Publications: Weapons Cleanup Monitor

A Hanford Site subcontractor has agreed to pay $2 million to resolve allegations it violated the False Claims Act in connection with small business subcontracts, the Department of Justice announced Thursday. Federal Engineers & Constructors (FE&C) of Richland has long maintained it did nothing improper and admitted no liability in the settlement agreement. The settlement […]

URS-CH2M Oak Ridge (UCOR), the cleanup prime for the Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge Reservation in Tennessee, has awarded a $1.4 million contract to GEM Technologies to begin preparing the site of a new mercury treatment facility at Y-12 National Complex. By the end of November, GEM will begin demolishing old Oak Ridge electric cables […]

The federal government is mishandling the MOX project through improper cost evaluations and ongoing attempts to abandon construction of the plutonium-conversion facility, according to a group that advises the governor of South Carolina on nuclear issues. The South Carolina Nuclear Advisory Council (SCNAC) issued its report this month following a site visit to the MOX plant at […]

Another 11 labor union employees have crossed the picket line and returned to work for Savannah River Site security contractor Centerra-SRS. That brings the total to 59 employees who either did not join the strike that began last month or who have since gone back to work, according to Centerra spokesman Rob Davis. On Sept. 6, […]

The Department of Energy, NASA, and Boeing are wrestling with missed deadlines and expectations for the massive cleanup of the Santa Susana Field Laboratory in California, which was supposed to be well underway this year but remains largely in the planning stages. The state of California is still taking comments on two key documents for […]

A recent change in how payments are allotted by the Department of Energy is sparking concerns among some of the top contractors carrying out large-scale cleanup projects across the agency’s nuclear complex. The issue was referenced, although not thoroughly explained, by speakers at this month’s DOE National Cleanup Workshop in Alexandria, Va. “[I]n the past […]

The Washington state Department of Ecology is giving the Department of Energy more time to submit a proposal for safe storage of radioactive waste in the Hanford Site’s two PUREX Plant tunnels. The deadline to submit the information in the form of a draft modification to the Hanford RCRA (Resource Conservation and Recovery Act) dangerous […]

The primary obstacle to opening Yucca Mountain in Nevada as a nuclear waste-disposal site could be Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), the House’s top Energy Department appropriator said Thursday. “[I]n the Senate they have a two-vote Republican majority,” Rep. Mike Simpson (R-Idaho) said during the Energy Department-sponsored National Cleanup Workshop in Alexandria, Va. “One of those […]

The cleanup contractor for the Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge Reservation in Tennessee said this week it is among a number of agency contractors to be recognized for their safety performance last year. The National Safety Council in July recognized 51 member entities for “outstanding safety achievements” in calendar year 2016 through the Industry Leader […]

DOE to Skip Another Hanford Cleanup Life-Cycle Report The Department of Energy will not be required to issue an annual report in January outlining the remaining costs and schedule for cleanup of the Hanford Site in Washington state. The annual Hanford Lifecycle Scope, Schedule and Cost Report has been mandatory since 2010, when it was […]

Former Sen. Peter Domenici (R-N.M.), a stalwart ally of virtually all things nuclear in his state, died Wednesday following complications from abdominal surgery, the Albuquerque Journal reported. He was 85. Domenici was first elected to the Senate in 1972 and served six terms. During his Senate career, he chaired the chamber’s Energy Committee and Budget […]

Contractor Washington River Protection Solutions is ending fiscal 2017 with two successful evaporation campaigns that have freed up enough of the Hanford Site’s limited double-shell tank space to store 525,000 gallons of waste. Material from 149 single-shell tanks is being emptied into the site’s 27 double-shell tanks at Hanford that remain in service until the […]

The final paperwork is being filed to declare the Department of Energy’s X-326 building at Portsmouth, Ohio, “cold and dark” and ready for demolition, Robert Edwards, manager of DOE’s Portsmouth/Paducah Project Office, said Wednesday. The cold and dark designation could come in early 2018, Edwards and Dennis Carr, site director for Portsmouth cleanup contractor Fluor-BWXT […]

The Energy Department’s Environmental Management Field Office at the Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico is studying potential strategies for dealing with combustible radioactive waste held at a private facility in West Texas. Between 300 and 400 drums of waste from Los Alamos have been kept at Waste Control Specialists storage complex in Andrews […]

The Environmental Protection Agency has not made a permanent plan for management of its office at the Energy Department’s Hanford Site in Washington state. Instead, the EPA on Monday assigned two staffers at its Hanford Project Office to fill in as acting manager over the next eight months. The move came after Dennis Faulk, who […]

Perma-Fix Environmental Services President and CEO Lou Centofanti on Monday formally stepped down from the top spot he has held for more than two decades, replaced by the company’s chief operating officer. Centofanti founded the Atlanta-based nuclear services and waste management provider in 1991, and served two extended stints as president and chief executive officer: […]

A number of major policy questions must be addressed before the federal government drops the mixed-oxide fuel (MOX) project in South Carolina in favor of a “dilute and dispose” approach to disposal of 34 metric tons of surplus weapon-grade plutonium, House Appropriations energy and water subcommittee Chairman Mike Simpson (R-Idaho) said Thursday. “There are a […]

When ENERCON Federal Services last year became one of four teams bidding to dig a 16,000-foot deep borehole as a test for a potential means of radioactive waste disposal, Outreach Manager Francis “Chip” Cameron thought of it as a mere research effort. “We made the mistake of walking into this, thinking it was going to […]

Damage at the Energy Department’s Savannah River Site in South Carolina this week from Hurricane Irma was limited to downed trees, with no reported issues at any facilities. Wind gusts reached up to 76 mph at the site near Aiken, S.C., with sustained winds of 35 mph on Monday when Irma did most of its damage in […]

Within recent days, the Waste Isolation Pilot Project (WIPP) in New Mexico has received its 60th shipment since it resumed receiving radioactive waste from other Department of Energy sites in April. WIPP is the nation’s sole permanent repository for transuranic waste, and its nearly three-year closure following a February 2014 radiation release left shipments stranded […]

With a large budget request, a programmatic review process encompassing top officials at Department of Energy headquarters and sites, and political appointees who seem to share a “bias for action,” there is cause for optimism about increasing the pace of cleanup of DOE’s nuclear legacy, officials said Wednesday. That was the sense that emerged following […]

Acting Assistant Energy Secretary for Environmental Management James Owendoff said Wednesday not to expect a major formal “list” of objectives to be published from his recently completed 45-day review of the Department of Energy’s nuclear cleanup office. “There is not a list out there per se,” he said during DOE’s National Cleanup Workshop in Alexandria, […]

The general manager of Waste Treatment Completion Co., the new subcontractor for the Waste Treatment Plant at the Hanford Site in Washington state, is on medical leave. Acting general manager Mike Costas is filling in for general manager Scott Oxenford. Costas previously served as the manager of functions for the Waste Treatment Plant, which included […]

SUMMERLIN, Nev. — Plans for a new permanent ventilation system at the Energy Department’s Waste Isolation Pilot Project in New Mexico should not be held back by a continuing resolution that will keep the federal government running into December, DOE’s top official at the site said Wednesday. Carlsbad Field Office Manager Todd Shrader shared his prediction […]

The Energy Department’s Savannah River Site has lost about 900 jobs over the past five years, primarily due to attrition, according to a recent economic impact study. Released late last month, the study – The Savannah River Site: Economic Impact and Workforce Transition – was prepared by the SRS Community Reuse Organization (SRSCRO), a group tasked with working […]

The findings of a recent report questioning the cohesion of the bedrock on which a nuclear waste disposal facility is to be built in Ohio has not deterred the Energy Department from moving forward with the project. “Based on the intensive review of all the information provided in the Ferguson Group Report, DOE does not […]

SUMMERLIN, Nev. — The Energy Department’s Office of Environmental Management (EM) is establishing a new unit that will focus on completing the Hanford Site’s Waste Treatment Plant, Roger Jarrell, senior adviser to the secretary of energy for environmental management, said Tuesday. Efforts are being made to streamline management decisions at EM, a roughly $6 billion-per-year […]

The Energy Department is likely to extend the nearly expired contract for environmental management services at the Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) in New Mexico ahead of awarding a new deal, an observer said Thursday. Lab management and operations prime Los Alamos National Security holds a two-year, $230 million “bridge” legacy nuclear cleanup contract that ends […]