Publications: Weapons Cleanup Monitor

Kenneth Fletcher WC Monitor 4/3/2015 The Department of Energy this week awarded a $1.5 million contract option to CH2M Hill Constructors, Inc., for the design of a mock test facility for Oak Ridge’s Sludge Processing Facility Buildouts project. This comes after CH2M Hill’s selection in September as the “most highly qualified” contractor in the procurement, […]

Mike Nartker WC Monitor 4/3/2015 The Department of Energy this week issued a draft Request for Proposals for the new contract to manage DOE’s two depleted uranium hexafluoride (DUF6) conversion facilities. The new contract is being competed on a full-and-open basis, and will have cost-plus-award-fee contract line item numbers (CLINs) to cover conversion operations; and […]

Kenneth Fletcher WC Monitor 4/3/2015 The Department of Energy issued this week a final Request for Proposals for the new contract to manage Nuclear Regulatory Commission-licensed facilities at the Department’s Idaho site and in Colorado. Among the changes made in the final RFP from a draft issued earlier this year is a reduction in the […]

Kenneth Fletcher WC Monitor 4/3/2015 The Department of Energy released late this week a final Request for Proposal for a small business set-aside contract to provide probabilistic performance assessment services at the West Valley Demonstration Project. The time-and material contract is expected to come in under $5 million with a three-year base period and a […]

Kenneth Fletcher WC Monitor 4/3/2015 The Energy Communities Alliance, which represents local communities near Department of Energy sites, is urging DOE of Energy to create a “community adjustment and economic diversification planning assistance program” to help reduce impacts caused by funding cuts. The group wrote DOE this week, noting that the Department of Defense Office […]

DOE Issues RFP for Carlsbad Technical Assistance Contract WC Monitor 4/3/2015 The Department of Energy this week issued a final Request for Proposals for the new technical assistance contract at the Carlsbad Field Office. The small business set-aside contract is expected to be worth $30-35 million over five years, consisting of a three-year base period […]

Three New Tank Farm Workers Report Vapor Exposure Symptoms WC Monitor 4/3/2015 Three more Hanford workers reported symptoms late this week consistent with those caused by exposure to chemical vapors. Few incidents have been reported since workers have been required to wear supplied air respirators for much of the work at the Hanford tank farms […]

FBP Agrees to Pay $50,000 to Settle Asbestos-Related Concerns WC Monitor 4/3/2015 Fluor-B&W Portsmouth, LLC, has agreed to implement corrective actions and pay $50,000 to resolve asbestos-related safety concerns at the Portsmouth D&D project under a consent order reached with the Department of Energy’s Office of Enforcement. The consent order, released this week, resolves an […]

WC Monitor 4/3/2015 IN CONGRESS House Armed Services subcommittees will begin marking up their portions of the Fiscal Year 2016 National Defense Authorization Act April 22, with the Strategic Forces Subcommittee set to mark up its portion at noon April 23 in Room 2212 of the Rayburn House Office Building, HASC Chairman Rep. Mac Thornberry […]

Jeremy L. Dillon WC Monitor 2/27/2015 President Barack Obama this week authorized the separation of defense high-level nuclear waste from commercial high-level waste and spent nuclear fuel, otherwise known as “de-comingling,” paving the way for a defense waste-only repository. De-comingling would be the best solution for nuclear waste issues due due to the differences in […]

Kenneth Fletcher WC Monitor 3/27/2015 A months-long assessment into last year’s radiological release at the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant by a team of experts from national laboratories was unable to determine the cause of the event with “absolute certainty”, but the team did largely confirm the leading theory, according to a report the Department of […]

Kenneth Fletcher WC Monitor 3/27/2015 As the Department of Energy’s Office of Environmental Management moves away from the use of management & operating contracts, the head of DOE’s Savannah River Operations Office said last week that he is “a fan” of how the site’s M&O contract has performed during budget uncertainties. There are only two […]

Mike Nartker WC Monitor 3/27/2015 As the competition for the new Idaho Cleanup Project (ICP ) Core contract moves forward, the Department of Energy is gearing up to extend the two current cleanup contracts at the Idaho site. This week, DOE notified CH2M-WG Idaho (CWI) and Idaho Treatment Group, LLC, that it plans to “pursue […]

Current Forecast for Stable Workforce in ‘16 Kenneth Fletcher WC Monitor 3/27/2015 Despite proposed budget cuts in Fiscal Year 2016, the Portsmouth site doesn’t expect workforce impacts if recent increases in uranium prices hold into the next fiscal year. The Department of Energy’s Fiscal Year 2016 budget request would provide $167 million for D&D work […]

Kenneth Fletcher WC Monitor 3/27/2015 Senators from Washington state and New Mexico pressed Secretary of Energy Ernest Moniz  over cleanup programs in their states at a Senate Energy and Water Appropriations Subcommittee hearing this week. Sen. Patty Murray (D-Wash.) led with concerns about DOE’s Fiscal Year 2016 budget  request for Hanford’s Richland Operations Office, which […]

Kenneth Fletcher WC Monitor 3/27/2015 Another lawmaker raised concerns this week regarding former Deputy Energy Secretary Dan Poneman’s new position as CEO of Centrus Energy Corp., as Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) questioned Poneman’s potential influence on Department of Energy staff. Earlier this month the uranium enrichment firm, which under its previous name USEC received substantial […]

Kenneth Fletcher WC Monitor 3/27/2015 The Fiscal Year 2014 fee determination for Waste Isolation Pilot Plant M&O contractor Nuclear Waste Partnership, to be released “very soon,” will be reduced “significantly” due to the 2014 incidents at the plant, acting Department of Energy cleanup chief Mark Whitney said this week. Responding to questions about WIPP accountability […]

Kenneth Fletcher WC Monitor 3/27/2015 In ongoing dispute resolution discussions over the closure date of a high-level waste tank at the Savannah River Site, the state of South Carolina, the Department of Energy and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency have been unable to resolve the issue, elevating it to a “senior executive committee.” Citing technical […]

Kenneth Fletcher WC Monitor 3/27/2015 LATA Environmental Services of Kentucky, LLC, the cleanup contractor for the Paducah site, earned about 83 percent of its available award fee in Fiscal Year 2014, for a total of $918,639 out of $1.1 million available, according to fee information the Department of Energy released this week. In the subjective […]

Newest Estimate Could Increase Costs By Nearly a Billion Dollars Kenneth Fletcher WC Monitor 3/27/2015 The Department of Energy should improve its cost estimates for transuranic waste programs at Los Alamos National Laboratory, which are expected to surpass previous estimates by at least $900 million, according to a Government Accountability Office report released this week.  […]

Kenneth Fletcher WC Monitor 3/27/2015 A Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board review has found significant issues with the Department of Energy’s software used to determine radioactive transportation packages, according to a DNFSB report released late last week. The DNFSB staff identified deficiencies with oversight, maintenance and use of the software, called “Radcalc,”which is used across […]

NDA Business Plan Calls for £3.31B in Spending Over Next Year Kenneth Fletcher WC Monitor 3/27/2015 The Nuclear Decommissioning Authority’s business plan for 2015-2018, released this week, calls for an overall spending level of £3.31 billion ($4.93 billion). The bulk of that, £1.95 billion ($2.9 billion), will go to the Sellafield site, where the NDA […]

Bechtel Making Progress at Melters of WTP’s Low-Activity Waste Facility WC Monitor 3/27/2015 Bechtel National workers have finished placing refractory in the two 300-ton melters at the Hanford Waste Treatment Plant’s Low Activity Waste Facility. Refractory is the fire- and heat-resistant brick that lines the inside of the melters, which will heat liquid radioactive waste […]

Activist Groups Hold Their Own ‘State of the Site’ Meetings WC Monitor 3/27/2015 Four Pacific Northwest groups are holding their own versions of Hanford State of the Site meetings after learning that the Department of Energy did not plan any this spring. Columbia Riverkeeper, Hanford Challenge, Heart of America Northwest and Washington Physicians for Social […]

Swift & Staley Earns 95 Percent of FY’14 Award Fee for Infrastructure Support WC Monitor 3/27/2015 Swift & Staley, the infrastructure support services contractor at the Paducah Gaseous Diffusion Plant, earned 95 percent of its available award fee in Fiscal Year 2014, according to information the Department of Energy released this week. The contractor received […]

DOE, Regulators in Dispute Over Planned Mercury Treatment Facility WC Monitor 3/27/2015 The Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation and the Environmental Protection Agency are in dispute with the Department of Energy over the design of the proposed water-treatment facility at Y-12’s Outfall 200, where much of the plant’s mercury runoff and discharges reach the […]

WC Monitor 3/27/2015 IN THE INDUSTRY Three members of Babcock & Wilcox’s Board of Directors will be up for re-election at the company’s annual shareholder’s meeting May 1, B&W said in a Securities and Exchange Commission filing late last week. The members up for reelection include Jan Bertsch, the executive vice president and chief financial […]

Todd Jacobson WC Monitor 3/20/2015 Fourteen vacant National Nuclear Security Administration facilities have languished since 2009 without being decontaminated or decommissioned due to a lack of funding, and the Department of Energy’s Office of Environmental Management may not be properly prioritizing the facilities it takes from the NNSA, the Government Accountability Office said in a […]

Bids Due By May 12 Mike Nartker and Todd Jacobson WC Monitor 3/20/2015 With the procurement for the new Idaho Cleanup Project (ICP) Core contract ramping up with the recent release of a final Request for Proposals, acting Department of Energy cleanup chief Mark Whitney said this week that he is “comfortable” with the expected […]