Publications: Weapons Cleanup Monitor

The Paducah Gaseous Diffusion Plant in Kentucky lost power for several hours Tuesday, which prompted plant managers to declare an “operational emergency,” according to documents posted on the Energy Department’s Daily Occurrence Reports website. The site experienced a loss of power to different switchyards because of a problem with a Tennessee Valley Authority electric line […]

Jacobs Engineering will be required to mitigate an apparent conflict of interest at the Department of Energy’s Hanford Site in its planned acquisition of CH2M Hill. Jacobs announced in June that it planned to purchase its fellow DOE contractor for $2.85 billion, with the deal set to close by the end of the year. Jacobs […]

The Department of Energy expects to begin transferring cesium and strontium capsules from underwater storage at the Hanford Site in Washington state to dry storage in 2022. The latest step toward that goal has been identifying a proposed location at Hanford for dry storage and completing a conceptual design of a new concrete pad storage […]

The House of Representatives is calling for a “full overhaul” of the federal program that provides money to local communities near large Energy Department sites that cannot be taxed. That would include terminating all existing agreements, according to legislation passed in the House earlier this month. Given that localities cannot tax property owned by the […]

The Energy Department said Tuesday that it had awarded a $19.3 million task order to Waste Control Specialists for continued storage in West Texas of transuranic and Greater-Than-Class-C waste from the Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico. The Dallas-based waste storage specialist said the agreement includes research into ultimate disposal of the waste at […]

The U.S. Court of Federal Claims has dismissed a 2016 class action lawsuit demanding that the Department of Energy reinstate pension benefits for up to 500 people for work performed at the Hanford Site in Washington state. Chief Judge Susan G. Braden ruled Sept. 22 that plaintiffs who worked for Lockheed Martin Services Inc. had […]

WASHINGTON — The federal government’s independent watchdog for defense nuclear sites backed off a formal safety recommendation to the Energy Department here Tuesday, citing a lack of confidence that the measure would better prepare DOE facilities for emergencies. In an open meeting at its headquarters, the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board (DNFSB) voted 4-1 to […]

The Energy Department has as of this week been penalized more than $2.37 million by the state of Idaho over the ongoing failure to start operating a liquid waste treatment facility at the Idaho National Laboratory (INL). The Integrated Waste Treatment Unit (IWTU) was built to process 900,000 gallons of liquid sodium-bearing waste produced during […]

As has been expected, the Energy Department on Tuesday issued a six-month extension for the current contract for legacy nuclear cleanup operations at the Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico. The department said Tuesday that Los Alamos National Security, the lab’s management and operations contractor, would also remain its environmental management provider through March […]

Since it resumed accepting transuranic waste in April, the Energy Department’s Waste Isolation Pilot Plant has received 68 shipments as of Sept. 25, officials said Thursday during a “WIPP Town Hall” in Carlsbad, N.M. The officials also offered some details of a potential rock fall situation in one of the underground mine’s storage rooms. With […]

The extended closure of the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) in New Mexico threatens the Energy’s Department legal obligation to remove all transuranic waste from Idaho by the end of 2018, the DOE Inspector General’s Office said in a report released on Sept. 15. Department officials have acknowledged the possible risk cited in the IG’s […]

The Energy Department announced on Sept. 15 it would extend the current contract for management and operations of the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant in New Mexico through September 2020. DOE employed three of the available five years of options remaining in its contract with Nuclear Waste Partnership, according to a late afternoon press release. AECOM […]

The Civilian Board of Contract Appeals has ordered the Energy Department to pay an additional $33.2 million to the former prime cleanup contractor for the Idaho Site. The board said CH2M-WG Idaho is entitled to recover more than $27.3 million in incentive fees for work it did on the Idaho Cleanup Project. In addition, the […]

The U.S. Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee on Tuesday approved the nomination of David Jonas to be Department of Energy general counsel by a 14-9 vote. The roll-call vote split almost entirely along party lines, with only Sens. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) Angus King (I-Vt.) breaking ranks with the Democrats to support Jonas’ nomination. There […]

Changes to the legal and regulatory framework for management of Energy Department nuclear waste could save $40 billion in costs for cleanup of the DOE nuclear complex and hasten the removal of that waste from local communities, the Energy Communities Alliance (ECA) said in a new report. “ECA understands this is a large change from […]

Attorneys for Mission Support Alliance (MSA) say the Hanford Site support-services contractor had good reason to fire an employee who filed a lawsuit alleging retaliation. The attorney for the former manager, Julie Atwood, claims she was targeted by upper management who did not value strong women. Lawyers made their opening statements in the Benton County […]

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 […]