Publications: Weapons Cleanup Monitor

An independent opinion that could help determine the outcome of a federal lawsuit claiming a Savannah River Site contractor overcharged the federal government by $5 million is still being decided after nearly three years, according to a status report recently filed in the case. The joint status report was submitted by the U.S. Department of Energy and […]

Atkins Nuclear Secured Holdings has won a 13-month extension to its ongoing research contract for the U.S. Energy Department’s Hanford Site in Washington state. The SNC-Lavalin Group subsidiary said Monday it is providing technology support testing for the Hanford Office of River Protection in preparation for vitrification of low-activity radioactive waste at the Waste Treatment […]

Startup of the Savannah River Site’s $2.3 billion Salt Waste Processing Facility (SWPF) has been pushed back to the first quarter of next year, following initial efforts to begin operations in December 2018 and a more recent target of December 2019. Meanwhile, Parsons said it has received an undisclosed amount of back pay owed by […]

Both AECOM and the investment group planning to buy its government contracting business could call off the deal if it takes too long to complete, according to a recent financial filing. AECOM plans to sell its Management Services business to Maverick Purchaser Sub LLC, a joint venture formed by investment firms American Securities and Lindsay […]

The leader of the Senate Armed Services Committee (SASC) plans to introduce a stripped-down version of the fiscal 2020 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) next week as a last-ditch effort to push colleagues to reach consensus on a number of partisan issues while the conference bill flounders. “This is sincere, but this is only in […]

The U.S. Department of Energy and the Washington state Department of Ecology on Wednesday kicked off talks they hope will result in a mutually agreeable future plan to address key issues in management of radioactive tank waste at the Hanford Site. An Energy Department spokesperson confirmed the talks were underway. “The Department appreciates the discussions […]

The U.S. Energy Department’s Office of Environmental Management should revamp its 2017 nuclear cleanup policy to make its remediation decisions more risk-informed, according to the Government Accountability Office (GAO). Reports issued since the 1990s by the GAO and DOE’s Office of Inspector General, among others, urged the nuclear cleanup office, when making decisions about remediation, […]

The new method used by the U.S. Energy Department to calculate waste-disposal volumes at the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant near Carlsbad, N.M., is significantly increasing the amount of radioactive material that can be interred, an advocacy group says. Last December, the New Mexico Environment Department approved a modification to DOE’s hazardous waste permit for the […]

Solutient Technologies is near final approval to start taking air and dust samples at Zahn’s Corner Middle School and other properties near the U.S. Energy Department’s Portsmouth Site in Pike County, Ohio, in order to check on potential radiological contamination. In September, the Canton, Ohio-based radiological services and remediation specialist submitted its final scope of […]

Leidos-led Mission Support Alliance (MSA) appears set to remain in place another six months, through May 25, 2020, as the support services contractor at the U.S. Energy Department’s Hanford Site in Washington state. The department’s Office of Environmental Management cited the timeline in an email sent Monday to employees at the Hanford Site. The current […]

President Donald Trump said he plans to nominate Deputy Secretary of Energy Dan Brouillette to replace Rick Perry as head of the agency responsible for U.S. nuclear weapons and Cold War nuclear-waste cleanup. Brouillette has been Perry's deputy secretary for just over two years. When Trump first nominated him, a source said the longtime insurance […]

A 45-day comment period began Monday on proposed changes to the Tri-Party Agreement (TPA) that governs cleanup at the Hanford Site in Washington state. The parties to the agreement – the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), and Washington state Department of Ecology – will accept comments through Nov. 29. The […]

The Hanford Atomic Metal Trades Council (HAMTC) has reached a tentative deal for one-year extensions to existing labor contracts for hundreds of union members employed by major vendors at the U.S. Energy Department’s Hanford Site in Washington state. In a Facebook post Monday, HAMTC announced that its negotiating committee had reached the agreement with contractors […]

The Jacobs-led company in charge of cleanup of the former gaseous diffusion plant at the U.S. Energy Department’s Paducah Site in Kentucky has selected a new top executive. Myrna Redfield, who has about 30 years experience in environmental management, was named president and CEO/project manager at Four Rivers Nuclear Partnership on Aug. 29, the joint […]

The U.S. Energy Department has now formally announced plans to keep the three current providers of technical support services for the Portsmouth/Paducah Project Office (PPPO) on the job through June 2020. The agency filed a notice Oct. 10 announcing plans to keep Albuquerque, N.M.-based Strategic Management Solutions Inc. (SMSI) on the job for up to […]

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) on Thursday filed cloture on the motion to proceed with two appropriations bills for fiscal 2020, opening up the possibility of the Senate voting next week on first a minibus bill full of domestic spending and then following with a second minibus that includes the Department of Energy. The […]

AECOM announced Monday it plans to sell its government contracting business for $2.4 billion to two investment firms rather than advancing a previous plan to spin the branch off into a stand-alone public company. Affiliates of New York City-based American Securities and Lindsay Goldberg are joining to buy AECOM’s Management Services business. In its press […]

Rick Perry on Thursday announced his resignation as the Donald Trump administration’s first secretary of energy after more than two-and-a-half years on the job. In a published letter to President Donald Trump, Perry said he would resign “later this year” from the Cabinet. Dan Brouillette, the deputy secretary of energy, will then take over as […]

It’s official: Brian Vance is the sole manager of both the Richland Operations Office and the Office of River Protection at the U.S. Energy Department’s sprawling Hanford Site in Washington state. The longtime manager and U.S. Navy veteran had filled this dual role in an acting capacity since February. Energy Secretary Rick Perry informed Congress […]

The U.S. Energy Department’s Savannah River Site in South Carolina is looking for potential buyers of 52 railcars previously used to transport uranium-contaminated soil. Expressions of interest are sought by 11:59 a.m. on Oct. 14 for the government surplus gondola railcars, manufactured in 1998 and 1999 by Thrall Car Manufacturing, now part of Trinity Industries. […]

The U.S. Energy Department’s Office of Environmental Management (EM), which oversees remediation of 16 Cold War and Manhattan Project nuclear sites, now has a Twitter account (@EMcleanup). The account launched Sept. 9 to mark the 30th anniversary of nuclear cleanup office with a tweet honoring the 20,000-plus Environmental Management workers and contractors. The Office of […]

The U.S. Energy Department is taking public comment through Nov. 6 on plans to continue remediation of the 100-BC Area of the Hanford Site in Washington state. The 100-BC Area stretches about 4.5 square miles along the Columbia River corridor and was home to two now-deactivated nuclear reactors that produced plutonium from the 1940s through […]

Centrus Energy on Wednesday said it had finished the $15 million decontamination and decommissioning of the K-1600 plant at the U.S. Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge Site in Tennessee. The Bethesda, Md.-based nuclear fuel supplier met its budget and schedule commitments for the job, according to a press release. “I’m pleased our team was able […]

The Senate Appropriations Committee wants a report from the U.S. Energy Department on what it will take to decommission excess facilities at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in California over the next 10 years. The panel made the request on Sept. 12 in a report accompanying its version of the $49-billion energy and water development […]

OAK RIDGE, Tenn.—The U.S. Department of Energy is preparing a study that could help determine how to treat contaminated groundwater at the East Tennessee Technology Park (ETTP), the former site of uranium enrichment for nuclear weapons and nuclear power reactors. The feasibility study is expected to evaluate technologies that could be used to treat the […]

House Appropriations Committee Chair Nita Lowey (D-N.Y.) on Thursday said she would retire from Congress rather than seeking re-election in 2020. “I am honored that my colleagues in Congress elected me as the first Chairwoman of the House Appropriations Committee and will fight vigorously for House Democratic priorities as I negotiate spending bills for fiscal […]

U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), seeking her party’s nomination for president, on Wednesday proposed reinstating corporate taxes to pay for cleanup of Superfund sites contaminated by hazardous wastes. The measure is among a list of proposals in the candidate’s new environmental justice plan. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency lists more than 1,300 Superfund properties on […]

KNOXVILLE, Tenn.– Some large infrastructure projects in the U.S. Energy Department’s nationwide nuclear cleanup complex should be completed in the next couple years, an agency official said Wednesday. That should include startup of the Salt Waste Processing Facility (SWPF) at the Savannah River Site in South Carolina and the Integrated Waste Treatment Unit (IWTU) at […]