Publications: Weapons Cleanup Monitor

Staff Reports WC Monitor 1/29/2016 Neither the Department of Energy nor Savannah River Nuclear Solutions (SRNS) has come up with a dollar value for the cost of last year’s SRNS operational safety pause on all nonessential missions. SRNS, the Savannah River Site’s management and operations contractor, initiated the safety pause in September after a plutonium sample headed […]

Dan Leone WC Monitor 1/29/2016 A $74 million settlement finalized with the Energy Department last week has cleared the way for New Mexico to overhaul the rules governing the Department of Energy’s nuclear waste cleanup at Los Alamos National Laboratory. Legally, the settlement resolves civil penalties the state levied on DOE related to an underground […]

Staff Reports WC Monitor 1/29/2016 The Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board is planning one or more hearings in New Mexico around March to address issues with the Los Alamos National Laboratory’s (LANL) Area G, Doug Hintze, manager of the Department of Energy’s Environmental Field Office at the lab said on Wednesday. “We’ve been informed by […]

Staff Reports WC Monitor 1/29/2016 The attorney for the first downwinder claim for radioactive exposure from the Hanford Site in Washington state has objected to a proposal to close the case, saying his client lacks resolution 28 years after filing a claim. It is the only claim to be put forth after U.S. Judge William […]

WC Monitor 1/29/2016 Hanford Guards Approve New Contract The Hanford Guards Union voted Tuesday to approve a proposed contract agreement with Mission Support Alliance. The contract would have expired at the end of October but has been extended three times as negotiations have continued. “We have a long-standing relationship with the guard and greatly value […]

Dan Leone WC Monitor 1/29/2016 The Department of Energy plans to complete installation of an interim ventilation system at the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) facility near Carlsbad, N.M., in March or April, another milestone required to reopen the underground transuranic waste-storage facility by December, a DOE official said Thursday. The ventilation installation was mentioned […]

WC Monitor 1/29/2016 Fluor Marks First Paducah Demolition of 2016 Department of Energy contractor Fluor Paducah Deactivation Project already in 2016 has demolished the first of 12 inactive facilities to be razed soon at the former gaseous diffusion plant near Paducah, Ky., the DOE Office of Environmental Management Portsmouth/Paducah Project Office announced Tuesday. The C-746-B […]

Dan Leone WC Monitor 1/22/2016 Nuclear Watch New Mexico said this week it intends to sue the Energy Department and contractor Los Alamos National Security in federal court for blowing a cleanup deadline at the Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL). Under a legally binding 2005 consent order between DOE, the New Mexico Environment Department, and […]

WC Monitor 1/22/2016 Grouting Begins for SRS Tank 12 A three-month process has begun to grout and close Tank 12 at the Savannah River Site, continuing a longstanding effort to rid South Carolina of more than 30 million gallons of radioactive liquid waste. SRS announced Tuesday that its liquid waste contractor, Savannah River Remediation (SRR), […]

Staff Reports WC Monitor 1/22/2016 The Y-12 site’s Alpha-5 Building has been characterized as the “worst of the worst” of the excess facilities awaiting cleanup at Department of Energy sites around the country, and deactivation and decommissioning of the highly contaminated, highly deteriorated site is still years from happening. However, Consolidated Nuclear Security – the […]

Chris Schneidmiller WC Monitor 1/22/2016 The Department of Energy on Thursday said it had officially determined that transuranic waste emplacement operations should begin in December of this year at the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant in New Mexico. The date is set in a new integrated performance baseline measurement (PMB) approved by the DOE’s Carlsbad Field […]

The possibility of storing excess plutonium at the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) near Carlsbad, N.M., coupled with increased oil and gas drilling in the area, mean the Energy Department needs to re-evaluate the safety of the world’s only open transuranic waste storage facility, according to Stanford University researchers. Those factors, along with a pair […]

Staff Reports WC Monitor 1/22/2016 A federal judge this week combined two lawsuits filed against the Department of Energy and its Hanford Site waste storage tank farm contractor over worker protection from chemical vapors. Lawsuits were filed in September by the state of Washington and by Hanford Challenge filing jointly with Plumbers and Steamfitters Local […]

Dan Leone WC Monitor 1/22/2016 Savannah River Nuclear River Solutions (SRNS) in fiscal 2015 earned a $37.8 million fee on its Savannah River Site management and operations contract with the Energy Department, or 82 percent of what it could have earned, DOE announced late Tuesday. The company — an industry team comprised of Fluor, Honeywell […]

Staff Reports WC Monitor 1/22/2016 Washington River Protection Solutions, the Hanford Site tank farm contractor, has received 88 percent of the award fee available for fiscal 2015, or just over $13.7 million out of $15.6 million. The fee is in addition to an award of 100 percent of the $14.4 million available as performance-based incentives […]

Chris Schneidmiller WC Monitor 1/22/2016 Eight million tons of uranium mill tailings have been extracted from the Moab site in Utah through the Department of Energy’s Uranium Mill Tailings Remedial Action Project as of this week. That is half of the roughly 16 million tons of tailings from the former uranium ore processing site that […]

Staff Reports WC Monitor 1/22/2016 A Hanford Fire Department employee who handled potentially contaminated vortex coolers used at the Hanford Site’s Plutonium Finishing Plant has received a preliminary positive result for radioactive uptake. Preliminary bioassay results for eight other fire department employees were negative. Results are pending for 101 additional Hanford workers who have requested […]

WC Monitor 1/22/2016 Waste Shipments Temporarily Halted at Oak Ridge Off-site waste shipments from Oak Ridge were put on hold for a month last year after “deficiencies” were identified in the shipments made by URS-CH2M Oak Ridge (UCOR), the Department of Energy’s cleanup manager for the Tennessee facility. DOE’s Oak Ridge Office of Environmental Management […]

WC Monitor 1/22/2016 AT DOE Portsmouth Mission Alliance of Idaho Falls, Idaho, will provide infrastructure support services at the Portsmouth Gaseous Diffusion Plant in Piketon, Ohio, under a Department of Energy contract worth up to $140 million over about five years, the agency announced Jan. 15. Under the firm-fixed-price deal, Portsmouth Mission Alliance will provide […]

Chris Schneidmiller WC Monitor 1/15/2016 The New Mexico Environment Department on Jan. 8 signed off on revisions to monitoring of potentially dangerous materials and underground airflow levels at the Department of Energy’s Waste Isolation Pilot Plant. The modifications to WIPP’s state hazardous waste facility permit are intended to increase the safety of workers at the […]

Staff Reports WC Monitor 1/15/2015 The managers of the Los Alamos National Laboratory lost their $2 billion a year contact by the narrowest of margins, leaving $20 billion or so on the table. First came the news on Dec. 17 that the management contract for the Los Alamos National Laboratory would expire at the end […]

Chris Schneidmiller WC Monitor 1/15/2016 The Department of Energy is politely pushing back against new research suggesting rock salt might not be a fully safe for underground storage of nuclear waste in New Mexico. Salt beds are used for storage of low-level nuclear waste at the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant and have been considered as […]

Staff Reports WC Monitor 1/15/2018 Savannah River Nuclear Solutions (SRNS) added more employees to its emergency preparedness staff after the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board (DNFSB) reported last year that a lack of workers was hurting the Savannah River Site’s ability to remain ready for emergencies. The board reported similar findings for liquid waste contractor […]

Staff Reports WC Monitor 1/15/2016 Negotiators reached a tentative agreement this week on a new contract for the Hanford Guard Union. Security forces have been working under contract extensions with Mission Support Alliance since early November. The latest extension, supplementing one that expired this week, will be good through a vote on the proposed new […]

WC Monitor 1/15/2016 Lawmakers Advocate for Funding MOX Fines Owed by DOE Congress may soon have to decide if it will appropriate money to enable the Department of Energy to pay a multi-million dollar fine to the state of South Carolina for missing a key deadline at the Savannah River Site’s Mixed Oxide Fuel Fabrication […]

WC Monitor 1/15/2016 DOE Selects WIPP Permanent Ventilation System Alternative  The Department of Energy on Dec. 23 officially selected its preferred alternative for a permanent ventilation system to be installed at the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant in New Mexico, the head of DOE’s Carlsbad Field Office (CBFO) said last week. A total of 24 alternatives […]

WC Monitor 1/15/2016 Hanford Tri-Party Agreement Milestones Comment Period Extended The comment period for proposed new Tri-Party Agreement milestones for the Hanford’s Site’s Central Plateau and 300 Area has been extended again. The comment period was to end Jan. 15 under an earlier extension but now will continue to Feb. 12 at the request of […]

WC Monitor 1/15/2016 IN DOE The Department of Energy on Dec. 23 officially selected its preferred alternative for a permanent ventilation system to be installed at the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant in New Mexico, the head of DOE’s Carlsbad Field Office (CBFO) said last week. A total of 24 alternatives were considered as the department […]