Publications: Weapons Cleanup Monitor

The Energy Department has questioned the way Fluor Idaho followed up on a summer 2018 glove box accident in which a worker suffered a puncture wound at the Idaho National Laboratory’s Advanced Mixed Waste Treatment Project (AMWTP). The DOE Office of Enterprise Assessments (EA) said the company’s root cause analysis found “management failed to recognize […]

The Department of Energy has issued Waste Control Specialists (WCS) a “request for task proposal” for long-term storage and management of elemental mercury. In a Jan. 17 notice, DOE’s Environmental Management Consolidated Business Center said the Dallas-based operator of a waste disposal complex in West Texas is the only vendor capable of providing the required, […]

The Department of Energy schedule for demolition of the Plutonium Finishing Plant at the Hanford Site in Washington state has slipped again. The long-retired plant could be down to slab on grade by mid-September, according to the latest projection. In December, Hanford officials said staff turnover had slowed work but that as employees become familiar […]

Despite delays in startup, the Savannah River Site’s $2.3 billion Salt Waste Processing Facility (SWPF) is meeting all of its safety and functionality requirements, with no suggested areas of improvement, according to a new review from the U.S. Department of Energy. The DOE Office of Enterprise Assessments (EA) on Tuesday released five reports on safety […]

Mission Support Alliance (MSA) has been awarded its largest fee since it began providing site-wide services at the Department of Energy’s Hanford Site in 2009. The DOE scorecard for fiscal 2018, released Thursday, showed Mission Support Alliance took home almost $21 million of the potential $22.2 million for its work at the DOE cleanup site […]

The cleanup contractor for the Department of Energy’s Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico has extended the deadline for proposals from subcontractors interested in providing off-site environmental analysis. In an updated notice posted Jan. 22 on FedBizOpps.gov, Newport News Nuclear BWXT-Los Alamos (N3B) said the deadline had been pushed back from Jan. 21 to […]

The Department of Energy last week completed cleanup of the 618-10 Burial Ground, one of the most hazardous radioactive waste dumps in the Columbia River Corridor at the Hanford Site in Washington state. The last step involved replanting vegetation across about 120 acres. “It’s nice to see the area match the surrounding terrain and get […]

The U.S. Energy Department on Jan. 17 issued an updated draft request for proposals for the Hanford Site Central Plateau Cleanup Contract, which serves as a model for the agency’s end-state procurement approach for environmental remediation. The DOE Office of Environmental Management issued the revision to better align the document with a special notice issued […]

The Energy Department Office of Environmental Management on Jan. 18 released the key sections of a draft request for proposals (RFP) for the next Tank Closure Contract at the Hanford Site in Washington state. In particular, the agency is looking for industry feedback on its master indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity (IDIQ) contract option, which it has suggested for […]

New Mexico-based Strategic Management Solutions is expected to receive a contract extension of up to nine months to provide technical support for conversion of depleted uranium hexafluoride (DUF6) at the Energy Department’s Portsmouth Site in Ohio and Paducah Site in Kentucky. The Energy Department Portsmouth/Paducah Project Office (PPPO) in Lexington, Ky., announced the prospective sole-source […]

Fluor Idaho has told local officials in eastern Idaho it could in June or July start paring the workforce for the Advanced Mixed Waste Treatment Project (AMWTP) at the Department of Energy’s Idaho National Laboratory. Roughly 200 workers could be let go at that point at the facility, which employs about 650 people, Dana Kirkham, […]

Washington River Protection Solutions (WRPS), the tank management contractor at the Hanford Site in Washington state, is seeking expressions of interest from potential subcontractors willing to manage secondary process waste from the Effluent Treatment Facility. The facility, located in the 200 Area at Hanford, currently treats 28,000 gallons of wastewater each year from processing activities […]

The U.S. Justice Department has asked for a stay in its lawsuit against the state of Washington over a new law that eases state workers’ compensation requirements for claims from employees of the Energy Department’s Hanford Site. The partial shutdown of the U.S. government has prohibited federal attorneys from working, even on a voluntary basis, […]

Two advocacy groups in New Mexico filed a legal appeal Thursday seeking to undo a New Mexico Environment Department order that allows the Energy Department to change the way it records underground transuranic waste volume at its Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) near Carlsbad. The Southwest Research and Information Center (SRIC) and Nuclear Watch New […]

Four Rivers Nuclear Partnership, comprised of Jacobs, Fluor, and BWX Technologies, got off to a “satisfactory” start in its first year as cleanup contractor at the Energy Department’s Paducah Site in Kentucky, earning 60 percent of its potential fee, according to a recent scorecard. The DOE’s Portsmouth-Paducah Project Office (PPPO) this week rolled out fee […]

Newport News Nuclear BWXT-Los Alamos (N3B), cleanup contractor for the Department of Energy’s Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico, is seeking a subcontractor to conduct off-site laboratory tests on soil, water, and debris samples. The successful bidder must be able to conduct inorganic, organic, and radiochemical analyses on a wide variety of environmental samples, […]

The Department of Energy is not caught directly in the partial federal government shutdown, but the Hanford Site in Washington state is still feeling some effects indirectly. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is a Hanford regulator and one of the three signatories to the Tri-Party Agreement that governs cleanup at the former plutonium production complex. […]

The Energy Facility Contractors Group (EFCOG) has thrown its weight behind the Department of Energy’s case for reinterpreting the definition of high-level radioactive waste based primarily on its risk characteristics and not its source of origin. The organization, representing about 100 DOE contractors, filed its formal comments endorsing the reinterpretation shortly after the department proposed […]

Several advocacy groups have filed a petition asking a U.S. District Court to make public certain grand jury records from a long-closed investigation into the Rocky Flats nuclear weapons plant site in Colorado. In June 1989, the Justice Department, the FBI, and the Environmental Protection Agency jointly conducted a raid at Rocky Flats, seizing 135 […]

Lynchburg, Va., -based BWX Technologies said Thursday it has named Suzy Sterner as its vice president for government relations. Sterner started work in the newly created position on Monday and will report to Regina Carter, senior vice president for government affairs and communications. The Energy Department vendor said Sterner will direct BWXT’s interaction with the […]

The White House this week teed up a radical reshaping of the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board (DNFSB), proposing to add two new members to the independent federal watchdog and boot one member. On Wednesday and Thursday, the Trump administration nominated a combined four people to the board. The nominees include new faces and existing board […]

The U.S. Energy Department is seeking comments on options for disposal of material generated from conversion of depleted uranium hexafluoride (DUF6) at the Portsmouth Site in Ohio and the Paducah Site in Kentucky. The DOE Office of Environmental Management said in a Dec. 28 Federal Register notice it has issued a draft supplemental environmental impact statement on disposal […]

The Department of Energy’s this week inked a new contract with S&K Logistics to continue providing technical support services for the Savannah River Site near Aiken, S.C. The deal is is worth up to $21.7 million, which includes about $9 million for the base year and an additional $12 million if an option is exercised […]

Newport News Nuclear BWXT-Los Alamos (N3B) garnered 83 percent of its potential fee for its first five months on the job as legacy cleanup contractor at the Energy Department’s Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico. After taking over from Los Alamos National Security, N3B earned roughly $2.4 million of a potential $2.9 million from […]

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit on Wednesday upheld the dismissal of a class action lawsuit against the Department of Energy asking that full pension benefits be reinstated for up to 500 people who worked at the Hanford Site in Washington state. The ruling addressed a case filed in 2016 by plaintiffs […]

The Department of Energy has received approval from the state of Tennessee to proceed with demolition of two Manhattan Project-era buildings at the Biology Complex within the Y-12 National Security Complex at the Oak Ridge Reservation. Representatives from DOE and the Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation (TDEC) confirmed this week the state has given […]

The Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board plans to hold a public hearing by May to discuss an April 2018 accident at the Energy Department’s Idaho National Laboratory in which four drums of radioactive sludge blew off their lids. Three of the four DNFSB members voted on Dec. 12 to hold a hearing in Washington, D.C., […]

The states of Washington and Oregon have declared their formal opposition to a federal proposal for a new interpretation of the definition of high-level radioactive waste. Meanwhile, industry and community stakeholder groups are pressing the Department of Energy to proceed with the revised interpretation. The Energy Department is proposing to reconsider its interpretation of material […]