Publications: Weapons Cleanup Monitor

The Energy Department’s Waste Isolation Pilot Plant in New Mexico has received 118 shipments of transuranic waste since reopening to shipments in April, officials said Wednesday night at the WIPP Town Hall in Carlsbad. WIPP is now averaging between five and six shipments per week from other DOE sites, according to Bruce Covert, president and […]

An advisory committee that monitors nuclear waste issues at the Savannah River Site (SRS) in South Carolina wants the Department of Energy to consider reclassifying retired waste-treatment equipment and waste containers so they are eligible for permanent disposal off-site. On Tuesday, the SRS Citizens Advisory Board’s (CAB) Waste Management Committee voted 10-1 to approve a […]

The Energy Department intends to temporarily extend the current contract for liquid waste management at the Savannah River Site in South Carolina while the Government Accountability Office reviews protests to the newly awarded successor deal. The current contract held by Savannah River Remediation (SRR) – a partnership comprised of AECOM, Bechtel National, CH2M, and BWXT […]

Construction of a new permanent ventilation system for the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant near Carlsbad, N.M., should not trigger any major environmental impacts, the Energy Department said in a recent supplemental analysis. “Because of the way the underground ventilation system is segregated and operated, construction and operation of the upgraded ventilation system would not contribute […]

Los Alamos National Security (LANS), the prime contractor for Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico, won 84 percent of its potential $10.1 million environmental management award fee in the latest contract scorecard from the Department of Energy. That was good for almost $8.46 million in available fees, DOE said Tuesday. The award fee covers […]

The Department of Energy kept mum this week on how many responses it received to a request for information (RFI) from vendors potentially interested in landing a long-term environmental cleanup contract at the Oak Ridge Reservation in Tennessee. Responses were due Nov. 30 for the RFI issued Nov. 13. The Energy Department is looking at […]

The Energy Department and its Office of Environmental Management will remain open for business on Monday thanks to a continuing resolution (CR) passed by Congress late Thursday to keep the government running through Dec. 22. The House of Representatives passed the stopgap spending plan 235-193 while the Senate passed it 81-14. The measure is largely […]

The Energy Department’s Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico reported 25 breaches of its state hazardous waste facility permit during fiscal 2017, according to a recent filing with the New Mexico Environment Department. The 25 infractions in the budget year ended Sept. 30 are far less than noted in preceding years, when the annual […]

The U.S. Energy Department on Thursday released a draft request for proposals and announced plans for a pre-solicitation conference for the latest contract connected with mercury cleanup at the Y-12 National Security Complex in Oak Ridge, Tenn. The DOE Office of Environmental Management expects to issue a four-year, fixed-price contract for construction of the Outfall […]

The Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board plans to consider at least one nuclear safety recommendation to the Department of Energy during closed-door meetings in early December, according to notices published Monday. The specific topics to be discussed by the five-member Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board (DNFSB) on Dec. 6 and Dec. 18 are unknown. In notices posted online, the […]

Congress has received the Department of Energy’s report on options for disposal of Greater-Than-Class C and Class-C-Like Waste, setting the stage for legislative approval of the department’s preferred alternative to potentially divide the material between commercial sites and DOE’s Waste Isolation Pilot Plant in New Mexico. The Energy Department projects the United States will hold […]

Funding for federal agencies runs out Dec. 8, but Congress is working on another short-term fix to keep the government running for a little while longer, House Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) said Thursday. The new budget year, fiscal 2018, began on Oct. 1, but the federal government for now remains funded at prior-year levels. “We’re […]

BWX Technologies has named Regina W. Carter as its senior vice president, government affairs and communications. Carters has been a vice president for the company since 2015. In addition to heading up government affairs and communications, Carter also serves as a member of BWXT’s executive staff and strategic planning team, BWXT President and CEO Rex […]

A federal discrimination lawsuit filed against the Savannah River Site’s liquid waste contractor was terminated this week after the accuser failed to let the courts know if he wanted to continue the case. Jimmy Rouse, an African-American man who was employed by Savannah River Remediation (SRR), had several months to address the contractor’s request for […]

The Energy Department last week issued a draft request for proposals for a contract that could be worth up to $4 billion over 10 years to provide various support services to the Hanford nuclear cleanup site in Washington state. The incumbent contractor is Mission Support Alliance, a partnership of Leidos, Jacobs Engineering, and Centerra Group. […]

An executive with Stoller Newport News Nuclear said Wednesday she had not heard of her rumored consideration for nomination as the Department of Energy’s assistant secretary for environmental management. An official in the defense cleanup industry told Weapons Complex Monitor recently that Stoller Vice President Barbara Mazurowski could be under consideration for the EM-1 post […]

Assuming CH2M shareholders approve that company’s acquisition by Jacobs Engineering in a few weeks, Jacobs Chairman and CEO Steve Demetriou sees the combined company getting off to “a running start.” During a conference call with Wall Street analysts on Nov. 21 following release of Jacobs’ quarterly earnings, Demetriou said he has already visited many CH2M […]

Controlling the costs of multibillion-dollar Cold War cleanup projects remains a struggle for the Energy Department and its Office of Environmental Management, the DOE Office of inspector General said in a Nov. 27 special report. In the report, the Inspector General’s Office analyzed management challenges facing the department and its semiautonomous National Nuclear Security Administration […]

The Washington state Department of Ecology has slated a Dec. 7 public meeting on changes to the dangerous waste permit sought by contractor Bechtel National for the Waste Treatment and Immobilization Plant (WTP) being built at the Department of Energy’s Hanford Site. Bechtel is seeking a Class 2 modification to its existing permit from the […]

Cleanup has been completed on one of the most contaminated spots within the sprawling Hanford Site in southeast Washington state, the Energy Department announced Thursday. Hanford contractor CH2M Hill Plateau Remediation has finished the eight-year remediation project at the 618-10 Burial Ground and two nearby waste sites. In all, work crews extracted more than 512,000 […]

There doesn’t seem to be much chatter now on a concern that contractors raised vocally in September about the manner in which the Energy Department doles out payments for work being performed within its nuclear cleanup complex. The problem of DOE contract payments being distributed in small monthly increments, and sometimes creating cash flow problems, […]

Salt mining at the Department of Energy’s Waste Isolation Pilot Plant is expected to resume within a matter of weeks, a spokesman for site management and operations contractor Nuclear Waste Partnership said last week. In addition, a director of mining should be hired in early 2018 for the underground transuranic waste storage facility near Carlsbad, […]

Workers at the Department of Energy’s Hanford Site in Washington state on Monday completed filling with grout the PUREX Plant tunnel that was discovered partially collapsed on May 9. The tunnel holds eight railcars loaded with highly radioactively contaminated equipment from the shuttered plutonium extraction plant. “Since a portion of the tunnel’s roof collapsed last […]

The U.S. Department of Energy is seeking partial dismissal of two protests filed with the Government Accountability Office by losing bidders for the recently awarded $4.7 billion contract for liquid waste management at the Savannah River Site in South Carolina. The Energy Department on Oct. 12 awarded the new work to Savannah River EcoManagement, a […]

AECOM management said Monday the company remains a major player in cleaning up the U.S. Department of Energy’s nuclear complex and believes it has a real chance of overturning the recent loss of the $4.7 billion contract for liquid waste management at the Savannah River Site in South Carolina. “We still consider the Savannah River […]

Centrus Energy said this week it anticipates completing cleanup of its retired advanced centrifuge technology demonstration site in Piketon, Ohio, by the end of the year. Decontamination and decommissioning of the American Centrifuge facility began in the second quarter of 2016 after the Department of Energy cut off funding for the project the year before […]

CH2M shareholders are scheduled to vote Dec. 13 on the company’s proposed buyout by Jacobs Engineering, according to a new filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. The shareholder meeting will be held at company headquarters in Englewood, Colo., CH2M said in a Nov. 13 10-Q filing. Stockholder approval is one of the final […]

The Hanford Advisory Board is calling for the Department of Energy to ramp up to $4 billion in annual spending for cleanup of the Hanford Site in Washington state, despite DOE officials saying that will not happen. A combination of operating the Waste Treatment Plant starting within a half-decade while construction continues on parts of […]