Publications: Weapons Cleanup Monitor

A federal appeals court ruled this week Bechtel National is not due reimbursement from the U.S. government for $500,000 in legal fees the company incurred prior to settling discrimination litigation brought by two former employees at the Energy Department’s Hanford Site in Washington state. In an opinion issued Tuesday, a three-judge panel for the U.S. […]

A bill to reauthorize the Department of Energy’s West Valley Demonstration Project Act was reported out of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee on a voice vote Tuesday. The measure was passed in a bloc of 20 bills considered at once by the panel, including committee Chair Lisa Murkowski’s (R-Alaska) Nuclear Energy Leadership Act. […]

The Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board (DNFSB) is concerned about the age and reliability of the electrical system in a historic building still used for interim storage of radioactive sludge at the Energy Department’s Hanford Site in Washington state. The board, in a July 2 report submitted to Energy Secretary Rick Perry, suggested installation of […]

The Savannah River Site’s security contractor earned $96.1% of its possible award fee from the U.S. Department of Energy for services provided during the first half of fiscal 2019. Centerra-Savannah River Site brought in just shy of $3.14 million, out of a potential $3.26 million for the period from Oct. 1, 2018, to March 31, […]

A 14,000- acre wildlife in Benton County, Wash., briefly burned some land on the outskirts of the Energy Department’s 586-square mile Hanford Site, but was moving away from the nuclear cleanup complex early Friday. At press time there were no specifics available on actual damage at the Hanford Site. “It did cross over very briefly […]

The head of corporate services for the U.S. Energy Department’s Office of Environmental Management (EM), Paul Bosco, has returned to his old job at the agency. Bosco, EM associate principal deputy assistant secretary for corporate services for less than a year, has rejoined DOE’s Office of Project Management as director. The move apparently was in […]

Managers at the Energy Department’s Waste Isolation Pilot Plant near Carlsbad, N.M., plan more training to help ensure no mislabeled or improperly packaged shipments reach the underground disposal site for defense transuranic waste. Some training could be rolled out in the near future to minimize the chance of any shipments ending up at WIPP without […]

The U.S. Department of Energy wants negotiations to start soon with Washington state and the Environmental Protection Agency over updated plans for radioactive waste stored in 177 underground tanks at the Hanford Site in Washington state. At the same time, the Energy Department said in a July 11 letter to Washington state Department of Ecology […]

Savannah River Nuclear Solutions (SNRS) will continue managing the U.S. Department of Energy’s Savannah River Site in South Carolina for the next 14 months, and possibly another two years after that, according to an announcement Thursday. The $1.5 billion contract extension will keep SRNS on the job at least from Aug. 1 through Sept. 30, […]

AECOM on Monday named a senior executive with the United Kingdom’s Nuclear Decommissioning Authority (NDA) to lead the international arm of the company’s Management Services nuclear and strategic environment branch. David Batters will join AECOM on Sept. 1 as senior vice president and international sector lead for the Management Services nuclear and environment unit. The […]

Marian Davis has resigned as chief financial officer of uranium fuel broker and enrichment technology company Centrus Energy Corp., according to a regulatory filing. Davis submitted her letter of resignation June 7 and was expected to leave the company after it filed its 10-Q report on quarterly earnings for the period ended June 30, according […]

The House of Representatives on Thursday approved an amendment to the fiscal 2020 National Defense Authorization Act that would prevent the Department of Energy from applying any “reclassification” of high-level radioactive waste to material held in Washington state. The measure from Rep. Adam Smith (D-Wash.) was approved by voice vote as part of a package […]

Participation in the 2018 public survey on issues at the Energy Department’s Hanford Site in Washington state was less than half the count from the prior year. Only 55 people took part in the latest online survey, with 51 completing all the questions, far below the 119 responses a year earlier. Of those responding to […]

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The Department of Energy is taking public comment through Aug. 2 on a $218 million proposal, along with less-costly options, for minimizing health and environmental risks at the Plutonium Uranium Extraction (PUREX) Plant at the Hanford Site in Washington state. The preferred option focuses on a key building and annexes at the plant – not […]

Preparations began this week for repairing the roof on the H Canyon facility at the Department of Energy’s Savannah River Site (SRS) in South Carolina, with the physical repairs due to start later this summer. In January, the Energy Department announced plans to spend an estimated $1 million from the SRS fiscal 2019 maintenance and […]

In less than two months, the U.S. Department of Energy expects to issue a draft request for proposals for remediation at the 33,000-acre Oak Ridge Reservation in Tennessee. The agency posted its plans for the solicitation July 2 on a federal procurement website. Vendors should expect a 100% full and open competition with a pre-solicitation […]

The U.S. Justice Department has elected not to intervene in a fraud case filed by an ex-employee against an Energy Department contractor at the Hanford Site in Washington state, the advocacy group Hanford Challenge said Tuesday. The Justice Department declined comment Thursday afternoon, and Hanford Challenge could not immediately be reached for further comment. Kevin […]

Another member of the brain trust for former assistant energy secretary for environmental management Anne Marie White is rumored to be on the move. The head of corporate services at the Energy Department’s Office of Environmental Management (EM), Paul Bosco, is apparently leaving his current post to take another position at the agency, two industry […]

A bill to reauthorize the Energy Department’s continued nuclear cleanup at the West Valley Demonstration Project in New York state drew scant attention Tuesday during a hearing of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources energy subcommittee. The measure was one of 11 bills for consideration and testimony at the one-hour morning legislative hearing. Subcommittee Chairman […]

The Pike County, Ohio, General Health District wants the U.S. Department of Energy to provide it with corrected air sampling reports from 2001 through 2017 after a federal official acknowledged last month a contractor under-reported potential contamination around the Portsmouth Site. Energy Undersecretary for Science Paul Dabbar said in a June 6 letter to Pike […]

Centrus Energy Corp. has started work on a next-generation uranium enrichment cascade that could give the company a leg up in the competition to build the next domestic enrichment facility for national defense, according to a document published Wednesday by the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission. In a June 27 letter to the federal regulator, the […]

The Department of Energy inspector general has “potential concerns” about agency oversight of $500,000 in grant money awarded to a regional group that promotes economic development around the Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico. That is the assessment offered in a July 2 memorandum from Deputy Inspector General Michelle Anderson to DOE Undersecretary for […]

The Washington state Department of Ecology is trying to force the U.S. Department of Energy to put a plan in place by fall 2023 for tranfserring radioactive and chemical waste from 149 single-shell tanks to double-shell tanks at the Hanford Site. In a document dated June 27, the state agency indicated it will not extend […]

Two class-action lawsuits have now been filed against companies doing work at the Energy Department’s Portsmouth Site in Ohio since a nearby middle school was closed due to the potential spread of radioactive contamination. On June 28, two individuals who have long lived within 2 miles of the former gaseous diffusion plant filed suit against […]

Repackaging of radioactive sludge waste at the site of an April 2018 drum breach at the Department of Energy’s Idaho National Laboratory is nearly complete, according to a monthly report filed with the Idaho Department of Environmental Quality. Site cleanup contractor Fluor Idaho said in its June 27 update it has completed processing all material […]

Bechtel and the Energy Department are accepting public comment through Aug. 30 on a proposed modification to the Washington state Department of Ecology hazardous waste permit for the Low-Activity Waste and Effluent Management facilities being built at the Hanford Site in Washington state. The permit revision will provide operational details for the two facilities in […]

The Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee’s energy subcommittee is scheduled next Tuesday to consider legislation to reauthorize Energy Department cleanup at the West Valley Demonstration Project in New York. The West Valley Reauthorization Act, H.R. 1138, passed the full House of Representatives by voice vote on March 5. The legislation from Rep. Tom Reed […]