Publications: Weapons Cleanup Monitor

The House Appropriations Committee is scheduled Tuesday to review an energy and water bill that would reverse the Trump administration’s plan to cut $700 million in funding for the Department of Energy’s nuclear cleanup office. The White House in March asked for just under $6.5 billion for the DOE Office of Environmental Management (EM) for […]

The Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board (DNFSB) has postponed its scheduled May 22 public hearing in Washington, D.C., on past radioactive waste accidents at the Energy Department’s Idaho National Laboratory and its Waste Isolation Pilot Plant in New Mexico. In a notice on its website, the DNFSB said the half-day public hearing is being rescheduled […]

By John Stang Perma-Fix Environmental Services has borrowed $2.5 million from one of its shareholders to be used for general working capital. The Atlanta-based nuclear services provider recorded the April 1 transaction in a May 9 10-Q filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. The unsecured loan is from shareholder Robert Ferguson, who is […]

The Advanced Mixed Waste Treatment Project (AMWTP) at the Idaho National Laboratory (INL) should complete its transuranic waste processing mission this summer, although some work remains beyond fiscal 2019. Roughly 6,500 cubic meters of material, or about 10% of the original total, still requires certification and transport to the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) in […]

The House Appropriations Committee appears ready to reject the Trump administration’s request to transfer a nuclear cleanup program from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to the Department of Energy. In its spending legislation for fiscal 2020, released Tuesday, the panel’s energy and water development subcommittee proposed $155 million for the Formerly Utilized Sites Remedial […]

As expected, major Energy Department contractor Fluor has formally selected longtime executive Carlos Hernandez as its permanent CEO, about two weeks after he took the job on an interim basis. Fluor’s Board of Directors also announced Thursday in a press release that Hernandez, previously the company executive vice president and chief legal officer, would serve […]

The management and operations contractor for the Savannah River Site in South Carolina has hired 900 employees to date in fiscal 2019, part of its efforts to offset workforce attrition and to ramp up current and upcoming missions. Savannah River Nuclear Solutions (SRNS) plans to hire up to 300 more workers before the fiscal year […]

An 18-month extension for a major Department of Energy contract gave a boost to AECOM’s earnings for the second quarter and first half of its 2019 fiscal year. Executives said this week they expect more wins in the years ahead. The Los Angeles-based infrastructure multinational on Wednesday reported just over $5 billion in revenue for […]

Dallas-based Jacobs Engineering is getting new leadership in the business division that manages its operations for the Department of Energy. Terry Hagen, Jacobs’ chief operating officer and president for the Aerospace, Technology, and Nuclear group, will retire from leadership effective June 3. He will be succeeded by Dawne Hickton, a former CEO and vice chair […]

Energy Department contractor Fluor Idaho says 28 employees took a voluntary separation package this spring as it reduces the workforce for the Advanced Mixed Waste Treatment Project (AMWTP) at the Idaho National Laboratory. Another 30 have since March 1 either transferred to other Fluor jobs away from AMWTP or left the company altogether, spokesman Erik […]

The Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board (DNFSB) has set a public hearing for May 22 in Washington, D.C., to consider the Department of Energy’s efforts to prevent future accidents during nuclear waste operations. The half-day meeting is broken into two sessions, according to the recently released agenda. In the first, the DNFSB will focus on improved […]

Communities around Energy Department nuclear cleanup sites deserve a voice in the agency’s much-discussed end-state contracting model, according to the Energy Communities Alliance. Local input is important “particularly in regard to DOE’s plans to implement any updated or revised approaches to waste management and disposal,” the ECA said in a recent report on national radioactive waste […]

The House of Representatives’ fiscal 2020 Energy and Water appropriations bill that contains the budget for the Department of Energy will include about 4% more funding than the enacted 2019 bill, according to spending limits published Tuesday by the House Appropriations Committee. The total allocation for the 2020 energy and water development appropriations bill, which […]

By John Stang Perma-Fix Environmental Services said Thursday that revenue in the first quarter of 2019 dropped by $1 million from the prior year, as the company’s services branch hit a lull in business. The Atlanta-based nuclear services provider said revenue fell from $12.7 million in first-quarter 2018 to $11.7 million in its latest earnings […]

The U.S. Department of Energy said Wednesday it has contracted five small businesses to provide $24.9 million worth of demolition and other cleanup services for the Oak Ridge Reservation in Tennessee. The selected companies are: Aerostar SES, of Oak Ridge; ARS Aleut Remediation, of Port Allen, La.; CTI and Associates, of Knoxville, Tenn.; GEM Technologies, […]

Energy Secretary Rick Perry on Thursday voiced support for his agency’s potential reinterpretation of the definition of high-level radioactive waste. The Department of Energy proposed the reinterpretation in October and is now reviewing public comments submitted through Jan. 9 on the matter. Ultimately, DOE could determine the definition should emphasize the radiological threat waste poses […]

An amendment to Washington state workers’ compensation law for employees of contractors at the Hanford Site takes effect July 28. Washington Gov. Jay Inslee (D) signed the bill last week to further ease requirements for approval of state workers’ compensation claims, even as the Department of Justice sues to have the underlying bill declared unconstitutional. […]

A small business near Hanford, i-3 Global, has been accused of failing to pay $446,618 to another small business two years after it was named Department of Energy Protege of the Year. I-3 Global was named in a civil lawsuit filed by Integrated Global Staffing in Benton County Superior Court in Washington state. Integrated Global […]

The AECOM-led Nuclear Waste Partnership (NWP) pocketed nearly $10.8 million of a potential $12.5 million in fees for its operation of the Energy Department’s Waste Isolation Pilot Plant in New Mexico during fiscal 2018. The NWP return would have been higher, but DOE deducted $100,000 for “breakdowns” in the contractor’s industrial hygiene program to protect […]

More than 30 piping repairs were made last month at the Savannah River Site’s aging H Canyon nuclear materials processing facility during a planned maintenance outage. Along with the repairs, site personnel used the outage to calibrate the facility’s electrical breakers and inspect its air tunnel, which has sustained corrosion over the years. “Regularly scheduled […]

The head of the Energy Department’s nuclear cleanup office assured a congressional panel Wednesday she will get to the bottom of its mushrooming environmental liability. “We are going to find out,” Assistant Secretary for Environmental Management Anne Marie White said when asked about the cause of escalating liability, by Rep. Brett Guthrie (R-Ky.), during a […]

The Energy Department should prepare comprehensive assessments of Cold War nuclear sites now storing high-level radioactive waste to determine how much of it could safely be handled as low-level or transuranic waste, the Energy Communities Alliance said Monday. That is one of a set of recommendations in an ECA report, which aims to build on […]

The second of two storage tunnels for radioactive waste from the PUREX Plant at the Hanford Site in Washington state has been stabilized. Contractor CH2M Hill Plateau Remediation Co. completed work on April 26. “The tunnel has been filled with grout, and we’ve significantly reduced the risk of contaminating Hanford workers, the public, or the […]

Department of Energy contractor Fluor moved up its quarterly earnings call by several hours Thursday to announce that David Seaton had stepped down as CEO and board member effective May 1. Executive Vice President and Chief Legal Officer Carlos Hernandez is stepping in as “interim” CEO, although there is no leadership search planned, Alan Boeckmann, […]

Lynchburg, Va.,-based BWX Technologies on Wednesday reported a drop in both revenue and profit during the first quarter of 2019. The Department of Energy contractor recorded revenue of $416 million, down 9% from $457 million in the first three months of 2018, according to a press release. Meanwhile, net income dropped from $66.4 million, or […]

The Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in California has finished a readiness assessment as it prepares to make its first shipment of transuranic waste in 14 years to the Energy Department’s Waste Isolation Pilot Plant in New Mexico. The national laboratory on March 29 completed the formal evaluation of its ability to characterize TRU waste and […]

Energy Department contractor Fluor Idaho has resumed treatment of the remaining sludge waste at the site of an April 11, 2018, accident at the Idaho National Laboratory in which four storage drums overheated and blew off their lids. Work at the Accelerated Retrieval Project 5 (ARP-5) facility at the Idaho Cleanup Project “has progressed safely […]

Whistleblower proceedings afforded workers at Energy Department contractors and subcontractors would be revised under a rulemaking proposal announced in a Federal Register notice Tuesday Contractor employees usually far outnumber federal workers at most DOE facilities and the agency started its own contractor protection program in 1992. This is part of an effort by DOE’s Office […]