up Half of Available WIPP Space Over 50 Years, NNSA Says,” should have said remarks by Todd Shrader of the Department of Energy’s Office of Environmental Management were delivered in June 2018.

The U.S. Energy Depart expects within 15 to 60 days to issue a solicitation for a new Paducah Infrastructure Support Services contract to replace the deal now held by Swift & Staley. The timeline set in the Jan. 10 notice would mean the request for proposals should be out by early March. The procurement will […]

The U.S. Energy Department Office of Inspector General (IG) is urging management at the Hanford Site in Washington state to provide more clarity and standardization in its recordkeeping for employee radiation dose. Greater use of standard forms and clearer lines of authority would better ensure that accurate employee histories of radiation dosage are kept, according […]

Constellis, the Reston, Va.-based parent of U.S. Energy Department contractor Centerra Group, has reached a “forbearance agreement” with certain creditors in order to get some leeway on loan repayment while it works to shore up its balance sheet. “Constellis recently closed on a $110 million delayed-draw credit facility provided by a subset of its existing […]

The U.S. National Labor Relations Board ruled Jan. 9 that a labor union representing security guards at the Waste Treatment Plant under construction at the Energy Department’s Hanford Site is not entitled to see the contract under which they are employed. The NLRB ruling finds that Waste Treatment Security Guards Union 161 holds no legal […]

An entity called Hanford Integrated Infrastructure Services Contractor filed a bid protest Monday with the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) against the Department of Energy’s award last month of a $4 billion contract for support services at the Hanford Site in Washington state. The Energy Department on Dec. 5 issued the potential 10-year contract to […]

The U.S. Justice Department’s civil fraud case against an Energy Department contractor at the Hanford Site in Washington state is going forward, but a federal judge Monday dismissed “kickback” allegations against a former Mission Support Alliance president. Federal attorneys last February brought the case against defendants Mission Support Alliance (MSA), Lockheed Martin Corp., Lockheed Martin […]

U.S. Energy Secretary Dan Brouillette has started off the new year by giving more authority to DOE Undersecretary of Energy Mark Menezes, effectively making him acting second in command at the agency until a deputy is in place. Brouillette said in a Jan. 10 email to Energy Department staff that to “ensure continued operational effectiveness,” […]

NORTH AUGUSTA, S.C. — Leveraging resources from U.S. Department of Energy contractors and research universities will be a key part of the inaugural stand-alone management and operations contract for the Savannah River National Laboratory (SRNL), DOE Undersecretary for Science Paul Dabbar said Thursday. The Energy Department is planning for a contract that would separate the […]

An employee of the U.S. Department of Energy in Washington state is giving up her federal job after admitting to conducting an unauthorized tour for a political candidate. The U.S. Office of Special Counsel (OSC) said in a Thursday press release the DOE staffer admitted violating the Hatch Act and relinquished her post Jan. 4 […]

The U.S. Energy Department’s Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) in New Mexico received 292 shipments of transuranic waste during 2019, dipping from 311 the year before, according to the latest figures on the site’s publicly available website. The last shipment recorded on the website was Dec.7, although the database typically runs a couple weeks behind […]

The U.S. Department of Energy Office of Environmental Management posted an updated organization chart last month that lists Thomas Mooney as the new chief of staff. Sources said in December that Mooney, a former U.S. Department of Defense senior manager, was becoming the new chief of staff at the environmental cleanup office although the Energy […]

Bud Albright, who chairs the U.S. Nuclear Industry Council, will step in as interim president and CEO of the organization following the Dec. 29 death of David Blee. The Nuclear Industry Council said Monday that the board of directors selected Albright, an undersecretary of energy for former President George W. Bush, as interim leader pending […]

The Washington state Department of Ecology is making good on last month’s threat to fine the U.S. Department of Energy $1 million for denial of access to certain records for the Hanford Site. The state announced the fine Monday after DOE appealed Ecology’s Dec. 5 ruling finding Hanford officials are wrongly withholding information. The appeal […]

Due to the similarity between two lawsuits filed by local residents near the Energy Department’s Portsmouth Site in Ohio, only one will go forward, a federal court ruled last week. U.S. Magistrate Judge Elizabeth Preston Deavers in the Southern District of Ohio ruled Jan. 3 that a case filed by plaintiffs led by Ray Pritchard […]

The AECOM-Jacobs joint venture in charge of decontamination and decommissioning at the Energy Department’s Oak Ridge Site in Tennessee earned about 97% of its potential fee for its cleanup work in the last half of fiscal 2019. URS/CH2M Hill Oak Ridge (UCOR) won almost $20.4 million out of a potential $21 million for the period […]

Paramilitary security contractor Centerra won 97% or about $3.17 million out of a potential $3.26 million fee for protecting the Energy Department’s Savannah River Site in South Carolina during the second half of fiscal 2019, which ended Sept. 30. That’s according to a scorecard released by DOE over the winter holidays for Centerra-Savannah River Site. […]

The U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) says New Mexico-based Strategic Management Solutions Inc. (SMSI) failed to provide hard evidence Enterprise Technical Assistance Services (E-TAS) should not have won a $137 million technical services contract for Energy Department’s Portsmouth/Paducah Project Office due to a conflict of interest. It is not enough to infer that Oak Ridge, […]

The Energy Department expects to start vitrifying low-activity radioactive waste at the Hanford Site’s Waste Treatment Plant (WTP) as early as fiscal 2022 or as late as fiscal 2024. “We are going to have hiccups. … We are going to have failures along the way,” but they can be overcome, Tom Fletcher, DOE’s assistant manager […]

The Jacobs-led joint venture in charge of remediating the West Valley Demonstration Project Site in New York won $322,000 or 69% of a potential fee of $467,000 during a six-month period in 2019. The U.S. Department of Energy recently issued the scorecard for CH2M Hill BWXT West Valley LLC (CHBWV) for the period from March […]

The Energy Department has extended the current task order for contractor CDM to continue work on environmental reports at the Santa Susana Field Laboratory in Ventura County, California through June 30. The CDM agreement with the DOE Office of Environmental Management would have expired Dec. 31 without the extension, which raises the current $33 million […]

The National Nuclear Security Administration’s plan to produce 80 pits a year would generate more than 1,110 cubic meters of transuranic waste a year, according to an environmental review the semiautonomous Department of Energy weapon steward released this week. Over 50 years — enough time at an 80-a-year throughput to produce two new pits, and […]

Debriefings got underway this week on major Energy Department contracts issued in December for the Hanford Site in Washington state, a source said Thursday. Debriefs were held in Richland, Wash., on the potential 10-year, $4 billion support services contract announced Dec. 5 for Hanford Mission Integration Solutions (HMIS), a joint venture comprised of Leidos, Centerra, […]