Publications: Weapons Cleanup Monitor

The Department of Energy has racked up more than $1 million in new penalties from the state of Idaho over the failure to begin operation of a liquid waste treatment facility at the Idaho National Laboratory. The total fines levied against DOE and its current and former contractors on the project now stands at just […]

Trial in the lawsuit over worker protection from vapors at the Department of Energy’s Hanford Site in Washington state has been reset for June 11, 2018, at the request of all parties in the case. This is the third time plaintiffs and defendants have jointly requested a delay in the federal trial to allow for […]

The Savannah River Site expects to complete its coal ash remediation project in early 2019, according to the Department of Energy. The $74 million cleanup project involves burying 1.3 million cubic yards of ash now stored on 90 acres of land at the Department of Energy facility in South Carolina. The ash was generated by coal-fueled facilities used […]

Been there, heard that, was the reaction from Washington state’s two U.S. senators as Energy Secretary Rick Perry defended budget cuts proposed in the administration’s fiscal 2018 request for the Hanford Site. Perry was in the hot seat for three days in succession this week, answering questions about proposed funding levels for cleanup at the […]

An article in the June 16 edition of Weapons Complex Monitor, “DOE Budget Plan Doubles Funding for WIPP Ventilation,” did not include the full fiscal 2018 Environmental Management funding request for the Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge, Tenn., site. The total amount is $390.2 million.

Energy Secretary Rick Perry raised eyebrows this week by listing facilities in Nevada, New Mexico, and Texas as possible interim storage sites for U.S. nuclear waste, then a day later clarified that his agency has made no decisions on any potential locations. In successive budget hearings before House and Senate Appropriations committees, though, Perry left no […]

The head of the Department of Energy’s Office of Enterprise Assessments (EA) — the agency’s independent nuclear safety and security enforcer — will retire “at the end of the summer,” according to a letter he sent to industry colleagues Thursday. “Last Friday I informed Secretary Perry’s [chief of staff] and [deputy chief of staff] that […]

It could take the Department of Energy four to six months to select its candidate to lead the Office of Environmental Management and move the nominee through the Senate confirmation process, an informed source said this week. Energy Secretary Rick Perry has not yet put any of his management team in place since his Senate […]

The Savannah River Site is on pace to restart liquid waste operations “toward the end of the year,” according to a SRS Facebook post that also detailed progress in switching out melters at one of the site’s main waste processing facilities. The update Monday says Melter 3 recently arrived at the Defense Waste Processing Facility (DWPF), which […]

A committee of the Savannah River Site Citizens Advisory Board (CAB) this week urged the Energy Department to step up efforts to regulate drone flights over the facility in South Carolina. Tuesday’s vote came two months after the CAB’s Strategic and Legacy Management Committee tabled the recommendation. At the time, members determined it was best to […]

Nuclear Regulatory Commission staff on Tuesday authorized shipment by road of various forms of waste from the shuttered American Centrifuge project in Ohio to the Department of Energy’s Nevada National Security Site. The approval was signed on the same day that the NRC posted a Federal Register notice of its finding of no significant impact from the […]

Plaintiffs and defendants in the lawsuit over chemical vapors protection for workers at the Hanford Site in Washington state have asked for another delay in the trial as they try to reach a settlement agreement. The trial already has been postponed twice to allow the parties to pursue mediation. Now, the sides have asked U.S. […]

Disputes over several pieces of language did not stop the House Energy and Commerce environment subcommittee on Thursday from sending legislation to advance interim and permanent storage of U.S. nuclear waste to the full panel for consideration. Democrats offered three amendments to the Nuclear Waste Policy Amendments Act of 2017 during a markup session, but […]

Bechtel National workers have completed assembling the first melter at the Hanford Site’s Waste Treatment Plant, the Department of Energy announced Thursday. Completion of the project earned the contractor $4.275 million in incentive pay. The melter is one of two that will be used at the plant’s Low-Activity Waste Facility, which DOE aims to begin […]

The Department of Energy intends to more than double funding in fiscal 2018 for work on the new permanent ventilation system at the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant in New Mexico, according to the detailed budget justification released this week for DOE’s Office of Environmental Management. Airflow at the transuranic waste storage mine was reduced drastically […]

The liquid waste contractor for the Department of Energy’s Savannah River Site in South Carolina wants a federal judge to throw out a discrimination lawsuit, saying the former employee and plaintiff “has failed to state a claim upon which relief can be granted.” The lawsuit, filed April 24, is one of two open discrimination suits against Savannah […]

The last of the 94 vertically buried pipes filled with radioactive waste have been removed from the Hanford Site’s 618-10 Burial Ground, and other cleanup work there is nearing completion, according to the Department of Energy and cleanup contractor CH2M Hill Plateau Remediation Co. Former river corridor remediation contractor Washington Closure Hanford developed a plan […]

Twenty-six containers of transuranic waste shipped to the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) for disposal years ago might not be buried there until 2018, the Energy Department disclosed on June 9 in a regulatory filing. Hundreds of containers of transuranic waste — radioactively contaminated material and equipment produced by Cold War nuclear weapons programs — were […]

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission on June 9 said it has begun the technical review of the Energy Department’s request for a 20-year license extension for storage in Idaho of debris from the Three Mile Island nuclear power plant. The Energy Department submitted the request by letter on March 6, after which the NRC carried out an acceptance review […]

WASHINGTON — A bipartisan group of senators plans to reintroduce a bill that, in its most recent form, would have created a new federal agency dedicated to dealing with nuclear waste, Sen. Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.) said during a Wednesday hearing here on Capitol Hill. Alexander would sponsor the legislation along with Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.). The […]

The contractor building the Mixed Oxide Fuel Fabrication Facility in South Carolina, locked in a dispute with the federal government over the project’s future, argued the Energy Department’s failure to negotiate a contract modification “in good faith” is costing the company money. On June 1, the U.S. Civilian Board of Contract Appeals denied CB&I AREVA […]

The Donald Trump administration’s fiscal 2018 budget request for the Hanford Site’s Richland Operations Office is inadequate, regulators for the Department of Energy facility in Washington state said Wednesday during discussions at a Hanford Advisory Board meeting and a public budget meeting. The proposed $800 million for the office – which includes security and cybersecurity […]

WASHINGTON — In a mostly symbolic milestone that nevertheless carries measurable cost savings, the Energy Department could close out Washington Closure Hanford’s contract by the end of 2017, a senior DOE official said here Wednesday. “I think we may be at the end of this year able to say we have everything done to close […]

WASHINGTON — U.S. lawmakers from Ohio are prodding Energy Secretary Rick Perry to visit the Portsmouth Site their state: one of the legacy nuclear cleanup sites Perry has yet to see since taking the reins at the Energy Department in March. “We think it would be important [for Perry] to be there and have some […]

When Westinghouse Government Services opened an office just outside Washington, D.C., this week, the resurgent nuclear-cleanup contractor threw itself a little housewarming party. Many of the guests were members of what company President Cathy Hickey calls “the DOE contractors club:” a tight-knit group of sometimes-competitive, sometimes-cooperative outfits that includes heavyweights such as AECOM, Bechtel, BWX […]

The Energy Department this week was to debrief the runners-up for the potentially 10-year, $1.5 billion contract won by a CH2M-led team for continued cleanup of the Paducah Gaseous Diffusion Plant in Kentucky. DOE received four bids for the contract, which the agency announced May 26 went to Four Rivers Nuclear Partnership. The team also includes […]

Workers at the Hanford Site’s Plutonium Finishing Plant were ordered to take cover indoors for more than three hours Thursday morning as a precaution after an air monitor detected low levels of airborne contamination, according to the Department of Energy. A survey subsequently found spots of radioactive contamination had spread outside the demolition zone established […]

Two Savannah River Remediation workers were contaminated with beta and gamma radiation at the Savannah River Site’s Defense Waste Processing Facility this week, according to an official Department of Energy account of the incident. The incident occurred Wednesday when one employee spilled a sample of liquid waste pulled from an oil drum. The sample splattered […]