Publications: Weapons Cleanup Monitor

WC Monitor 11/6/2015 ORP Gets New Chief of Staff Mark Edgren has joined the Department of Energy Office of River Protection as chief of staff. He is the permanent replacement of Erik Olds, who became chief of staff of the DOE Richland Operations Office earlier this year. Edgren retired from the U.S. Army as a […]

WC Monitor 11/6/2015 Definitive Historical Record of U.S. Nuclear Testing Updated The National Nuclear Security Administration Nevada Field Office, in collaboration with the three national weapons laboratories and the Defense Threat Reduction Agency, has updated the most “definitive” record on the conduct of U.S. nuclear weapons tests, NNSA’s Nevada Field Office announced on Monday. Updates […]

IN WASHINGTON STATE WC Monitor 11/6/2015 The state of Washington will conduct a search for a new manager of the Department of Ecology’s Nuclear Waste Program. Jane Hedges, who has held the position for nearly a decade, has announced her retirement, effective at the end of February. She has worked in the Nuclear Waste Program […]

Brian Bradley WC Monitor 10/30/2015 The Energy Department’s Office of Environmental Management has started communicating with other government bodies about how shutting down the Piketon, Ohio, portion of the American Centrifuge Project (ACP) will be paid for, and who will foot the bill, Mark Whitney, DOE principal deputy assistant secretary for environmental management, told House […]

Brian Bradley WC Monitor 10/30/2015 AMELIA ISLAND, Fla. – The Los Alamos National Laboratory legacy cleanup contract is expected to be awarded next year, and will most likely yield the winning prime contractor or prime team approximately $150 million-$180 million annually, Jack Surash, deputy assistant secretary for acquisition and project management for the Energy Department’s […]

Staff Reports WC Monitor 10/30/2015 Washington Closure Hanford has wrapped up its currently planned cleanup work within the fenced industrial complex of the 300 Area. Over the 16 years that cleanup has been ongoing in the 300 Area, much of it by Washington Closure and its predecessor Bechtel Hanford, 209 facilities have been demolished and […]

Brian Bradley WC Monitor 10/30/2015 The Government Accountability Office on Oct. 23 released the record of decision for its Sept. 21 denial of a protest by Gaithersburg, Md.-based Advanced Technologies and Laboratories (ATL) International of a $44.6 million contract to Piketon, Ohio-based Wastren Advantage for analytical services and testing at the Hanford Site’s 222-S Laboratory. […]

Staff Reports WC Monitor 10/30/2015  The Department of Energy and the Environmental Protection Agency are proposing a waiver of the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act requirement that waste be treated before it is placed for disposal in Hanford’s Environmental Restoration Disposal Facility. The waiver would reduce risk to workers, they said in their proposal. In […]

Brian Bradley WC Monitor 10/30/2015 The House of Representatives on Oct. 20 through a suspension of the rules approved legislation that was proposed in response to an Energy Department plan to in 2016 start transporting highly enriched uranium from Chalk River, Ontario, to the Savannah River Site via an automobile bridge that connects Canada to Buffalo, […]

WC Monitor 10/30/2015   Bechtel Seeks Subcontractor to Detect Underground Leaks at Hanford WTP Bechtel National is seeking companies interested in providing underground leak detection services at the Hanford Site’s Waste Treatment Plant, according to a posting on FedBizOpps on Monday. The sources sought notice states that Bechtel, the lead contractor for WTP, and the […]

WC Monitor 10/30/2015   NSTec Names New President The company that manages the Nevada National Security Site (NNSS) on Wednesday announced that it was promoting an executive to the position of president. National Security Technologies (NSTec) Vice President for Program Integration Christopher Deeney will replace Raymond Juzaitis, who is retiring. Deeney for a limited time […]

WC Monitor 10/30/2015   UCOR Recognized in DOE Safety Initiative URS-CH2M Oak Ridge, the Department of Energy’s cleanup manager in Oak Ridge, has been recognized with Star Status in DOE’s Voluntary Protection Program – a safety initiative that has taken on high priority within the federal agency’s nuclear industrial complex. In a ceremony Thursday a […]

WC Monitor 10/30/2015   ON THE INTERNATIONAL FRONT Centrus Energy and the Kazakhstan government-owned nuclear holding company KazAtomProm have signed a memorandum of cooperation that specifies the development of “mutually beneficial relations” on competitive supplies of Kazakhstan’s uranium to the world market, the Kazakhstan Embassy in Washington, D.C., announced Saturday. The document, which has not been released, […]

Staff Reports WC Monitor 10/23/2015 Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee member Rob Portman (R-Ohio) is considering whether to block the confirmation of Victoria Baecher Wassmer to be under secretary of energy for management and performance, largely because of what on Tuesday he said were broken commitments by Energy Department leadership to commit adequate funding […]

Brian Bradley WC Monitor 10/23/2015 AMELIA ISLAND, Fla. – The Energy Department’s Office of Environmental Management plans to award more contracts with a five-year minimum award term, and that incorporate increasingly more fixed-price work scopes, Jack Surash, EM deputy assistant secretary for acquisition and project management, said here yesterday. “I’m going to be looking for […]

Chris Schneidmiller WC Monitor 10/23/2015 AMELIA ISLAND, Fla – The Department of Energy is considering options for increasing above-ground storage of transuranic waste at the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) while it works to reopen the underground mine in New Mexico, a senior official said this week. WIPP has not accepted new shipments of waste […]

Jeremy L. Dillon WC Monitor 10/23/2015 House Appropriations energy and water development subcommittee Chairman Mike Simpson (R-Idaho) has called for greater predictability in the funding and operation of the Department of Energy’s environmental management program. Simpson, a longtime advocate for the cleanup of DOE legacy defense nuclear sites, offered his thoughts earlier this month during […]

Alissa Tabirian and Brian Bradley WC Monitor 10/23/2015 President Barack Obama yesterday vetoed the fiscal 2016 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) that authorized his $611.9 billion request for defense discretionary spending, including $5.1 billion for defense environmental cleanup. The NDAA also proposed boosting authorized cleanup funds for the Hanford Site in Washington state to $915.8 […]

Brian Bradley WC Monitor 10/23/2015 The Energy Department has chosen Spectra Tech, among six total bidders, for a $31.6 million contract to manage Nuclear Regulatory Commission-regulated spent nuclear fuel storage facilities and licenses for four to five years, according to an announcement this week from DOE’s Office of Environmental Management. The contract will encompass management […]

Staff Reports WC Monitor 10/23/2015 The 242-A Evaporator at the Hanford Site has completed a planned series of four operating campaigns over the last year after improvements were made to the facility. The evaporator plant is central to work to empty waste from Hanford’s single-shell tanks into newer double-shell tanks for storage until the Waste […]

Brian Bradley WC Monitor 10/23/2015 The Savannah River Site’s H Canyon is expected to enter deliberate operations next week, and HB Line should start deliberate ops by the end of November, SRS announced on Wednesday. Site contractor Savannah River Nuclear Solutions entered a company-wide operational pause of all nonessential nuclear and non-nuclear operations on Sept. […]

Brian Bradley WC Monitor 10/23/2015 A recent Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board staff report indicated several areas for improvement within the Savannah River Site’s L Area Complex safety basis, although the Energy Department’s Savannah River Operations Office did not break any DOE requirements. DNFSB Chairwoman Joyce Connery referenced those findings in an Oct. 20 letter […]

Brian Bradley WC Monitor 10/23/2015 The U.S. has agreed to assist Spain in cleaning up plutonium, uranium, and americium that was spread across at least 24 acres along the European nation’s southern coast after a B-52 carrying nuclear cargo for U.S. Strategic Air Command crashed with another U.S. military aircraft over the Mediterranean city of […]

Brian Bradley WC Monitor 10/23/2015 Savannah River Site workers recently relocated 156 canisters of glassified waste from Glass Waste Storage Building (GWSB) 1 to GWSB 2, starting the modification process for double-stacking canisters at the site and potentially opening the possibility for actual double-stacking to begin in 2016, SRS said in a press release on […]

WC Monitor 10/23/2015 Washington State Recognizes Hanford Contractor The state of Washington has recognized Hanford Site tank farm contractor Washington River Protection Solutions for recruiting, hiring, and promoting individuals with disabilities. It received an outreach award on Tuesday from the state’s Division of Vocational Rehabilitation. “We’ve put together a highly skilled, safety-conscious workforce at WRPS […]

WC Monitor 10/23/2015 WIPP Emergency Ops Center Complete Workers recently completed construction on a 4,000-square-foot, “state-of-the-art” emergency operations center at the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant, according to a WIPP press release. The Skeen-Whitlock Building, which houses the Energy Department’s Carlsbad Field Office, was remodeled over the past several months to make room for the center. […]

WC Monitor 10/23/2015 Hanford Union Workers Approve Wage Increase Wages for workers represented by the Hanford Atomic Metal Trades Council (HAMTC) at several Hanford Site contractors would increase 2 percent in 2016, 2017, and 2018 under agreements approved in worker votes Thursday. HAMTC, an umbrella group for 14 affiliated unions, reported that agreements passed for […]

WC Monitor 10/23/2015 SRNS Receives Letter of Intent for M&O Contract Extension The Energy Department last month sent SRS management and operations contractor Savannah River Nuclear Solutions a letter of intent to extend its current contract beyond the September 2016 expiration date, SRNS President and CEO Carol Johnson said at the ExchangeMonitor Decisionmakers’ Forum this […]