Publications: Weapons Cleanup Monitor

Chris Schneidmiller WC Monitor 8/28/2015 The Department of Energy is pressing a contractor to address the recent spread of strontium particles from a burial site for highly radioactive waste at the Hanford Site. A Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board site report released this month said the DOE Richland Operations Office “issued a letter to the […]

Staff Reports WC Monitor 8/28/2015 The Department of Energy needs enforceable deadlines and more requirements to hold it accountable for Hanford Site tank waste cleanup covered in the 2010 court-enforced consent decree, a federal judge has ruled. Judge Rosanna Malouf Peterson of the U.S. District Court for Eastern Washington has issued her second order since the state of Washington […]

Staff Reports WC Monitor 8/28/2015 URS Energy and Construction has agreed to settle a lawsuit brought by Hanford Waste Treatment and Immobilization Plant whistleblower Walter Tamosaitis for $4.1 million. “This sends a message to all those out there – especially the young engineers – who have integrity, are honest and have courage to hang in there that justice […]

Staff Reports WC Monitor 8/28/2015 All indications are that safety culture at the Hanford Waste Treatment Plant, while not perfect, is improving, said Sean Sullivan, the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board member who led a DNFSB public hearing on the matter this week.  But board Vice Chair Jessie Roberson was more critical. Numerous actions have […]

Chris Schneidmiller WC Monitor 8/28/2015 The Department of Energy failed to meet “essential federal oversight requirements” when it issued an updated version of software used to assist the packaging and transport of radioactive materials, Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board Vice Chair Jessie Roberson asserted this month. In an Aug. 10 letter to Deputy Energy Secretary […]

Chris Schneidmiller WC Monitor 8/28/15 A team of experts found hundreds of design flaws that together could pose a serious risk to the operation of a key facility within the Waste Treatment and Immobilization Plant (WTP) at the Hanford Site, according to a report leaked this week. “The review teams identified 362 design vulnerabilities that […]

Chris Schneidmiller WC Monitor 8/28/2015 Up to 500 Fluor-BWXT Portsmouth employees working on the decontamination and decommissioning of the Portsmouth Gaseous Diffusion Plant in Ohio are facing layoffs in coming weeks. The company on Wednesday sent Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act notices to 1,400 employees. The notices are required 60 calendar days ahead of […]

WC Monitor 8/7/2015 Hanford Workers Test Clean After Possible Radiological Contamination Three workers appear to be in the clear following potential exposure to airborne radiological contaminants in June at the Hanford Site’s Plutonium Finishing Plant (PFP0, the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board said in a report released this week. “Bioassay evaluations directed due to a […]

Chris Schneidmiller WC Monitor 8/7/2015 The contractor building the Waste Treatment and Immobilization Plant (WTP) at the Hanford Site in Washington state has prepared a comprehensive but not complete analysis of possible hazards to one of the plant’s facilities, the Department of Energy’s Office of Enterprise Assessments said in a review made public on Tuesday. […]

As is our annual practice, WC Monitor is taking a summer publication break and will not publish for the next two weeks. The next regular issue will be on your desk Aug. 22. Subscribers to the Weapons Complex Morning Briefing service will receive editions twice-a-week on a Tuesday/Thursday basis during the break. In addition, we will issue a Special […]

WC Monitor 8/7/2015 Saltstone Operations Resume The Savannah River Site’s Saltstone facilities resumed operation in June after a suspension forced when elevated levels of mercury were detected in tank waste salt streams, according to a Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board report released this week. “Following DOE’s approval of the Evaluation of the Safety of the […]

WC Monitor 8/7/2015 DOE Extending BWXT Uranium Conversion Contract The Department of Energy on Wednesday said it would extend by nine months BWXT Conversion Services’ contract to operate depleted uranium hexafluoride conversion plants in Paducah, Ky., and Portsmouth, Ohio. “The Department of Energy (DOE) Office of Portsmouth/Portsmouth Project Office (PPPO), intends to issue a noncompetitive […]

Lance Moore WC Monitor 8/07/2015 A senior fuel facility inspector from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) is expected this weekend to complete a weeklong assessment of the uranium hexafluoride (UF6) leak that occurred during maintenance activities at the Honeywell Metropolis Works facility in Illinois last Saturday. The amount of UF6 that leaked from a valve […]

Staff Reports WC Monitor 8/7/2015 The Department of Energy’s environmental cleanup chief responded to the state of Tennessee’s concerns about reduced funding for Oak Ridge Reservation environmental projects and said they shared common interests, but he didn’t make any promises about future budgets or address the state’s specific concerns about funding trends. Mark Whitney, DOE’s […]

Chris Schneidmiller and Lance Moore WC Monitor 8/7/2015 The Senate on Wednesday confirmed Monica Regalbuto as the Department of Energy’s assistant secretary for environmental management. The DOE veteran will lead the office tasked with managing the cleanup of U.S. nuclear arms operations and government-supported atomic energy activities. She most recently served as associate principal deputy […]

Chris Schneidmiller WC Monitor 8/7/2015 The Department of Energy said this week that faulty equipment and other challenges had forced it to delay the resumption of nuclear waste intake at the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant in New Mexico. The underground storage facility has not accepted shipments of transuranic nuclear waste since a Feb. 5, 2014, […]

Brian Bradley  WC Monitor  8/7/2015 The Energy Department has extended its deadline for the red team reviewing options for disposal of tons of U.S. plutonium to report its findings to Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz from Aug. 10 to Aug. 17, an NNSA official told WC Monitor yesterday. “[I]t was done to ensure that the red team […]

Lance Moore WC Monitor 7/31/2015 The Department of Energy on Thursday said it had reached agreement with the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency (Ohio EPA) on a plan for demolition of the process buildings and other structures at the Portsmouth Gaseous Diffusion Plant Site (PORTS). The buildings will be destroyed as part of the decontamination and […]

Chris Schneidmiller WC Monitor 07/31/2015 The Department of Energy has carried out nearly all commitments made in 2011 to strengthen the “nuclear safety culture” for the still-unfinished Waste Treatment and Immobilization Plant (WTP) at the Hanford Site in Washington state and the broader DOE defense nuclear enterprise, according to the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board. […]

Staff Reports WC Monitor 7/31/2015 The state of Tennessee has raised concerns about the Department of Energy’s future cleanup funding for the Oak Ridge Reservation and says if things don’t change it may be forced to take actions – such as installing more legally enforceable milestones – to get the cleanup done in a timely […]

Staff Reports WC Monitor 07/31/2015 The Department of Energy and state of Washington have reached agreement on proposed new Tri-Party Agreement milestones for solid waste stored at the Hanford Site. The Tri-Party Agreement agencies will consider adopting the changes after a public meeting and public comment period. Following revisions five years ago, DOE has asked […]

Lance Moore WC Monitor 7/31/2015 The Energy Department’s Los Alamos Field Office in New Mexico has finished removal of mercury-tainted soil from the side of a canyon located on DOE land, the department’s Office of Environmental Management said on Tuesday. “We are committed to reducing the Laboratory’s historical footprint and intend to continue to make […]

Chris Schneidmiller WC Monitor 7/31/2015 Bechtel National in June agreed to pay $800,000 and take additional steps rather than face possible enforcement action by the Department of Energy over quality-assurance problems and other shortcomings in the contractor’s construction of the Hanford Site’s Waste Treatment and Immobilization Plant (WTP). The consent order between DOE and Bechtel […]

Lance Moore WC Monitor 7/31/2015 Completion of the Salt Waste Processing Facility (SWPF) at the Savannah River Site is well ahead of schedule, according to Parsons Corp., the Department of Energy contractor tasked with making the SWPF fully operational. The company expects to finish work ahead of the mandated deadline of Dec. 31, 2016. The […]

Staff Reports WC Monitor 07/31/2015 The Washington state Court of Appeals has ruled in favor of Bartlett Services and ELR Consulting in a case that alleged negligence in a worker’s 50-foot fall from a catwalk in the Hanford Site’s 300 Area in 2009. The case hinged on the practice of staff augmentation subcontracting and who […]

Jeremy L. Dillon WC Monitor 7/24/2015 The Department of Energy late last week announced a six-month extension of the infrastructure support services contract at the Portsmouth Gaseous Diffusion Plant in Ohio. Current contractor Wastren-EnergX Mission Support will continue to work the contact that had originally been set to expire on July 25. The extension is […]

Chris Schneidmiller WC Monitor 7/24/2015 A Department of Energy office incorrectly allowed the managing contractor at the Savannah River Site in South Carolina to reallocate funds from one cleanup project to three others in violation of federal directives, according to a DOE Inspector General’s Office report released on Wednesday. The report also found that contractor […]