Publications: Weapons Cleanup Monitor

The U.S. Department of Energy will likely need an updated strategy sooner than anticipated for temporary storage of treated radioactive liquid waste at the Savannah River Site in South Carolina, according to the DOE Inspector General’s Office. The department’s Office of Environmental Management (EM) did not properly assess the reliability of its strategy to store […]

While the Energy Communities Alliance (ECA) hopes the Department of Energy will readjust its classification of high-level radioactive waste, it has not forgotten the federal agency still owes Congress a report on the issue. The ECA asked the House and Senate Armed Services committees on Tuesday to “attempt to require” compliance with a provision of the […]

BWX Technologies, of Lynchburg, Va., said Monday it capped 2018 with better than 50-percent earnings growth after clinching more nuclear naval, environmental cleanup, and uranium downblending work from the Department of Energy. Company-wide net earnings came in at over $225 million in 2018, up more than 50 percent from just under $150 million in 2017. […]

The management and operations contractor for the Department of Energy’s Savannah River Site could be headed to trial near the end of the year over a federal negligence lawsuit filed in November by a site employee. A scheduling order filed Monday in U.S. District Court for South Carolina outlines tasks that must be completed by […]

Three Department of Energy field managers in New Mexico said Thursday that an agency order issued last year will bring little change in a good relationship with an independent federal watchdog, the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board (DNFSB). The officials offered the commitment at a DNFSB public hearing in Albuquerque, N.M. The four board members […]

The U.S. Department of Justice and Washington state have agreed that a federal lawsuit over a new state law easing workers’ compensation requirements for ill Hanford Site workers likely can be resolved without a trial. Both have told the court they plan to file motions for summary judgment in the case. Judge Stanley Bastian, of […]

The Energy Department’s Office of Environmental Management wants vendor feedback on a potential new contract to provide infrastructure support services at the Portsmouth Site in Ohio and the Paducah Site in Kentucky. The request for information/sources sought notice was issued Tuesday by DOE’s Cincinnati-based Environmental Management Consolidated Business Center. The Energy Department is in the […]

The Energy Department plans to extend a sole-source task order so contractor CDM can generate additional reports on the cleanup of the Energy Technology Engineering Center (ETEC) at the Santa Susana Field Laboratory in California. The agency announced its intention to keep CDM on the job through the end of the year in a Wednesday […]

As part of its efforts to put its house in order, the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board (DNFSB) intends hire a high-level staff management position, Chairman Bruce Hamilton said Feb. 14 during a meeting in Washington, D.C. “We need to hire this executive secretary, or chief of staff, or whatever you want to call it,” […]

The enforcement arm of the Energy Department’s Office of Enterprise Assessments (EA) has opened an investigation into potential shortcomings in the industrial hygiene program at the agency’s Waste Isolation Pilot Plant near Carlsbad, N.M. The EA Office of Enforcement is studying “potential deficiencies” in implementation of DOE industrial hygiene requirements by WIPP contractor Nuclear Waste […]

U.S. Rep. Tom Reed (R-N.Y.) last week again introduced legislation to reauthorize the Department of Energy’s West Valley Demonstration Project in New York. The measure, co-sponsored by Rep. Brian Higgins (D-N.Y.), was filed Feb. 11 and assigned to the House Energy and Commerce Committee. As of Thursday, the text has not been received for the […]

Fluor, a major Energy Department contractor, on Thursday reported a drop in revenue but higher earnings for 2018. The Dallas-area company took in $225 million in earnings attributable to Fluor, $1.59 per diluted share, for the 12 months ended Dec. 31. That was up from roughly $191 million, or $1.36 per diluted share, for 2017, […]

The New Mexico Senate on Monday unanimously confirmed former U.S. Environmental Protection Agency manager James Kenney as secretary of the state Environment Department. New Mexico Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham (D) named Kenney as secretary-designate to NMED on Jan. 7. Along with enforcing environmental laws, the department oversees hazardous waste and radioactive sources at U.S. Department […]

By Calvin Biesecker Leidos on Tuesday posted higher sales and earnings due to top-line growth across its business segments and higher operating income in its Health and Civil segments. Net income increased 65 percent to $188 million, $1.25 earnings per share (EPS), from $114 million (74 cents EPS) a year ago. The strong earnings were […]

A lawsuit filed by local landowners claims negligence by Boeing and Southern California Edison is partly to blame for a wildfire that charred almost 100,000 acres of land in Los Angeles and Ventura counties in California. The complaint against the airplane manufacturer and the electric power company was filed Feb. 5 in California Superior Court […]

The U.S. Justice Department and the contractor that manages the Department of Energy’s Savannah River Site in South Carolina hope a civilian board will soon offer an opinion on whether the company overcharged the federal government by $5 million. Before a decision can be made, the two sides must wrap up a weeks-long hearing in […]

Updated safety documents for a ventilation tunnel at the Savannah River Site’s H Canyon facility are expected to be approved this summer and implemented in the fall, according to the Department of Energy. The documents should reflect a different approach to how the 310-square-mile site will handle incidents at the facility during an earthquake or […]

Department of Energy contractor Parsons recently completed construction of a $13 million facility that will expedite treatment of liquid salt waste at the Savannah River Site in South Carolina. Parsons announced Monday it has finished building the Next Generation Solvent (NGS) facility and has it in operational standby, awaiting startup of the site’s Salt Waste […]

The manager of the Department of Energy Office of River Protection at the Hanford Site, Brian Vance, has been selected as acting manager of the Hanford Richland Operations Office. This is the first time since the Office of River Protection (ORP) was established in 1998 that there has been one top manager for the entire […]

The U.S. Department of Justice on Feb. 8 filed a civil lawsuit against Hanford Site contractor Mission Support Alliance (MSA), accusing it of fraud through false claims and kickbacks from 2010 to 2015. The lawsuit filed in U.S. District Court for Eastern Washington also names Lockheed Martin Services Inc., Lockheed Martin Corp., and Lockheed executive […]

AECOM-led Savannah River Remediation (SRR) hired 378 new workers in 2018, and expects to bring on a similar number of employees this year under its liquid waste management contract at the Energy Department’s Savannah River Site near Aiken, S.C. Energy Department cleanup sites such as Savannah River have been pushing hiring programs in recent years […]

The Department of Energy’s nuclear cleanup office sent a valentine to prospective contractors Thursday, issuing two major requests for proposals at the Hanford Site in Washington state. In releasing final procurement notices for the Central Plateau Cleanup Contract and the Tank Closure Contract, DOE’s Office of Environmental Management (EM) met a 45-day deadline it set […]

The need to develop and win regulatory approval for new “oversized boxes” to move radioactive waste to the Idaho National Laboratory was central to the Energy Department’s decision against keeping the Advanced Mixed Waste Treatment Project (AMWTP) open past this year. After considering sustaining operations at the facility open after it finishes its mission to […]

The Hanford Site’s occupational medicine contractor has been awarded 90.1 percent of the fee available for the last full fiscal year under its expiring contract. HPM Corp. (HPMC), of Kennewick, Wash., earned $315,350 of $350,000 available for fiscal 2018, according to a Department of Energy performance scorecard released Wednesday. HPM Corp. was awarded a six-year […]

The Department of Energy needs to be more realistic in tracking and reporting progress toward environmental milestones at its nuclear cleanup sites, the Government Accountability Office (GAO) said Thursday. “We found that DOE didn’t accurately track or report whether milestones were met, missed, or postponed. We also found that sites continually renegotiate milestones they are […]

ARLINGTON, Va. — The head of Savannah River Nuclear Solutions (SRNS) hazarded an educated guess here Wednesday that the Department of Energy will soon extend his team’s contract to manage the Savannah River Site in Aiken, S.C. After a one-year, $1-billion extension awarded in 2018 by DOE’s Office of Environmental Management, SRNS is slated to […]

The state of New York plans to accept public input later this year on a draft permit for the U.S. Department of Energy to keep transuranic waste up to 10 years at the Separations Process Research Unit (SPRU) cleanup site in Schenectady County. After the state Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) last year decided the […]

A motorist who died in an automobile crash inside the Savannah River Site in South Carolina on Feb. 7 was not an employee of the Department of Energy or its contractors. “It wasn’t connected to our work,” a DOE spokesperson said by email. “It does appear that it was just a tragic accident — one […]