Publications: Weapons Cleanup Monitor

The House of Representatives’ fiscal 2018 energy funding bill directs the National Nuclear Security Administration to address various legal and diplomatic hurdles in its proposed alternative plutonium disposition method before Congress considers funding the new approach and abandoning the MOX Fuel Fabrication Facility under construction in South Carolina. The House version of the energy and […]

Thermal imaging scans were being collected over 20 square miles at the center of the Hanford Site this week to help determine where radioactive waste might be buried. A crew using a small airplane started the flights early Wednesday morning and expected to continue over early mornings for three to five days. Information is being […]

The public meeting promised by the Department of Energy on the structural integrity of the Hanford Site’s PUREX Tunnel No. 2 has been set for 6 p.m. July 20., at the Courtyard by Marriott, 480 Columbia Point Drive in Richland, Wash. The workshop will be webcast. Registration information can be found here. DOE and the Washington […]

CH2M Hill Plateau Remediation Co. and the Washington state Department of Ecology have reached a settlement agreement over waste storage that waives a $50,000 penalty against the Hanford Site cleanup contractor. The state had accused CH2M in August 2016 of breaching requirements for the storage of five containers of waste at Hanford’s T Plant, including identifying […]

The White House is considering Alan Parker, who now leads one of the Energy Department’s nuclear-cleanup contractors, to head the agency’s entire remediation of its Cold War legacy as assistant secretary of energy for environmental management (EM), a source said Thursday. Parker is currently president and project manager for Mid-America Conversion Services: a new Atkins-led contracting […]

Mark Gilbertson has replaced Frank Marcinowski as the top policy and regulatory affairs official in the Department of Energy’s Office of Environmental Management (EM), according to official agency correspondence reviewed by Weapons Complex Monitor. A DOE spokesperson in Washington confirmed Wednesday that Gilbertson is EM’s current acting associate principal deputy assistant secretary for regulatory and […]

The remaining portions of the site that once housed the old Oak Ridge Gaseous Diffusion Plant in Tennessee will be fully remediated within three years, well ahead of the original schedule, according to Ken Rueter, president of Energy Department site cleanup contractor URS-CH2M Oak Ridge (UCOR). The last Manhattan Project-era uranium enrichment building, K-27, came […]

House lawmakers this week approved a fiscal 2018 energy and water budget that would give the the Department of Energy about $30 billion and add three new cleanup projects to DOE’s Office of Environmental Management. The House Appropriations Committee agreed by voice vote Wednesday, with a few Democrat dissenters, to send the nearly $38 billion 2018 […]

Members of the House of Representatives have thrown early support in the latest budget process behind sustaining funding for the MOX project at the Department of Energy’s Savannah River Site, but their colleagues in the Senate are so far silent on whether they will also again back the controversial program. The House version of the fiscal 2018 […]

After a federal judge blocked Dallas-based Waste Control Specialists’ takeover by EnergySolutions of Salt Lake City, the Texas company is still trying to figure out what to do with more than 100 potentially flammable containers of transuranic waste it is storing for the Energy Department. Asked what the canceled merger means for the company’s contract […]

CH2M Hill Plateau Remediation Co. and the Washington state Department of Ecology have reached a settlement agreement over waste storage includes the waiver of a $50,000 penalty against the Hanford Site cleanup contractor. The state had accused CH2M in August 2016 of breaching requirements for the storage of five containers of waste at Hanford’s T Plant, […]

Lawmakers on the House Appropriations Committee this week approved a fiscal 2018 energy budget that “fully supports” the Department of Energy’s plan to create a permanent nuclear waste repository at Yucca Mountain in Nevada — though in a slightly different way than the White House imagined. “The Committee fully supports the Administration’s position to move […]

The Waste Isolation Pilot Plant in New Mexico remains compliant with U.S. environmental law essential to the transuranic waste facility’s ongoing operations, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency said Thursday. Every five years, under the federal law that created the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP), EPA must recertify that the Department of Energy is complying with the […]

Adams Natural Resources Consulting Services of Carson City, Nev., will aid Nevada’s legal efforts to oppose the proposed Yucca Mountain nuclear-waste repository for another year, under a contract modification approved Wednesday. Nevada Attorney General Adam Paul Laxalt, Gov. Brian Sandoval (R) and Secretary of State Barbara Cegavske approved the extension during a state Board of […]

Betsy Connell was still employed as chief of staff for the Energy Department’s Office of Environmental Management as of July 3, a government source said. An article in the June 30 issue of Weapons Complex Monitor (“Cange Leads EM Personnel Exodus” Vol. 28, No. 6) cited informed sources saying she was one of three senior DOE officials […]

A large wildfire spread across the security perimeter of the Hanford Site onto the main portion of the facility late Sunday night, burning 1,644 acres. The overall fire was contained to 30,984 acres by Thursday, but the Hanford Fire Department had the blaze on the main portion of the Department of Energy site contained at […]

Days after the transition was set to start, the Energy Department has yet to announce who will take over the next decade of legacy nuclear cleanup at the Los Alamos National Laboratory under a contract that went out to bid in September. In its final request for proposals, DOE’s Office of Environmental Management (EM) advised […]

Stephen Kadenacy on June 30 formally ended his nearly two-year tenure as president and chief operating officer of global engineering firm AECOM, one of the major contractors at Department of Energy nuclear sites around the country. Kadenacy has been with AECOM for nearly a decade, starting as senior vice president for finance in 2008 and […]

The Department of Energy’s Office of Environmental Management (EM) on Monday issued a request for proposals for a technical services support contract for its Portsmouth/Paducah Project Office. The indefinite-delivery, indefinite-quantity contract line item number is a small-business set aside with a maximum value of services of $40 million. It covers cybersecurity, information-technology support services, quality […]

Montreal-based global engineering company SNC-Lavalin as of Monday is the new owner of British engineering and project manager provider WS Atkins, an increasingly significant player in cleanup of the U.S. Department of Energy’s nuclear complex. The $3.6 billion (CAN) deal brings the 18,000-employee Atkins, and its $3.5 billion (CAN) in annual revenue, under the SNC-Lavalin […]

Three of the 26 companies recognized for safety excellence in 2016 by the state of South Carolina are contractors at the Department of Energy’s Savannah River Site. The companies are: liquid waste management contractor Savannah River Remediation (SRR); management and operations contractor Savannah River Nuclear Solutions (SRNS); and security provider Centerra. The Energy Department reported […]

The Energy Department has received permission from the state of New Mexico to keep 26 containers of potentially flammable waste above ground at the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) until June 30, 2018. The agency made the request on June 9 and received the OK from the New Mexico Environment Department (NMED) on June 23, according to a […]

A House subcommittee on Wednesday approved a fiscal 2018 spending bill that would hold the Energy Department’s nuclear cleanup budget roughly even with the current appropriation. That is about all that is known about the lower chamber’s plans for the department’s Office of Environmental Management (EM) for the fiscal year beginnng Oct. 1, as lawmakers will not […]

A venture aimed at expediting remediation of nuclear waste at the Department of Energy’s Savannah River Site in South Carolina could cost more than the original $50 million estimate unless the management team in charge can rein in expenses, a project stakeholder said this week. The site’s management and operations contractor, Savannah River Nuclear Solutions […]

The village of Piketon, Ohio, has renewed calls for the Energy Department to cancel a planned nuclear waste disposal facility at the nearby Portsmouth Site, citing a new report that claims the agency plans to build the landfill on fractured bedrock. Piketon Mayor Billy Spencer, who for years has opposed what is officially known as an […]

Three Washington state Democrats made a last-minute attempt to revive a proposal in the state Legislature to help ill personnel from the Hanford Site win easier approval of workers’ compensation claims. Their bill was scheduled for discussion Wednesday in an executive session of the Senate Commerce, Labor and, Sports Committee, but the meeting was canceled […]

The New Mexico Environment Department will continue non-regulatory oversight of the Energy Department’s environmental monitoring programs at the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant under a five-year, $2-million grant extension announced Thursday. The grant now will run through June 30, 2022, DOE’s Office of Environmental Management wrote in a press release. The Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) […]