Publications: Weapons Cleanup Monitor

Washington Closure Hanford and the Department of Justice told a federal judge Thursday they had reached a settlement agreement in a civil lawsuit alleging the then-Hanford Site cleanup contractor knowingly awarded small business subcontracts to front companies. They told the judge they would execute the agreement on Thursday, but had not filed it with the […]

The latest version of the Senate’s fiscal 2019 National Defense Authorization Act calls upon the Government Accountability Office (GAO) to report on repackaging of transuranic waste at the Idaho National Laboratory (INL) after an April 11 incident in which the lids blew off four waste drums. It is “disturbing” that at least one of the […]

The Energy Department’s Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) near Carlsbad, N.M., has resumed emplacement of transuranic waste that was suspended after detection of a misaligned drum on May 24. A recovery plan to fix the leaning drum within a seven-pack canister was approved May 29, DOE Carlsbad Field Office Manager Todd Shrader said Wednesday in […]

Nuclear Waste Partnership, the Energy Department’s prime contractor for the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) near Carlsbad, N.M., took home 90 percent of its total potential fee for fiscal 2017. That percentage was good for $10.7 million in fees for the budget year that ended Sept. 30, 2017. That was a better percentage than the […]

The New Mexico Environment Department said June 1 it was not ready to decide whether to change the way it measures the volume of transuranic waste disposed of underground at the Energy Department’s Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP). The New Mexico agency plans a more extensive “Class 3” review of the site permit modification, which […]

Spending plans that would ensure the Energy Department’s Office of Environmental Management (EM) will have somewhere in the neighborhood of $7 billion for cleanup of Cold War nuclear sites in fiscal 2019 continue to make their way through Congress. On Friday morning, the House of Representatives approved its fiscal 2019 energy and water appropriations as […]

The Energy Department’s Portsmouth Gaseous Diffusion Plant complex in Ohio is eligible for listing in the National Register of Historic Places and the state’s historic preservation office wants a voice in cleanup plans for the contaminated site. The Ohio History Connection said in a May 16 letter to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission it should be […]

Two candidates with ties to organizations funded by or concerned with the Los Alamos National Laboratory won primary elections Tuesday night that effectively assure them seats in the New Mexico state House of Representatives, according to unofficial results from the New Mexico secretary of state. Andrea Romero, former executive director of the local interest group […]

Fluor Idaho has ordered certain work to temporarily stop while it investigates an employee puncture injury Tuesday at the Radioactive Waste Management Complex at the Energy Department’s Idaho Site. The employee was injured while doing cleanup tasks in a glove box at the Advanced Mixed Waste Treatment Project (AMWTP), DOE said in a Thursday news […]

Longtime Energy Department nuclear cleanup hand Ken Picha has been named to a top post at DOE’s Office of Environmental Management (EM) on an acting basis. Assistant Secretary of Energy for Environmental Management Anne Marie White said in a widely distributed email on May 25 that Picha was replacing Dae Chung as acting EM associate […]

Just as the clock was about to run out on its existing agreement, the Energy Department said Thursday it had awarded a contract extension to the current radioactive liquid waste manager at the Savannah River Site in South Carolina. The contract extension will keep Savannah River Remediation on the job for “up to” 10 months, […]

The cleanup contractor for the West Valley Demonstration Project in upstate New York picked up 80 percent, or $365,000, of the potential fee available in the latest Energy Department review period. CH2M Hill BWXT West Valley (CHBWV) could have earned nearly $456,000 for the period between Aug. 30, 2017, through Feb. 28, 2018. That was […]

The Savannah River National Laboratory (SRNL) has been in an operational safety pause since April 26 due to a “trend of concerns” that include deficiencies in safety, work performance, and planning, the Department of Energy said this week. The pause covers nearly all work at the lab, except essential activities needed to maintain safe operations. […]

The Department of Energy would continue to have an Office of River Protection at the Hanford Site until 2024 under an approved amendment in the House version of the National Defense Authorization Act for fiscal 2019. Since 1998, DOE has divided its cleanup work at the former plutonium production complex in Washington state between two […]

The head of a local branch of the United Steelworkers (USW) at the Energy Department’s Portsmouth Site cleanup project in Ohio claims contractor Fluor-BWXT Portsmouth is unfairly pushing workers to accept a shutdown during the week of July 4. For its part, Fluor-BWXT said implementation of a holiday week shutdown complies with the company’s collective […]

The Department of Energy has approved the documented safety analysis required for hot commissioning of the Low-Activity Waste Facility at the Hanford Site’s Waste Treatment Plant. Completion of the 7,000-page document is a required milestone for plant contractor Bechtel National, worth up to $6.65 million in fees. Bechtel National nuclear safety engineers spent three years […]

The Energy Department’s Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) near Carlsbad, N.M., is nearing resumption of underground disposal operations following discovery of a misaligned drum inside a waste canister last week. The agency temporarily suspended transuranic waste disposal after the May 24 event within Room 5 of Panel 7 at the underground salt mine. Normal operations […]

It could take several more weeks to complete cleanup of an Idaho National Laboratory facility where four drums of solidified radioactive waste were found to have breached on April 11, the president of site cleanup contractor Fluor Idaho wrote in a May 25 column for local newspapers. The investigation has entered a forensic phase, and […]

The Senate Appropriations Committee wants the Energy Department’s Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) in New Mexico to start planning for accommodating 34 metric tons of processed plutonium that was supposed to be converted into nuclear reactor fuel at the Mixed Oxide Fuel Fabrication Facility (MFFF) in South Carolina. Energy Secretary Perry officially canceled the MOX […]

Hanford Site services contractor Mission Support Alliance (MSA) said Wednesday it has named a new vice president and a leader for the HAMMER federal training center. Karen McGinnis, who has led the development and then operation of HAMMER for 27 years, will retire in June. Paul Vandervert will become director of the facility effective June […]

Bechtel National, the construction and commissioning contractor for the Hanford Site’s Waste Treatment Plant, did not contest a preliminary notice of violation for a 2016 worker injury by the deadline at the end of last week. The Office of Enforcement within the Energy Department Office of Enterprise Assessments had given the company 30 days to […]

Washington, D.C.-based BluePath Labs has won a five-year contract to provide administrative and business support services for the Energy Department Office of Environmental Management. In a Monday press release, DOE’s Environmental Management Consolidated Business Center said the BluePath agreement is an indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity contract covering firm-fixed-price and time-and-materials task orders. The deal has a maximum value […]

While it has been looking since the fourth quarter of 2017, the prime contractor for the Energy Department’s Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) has not yet hired a director of mining. Nuclear Waste Partnership still hopes to find the right candidate in the near future, spokesman Donavan Mager said by telephone last week. Making the […]

The parties to the Tri-Party Agreement on cleanup at the Hanford Site this week proposed new milestones for dealing with cesium and strontium capsules and bulk sodium at the Department of Energy facility in Washington state. A new proposed milestone would require any facilities needed to prepare the waste be available by the end of […]

CH2M Hill Plateau Remediation Co. lost fee money for fiscal 2017 over a spread of radioactive contamination at the Hanford Site, but still brought in $9.9 million from the Department of Energy. That is 89 percent of the nearly $11.1 million available for the budget year ended Sept. 30, 2017, according to a fee summary […]

The Senate’s version of the fiscal 2019 Energy Department spending bill would set the budget for cleanup at the Hanford Site at $2.4 billion, rejecting proposed cuts from the Trump administration. The Senate budget proposal, which does not include the safety and security money Hanford will receive, is $315 million above the administration’s request for […]

Written testimony from a New York State Energy Research and Development Authority (NYSERDA) official last week, before the House Energy and Commerce environment subcommittee, adds more details to the state’s argument for classifying much of the West Valley Demonstration Project’s remaining waste as defense-related transuranic waste and shipping it to the Energy Department’s Waste Isolation […]

The full Senate Appropriations Committee on Thursday approved a $43.8 billion energy and water development bill for fiscal 2019, which includes almost $7.2 billion for the Energy Department’s Office of Environmental Management. The panel’s provision for the Cold War cleanup program exceeds the $6.9 billion passed last week by the House Appropriations Committee. The bill […]