Publications: Weapons Cleanup Monitor

Kenneth Fletcher WC Monitor 5/1/2015 Work on a new cleanup project to bring down structures at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory’s Old Town Section should soon begin once documentation preparation is completed, officials said in April. The Lab’s Old Town section covers seven buildings totaling approximately 56,000 gross square feet and four concrete slabs remaining from […]

Mike Nartker WC Monitor 5/1/2015 The House Armed Services Committee voted 60-2 late this week to approve its version of the Fiscal Year 2016 defense authorization bill, which sets authorized funding levels for defense environmental cleanup sites. During a lengthy markup hearing on the bill April 29, lawmakers rejected an amendment proposed by Rep. John […]

Kenneth Fletcher WC Monitor 5/1/2015 The South Carolina Department of Health and Environmental Control has appointed as its new director former president of Duke Energy South Carolina Catherine Heigel, currently the General Counsel for accounting firm Elliot Davis Decosimo, LLC. Before taking the post, Heigel must be cleared by South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley (R) […]

Staff Reports WC Monitor 5/1/2015 The United States has an opportunity to start disposing of defense nuclear waste sooner and at less cost by abandoning a one-size-fits-all approach, said Mary Louise Wagner, senior adviser to the energy secretary, at a regional forum arranged by the Bipartisan Policy Center this week. But separate disposal of high-level […]

More Sentences Come Down in Hanford Time Card Fraud Case WC Monitor 5/1/2015 Four more defendants were sentenced on felony charges related to timecard fraud at Hanford late this week, receiving fines of up to $165,744 but no incarceration. All were paid hourly wages as radiological control technicians for CH2M Hill Hanford Group, the former […]

DOE Exercises UCOR Contract Options Worth Approx. $104 Million WC Monitor 5/1/2015 The Department of Energy this week exercised a set of options worth $104 million in URS-CH2M Oak Ridge’s (UCOR) cleanup contract at Oak Ridge. The options cover work including D&D activities at a number of facilities at the East Tennessee Technology Park, such […]

WC Monitor 5/1/2015 IN THE INDUSTRY Sellafield Limited has won eight awards in this year’s Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents (RoSPA) Occupational Health and Safety Awards, the Sellafield site license company announced this week. The five gold and three silver awards will be presented in a June ceremony. “It makes me very proud […]

Bechtel National Earns ‘Good’ Ratings for WTP Work in Second Half of 2014 WC Monitor 4/24/2015 Bechtel National received ratings of “good” for its work at the Hanford Waste Treatment Plant in the second half of 2014, according to an award fee scorecard the Department of Energy issued late last week. The scorecard provides a more […]

Kenneth Fletcher WC Monitor 4/24/2015 A new pilot project to decommission the Southwest Experimental Fast Oxide Reactor (SEFOR) in Arkansas would be launched in Fiscal Year 2016 under the House Appropriations Committee’s version of the FY 2016 Energy and Water spending bill, according to report language released this week. The bill would provide $9.5 million […]

Kenneth Fletcher WC Monitor 4/24/2015 Review and design work for a long-term storage facility for elemental mercury would move ahead with $1.3 million in funding included in the House version of the Fiscal Year 2016 Energy and Water spending bill that cleared the Appropriations Committee this week.  In September 2013, DOE released a final Environmental […]

Two Workers ‘Splashed’ With Dangerous Chemical Mike Nartker WC Monitor 4/24/2015 Operations at the Portsmouth depleted uranium hexafluoride (DUF6) conversion plant remain suspended in the wake of an accident that occurred at the plant late last month, and it remains unclear when work will resume. The accident involved two workers being exposed to potassium hydroxide […]

Kenneth Fletcher WC Monitor 4/24/2015 Local officials in Carlsbad, N.M., are backing the choice of Phil Breidenbach as the next head of Nuclear Waste Partnership, the managing contractor for the nearby Waste Isolation Pilot Plant, but have also raised concern about the recent spate of management  turnover at WIPP. Breidenbach will take over in the […]

Bill Proposes Less Funding for ORP, But Would Boost Richland Funding Mike Nartker WC Monitor 4/24/2015 House appropriators may be putting at risk the Department of Energy’s current goal to begin processing liquid radioactive waste at Hanford by the end of 2022 with their version of the Fiscal Year 2016 Energy and Water Appropriations bill, […]

Kenneth Fletcher WC Monitor 4/24/2015 Most Department of Energy cleanup sites, including Portsmouth and the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant, would see funding increases in the Fiscal Year 2016 House Energy and Water Appropriations bill when compared to DOE’s budget request, according to legislation that cleared the full committee this week. In order to support recovery […]

Kenneth Fletcher WC Monitor 4/24/2015 House lawmakers are asking the Department of Energy for a plan to transfer excess facilities held by the National Nuclear Security Administration to the Office of Environmental Management for cleanup. Both House authorizers and appropriators have asked for reports from DOE for moving NNSA buildings to the cleanup program. The […]

Mike Nartker WC Monitor 4/24/2015 House lawmakers are pushing for all of the members of the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board to have a greater say in senior staffing decisions. Language in the House version of the Fiscal Year 2016 National Defense Authorization Act, reported out of subcommittee this week, would require the DNFSB Chairman […]

Kenneth Fletcher WC Monitor 4/24/2015 A Congressional hearing could be on tap on former Deputy Energy Secretary Dan Poneman’s new position as CEO of uranium enrichment firm Centrus Energy Corp., House Oversight and Government Reform Interior Subcommittee Chair Cynthia Lummis (R-Wyo.) said this week. The House panel launched a probe in late March questioning whether […]

Kenneth Fletcher WC Monitor 4/24/2015 Legislation could be on the table to cap the Department of Energy’s transfers of excess uranium if DOE does not limit the transfers on its own, Rep. Cynthia Lummis (R-Wyo.) said this week at a House Oversight Interior Subcommittee hearing on DOE’s uranium management program. DOE uses the transfers to […]

Kenneth Fletcher WC Monitor 4/24/2015 Discussions have been “productive” between the New Mexico Environment Department and the Department of Energy on state compliance orders, NMED Secretary Ryan Flynn said last week, adding that he hopes to soon reach a resolution. In December, NMED levied compliance orders that included a total of $54 million in fines […]

Sellafield Workers Vote to Back Strike Action   Kenneth Fletcher WC Monitor 4/24/2015 More than 1,000 Sellafield workers may strike after workers represented by the Unite union late last week voted to back industrial action. At issue is the Sellafield Contractor Group’s “refusal to allow a full time union shop steward and a more proactive […]

Pencil Tanks Gone from PFP WC Monitor 4/24/2015 CH2M Hill Plateau Remediation Co. workers have removed all the highly contaminated pencil tanks from the Plutonium Finishing Plant, a key step toward having the plant torn down to slab on grade in 2016. “This was really a significant achievement,” said Mike Swartz, vice president in charge […]

UCOR Moving Forward K-31, K-27 Demolition Efforts WC Monitor 4/24/2015 URS-CH2M Oak Ridge (UCOR) has made significant progress in demolishing the K-31 Building and expects to complete the job – including the removal of the big building’s concrete pad – by November, several months ahead of schedule. More and more of the Department of Energy […]

Schedule Unclear for Resuming IWTU Startup Tests WC Monitor 4/24/2015 As new details have been made public on the latest set of technical issues experienced during startup efforts at the Idaho Integrated Waste Treatment Unit, the Department of Energy is staying quiet on whether additional time may be needed before testing efforts can resume. The […]

WC Monitor 4/24/2015 IN DOE The Department of Energy has extended by one week the deadline for bids for the new contract to manage Nuclear Regulatory Commission-licensed facilities at the Department’s Idaho site and in Colorado. Bids are now due by May 8, instead of April 30, under an amendment to the final Request for […]

Details Failures by WIPP and Los Alamos Contractors and DOE Oversight Kenneth Fletcher WC Monitor 4/17/2015 After nearly a year of focusing on the root causes of the 2014 radiological release at the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant, the Department of Energy’s Accident Investigation Board released a report this week declaring the release “preventable” and detailing […]

WC Monitor 4/17/2015 IN DOE Chip Lagdon, the Department of Energy’s Chief of Nuclear Safety, is preparing to retire from federal service, WC Monitor has learned. Langdon’s retirement request was recently approved by senior DOE officials, though the exact timing of his departure remains unclear. Langdon has served as Chief of Nuclear Safety since January […]

Kenneth Fletcher WC Monitor 4/17/2015 A coalition of 22 representatives from advocacy groups sent a letter to the Department of Energy this week calling for a nuclear nonproliferation impact assessment on a new processing method at the Savannah River Site proposed for German spent fuel. The 900 kilograms of U.S.-origin highly enriched uranium comes in […]

Rep. Pearce Has ‘Deep Concerns’ With Breidenbach’s Link to 2011 Incident Kenneth Fletcher WC Monitor 4/17/2015 The choice of Idaho National Laboratory’s Phil Breidenbach as the next head of Nuclear Waste Partnership , the managing contractor for the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant, is being met with questions this week given his link to a previous […]