Publications: Weapons Cleanup Monitor

Congress had not produced a compromise National Defense Authorization Act for fiscal 2020 as of Friday morning, prolonging a lack of authorization for key nuclear modernization programs. It was a week of whiplash predictions from top defense authorizers Sen. James Inhofe (R-Okla.) and Rep. Adam Smith (D-Wash.), who in the aggregate appeared less certain of […]

The U.S. Energy Department’s Waste Isolation Pilot Plant in New Mexico received 275 shipments of defense-related transuranic waste during the first 10 months of this year, compared to 272 during the same period in 2018. October is the last full month for which shipment information is available through WIPP’s public database. It shows that the […]

Rick Perry ended his tenure as U.S. secretary of energy on Sunday, but not before issuing a press release highlighting the progress of cleanup at the Santa Susana Field Laboratory (SSFL) in Ventura County, Calif. “I am proud of the work the Department of Energy (DOE) has done to advance the final cleanup of the […]

Dan Brouillette was sworn in Wednesday as the 15th U.S. secretary of energy, after the Senate voted 70-15 to confirm him for the Cabinet spot earlier this week, a Department of Energy spokesperson said. Brouillette had served since 2017 as the deputy secretary of energy under Rick Perry, who resigned as secretary effective Sunday. The […]

Perma-Fix Northwest accepted a $23,275 fine for its failure in 2013-2014 to ensure it had sufficient third-party liability coverage for its Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA) radioactive waste facility in Richland, Wash., the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency said Tuesday. Representatives for the federal agency and the company signed a consent agreement on Aug. 12. […]

Jacobs Engineering on Nov. 25 posted $3.4 billion in revenue for the quarter ended Sept. 27, a step up from $3 billion from the same period a year earlier. The Dallas-based multinational reported earnings for the fourth quarter of its fiscal 2019 before the market opened for the day. Its earnings per diluted share was […]

Weapons Complex Monitor will not be published on Nov. 29 in observance of the Thanksgiving Day holiday. Look for the next issue in your inbox on Friday, Dec. 6.

An employee of the Savannah River Site’s liquid waste contractor believes he has lost out on tens of thousands of dollars in salary by being wrongfully demoted in favor of younger, less-experienced employees. In a lawsuit filed on Oct. 21 in U.S. District Court, Jeffery Risher, 59, alleged he and several other workers were subjected […]

CH2M Hill Plateau Remediation must stop work in radiologically contaminated areas of Building 324 at the Hanford Site in Washington state until it gets a handle on troubling incidents of contamination, according to a recent order from the U.S. Energy Department. The DOE’s Richland Operations Office “expects that workers at Hanford are protected from personnel […]

The U.S. Energy Department has formally signed a six-month extension for the incumbent support services vendor at the Hanford Site in Washington state. “We have received notice this morning that extends our period of performance six month, through May 25, 2020,” Rae Moss, a spokeswoman for Leidos-led Mission Support Alliance (MSA), said in a Thursday […]

AECOM said Friday that CEO and Chairman Michael Burke plans to retire by next year, either once his successor is found or ahead of the company’s 2020 yearly shareholders meeting scheduled for March. Burke will be the last executive to hold the dual title, the Los Angeles-based infrastructure and engineering multinational said in a press […]

The U.S. Energy Department has roughly 6,500 cubic meters of transuranic waste yet to be shipped from the Idaho National Laboratory to the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) in New Mexico, an agency spokesperson said by email Nov. 15. That is about 10% of the 65,000 cubic meters of transuranic waste supposed to move from […]

President Donald Trump on Thursday signed another stopgap spending bill that will keep the federal government running nearly three months into the 2020 budget year. Major news organizations reported the president signed the agreement after the Senate earlier in the day voted 74-20 to pass a House amendment that extends the current continuing resolution to […]

California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) has set a March 3, 2020, primary followed by a May 12 special election to replace U.S. Rep. Katie Hill (D-Calif.), who resigned on Nov. 1 after being targeted for investigation by the House Ethics Committee. Hill, who represented the state’s 25th Congressional District that adjoins the Santa Susana Field […]

The U.S. Senate will vote Dec. 2, its first day back in Washington after Thanksgiving holiday break, on Dan Brouillette’s nomination to head the U.S. Department of Energy. The floor vote should occur around 5:30 p.m. ET that day, according to a Thursday Twitter post by the Senate’s Republican majority staff. Earlier Thursday, the Senate […]

The Senate Armed Services Committee on Tuesday advanced three of the four Trump administration nominations for the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board (DNFSB). The nominees approved on voice vote were: Bruce Hamilton, current DNFSB chairman; current board member Jessie Hill Roberson; and Thomas Summers, former vice commander of the 91st Missile Wing at Minot Air […]

Nuclear contractor UniTech Services Group, which provides laundry services for radioactive clothing in North America and Europe, has hired industry veteran Kevin Bumpus as business development manager for government accounts. Bumpus has 36 years in the nuclear business, including management experience in facilities and operations, and helped support key U.S. Energy Department initiatives, the company […]

Bechtel National has failed to sufficiently review the costs of subcontractors supporting construction of the $17 billion Waste Treatment Plant at the U.S. Energy Department’s Hanford Site in Washington state, according to a recent agency audit. Between December 2000 and June 2018, Bechtel paid nearly $2 billion for 392 subcontracts with flexible prices, such as […]

WASHINGTON — Dan Brouillette, who a few years ago was lobbying for the insurance industry and now is on track to join President Donald Trump’s Cabinet as secretary of energy, cruised Thursday morning through a Senate nomination hearing that briefly crossed wires with presidential impeachment proceedings in the House. With approval from the Senate, Brouillette […]

The liquid waste contractor at the U.S. Department of Energy’s Savannah River Site says it should not have to pay an additional $1 million to a former employee after it already paid $1.5 million last month following a jury decision in a discrimination lawsuit. Savannah River Remediation (SRR) also said in a Nov. 8 filing […]

The final test run early in 2020 of the U.S. Energy Department’s Integrated Waste Treatment Unit (IWTU) will employ a waste simulant rather than actual radioactive waste, as indicated in a Nov. 8 article in Weapons Complex Monitor.

Parsons on Tuesday posted higher third-quarter earnings due to a tax benefit, sales up on acquisitions in its Federal Solutions Segment, and to a lesser degree on an increase in organic revenue. Net income climbed 38% to $56.8 million, $0.57 earnings per share (EPS), from $41.2 million ($0.52 EPS). Adjusted earnings were up a percent […]

AECOM, the international infrastructure company that is preparing its exit from contracting for the U.S. Energy Department, on Tuesday reported record annual revenue but a net loss for its fiscal 2019. Company-wide revenue of almost $20.2 billion was up 2% from $20.15 billion in fiscal 2018, according to AECOM’s latest earnings report. But the net […]

A group of current and former contractors at the U.S. Energy Department’s Portsmouth Site in Ohio say two federal lawsuits accusing them of failure to contain radioactive contamination should be dismissed. Centrus Energy and the other companies say Ursula McGlone and other residents who live within 7 miles of the former gaseous diffusion plant failed […]

Strengthened whistleblower protections approved by Congress are now written into most but not all major contracts at the U.S. Energy Department, according to a DOE Office of Inspector General report dated Nov. 4. The office reviewed 30 of DOE’s largest contracts, together worth about $386 billion – or 94% of the agency’s $411 billion in […]

A year after the U.S. Energy Department’s Office of Environmental Management initiated its end-state contracting model, confusion remains over exactly what that approach involves, whether leadership is still behind it, and if staff is ready to execute. These are among the key takeaways Tuesday when DOE’s Environmental Management Advisory Board formally adopted a report on […]

The National Academies committee studying supplemental treatment of low-activity waste at the U.S. Energy Department’s Hanford Site in Washington state is accepting public comments until Nov. 20 on its upcoming report. The comment period was originally scheduled to end Oct. 31. A National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine panel is reviewing a predecisional report […]

The U.S. Energy Department’s Office of Environmental Management is starting market research for vendors to provide low-level and mixed low-level waste treatment services. The nuclear cleanup office on Tuesday issued a request for information (RFI)/sources-sought notice for waste treatment services at various sites across the DOE complex. The Cincinnati-based Environmental Management Consolidated Business Center said […]