Publications: Weapons Cleanup Monitor

The Savannah River Site’s management and operations contractor faces a $320,000 penalty after being cited by the Department of Energy for retaliating against an employee who reported a safety issue. The Energy Department issued a preliminary notice of violation (PNOV) to Savannah River Nuclear Solutions (SRNS) on Wednesday. The violation, according to the department, occurred when […]

The Energy Department’s Hanford Site in Washington state has for the first time shipped tank waste off-site for treatment and disposal. Three gallons of low-activity radioactive waste were sent in October to a nearby Perma-Fix Environmental Services facility to be grouted. It is then expected to be sent for disposal at the Waste Control Specialists […]

If it holds up under protest, the $4.7 billion contract for liquid waste management at the Department of Energy’s Savannah River Site in South Carolina will provide BWX Technologies with one of its bigger wins as a prime contractor in recent years, executives said during a quarterly call on Tuesday. But management said it would […]

Jay Mullis, the acting manager of the Energy Department’s Oak Ridge Office of Environmental Management (OREM) in Tennessee since October 2016, is now the permanent manager. A 30-year federal employee, Mullis had since February 2015 been deputy manager for the DOE office that oversees cleanup of former uranium enrichment activities at the Oak Ridge Reservation. […]

More days have passed than remain in astronomical autumn, which means Los Alamos National Security could soon announce the interim Los Alamos National Laboratory director who will replace the retiring Charles McMillan and run the site until the company’s contract expires Sept. 30, 2018. McMillan, who has led Los Alamos National Laboratory for about six […]

Ralph Holland, deputy assistant secretary for acquisition and project management for the Energy Department’s Office of Environmental Management (EM), plans to retire at the end of December. Holland, who assumed responsibility for the EM Consolidated Business Center in Cincinnati in August 2015, has served in a number of management posts within DOE over the past […]

The Washington River Protection Solutions’ (WRPS) project to empty a Hanford Site double-shell waste tank with an interior leak has been named the 2017 Project of the Year by the Project Management Institute. “Washington River Protection Solutions was able to establish and follow sound project management practices that allowed its challenging and potentially dangerous project […]

The Department of Energy and its Central Plateau cleanup contractor at the Hanford Site have appealed a fine and order by the Washington state Department of Ecology over an unidentified white powder found on the floor and equipment of the PUREX processing plant. The plutonium extraction plant was closed in the 1980s, with periodic walkthroughs […]

The Washington state Department of Ecology has opened an investigation after being notified by the contractor for the Hanford Site’s waste tank farm that some liquid had been poured into the soil in central Hanford in August. The liquid was in four used containers that had sat out in the weather for a couple years […]

Recently obtained email messages indicate the Department of Justice might be investigating time-card issues involving the Waste Treatment Plant (WTP) project at the Department of Energy’s Hanford Site in Washington state. The investigation follows two settlements in recent years for alleged time-card fraud at the Hanford waste tank farms. An email sent on July 27 […]

The Santa Fe City Council is urging the U.S. Energy Department and New Mexico Environment Department to “strengthen” a 2016 consent order governing cleanup at the Los Alamos National Laboratory and also suspend any expanded plutonium pit production at the site “until safety issues are resolved.” The resolution, passed Oct. 25, calls for additional characterization […]

Processing of potentially combustible waste containers at the Los Alamos National Laboratory could be finished by Thanksgiving, a source in New Mexico said this week. That would be ahead of the latest official schedule for completion in December. An official with the Energy Department Office of Environmental Management told the Northern New Mexico Citizens’ Advisory […]

SNC-Lavalin President and CEO Neil Bruce said Thursday that the Montreal-based engineering company enjoyed a solid third quarter and that the integration of British engineering and project management provider WS Atkins is nearly complete. “We are pleased with our third quarter results, which include a contribution from our recent transformational acquisition of Atkins,” Bruce said […]

The U.S. Senate on Thursday approved two Trump administration nominees to the Energy Department by voice vote. Mark Wesley Menezes of Virginia was approved to be undersecretary for the Department of Energy. Also approved was Paul Dabbar of New York to be undersecretary for science. Most recently, Menezes worked as vice president of federal relations […]

Two bidding groups have filed protests with the Government Accountability Office over the new contract for liquid waste management at the Department of Energy’s Savannah River Site in South Carolina. One of the protests submitted on Tuesday was filed for the AECOM-CH2M Savannah River Technology and Remediation LLC by an attorney with the law firm […]

Fluor, one of the major contractors in the Department of Energy complex, on Thursday reported a significant earnings spike for the third quarter of 2017. The international construction and engineering firm reported quarterly net earnings of $94 million, or $0.67 per diluted share, compared to just shy of $5 million, or $0.03 per diluted share, […]

Centrus Energy said Monday it has signed a $16 million contract to continue for another year its research and development of advanced gas centrifuge uranium enrichment technology at the Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) in Tennessee. However, the company’s time in at least one Oak Ridge facility is nearing its end as […]

In a closed-door meeting Thursday, the acting head of the Energy Department’s nuclear cleanup program briefed the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board on the 45-day review of his office’s operations and other key issues. An entry on the DNFSB calendar says the five-person board was scheduled to receive one of its periodic briefings from EM-1, […]

The Salt Waste Processing Facility that has been built by Parsons Government Services at the Department of Energy’s Savannah River Site in South Carolina should be commissioned by the end of 2018. An article in the Oct. 20 edition of Weapons Complex Monitor misstated the timeline for commissioning. We regret the error.

A major waste treatment facility at the Energy Department’s Savannah River Site as of this week remained in deliberate operations, more than four months after it was placed into the slowed work mode due to multiple safety-related incidents. Officials at the South Carolina facility did not respond to an inquiry regarding how much longer the situation […]

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission Inspector General’s Office plans in the current federal budget year to review the most serious potential vulnerabilities facing the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board as part of the IG’s responsibility to examine management and performance of the Energy Department watchdog. In documents released last week, the NRC IG said challenges include […]

Time ran out Monday for companies to submit proposals on a five-year low-level radioactive waste disposal contract with the Energy Department Office of Environmental Management, business that is now held by Waste Control Specialists and EnergySolutions. The Energy Department is expected to announce winners of the business, which could be worth a maximum outlay of […]

Piketon, Ohio, Mayor Billy Spencer is urging the state’s U.S. senators to oppose funding to build the on-site disposal cell for waste from cleanup of the Portsmouth Gaseous Diffusion Plant. “DOE has made it clear that they fully intend to bury radioactive, toxic and hazardous waste in Piketon despite the community’s opposition, and Ohio EPA […]

Groundwater contamination at the site of old Oak Ridge Gaseous Diffusion Plant in Tennessee may persist beyond 2020, when the Department of Energy’s current $2.5 billion cleanup contract with URS-CH2M Oak Ridge (UCOR) ends. David Adler, director of DOE’s Oak Ridge Environmental Management Quality and Mission Support Division, told a local advisory board that some […]

When engineering company and Energy Department contractor CH2M was looking for potential merger partners this past spring, eventual buyer Jacobs Engineering wasn’t the only party showing interest, CH2M noted in a mammoth filing Tuesday with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. On Aug. 2, the two companies announced they had entered into an agreement for […]

The Energy Department Office of Environmental Management (EM) on Friday was completing its debriefing sessions for teams that bid on the Savannah River Site liquid waste management contract, sources told Weapons Complex Monitor. The agency announced on Oct. 12 that Savannah River EcoManagement, a partnership of BWX Technologies, Bechtel National, and Honeywell International, had won […]

With the House of Representatives already planning to look at the issue, the Senate on Oct. 19 approved a measure that could result in more predictable Payments in Lieu of Taxes (PILT) for communities surrounding federal facilities, including many across the Energy Department complex. The amendment to the Senate’s fiscal 2018 budget package won approval […]

CH2M Hill Plateau Remediation Co. (CHPRC) has been awarded 92 percent of the fee available for fiscal 2016, the Department of Energy announced Monday. That compares to 95 percent the previous year. The Hanford Site cleanup contractor earned $14.1 million of $15.4 million available for the budget year ended Sept. 30, 2016. “CHPRC was very […]