Publications: Weapons Cleanup Monitor

Kenneth Fletcher WC Monitor 6/5/2015 As the Department of Energy continues to evaluate bids for the follow-on contract to operate Oak Ridge’s Transuranic Waste Processing Center, DOE this week again extended by six months the current contract held by incumbent Wastren Advantage. The contractor received its first extension in January that ran through mid-July, and […]

Kenneth Fletcher WC Monitor 6/5/2015 The South Carolina Senate this week confirmed Catherine Heigel as the next director of the S.C. Department of Health and Environmental Control. Heigel, currently the General Counsel for accounting firm Elliot Davis Decosimo, LLC, was formerly the president of Duke Energy South Carolina. She takes over as director of DHEC […]

Kenneth Fletcher WC Monitor 6/5/2015 Uranium conversion services company ConverDyn is still pushing a federal court to restrict the Department of Energy’s ability to transfer excess uranium to help pay for other work after DOE recently cut the level of those transfers, according to a court filing this week. ConverDyn sued DOE last year alleging […]

Will Long-Running Procurement Finally Come to an End? Mike Nartker WC Monitor 6/5/2015 In a move that could bring the Department of Energy’s multi-year search for a new support contractor for the Office of Legacy Management to an end, the Government Accountability Office late last week denied two protests filed against DOE’s most recent decision […]

First Phase of Breeder Rod Shipments from Dounreay to Sellafield Done  Kenneth Fletcher WC Monitor 6/5/2015 Scotland’s Dounreay site recently completed the last shipment of an 11-ton batch of breeder reactor rods to the Sellafield site for storage in an effort to consolidate U.K. used fuel, the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority announced this week. While plans […]

WIPP Panels Containing Nitrate-Bearing Waste Closed WC Monitor 6/5/2015 Two previously open panels in the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant underground that had contained nitrate salt-bearing waste linked to last year’s radiological release have now been closed and sealed, officials announced this week. The actions come after the New Mexico Environment Department issued an Administrative Order […]

Lawmaker Wants DOE to Commit to Completing EIS for WTP Gas Pipeline WC Monitor 6/5/2015 Rep. Dan Newhouse (R-Wash.) is asking top Department of Energy officials for a written commitment to complete work on an environmental impact statement for a proposed natural gas pipeline to serve the Hanford Waste Treatment Plant. He wants the commitment […]

Work Underway to Upgrade Pump-and-Treat Plant to Address Uranium WC Monitor 6/5/2015 Equipment is being installed in what’s already the most sophisticated groundwater treatment plant at Hanford to expand its capabilities to address another contaminant. By the end of the calendar year, the new system is scheduled to be tested and starting to remove uranium […]

DOE Reaches Agreement With Regulators on Mercury Treatment Facility WC Monitor 6/5/2015 The Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge Environmental Management Office has reached a resolution in the dispute with environmental regulators over the proposed mercury-treatment facility at the Y-12 National Security Complex. The dispute had reached formal dispute status after DOE filed paperwork regarding a […]

WC Monitor 6/5/2015 IN DOE Bruce Held retired from his position as Senior Advisor at the Department of Energy late last week. Held assumed the position of senior advisor last May, and before then, served as acting Under Secretary for Nuclear Security and acting National Nuclear Security Administration Administrator. “Bruce provided exceptional leadership over a […]

Saltstone Operations Shut Down After Elevated Mercury Levels Found WC Monitor 5/29/2015 Operations at Savannah River’s Saltstone facilities remain shut down after the site’s liquid waste contractor, Savannah River Remediation, found elevated mercury levels in tank waste salt streams. Saltstone receives lower activity waste from Savannah River’s tank farms, mixing it with grout and disposing […]

FBP Undergoes Safety ‘Stand-Down’ After String of Incidents WC Monitor 5/29/2015 After a series of minor recordable safety incidents this month at the Portsmouth Gaseous Diffusion Plant, the site undertook a “safety stand-down” this week to review and focus on safety tenets. The May 28 stand down came when, after two months without a recordable […]

Mike Nartker WC Monitor 5/29/2015 Bill Vantine has been named the next President and CEO of LATA, effective Aug. 1.  He will replace Bob Kingsbury, who is retiring after more than 35 years at LATA. “I’ve had a good long career here,” Kingsbury told WC Monitor late this week. “I think he [Vantine] will do […]

The following exit interview with Department of Energy Savannah River Operations Office Manager Dave Moody, who is retiring this week after nearly five years as site manager, was conducted May 27 by ExchangeMonitor Senior Editor Kenneth Fletcher. WC Monitor 5/29/2015 What would you like to be seen as Savannah River’s major achievements during your five-year […]

Kenneth Fletcher WC Monitor 5/29/2015 Wastren Advantage won late this week the Department of Energy’s new $44.6 million contract for operation of Hanford’s 222-S Laboratory. The small business set-aside contract received four bids, and includes a two-year base period and three one-year option periods that would cover an estimated 15,000 to 25,000 laboratory analyses each […]

Mike Nartker WC Monitor 5/29/2015 To help provide better oversight at one of the Department of Energy’s largest and most complex projects, the Senate Armed Services Committee is looking to have DOE bring in an “owner’s agent” for the Hanford Waste Treatment Plant. The Senate version of the Fiscal Year 2016 National Defense Authorization Act, […]

Kenneth Fletcher WC Monitor 5/29/2015 Senate authorizers are looking to require the Department of Energy to complete emergency preparedness assessments as part of award fee evaluations for the Department’s set of M&O contractors. The Senate version of the Fiscal Year 2016 National Defense Authorization Act, which was recently reported out of committee, would require DOE […]

Company Alleges FE&C Was Unable to Perform Work Mike Nartker WC Monitor 5/29/2015 Hanford cleanup contractor CH2M Hill Plateau Remediation Co. (CHPRC) had a strong response this week to a subcontractor that has filed a lawsuit seeking damages for work on the K West Basin Annex construction project, accusing Federal Engineers and Constructors (FE&C) of […]

Kenneth Fletcher WC Monitor 5/29/2015 Members of Ohio’s Congressional delegation are asking the Department of Energy how it plans to avoid layoffs at the Portsmouth site in 2016 given planned funding levels and cuts in the uranium transfers used to help pay for cleanup at the site. DOE recently announced plans to reduce the uranium […]

Staff Reports WC Monitor 5/29/2015 Washington Closure Hanford has received a one-year extension to its contract for the River Corridor Cleanup project at Hanford, stretching it through September 2016, the Department of Energy announced this week. The final year of the extended contract would focus mostly on two challenging projects, cleanup of the trenches at […]

Kenneth Fletcher WC Monitor 5/29/2015 The Department of Energy has taken steps to improve controls and accountability of nuclear materials at the Portsmouth site after a DOE Office of Inspector General inspection found weaknesses there, according to an IG report released this week. The site uses the Portsmouth Materials Accountability System to track the location […]

Kenneth Fletcher NS&D Monitor 5/29/2015 The Department of Energy and its contractors should improve the management of spare parts at sites across the complex, according to a DOE Office of Inspector General report released this week. Spare parts inventories are needed to maintain DOE facilities, but the IG encountered issues at the three sites covered […]

DOE, EPA Agree to Extend K Basin Sludge Cleanup Milestones WC Monitor 5/29/2015 The Department of Energy and the Environmental Protection Agency have reached an agreement to extend Tri-Party Agreement milestones for getting sludge out of the K West Basin near the Columbia River. The agreement brings to an end a fine that had been […]

WC Monitor 5/29/2015 IN CONGRESS The Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee has scheduled a hearing for June 16 to again consider the nomination of Monica Regalbuto to serve as Assistant Secretary of Energy for Environmental Management. The White House earlier this year nominated Regalbuto for a second time to head up the Department of […]

AREVA Wins Subcontract to Help Address Leaking ORNL Reactor Pool WC Monitor 5/22/2015 AREVA has received a $2.8 million subcontract from URS-CH2M Oak Ridge (UCOR) to support efforts to resolve a leaking reactor pool at Oak Ridge National Laboratory and retrieve and dispose of highly radioactive components stored in the pool at the old research […]

Kenneth Fletcher WC Monitor 5/22/2015 Cleanup funding for the Department of Energy’s Richland Operations Office at Hanford as well as Oak Ridge would see the biggest increases from DOE’s FY 2016 budget request in the Senate version of the FY 2016 Energy and Water Appropriations bill that cleared the full committee this week. Overall, DOE’s […]

Final Hanford Time Card Fraud Defendant to Pay $7,500 Fine WC Monitor 5/22/2015 The final defendant in a multiyear investigation of timecard fraud at Hanford was sentenced in Eastern Washington District U.S. Court to pay a fine of $7,500. Like most of the other defendants in the related cases, Glenda Davis will not serve jail […]

Kenneth Fletcher WC Monitor 5/22/2015 Senate appropriators this week matched the Department of Energy’s proposed funding cut for D&D activities at the Portsmouth Gaseous Diffusion Plant next year, raising concerns of major layoffs at the site. The Senate version of the Fiscal Year 2016 Energy and Water Appropriations bill, reported out of committee, would provide […]