Publications: Weapons Cleanup Monitor

A former Hanford Site building, now within the city limits of Richland, Wash., is being torn down under an $11.4 million contract held by CH2M Hill Plateau Remediation Co. The contract is separate from CH2M’s cleanup contract at Hanford for work such as excavating contaminated waste sites and tearing down contaminated buildings. The Richland building, […]

Jacobs Engineering Group reported $2 million in net earnings for its latest financial quarter, a steep year-over-year dive from $61 million linked to its recent acquisition of CH2M. Earnings for Jacobs’ fiscal 2018 first quarter ended Dec. 31, 2017, took a hit from the $3.27 billion CH2M acquisition and a one-time tax charge, the company […]

Department of Energy contractor AECOM on Tuesday reported $4.9 billion in revenue for the first quarter of its fiscal year, ended Dec. 31, 2017. That was 12.7 percent higher than the $4.35 billion recorded in the quarter ended Dec. 31, 2016. The Los Angeles-based global infrastructure company reported quarterly net income and diluted earnings per […]

The U.S. Department of Energy’s record of policing itself is “mixed at best,” and the agency might benefit from independent oversight by an entity such as the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, Rep. Frank Pallone (D-N.J.) said Tuesday. Pallone made his remarks during a House Energy and Commerce energy subcommittee hearing on U.S. nuclear infrastructure. “For example, […]

The Department of Energy will remain frozen at fiscal 2017 spending levels through at least late March, under the stopgap spending bill passed by Congress and signed by President Donald Trump on Friday morning after an overnight government shutdown — the second of fiscal 2018. The bill is the fifth continuing resolution of the fiscal […]

Workers at the Hanford Site in Washington state twice this week have reported smelling suspicious odors that could be chemical vapors. The two incidents are the first time since Nov. 28 that suspicious odors have been reported outside the radioactive waste storage tank farms at the Department of Energy facility. On Monday afternoon, five Hanford […]

The deputy director of the Department of Energy’s Environmental Management Consolidated Business Center has taken over as acting director. The vacancy newly filled on an interim basis by Jeffrey Kash Grimes was created by the December retirement of Ralph Holland following a 22-year management career at DOE. Holland had taken the reins at the EM […]

Strata-G LLC has won a $1 million contract from the Energy Department to conduct environmental sampling at the Oak Ridge Reservation in Tennessee. The sampling will support DOE plans for construction of an additional on-site disposal facility for hazardous and radioactive wastes at the Bear Creek Valley area of Oak Ridge, DOE said in a […]

Although details are being kept under wraps by a protective order, the U.S. Government Accountability Office on Friday sustained a protest brought by one losing bidding team against a $4.7 billion contract the Department of Energy awarded in October for liquid waste management at the Savannah River Site in South Carolina. The GAO indicated it has […]

Longenecker & Associates has hired a new executive to lead its mission assurance team as it increases its workload in that area at two Department of Energy sites. Energy Department and nuclear navy veteran Craig Ferguson is now Longenecker’s group vice president for mission assurance, according to a Jan. 26 press release. The Las Vegas-based […]

Appearing Tuesday on Capitol Hill, new Department of Energy Undersecretary for Science Paul Dabbar was asked whether a recent DOE reorganization put too much on his plate by having him oversee both nuclear cleanup and federal scientific research. “The Environmental Management portfolio has dominated the time and attention of whichever undersecretary has had it,” Rep. […]

The Department of Energy on Monday transferred management of the troubled Plutonium Finishing Plant demolition at the Hanford Site in Washington state to Jacobs Engineering Group, the new owner of cleanup contractor CH2M Hill Plateau Remediation Co. (CHPRC). The change came after another spread of radioactive contamination at the plant was identified on Jan. 26, […]

A new contract modification will enable the Department of Energy’s nuclear cleanup office in Oak Ridge, Tenn., to participate in a cancer research arrangement. The Oak Ridge Office of Environmental Management (OREM) said a third-party medical company – whose name was not disclosed – will “milk” thorium from uranium stores at the Oak Ridge National […]

An executive with a U.S. affiliate of French multinational Veolia on Jan. 25 said the waste management company’s acquisition of Piketon, Ohio-based Wastren Advantage is “a great fit,” according to slides for a presentation to the Energy, Technology and Environmental Business Association in Tennessee. The presentation by VNS Federal Services Senior Vice President for Business […]

During a visit by Energy Secretary Rick Perry, the Savannah River Site broke ground Thursday on a multimillion-dollar disposal unit for radioactive salt waste. Saltstone Disposal Unit (SDU) 7 will be a 32-million-gallon concrete structure designed and built by Savannah River Remediation (SRR), the liquid waste contractor for the Energy Depatrtment site near Aiken, S.C. […]

The town of Ashford, N.Y., hopes to eventually land federal payment in lieu of taxes funding to help offset the cost of the nuclear cleanup at the West Valley Demonstration Project site, which is within town limits. Town Supervisor Charles Davis said by telephone Wednesday he has been working with the office of Sen. Charles […]

Stoller Newport News Nuclear (SN3) President Nick Lombardo has been tapped to lead the management team for the joint venture recently awarded the $1.39 billion legacy cleanup contract at the Energy Department’s Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico. Lombardo will serve as program manager for Newport News Nuclear BWXT-Los Alamos, which will be responsible […]

The Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee on Tuesday voted to support the nomination of Anne Marie White to become assistant secretary of energy for environmental management. The voice vote clears the way for White’s eventual consideration by the full Senate. One obstacle to White’s confirmation remains Sen. John Barrasso (R-Wyo.), who during a hearing […]

The Department of Energy plans to open a center to help ill current and former Hanford Site workers or their survivors understand the benefits for which they may qualify. The new center, called the Hanford Worker Engagement Center, is one of the steps DOE is taking after hearing worker complaints about difficulty getting help. The […]

By John Stang A week after announcing that private-equity firm J.F. Lehman had acquired Waste Control Specialists (WCS), the companies are largely closed-mouth about details of the deal. The involved parties – Lehman, WCS, and former owner Valhi Inc. – announced the sale in three separate press releases after market close on Friday, Jan. 26. […]

Longtime member Sean Sullivan was set to leave the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board (DNFSB) today after a short and tumultuous run as chairman, during which he suggested eliminating the independent federal agency where he has worked for the last five years. Sullivan announced his impending exit on Jan. 19 in a memo circulated to […]

By Matthew Beinart Defense Daily The Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board (DNFSB) has tapped CenturyLink [CTL] and collab9 to secure its enterprise communication networks with their joint cloud communications service. Under the deal, announced Jan. 31, the two companies will deliver their Unified Communications as a Service (UCaas) platform to start DNFSB’s transition to cloud computing platforms. “CenturyLink is […]

The three responsible parties for cleanup of the Santa Susana Field Laboratory site in California have asked the state Department of Toxic Substances Control (DTSC) for two additional months to begin baseline air monitoring. NASA, acting on behalf of Boeing and the Department of Energy, made the request in a Nov. 27 letter to DTSC. The monitoring […]

An advisory board that monitors environmental management issues at the Savannah River Site in South Carolina wants the Department of Energy to reclassify old liquid waste equipment so it can be shipped off-site for permanent disposal. The SRS Citizens Advisory Board (CAB) voted 22-1 Tuesday to request that DOE investigate whether used liquid waste melters and certain […]

A federal lawsuit accusing the management contractor at the Savannah River Site of forcing a worker to retire due to his sleep apnea should be thrown out, according to a recommendation from a U.S. magistrate judge. Judge Thomas Rogers wrote in his Jan. 19 recommendation that Steven Baxley, a former employee of Savannah River Nuclear […]

Having workers use supplied air respirators with lines that snake across the ground rather than heavy air tanks could be an option for certain tasks at the Hanford Site’s radioactive waste storage tank farms, according to tank farm contractor Washington River Protection Solutions. Workers have been testing use of air lines, including at the HAMMER […]

The Energy Department Office of Environmental Management anticipates it will in July issue a draft request for proposals for the Nevada Environmental Services Program at the Nevada National Security Site (NNSS). That is according to documents posted on a DOE procurement website for industry meetings held Monday and Tuesday in Las Vegas. The Office of […]

AECOM is still awaiting resolution of a $103 million claim filed against the Department of Energy in December 2014 in connection with the changed scope of cleanup at the Separations Process Research Unit in upstate New York. The Los Angeles-based engineering and infrastructure company noted the unresolved claim in its annual report, released on Jan. […]