Publications: Weapons Cleanup Monitor

The U.S. Department of Energy is seeking the $50 million it believes it needs to design and build a facility intended to reduce the cost and time of cleaning up nuclear waste at the Savannah River Site near Aiken, S.C. The request in the fiscal 2020 budget rollout comes after a two-year standstill regarding the […]

WASHINGTON — The head of the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board (DNFSB) told members of Congress here Tuesday he hopes the Department of Energy will “fix” a controversial rule that could limit board access to nuclear weapons facilities during the agency’s upcoming one-year review of the directive. In May 2018, the department issued the controversial […]

Contractors at the Hanford Site in Washington state overlooked some factors in conducting cost analyses before deciding whether to lease rather than purchase office trailers and other space for their work, according to a recent audit by the Department of Energy inspector general of the agency’s leased space. Those omissions included failing to ensure trailers […]

The Energy Department is extending the deadline for bids on the paramilitary security services contract at the Savannah River Site in South Carolina from April 22 until May 7. In a question-and-answer exchange posted online April 5, a prospective contractor asked for a two-week extension, noting the pre-bid meeting and tour on March 26, “coupled […]

The Energy Department has until April 24 to decide whether to exercise a 22-month option to keep North Wind-led Portsmouth Mission Alliance (PMA) on the job as the infrastructure support contractor for the Portsmouth Site in Ohio. The $140 million contract for the North Wind-Swift & Staley joint venture began in March 2016 and runs […]

The Energy Department and Parsons are saying little about their recent spat over missed deadlines at the Savannah River Site’s Salt Waste Processing Facility (SWPF), including whether the federal agency has begun imposing up to $33 million in penalties against the contractor. One milestone has already passed: a March 31 deadline for Parsons to submit a declaration of readiness to […]

Fluor Idaho said Tuesday it intends in the next few months to shrink the workforce at the Advanced Mixed Waste Treatment Project (AMWTP) at the Idaho National Laboratory by 190 employees. The contractor will first offer a voluntary separation package in two phases to reduce headcount as the facility nears the end of its mission. […]

The Department of Energy is asking the head of the Environmental Protection Agency, Andrew Wheeler, to overrule an EPA regional office in a dispute over water discharge standards for radionuclides at the Oak Ridge Site in Tennessee. Jay Mullis, manager of DOE’s Oak Ridge Office of Environmental Management, said in an April 5 letter to […]

Open-air demolition using heavy equipment of the Plutonium Finishing Plant (PFP) at the Hanford Site in Washington state resumed on Thursday. It is the first demolition at the plant since an airborne spread of radioactive contamination was discovered in December 2017. Workers with cleanup contractor CH2M Hill Plateau Remediation Co. were ready to restart teardown […]

Three teams are believed to be vying for the 10-year, $13 billion Tank Closure Contract at the Energy Department’s Hanford Site in Washington state, according to an industry source. Proposals by vendor teams hoping to succeed AECOM-led Washington River Protection Solutions were due March 21. The Energy Department is scheduled to hear oral presentations by […]

The Department of Energy has issued a small business sources-sought notice on nuclear remediation activities currently provided by Fluor Idaho and Spectra Tech at the Idaho National Laboratory. Fluor Idaho holds the full five-year, $1.6 billion Idaho Cleanup Project contract, which runs through May 2021. Spectra Tech has a five-year, $41 million contract for environmental […]

Limited record keeping at the old Rocky Flats nuclear weapons plant in Colorado might have factored into an April 2018 waste drum “explosion” at the Idaho National Laboratory, Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board (DNFSB) Chairman Bruce Hamilton said Tuesday. There were “marginal records kept” on drums of Rocky Flats-origin sludge waste buried at INL for […]

Newport News Nuclear BWXT-Los Alamos has named Glenn Morgan as its new president and program manager overseeing legacy cleanup operations at the Energy Department’s Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico. Morgan replaces Nick Lombardo, who retired in January, according to N3B. Morgan has been serving as acting program manager since January after joining N3B […]

Funds for cleanup of the Energy Department’s footprint at the Santa Susana Field Laboratory (SSFL) in California would increase from $11 million in fiscal 2019 to $18 million in fiscal 2020, if Congress approves the Donald Trump administration’s budget request. The department in this calendar year expects to issue the record of decision for environmental […]

A federal judge in South Carolina said Thursday that race might have been a factor in why a laid-off employee with the Savannah River Site’s liquid waste contractor was not rehired for a separate job five years ago. Magistrate Judge Paige Gossett added that, while Savannah River Remediation (SRR) says it used evaluation scores to […]

The Energy Department confirmed Monday it has formally extended Savannah River Remediation’s (SRR) contract to manage liquid waste operations at the Savannah River Site in South Carolina through Sept. 30, 2020. The agreement was signed March 29. The extension is valued at roughly $750 million, SRR lead partner AECOM said in a Tuesday news release. […]

The Energy Department’s Office of Environmental Management is altering provisions of its request for proposals (RFP) for security at the Savannah River Site in South Carolina in response to questions from potential bidders. The tweaks involve decreasing small business subcontracting requirements for the winning vendor from 30% to 10%, as well as making it clear […]

The Department of Energy’s Portsmouth/Paducah Project Office (PPPO) has extended the contracts for three technical support services providers, potentially through the end of the year, an agency spokesperson confirmed Monday. In a notice released in January, DOE’s Office of Environmental Management indicated it could push back the expiration of the contracts held by the three […]

The Department of Energy could take steps to reduce the cost, shorten the schedule, and increase the efficiency of environmental remediation at the Hanford Site in Washington state, according to the agency’s top nuclear cleanup official. Anne White made her fifth trip to Hanford last week on the first anniversary of her March 29, 2018, […]

The Energy Department Office of Environmental Management (EM) expects to speed cleanup of its nuclear sites by decades and save “$100s of millions” in life-cycle costs, according to the Donald Trump administration’s fiscal 2020 budget request. The request, issued in March, would trim the DOE nuclear remediation appropriation from $7.2 billion in fiscal 2019 to […]

Perma-Fix Environmental Services said Monday it is progressing toward renewal of its Washington state Dangerous Waste Regulations permit for its low-level and mixed-low-level radioactive waste processing facility in the city of Richland. The permit for the Perma-Fix Northwest plant, near the Department of Energy’s Hanford Site, expired in 2010 and has yet to be renewed. […]

Centrus Energy should wrap up $15 million worth of decontamination and decommissioning at the Energy Department’s Oak Ridge Site in Tennessee by Sept. 30, according to a financial filing Monday. Last September, DOE issued the contract to the Maryland-based company to prepare the K-1600 building for demolition. Centrus leased the K-1600 building to further test […]

After its first effort fell short of its goal, Department of Energy cleanup contractor Fluor-BWXT Portsmouth is reviving its voluntary separation program in hopes of finding 29 more workers ready to take early departure. The decontamination and decommissioning contractor for the Portsmouth Site in Ohio in December first issued its offer in hopes of persuading […]

Energy Secretary Rick Perry suggested Tuesday he is ready to again suspend his agency’s past practice of bartering excess government uranium to help pay for environmental remediation at the Portsmouth Site in Ohio. “I agree with you,” Perry told Sen. John Barrasso (R-Wyo.), a vocal opponent of the practice, during a Senate Energy and Natural […]

The Energy Department and the state of Idaho have yet to discuss potential shipments of transuranic waste from the Separations Process Research Unit (SPRU) in New York state to the Idaho National Laboratory during fiscal 2020 and 2021. The fiscal 2020 budget justification for DOE’s Office of Environmental Management envisions sending 24 containers filled with […]

The Department of Energy on Monday issued preliminary notices of violation to CH2M Hill Plateau Remediation Co. over repeated incidents of radiological contamination spread at the Hanford Site in Washington state. Radioactive particles were found outside the established radiological control boundary of the Plutonium Finishing Plant demolition site in 2017 and 2018. The Energy Department […]

The $6.5 billion fiscal 2020 budget request for the Energy Department’s Office of Environmental Management would resume the practice of “bartering” excess government uranium in order to defray cleanup costs at the Portsmouth Gaseous Diffusion Plant in Piketon, Ohio. Sen. John Barrasso (R-Wyo.), who chairs the Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works, helped win […]

The Savannah River Site would receive nearly $798 million for liquid tank waste treatment under the Department of Energy’s fiscal 2020 budget request – an uptick of more than $100 million from the current federal budget year. Most other missions under the South Carolina facility’s Environmental Management (EM) program would also get a boost if […]