Publications: Weapons Cleanup Monitor

A major contractor for Los Alamos National Laboratory has recently completed $7.5 million of cleanup work adjacent to the Los Alamos townsite in New Mexico. The cleanup, conducted by TerranearPMC and overseen by lab prime Los Alamos National Security LLC (LANS), was done on DOE property along the south-facing slopes of the Los Alamos Canyon. […]

The Savannah River Site in South Carolina garnered a 99.9 percent compliance rate last year for the amount of pollutants it discharges into water on and off site, according to the management and operations contractor for the Department of Energy facility. The compliance rate is based on the regularity with which SRS remained in line […]

Savannah River Nuclear Solutions (SRNS) and the U.S. Justice Department are seeking opinions from a federal board on whether the contractor and one of its parent companies overcharged the federal government to the tune of $5 million, according to a recently filed status report in U.S. District Court. The document, filed on Oct. 10, arrived after six […]

An article in the Oct. 13 edition of Weapons Complex Monitor should have reported that the new liquid waste management contract for the Department of Energy’s Savannah River Site will not immediately cover the Salt Waste Processing Facility built by Parsons Government Services. Savannah River EcoManagement would run the plant after startup and one year […]

Some 31 of 305 bioassays collected from workers after the airborne spread of radioactive contamination at the Hanford Site’s Plutonium Finishing Plant (PFP) in June have tested positive for internal radioactive contamination. Doses were very low, the Department of Energy said in a statement on Wednesday.  Of the 31 workers with positive results, 18 had […]

The Energy Department could debrief parties on the recently awarded Savannah River Site liquid waste management contract as early as Oct. 26, a source said this week, adding that it’s a good bet that at least one protest could be filed afterward. DOE announced on Oct. 12 that Savannah River EcoManagement, a partnership of BWX […]

Hanford Treatment Plants Process 2.2B Gallons of Water in FY17 The six groundwater treatment plants at the Hanford Site cleaned 2.2 billion gallons of water in the fiscal year just ended, reinjecting the processed water back into the ground, the Department of Energy announced Thursday. More than 145,000 pounds (72.5 tons) of contamination were removed. […]

While no director of mining has been hired yet for the Department of Energy’s Waste Isolation Pilot Plant in New Mexico, the transuranic waste disposal site continues to move to resume salt mining. Work to clear out more space for storage has been held up for more than three years, after a pair of underground […]

The Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board (DNFSB) said in a new report the Energy Department Office of Environmental Management has more work to do to resolve safety issues connected with criticality and flammable gas at the Waste Treatment Plant’s Pretreatment Facility at the Hanford Site in Washington state. The 100-page-plus technical report centers on four […]

The Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge Office of Environmental Management (OREM) has turned over for eventual private use parcels of land that once held two gaseous diffusion facilities at the Oak Ridge Reservation in Tennessee. The sites of the K-31 and K-33 buildings cover about 215 acres in what is now the East Tennessee Technology […]

After a bombshell report that the head of the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board wants Congress to dissolve the independent Department of Energy watchdog, several seasoned watchers of the weapons complex — running the gamut from former Department of Energy employees to hardcore anti-nuclear activists — said lawmakers should not eliminate the board. “The Board […]

Honeywell International reported Friday that it took in $10.1 billion in sales and earnings per share of $1.75 during the third quarter of 2017, which both mark a significant increase from the same period in 2016. The sales figure was up 3 percent from $9.8 billion a year ago. Earnings per share spiked by 16 […]

A House bill that would make it easier for the federal government to build a permanent nuclear-waste repository at Nevada’s Yucca Mountain took a big step toward a floor vote this week, though none was scheduled as of Friday. On Thursday, House leadership at last placed H.R. 3053, the Nuclear Waste Policy Amendments Act of […]

The hundreds of security personnel still on strike at the Energy Department’s Savannah River Site in South Carolina are expected to return soon as their union and employer wrap up negotiations for a contract that won’t expire until October 2022. It was not immediately clear when the deal will be signed. Among its provisions, the new labor agreement […]

Honeywell’s decision to spin off three of its business units should not affect the company’s work with the Energy Department, a corporate spokesperson said Tuesday. Honeywell announced Tuesday it will spin off its Homes portfolio and ADI Global Distribution business into a separate home ventilation, security, and fire-protection company, and spin its Transportation Systems segment […]

About 200 workers were recently laid off from the MOX project at the Department of Energy’s Savannah River Site, construction prime CB&I AREVA MOX Services said this week. Gentry Brann, a spokeswoman for contractor parent CB&I, said the project employed about 2,200 workers at SRS before the recent layoffs. She did not say when the layoffs […]

A fledgling effort by the Department of Energy to revive domestic production of plutonium-238 (Pu-238) in order to fuel deep space missions by NASA shows promise but still faces challenges, according to a Government Accountability Office report released Oct. 4. The Energy Department has demonstrated “a proof of concept” by producing 100 grams of Pu-238 […]

Energy Secretary Rick Perry told a House of Representatives panel Thursday that progress is being made in improving the history of cost overruns and missed deadlines on big projects administered through the Energy Department’s Office of Environmental Management. Perry testified for more than three hours before the House Energy and Commerce energy subcommittee. While much […]

Installation of the two melters for the Low-Activity Waste Facility at the Hanford’ Site’s Waste Treatment Plant has been completed, a key milestone on the project, plant officials announced Wednesday. “When operational, these melters will be the largest operating vitrification plant melters in the world,” said Bill Hamel, Department of Energy project director for the […]

A Texas congressman gave Energy Secretary Rick Perry an opportunity to come clean Thursday about his use of charter aircraft for official government business — something Perry maintained, in line with previous reports, that he has done only once. Rep. Joe Barton (R), in a hearing of the House Energy and Commerce energy subcommittee, told […]

A Benton County, Wash., Superior Court jury found in favor of a former employee’s lawsuit against Mission Support Alliance on Tuesday, requiring the Hanford Site support services contractor to pay damages of $8.1 million. Manager Julie Atwood resigned when she was told she would be fired from MSA in 2013. She filed a lawsuit claiming […]

A group comprised of BWX Technologies, Bechtel National, and Honeywell International has won a contract valued at $4.7 billion over 10 years for liquid waste management at the Savannah River Site in South Carolina, the Energy Department’s Office of Environmental Management announced Thursday. Savannah River EcoManagement’s contact features a seven-year base and a three-year option […]

The state of South Carolina has asked for summary judgment in its recent $100 million lawsuit against the Department of Energy over plutonium disposition at the Savannah River Site. The request was filed Oct. 6 – the same day the federal agency asked that the suit be thrown out. South Carolina filed the complaint on Aug. […]

More than 400 unionized workers at the Energy Department’s Sandia National Laboratories in New Mexico ratified a new three-year labor pact Monday, the Atomic Projects and Production Workers, Metal Trades Council, said Tuesday. “The Collective Bargaining Agreement was accepted by a majority of the membership employed at Sandia National Labs who came out to vote […]

Hanford Subcontractor Settles Federal Fraud Case Sage Tec and its owner, Laura Shikashio, have agreed to pay $235,000 to settle allegations of subcontracting fraud at the Hanford Site in Washington state, the Department of Justice said on Oct. 6. The announcement came less than a month after a second Hanford-area company in the federal court […]

South Carolina Gov. Henry McMaster is urging the state’s congressional delegation to continue advocating for the MOX project at the Energy Department’s Savannah River Site, which is again in danger of being defunded. In a Sept. 14 letter, McMaster provided all lawmakers from the state with a recent report from the governor’s South Carolina Nuclear […]

A new buyer for Waste Control Specialists is expected to be announced in October, four months after a federal judge blocked a prior acquisition attempt, President and CEO Rod Baltzer said Monday. Baltzer mentioned the timeline during a presentation at the Nuclear Decommissioning and Used Fuel Strategy Summit in Charlotte, N.C., according to multiple industry […]