Publications: Weapons Cleanup Monitor

The federal fiscal 2017 budget request unveiled Tuesday proposed a monumental, long-term change for the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) in New Mexico: making the facility the final destination for 34 metric tons of diluted weapon-usable plutonium that would arrive sometime in the early 2020s. In the near term, the White House proposed lowering WIPP’s […]

Funding for Environmental Management (EM) missions at the Savannah River Site would increase by about $111 million over current funding levels under President Barack Obama’s fiscal 2017 budget plan. The nearly $1.5 billion request includes $822.6 million for the site’s liquid waste program – an uptick from the $783.5 million appropriated in December’s omnibus. The request […]

Savannah River Remediation (SRR) President Stuart MacVean has resigned after more than four years with the company and over a year as president and project manager. MacVean sent a letter to his employees on Thursday with details on his resignation. He will be replaced by Mark Schmitz, the chief operating officer for the Savannah River […]

Amid some hoopla and a few dozen VIP onlookers, workers on Monday began tearing down the historic K-27 Building at the East Tennessee Technology Park. K-27 is the last of five gaseous diffusion plants in the East Tennessee valley that once housed the world’s largest uranium-enrichment complex and provided fuel for early generations of nuclear […]

The state of Washington’s chief overseer for the massive cleanup of the Hanford Site will leave the job this month with a strong sense of accomplishment, but at least a few frustrations as well. Under Jane Hedges’ watch as the state Department of Ecology’s Nuclear Waste Program manager, the federal government and its contractors have […]

Liquid waste cleanup at the Energy Department’s Hanford Site in Washington state would see relatively stable funding under the fiscal 2017 budget released Tuesday, while funding for other cleanup in the central region of the nearly 600-square-mile site would tumble by nearly 20 percent. For the Office of River Protection (ORP), which focuses on projects […]

Hanford Site officials plan to pile waste above grade at the massive central Hanford landfill to expand its capacity rather than digging a new waste cell immediately. Plans call for adding another 20 feet of layered waste and soil to the top of the Environmental Restoration Disposal Facility. Initially, ERDF was planned to stand about […]

An article in the Feb. 9 edition of WC Monitor cited an incorrect amount proposed to be spent in fiscal 2017 for the Department of Energy’s nuclear waste management operations. The amount is $76.3 million. Weapons Complex Monitor regrets the error.  

Washington State Appoints Interim Nuclear Waste Program Chief The Washington State Department of Ecology has named an interim manager of its Nuclear Waste Program starting March 1. Tom Tebb, the manager of Ecology’s Office of Columbia River, will do both jobs until the department permanently fills the position that oversees the state’s regulation of the […]

Chris Schneidmiller WC Monitor 2/9/2016 The Obama administration’s fiscal 2017 budget proposal, released Tuesday, lays out an aggressive funding plan to enact a nuclear waste management program to replace the Yucca Mountain deep geologic repository in Nevada. The money is to be used for the department’s phased, adaptive, consent-based approach to finding permanent storage for […]

WC Monitor 2/9/2016 The White House on Tuesday proposed a fiscal 2017 budget that would clear the way to send tons of diluted, weapon-usable plutonium to the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) in New Mexico and shrink the energy the Energy Department’s legacy nuclear-waste cleanup budget by just over 2 percent to about $6.1 billion. […]

As part of a policy blitz aimed at paving the way to send some 40 tons of diluted plutonium to the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant in New Mexico, the White House’s fiscal 2017 budget request will slash funding for the Mixed Oxide Fuel Fabrication Facility in Aiken, S.C., according to an informed source. The Mixed […]

WC Monitor 2/05/2016 WIPP Versus MOX Debate Continues in New Mexico Paper An op-ed debate over storing diluted plutonium at the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) continued over the weekend, with an executive from a consulting firm that authored a 2015 study backing an alternative disposal method arguing against interment at the Carlsbad, N.M. facility. […]

Staff Reports WC Monitor 2/5/2016 The corrective action program at the Hanford Site’s Waste Treatment Plant needs further improvements, despite past work on the program, according to an audit report released Thursday by the Department of Energy Office of Inspector General. Bechtel National implemented initiatives in August 2014 to address issues with the vitrification plant […]

WC Monitor 2/5/2016 Kacich to Take Over Management of LANL Legacy Cleanup Richard Kacich, who was appointed deputy director of the Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) in November, on Feb. 8 will become the top manager for the lab’s legacy waste cleanup contract with the Energy Department, according to an internal memo.  “In addition to […]

Fluor Idaho has received a five-year, cost-plus Idaho Cleanup Project (ICP) Core contract worth up to $1.4 billion for legacy waste cleanup work at the Idaho National Laboratory, the Energy Department’s Office of Environmental Management (EM) said Thursday. Work will take place at DOE EM’s Idaho Site some 50 miles west of Idaho Falls. The […]

Staff Reports WC Monitor 2/5/2016 A federal judge late last week closed the 1991 downwinder case filed against five early Hanford Site contractors, after declining to allow a final claim to be heard. Judge William Fremming Nielsen indicated in October that he was ready to close the case and ordered anyone who could show cause […]

Staff Reports WC Monitor 2/5/2016 The Department of Energy Office of River Protection (ORP) at the Hanford Site in Washington state has developed a list of 529 vulnerabilities in the design of the Hanford Waste Treatment Plant’s Low-Activity Waste Facility, all of which it says can be addressed. The list was developed after ORP commissioned […]

Staff Reports WC Monitor 2/5/2016 The Savannah River Site’s salt waste contractor announced Wednesday that it laid off 123 workers as construction of the Salt Waste Processing Facility (SWPF) nears 95 percent completion. In a brief statement, Frank Sheppard, Parsons vice president and SWPF program manager, said construction will be completed in the spring, so […]

The Department of Energy’s plan to conduct a feasibility study for deep-borehole storage of high-level radioactive waste has been put on hold in North Dakota, as the Pierce County Commission this week placed a moratorium on drilling amid growing concern from area residents. The estimated five-year, $35 million project, proposed across 20 acres of state […]

Staff Reports WC Monitor 2/5/2016 Local government leaders near the Hanford Site have some advice for Washington Gov. Jay Inslee as he picks a new state Nuclear Waste Program manager: choose carefully at this critical time in Hanford cleanup. Jane Hedges, who served in the position for a decade, announced in early November that she […]

Dan Leone WC Monitor 2/5/2016 It is now safe for workers to enter certain areas of the underground Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) near Carlsbad, N.M., without wearing air-filtering respirators, the Energy Department said Jan. 29. Personnel more than 2,520 feet south of WIPP’s northernmost tip — an access corridor where no waste is stored, […]

WC Monitor 2/05/2016 Lawmaker Seeks Full FY17 Funding for Hanford Richland Operations Office Rep. Dan Newhouse (R-Wash.) is urging President Barack Obama to request full funding for the Hanford Site’s Richland Operations Office when the administration’s fiscal 2017 appropriations request is released on Feb. 9. Last year the administration proposed a $93 million funding cut […]

WC Monitor 2/05/2016 UCOR Selects New COO Oak Ridge Reservation cleanup contractor URS CH2M Oak Ridge (UCOR) on Tuesday said a recently retired manager is returning to the company as chief operating officer. Fran Williams will succeed Matt Marston, who left UCOR in January to take a high-level job with URS parent company AECOM. Prior […]

WC Monitor 1/29/2016 SRNS to Address Attrition With 2,000 Hirings in Coming Years Savannah River Nuclear Solutions (SRNS) is looking to address its attrition problem over the next few years by hiring 2,000 workers with the help of partnerships with colleges and universities near the Savannah River Site in Aiken, S.C.  SRNS, the site’s management and […]

WC Monitor 1/29/2016 IEI-PEC, JV, of Lincoln, Neb., has received an indefinite-quantity, indefinite-delivery support services contracts from the Energy Department’s Office of Environmental Management worth up to $4 million over four years, DOE announced Thursday. Most of the work will take place at DOE EM headquarters in Washington and its Germantown, Md., satellite office, the […]

Staff Reports WC Monitor 1/29/2016 The primary ownership of Hanford Site contractor Mission Support Alliance would transfer from Lockheed Martin to the engineering firm Leidos under a deal struck between the two international companies. Leidos Holdings entered into a definitive agreement with Lockheed Martin this week to merge with Lockheed’s realigned Information Systems and Global […]