Publications: Weapons Cleanup Monitor

The Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board (DNFSB) says the design of a planned new ventilation system at the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) near Carlsbad, N.M., does not do enough to prevent radiation from a possible underground accident from reaching the surface. The board wants the U.S. Energy Department to respond to the concerns in […]

ALEXANDRIA, Va. – The U.S. Energy Department’s top official at the Hanford Site in Washington state has a full plate these days. That includes preparing for potential turnover of four top contractors and gearing up for operation of the $17 billion Waste Treatment and Immobilization Plant (WTP) by 2023, Brian Vance, who manages both the […]

The legacy cleanup contractor for the U.S. Energy Department’s Los Alamos Nuclear Laboratory in New Mexico is seeking a firm to monitor vapor levels around certain disposal areas. Newport News Nuclear BWXT-Los Alamos (N3B) on Monday issued an updated request for proposals at www.fbo.gov for a subcontractor to collect and report on material disposal area […]

A new federal lawsuit against the U.S. Environmental Protecting Agency (EPA) claims runoff from the Energy Department’s Los Alamos National Laboratory is hurting water quality in Los Alamos County, N.M. The lawsuit was filed Monday in U.S. District Court in New Mexico against the EPA, agency Administrator Andrew Wheeler, and EPA Region 6 Administrator Ken […]

The U.S. Energy Department plans to continue to pay Boeing for access to a federal facility being prepared for remediation within the aerospace giant’s property at the Santa Susana Field Laboratory in Ventura County, Calif. The access agreement with Boeing would otherwise expire Sept. 30. Energy Department Contracting Officer John Blecher on Monday signed off on […]

The Department of Energy’s Savannah River Site is delaying roofing repairs at its H Canyon nuclear materials processing facility, after stating at the start of the year that construction would begin around midsummer. That is because the repairs are not urgent or required by a specific deadline, said Barbara Smoak, spokeswoman for site management contractor […]

ALEXANDRIA, Va. – A draft environmental assessment on commercial disposal of up to 10,000 gallons of radioactive wastewater from the Savannah River Site in South Carolina could be issued for public comment by the end of 2019. The feedback to the draft assessment, under the National Environmental Policy Act of 1969, will help determine if […]

The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission is giving stakeholders an additional 60 days to comment on a document that could lay the groundwork for an update to regulations on disposal of Greater-Than-Class C (GTCC) low-level radioactive waste. The public comment period for the draft regulatory basis had been scheduled to close on Sept. 20. But the […]

Site preparation is continuing for the next large-scale Saltstone Disposal Unit (SDU) at the U.S. Department of Energy’s Savannah River Site in South Carolina, with plans to begin construction in May 2020. According to a post Monday on the site’s Facebook page, liquid waste contractor Savannah River Remediation (SRR) has completed excavation of the location […]

The U.S. Energy Department does not have a clear strategy to combat rising costs and delays for the Integrated Waste Treatment Unit (IWTU) at the Idaho National Laboratory, the Government Accountability Office (GAO) said Monday. In the report, GAO says the Energy Department has not followed best practices that dictate cost estimates be “comprehensive, accurate, […]

Fluor Idaho, the U.S. Energy Department’s cleanup contractor at the Idaho National Laboratory, expects within weeks to largely conclude its work at the Advanced Mixed Waste Treatment Project (AMWTP). As of late August, 140 cubic meters of transuranic waste debris remained to be treated at the AMWTP, company spokesman Erik Simpson said by email Tuesday. […]

ALEXANDRIA, Va. — While the U.S. Energy Department has moved slower than anticipated in awarding several multibillion-dollar nuclear cleanup contracts, it is important to get the process correct, DOE Undersecretary for Science Paul Dabbar said Wednesday. “We want to make sure we are doing it the right way,” Dabbar said during his speech at the […]

Washington state and federal officials are ready for negotiations on “a holistic and realistic path forward” on the schedule for disposal of radioactive tank waste stored at the U.S. Energy Department’s Hanford Site, the top official at the facility said in a letter this week. Brian Vance, DOE manager for both the Richland Operations Office and […]

HENDERSON, Nev. – Nuclear cleanup vendors hope the U.S. Energy Department’s new approach to procurement succeeds in quickening the pace of contract awards, one executive said here last week. That was the assessment of the end-state contracting model offered Sept. 3 at the ExchangeMonitor’s RadWaste Summit by Cathy Hickey, executive vice president for Navarro Research […]

HENDERSON, Nev. — There is roughly three decades of environmental work left at the U.S. Energy Department’s Oak Ridge Site in Tennessee, mostly at Y-12 National Security Complex and the Oak Ridge National Laboratory, according to one official. “We’ve got about 30 years of cleanup to do, we think, based on a relatively flat funding […]

The latest soil samples from around the Rocky Flats Natural Wildlife Refuge show residual radiological contamination at the one-time nuclear weapons site in Colorado poses no health threat for employees, hikers, or nearby communities, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service said in a report Sept. 6. The samples taken in June around the former location […]

New Mexico-based Strategic Management Solutions filed a protest with the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) on Monday over a contract worth up to $137 million to provide technical support services for the Energy Department’s Portsmouth/Paducah Project Office. The DOE Office of Environmental Management issued the award on Aug. 22 to Oak Ridge, Tenn.-based Enterprise Technical […]

The Senate Appropriations Committee on Thursday approved legislation that would provide $7.45 billion in fiscal 2020 for the Energy Department’s Office of Environmental Management. The nuclear cleanup funding in the Senate energy and water appropriations bill outstrips the roughly $7.2 billion approved by the House of Representatives in a “minibus” spending package in June, along […]

U.S. Energy Secretary Rick Perry on Sept. 6 visited the Energy Technology Engineering Center (ETEC) at the Santa Susana Field Laboratory to assess challenges associated with cleanup of the site. The Energy Department said in a Friday press release that Perry was keeping a promise he made in June to visit the facility. The Energy […]

By John Pfeffer Once again, the Town of Ashford and the West Valley Demonstration Project (WVDP) in New York state are on the outside looking in as far the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) is concerned. A recent DOE proposal for interpreting the definition of high-level waste might have cleared the way for relocation of […]

HENDERSON, Nev. — Communities along the Georgia-South Carolina line, as well as U.S. Energy Department cleanup vendors, are closely tracking federal consideration of disposal options for 10,000 gallons of vitrified wastewater from the Savannah River Site. When the Energy Department published its proposed reinterpretation of the definition of radioactive high-level waste (HLW) in June, it […]

The U.S. Energy Department expects the number of transuranic waste shipments to its Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) near Carlsbad, N.M., to increase by more than 50% between fiscal 2020 and fiscal 2023. The agency anticipates it will receive about 400 shipments of defense-related TRU waste at the underground disposal site in fiscal 2020, which […]

The U.S. Department of Energy now plans to issue its draft record of decision for a proposed 2.2-million-cubic yard landfill for the Oak Ridge Site in Tennessee on Sept. 30. Officials with DOE’s Office of Environmental Management, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, and the state of Tennessee agreed to delay publication of the ROD from […]

HENDERSON, Nev. — The U.S. Energy Department’s Office of Environmental Management and the vendors that provide it with nuclear remediation services are reasonably satisfied with the “end state” approach to contracting — although some lingering issues remain. That was the message shared Tuesday by the No. 2 official at the nuclear cleanup office, Todd Shrader, […]

Removal of radioactive waste from a major single-shell tank, AX-102, is getting underway at the U.S. Energy Department’s Hanford Site in Washington state. AECOM-led tank farm contractor Washington River Protection Solutions announced via social media Aug. 29 its workers would start waste retrieval over the weekend. It is the latest effort to relocate waste from […]

The city of Broomfield, Colo., said this week no contractor will likely be selected to build a new stretch of bypass near the old Rocky Flats nuclear weapons plant until questions are addressed over a soil sample showing the presence of plutonium in the right of way for the road. The Broomfield City Council posted […]

After three days of bracing for impact from Hurricane Dorian, officials at the U.S. Department of Energy’s Savannah River Site determined Friday that the storm was no longer a local threat as it moved up the North Carolina coast. According to the emergency status page for the 310-square-mile site near Aiken, S.C., “there are currently no Operational Emergencies or scheduled delays for […]

As a discrimination case filed against Savannah River Site’s liquid waste contractor approaches trial next month, the company is petitioning a federal judge to bar evidence from being presented regarding four white employees on the basis that their jobs are irrelevant to the case. Adrienne Saulsberry, an African-American woman who was terminated by Savannah River […]