Publications: Weapons Complex Monitor

A hold by Sen. John Barrasso (R-Wyo.) is seemingly the only barrier remaining between Anne Marie White and a vote by the full Senate on her nomination to become assistant secretary of energy for environmental management. The Senate Armed Services Committee said Tuesday it on March 1 automatically advanced White’s nomination to head the Energy […]

Faced with local news coverage raising questions about her expense account, and in the middle of a state legislative campaign, Andrea Romero acknowledged Friday her days at the helm of an advocacy group for communities near the Energy Department’s Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico are likely over. “It would be hard for me […]

Mission Support Alliance (MSA) has earned its highest award fee since it became the Hanford Site’s services contractor in 2009. The Department of Energy announced late Monday it was awarding MSA $20.4 million, or about 94 percent of the maximum $21.7 million available for fiscal 2017. That was more than the $19.2 million, or 91 […]

A panel of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine kicked off two days of public meetings in Richland, Wash., on Wednesday as it studies supplemental processing of low-activity waste at the U.S. Energy Department’s nearby Hanford Site. The data gathering will culminate in several reports by the National Academies on treatment of low-activity […]

WASHINGTON — At the end of a roughly two-hour hearing that focused for only a few minutes on the Department of Energy’s $6.5-billion-a-year Cold War nuclear cleanup operation, no senator indicated any opposition to the White House’s pick to lead the program. Anne Marie White “got off pretty easy,” Sen. James Inhofe (R-Okla.), acting chairman […]

Jeffrey Kash Grimes, who has been acting director of the U.S. Energy Department Environmental Management Consolidated Business Center (EMCBC) since December, has been named the permanent head of the procurement operation. The DOE Office of Environmental Management announced Grimes’ promotion on Thursday. He replaces Ralph Holland, who retired at the end of 2017. The Cincinnati-based […]

A public meeting is planned for March 14 in Richland, Wash., on permit changes to support the Department of Energy’s plan to stabilize the second waste tunnel at the Hanford Site PUREX Plant. It also will cover actions already taken to stabilize the first tunnel at the plant. After the older of two tunnels storing […]

The U.S. Energy Department’s Waste Isolation Pilot Plant in New Mexico has improved its emergency planning and preparation, but work remains to correct shortcomings identified in a 2016 report, according to new findings from DOE’s internal watchdog. The Office of Emergency Management Assessments, within the department’s independent Office of Enterprise Assessments (EA), studied WIPP emergency […]

The U.S. Energy Department’s Carlsbad Field Office has two new assistant managers to help conduct its oversight of the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) in New Mexico. WIPP is the nation’s only underground repository for disposal of transuranic waste from across the Department of Energy complex. James (Ed) Garza has been named assistant manager for […]

The U.S. Energy Department’s Office of Environmental Management (EM) says the final request for proposals for construction of the Outfall 200 Mercury Treatment Facility at Oak Ridge, Tenn., could come any time now. The office said in a Feb. 6 procurement notice the final RFP could be issued within 15 to 45 days. One-on-one meetings […]

BWX Technologies President and CEO Rex Geveden sounded confident Wednesday that a partnership led by his company will retain a 10-year contract for liquid waste management at the Energy Department’s Savannah River Site in South Carolina – even after the Government Accountability Office upheld a competitor’s protest against the deal. In a redacted version of […]

The U.S. Energy Department has committed to remediation of existing landfills and plumes at the Portsmouth Gaseous Diffusion Plant site in Ohio, Sen. Rob Portman (R-Ohio) said following a Feb. 23 meeting with stakeholders. Officials in the nearby village of Piketon have raised concerns over such contaminated areas inside the Perimeter Road in connection with […]

The U.S. Energy Department said Wednesday it will begin the bidding process for the new Savannah River Site management and operations (M&O) contract by May 1. In an online announcement, DOE’s Environmental Management Consolidated Business Center said that, within 30 to 60 days, it would issue a draft request for proposals (RFP) to kick off the […]

A federal judge has rescheduled the bench trial in the Hanford Site chemical vapors safety lawsuit for a ninth time. Judge Thomas Rice, of U.S. District Court for Eastern Washington, most recently pushed back the trial date from Nov. 26, 2018, to Feb. 5, 2019. Deadlines in the case also have been extended by about […]

None of the 21 drone sightings in 2016 at the Savannah River Site in South Carolina resulted in any significant findings, according to Department of Energy documents recently released via the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA). In some cases, what employees saw might not have even been a drone, the records indicate. In November 2016, […]

Shipbuilder Huntington Ingalls Industries said Wednesday that Michael Smith will become president of subsidiary Stoller Newport News Nuclear (SN3) effective immediately. Smith has been Huntington Ingalls’ executive vice president for strategy and development. In his new post, Smith will report to Michael Lempke, president of Huntington Ingalls’ nuclear and environmental group. As president of SN3, […]

The White House requested roughly $31 million for the independent Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board in 2019, roughly even with the appropriation that now funds the independent health-and-safety watchdog of the Department of Energy’s nuclear-weapon sites. The requested budget of $30.6 million is less than one percent lower than the $30.9 million the Defense Nuclear […]

The watchdog organization Hanford Challenge said this week it found traces of radioactive americium in the engine filters of two employee vehicles that had been parked at the Hanford Site’s Plutonium Finishing Plant. The vehicles had previously been checked at Hanford and declared clean in the wake of a radioactive contamination spread from the plant […]

The U.S. Department of Energy and the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority (NYSERDA) are accepting public comments through April 23 on environmental implications of the next phase of cleanup planned for the West Valley Demonstration Project (NVDP) in Ashford, N.Y. The state and federal agencies issued a notice of intent Wednesday in […]

Fluor is looking for additional business opportunities within the Energy Department’s Cold War cleanup complex, Chairman and CEO David Seaton said Tuesday. “We are looking at the Hanford liquid waste contract that is coming up for rebid this year,” Seaton said during a regular quarterly earnings conference call with Wall Street analysts. He did not […]

SNC-Lavalin President and CEO Neil Bruce on Thursday praised the early benefits of his company’s acquisition of British engineering rival Atkins, which he called “the largest and most transformative in our history.” The Montreal-based infrastructure and engineering company in July 2017 completed its $3.6 billion (CAN) deal for Atkins, a significant player in cleanup of […]

The chief executive at French waste and water management company Veolia on Thursday hinted at additional acquisitions in the corporate segment that encompasses its nuclear services business line. “[A]s in 2017, growth in 2018 will be complemented by some targeted acquisitions, for example, in the following areas: plastics recycling, energy efficiency, or hazardous waste treatment,” […]

The U.S. Energy Department failed to “reasonably evaluate the viability” of the technical approach put forth by the winning bidder for a $4.7 billion contract for liquid waste services at the Savannah River Site in South Carolina, according to a redacted version of the Government Accountability Office ruling on protests against the procurement award. The […]

The Department of Energy announced Monday that it has selected a new Savannah River Site manager to replace Jack Craig, is retiring after three years in the role and 32 years of federal service. Retired U.S. Navy Capt. Michael Budney will take over at the 310-square-mile site near Aiken, S.C. While serving for nearly three […]

The U.S. Energy Department has agreed to a $24 million legal settlement to resolve breach of contract litigation brought by Centrus Energy in the U.S. Court of Federal Claims. The settlement agreement was reached Jan. 11, and Centrus reported the development on Jan. 17 in an 8-K filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. […]

Leidos has acquired a larger share of Hanford Site contractor Mission Support Alliance to eliminate a conflict of interest for Jacobs Engineering Group. Leidos now owns 88 percent of the support services provider, with Centerra owning the remainder. When Jacobs Engineering Group completed its acquisition of CH2M in December, Jacobs became the partial owner of […]

The Trump administration’s nominee for assistant secretary of energy for environmental management, Anne Marie White, is taking private one-on-one meetings with senators prior to an expected hearing before the Senate Armed Services Committee, an industry source said Thursday. “She started her Senate rounds this week,” said the source, who said he did not know how […]