Publications: Weapons Cleanup Monitor

Costs will soar and deadlines will go unmet at the Hanford Site near Richland, Wash., if workers there keep wearing gear to protect them from noxious fumes leaking from underground waste tanks, the Energy Department and its tank-farm contractor said this week. In documents published Wednesday, the AECOM-led Washington River Protection Solutions (WRPS) estimated the cost of […]

South Carolina on Monday again urged a federal judge to reconsider her finding that the U.S. District Court has no jurisdiction over monetary claims levied against the Energy Department for failing to remove plutonium from the state earlier this year, according to court papers. South Carolina sued DOE in February after the agency failed to […]

Sixteen single-shell tanks built to hold liquid radioactive waste at the Energy Department’s Hanford site near Richland, Wash., will not be closed in 2019 as once scheduled, under a tentative agreement finalized last week. These underground tanks in Hanford’s Waste Management Area C have been emptied but must still be either removed from the site, […]

The Department of Energy Office of River Protection at the Hanford Site in Washington state has named Ben Harp as deputy manager, after he served in the position on an acting basis for several weeks. He also will serve as chief operating officer for the DOE office charged with management and disposal of 56 million gallons […]

Sue Cange from the Energy Department’s Oak Ridge Site in Tennessee has been promoted to principal deputy assistant secretary for environmental management at DOE headquarters in Washington, the agency announced Thursday. Cange, most recently manager for DOE’s Oak Ridge Office of Environmental Management, has been with DOE for nearly 30 years. She succeeds Mark Whitney, who […]

By Billy Morrison Twenty-five years ago this week, the Energy Facility Contractors Group was born. After receiving the thumbs up from then-Secretary of Energy James Watkins early in 1991, a group of executives from the Department of Energy’s management and operations contractors met the first week of December 1991 to officially form EFCOG, approving a charter […]

The Washington state Ecology Department on Monday opened a 60-day public comment period for locals to weigh in on a permit modification Bechtel National and the Energy Department need to start treating radioactive waste at the Hanford Site as soon as 2022. If granted, the modification will smooth the way for Bechtel, prime contractor on the […]

Waste Control Specialists is seeking leniency from federal regulators after apparently violating its federal waste-storage permit to prevent a possible radiation release in 2014, according to an official account the company filed with the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. The 12-page account, the most detailed Waste Control Specialists (WCS) has offered publicly on the situation, is printed […]

Energy Department contractors Bechtel and AECOM will pay a combined $125 million to settle allegations that they spent federal dollars on non-nuclear-certified parts and services for the Waste Treatment Plant at the Hanford Site in Washington state, the U.S. Justice Department announced late Nov. 23. Bechtel’s payment also covers claims that it improperly used federal funds for lobbying purposes. […]

This week, as the Energy Department weighed decisions that will determine if the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) reopens in 2016, news broke that New Mexico’s U.S. senators believe the facility needs tens of millions of dollars more than expected to safely resume nuclear waste disposal. After numerous setbacks this year, DOE and site contractor […]

The Department of Energy said Thursday it has issued a $39.1 million, five-year contract to e-Management Consultants for information technology services at Office of Environmental Management (EM) headquarters. The Silver Spring, Md.-based company, which specializes in IT services for government, beat 12 other bidders, according to a DOE press release. The contract covers a wide […]

A dozen workers this week reported symptoms or suspicious odors that could be related to chemical vapors from waste stored at the Department of Energy’s Hanford Site in Washington state. Thursday afternoon, three workers reported a suspicious ammonia-like odor outside a facility used to switch out empty air bottles for full containers to use with […]

President Barack Obama this week nominated nuclear energy industry veteran Bruce Hamilton to serve a full term on the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board member. Hamilton joined the board in August 2015, replacing Ken Mossman, who has since died. If approved by the Senate, he would serve a full term of five years. Hamilton was president […]

A recently released report from the Department of Energy’s (DOE) Office of Inspector General (IG) identifies seven significant management challenges facing the agency in fiscal 2017. They are: financial assistance and contract management; cybersecurity; environmental cleanup; nuclear waste disposal; safeguards and security; stockpile stewardship; and infrastructure modernization. All but one of these categories were previously identified […]

A local advisory board wants the Department of Energy to expedite processing of aluminum-clad spent nuclear fuel (SNF) stocks at the Savannah River Site in South Carolina. During its bimonthly meeting on Nov. 15, the SRS Citizens Advisory Board (CAB) approved a recommendation asking DOE to “accelerate plans and decisions to process its entire inventory of aluminum-clad SNF […]

Hanford Site tank farm contractor Washington River Protection Solutions (WRPS) has reached a settlement agreement with the Department of Energy Office of Enforcement over a subcontractor worker who fell into an abandoned septic system. The company has agreed to pay $45,000 and take actions to improve safety, including with its subcontractors, according to a consent […]

Washington state and its co-plaintiffs in a federal lawsuit over chemical vapor protections for workers at the Department of Energy’s Hanford Site are asking for five more months to prepare for trial. The proposed delay would move the trial from Sept 18, 2017, to Feb. 19, 2018. The current case schedule cannot be met, in […]

South Carolina wants a U.S. District Court judge to reconsider her recent opinion that she has no jurisdiction to rule on the $100 million the state is seeking in its lawsuit over disposition of DOE plutonium stored at the Savannah River Site near Aiken, S.C. State Attorney General Alan Wilson sued the Energy Department, Energy Secretary […]

With the impending ascension of former NASA hand Rex Geveden to the top spot at BWX Technologies, the Lynchburg, Va.-company has set an an outsider from the aerospace business in charge of an effort to grow the company’s legacy nuclear cleanup business with the Energy Department’s Office of Environmental Management. “We remain strongly committed to […]

Nuclear Navy vet Don Hoffman, longtime president of Excel Services Corp., in Rockville, Md., is reportedly out of the running to head the Department of Energy’s legacy nuclear cleanup operations, and Eric Knox, a former Energy Department civil servant with ties to the Yucca Mountain, is rumored to be in consideration, sources in Washington said […]

Executives with radioactive waste management specialist Perma-Fix Environmental Services on Friday acknowledged rough earnings numbers for the latest quarter and entirety of 2016. But they said the outlook is improving, particularly with an opportunity to treat large amounts of waste at the Department of Energy’s Hanford Site in Washington state. “We’ve been very disappointed with […]

Advocates for the Mixed Oxide Fuel Fabrication Facility at the Savannah River Site in South Carolina hope President-elect Donald Trump’s upcoming term will put to rest attempts to shut down the troubled project. The MFFF would be used to honor a 2000 bilateral agreement that requires the U.S. and Russia to each dispose of 34 […]

Weapons Complex Monitor will not be published next week in observance of the Thanksgiving holiday. Look for the next edition in your inbox on Friday, Dec. 2.

A federal judge on Tuesday denied a motion for a preliminary injunction to increase protections from chemical vapors for Hanford Site workers until a lawsuit is decided. Judge Thomas Rice of U.S. District Court for Eastern Washington denied all three of the measures requested by Washington state, the local watchdog organization Hanford Challenge, and Plumbers and […]

The last major piece of equipment for the Hanford Site Waste Treatment Plant’s Low-Activity Waste Facility arrived this week and was placed in the plant. The facility over the summer received two of the three major components of melter off-gas system. The final component of the system to arrive was the caustic scrubber manufactured by […]

A final, crunch-time review to determine if the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) is ready to receive nuclear waste for the first time in nearly three years will take less time to finish than once thought, the Department of Energy announced Tuesday. The DOE-led operational readiness review that began Monday, as first reported in Weapons Complex Morning Briefing, will […]

Twenty workers at the Energy Department’s Savannah River Site will swap badges to Savannah River Remediation from Parsons to ensure liquid waste treatment at the Salt Waste Processing Facility begins around 2019, as scheduled. The AECOM-led Savannah River Remediation (SRR) “recently chose to hire 20 Radiological Protection Inspectors through Parsons, the SWPF [Salt Waste Processing […]

The Department of Energy has completed the amendment process for the request for proposals for the technical services contract at the Oak Ridge Office of Environmental Management (OREM) in Tennessee, according to a notice posted Wednesday. The RFP was issued in early October, and DOE made three amendments through Nov. 15. “No further amendments to […]