Publications: Weapons Cleanup Monitor

Kenneth Fletcher WC Monitor 4/10/2015 With construction of Savannah River’s Salt Waste Processing Facility currently on track to be completed months ahead of schedule in May 2016, efforts are also focusing on integrating the plant into the site’s existing liquid waste system. The SWPF is designed to significantly increase processing rates of liquid waste in […]

Todd Jacobson WC Monitor 4/10/2015 President Barack Obama made it official this week, announcing that he intends to nominate White House nuclear energy official Joyce Connery and nuclear industry veteran Bruce Hamilton to serve on the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board. WC Monitor first reported last week that the two were the top candidates to […]

Kenneth Fletcher WC Monitor 4/10/2015 With Savannah River’s HB-Line in a “safety pause” since an incident in January, processing is expected to resume in the early summer after a recovery plan and corrective actions are put in place, Jim Giusti, a spokesman for the DOE Savannah River Operations Office, said this week. The incident occurred […]

WTP Pulse Jet Mixing Tests Going Well, Officials Say WC Monitor 4/10/2015 Hanford officials have seen encouraging results in half-scale tests of a system to keep high-level radioactive waste well mixed within certain tanks in the Hanford Waste Treatment Plant, according to Bechtel National. “We’ve had a few surprises when we’ve been doing this testing,” […]

At PFP, Large Counterweight Accidently Dropped on Canyon Floor WC Monitor 4/10/2015 At the Plutonium Finishing Plant decontamination project last month a 1,140-pound counterweight accidently fell 12 feet to the canyon floor, though no workers were in the area at the time and it is not believed to have caused damage. The crane is remotely […]

NNSA Says ‘Considerable Time’ Needed to Resolve TRU Facility Analyses WC Monitor 4/10/2015 The National Nuclear Security Administration expects to take “considerable time” resolving issues with the documented safety analyses at Los Alamos National Laboratory’s facility for loading transuranic waste before allowing operations to restart, the agency said in a recent letter to the Defense […]

Savannah River National Lab Named Safest National Lab in DOE Complex WC Monitor 4/10/2015 Savannah River National Lab has been ranked as the safest lab among the 15 in the Department of Energy complex, SRNL announced this week, receiving the distinction in 10 of the past 11 years. The lab had a 2014 rate of […]

WC Monitor 4/10/2015 IN CONGRESS The Congressional Nuclear Cleanup Caucus will hold its second meeting of the year on April 15 with a panel of Department of Energy Office of Environmental Management officials focusing on “progress through partnership.” The meeting, to be held in Room 2325 of the Rayburn House Office Building from 5:00 pm. […]

Kenneth Fletcher WC Monitor 4/3/2015 Questioning whether former Deputy Energy Secretary Dan Poneman complied with ethics guidelines and federal conflict-of-interest laws, lawmakers on the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee this week launched a probe into Poneman’s recent appointment to CEO of Centrus Energy Corp. Earlier this month, the uranium enrichment firm, which under its […]

Todd Jacobson WC Monitor 4/3/2015 Richard Reback, the acting general counsel of the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board, was placed on administrative leave last month after the Department of Energy revoked his security clearance, WC Monitor has learned. DOE’s decision to revoke Reback’s clearance was sparked by an investigation by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission Inspector […]

Department ‘Hopes’ Actual Waste Processing Can Begin Sooner Mike Nartker WC Monitor 4/3/2015 The Idaho Integrated Waste Treatment Unit (IWTU), key to addressing the remaining liquid waste at the Department of Energy’s Idaho site, is now expected to begin full operations by the fall of 2016 under a schedule DOE reached with Idaho environmental regulators […]

Mike Nartker WC Monitor 4/3/2015 As Babcock and Wilcox continues to move forward with plans to split into two businesses, additional details have emerged of the management structure intended for BWXT Technologies, which will consist of B&W’s nuclear operations, technical services, nuclear energy, and mPower businesses. Bill Fox will serve as President of the Technical […]

Kenneth Fletcher WC Monitor 4/3/2015 Los Alamos National Security, LLC, the managing contractor for Los Alamos National Laboratory, is moving to significantly reduce subcontractor personnel working on transuranic waste processing, cutting workers from 42 down to eight, WC Monitor has learned. LANL had been the focus of a high-profile campaign to remove all aboveground transuranic […]

Kenneth Fletcher WC Monitor 4/3/2015 The Department of Energy’s National TRU Program is kicking off an extensive review of transuranic waste generator sites in response to the radiological release at the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant after the existing system of checks and balances failed to catch the drum linked to the release. The February 2014 […]

Todd Jacobson WC Monitor 4/3/2015 White House nuclear energy official Joyce Connery and nuclear industry veteran Bruce Hamilton have emerged as the top candidates to fill the two vacant spots on the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board, WC Monitor has learned. Connery, who most recently has served as the director of Nuclear Energy Policy for […]

Kenneth Fletcher WC Monitor 4/3/2015 The Department of Energy is changing its approach for a planned covert security review at the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant after information was publicly posted on a government website late last week. DOE had issued a sources sought notice on the FedBizOpps web site to begin conducting market research to […]

Kenneth Fletcher WC Monitor 4/3/2015 While the Department of Energy announced last week that it plans to work to establish a defense-only high-level waste repository, hundreds of canisters of vitrified waste at the West Valley Demonstration Project may be left out. DOE plans to “de-comingle” defense and commercial high-level waste and create separate repositories for […]

Kenneth Fletcher WC Monitor 4/3/2015 Portage saw a significant drop in Fiscal Year 2014 in the award fee earned for work at the Moab uranium mill tailings remediation project, according to a fee determination scorecard recently posted by the Department of Energy. For FY 2014, Portage earned approximately 76 percent of the available fee, or […]

Kenneth Fletcher WC Monitor 4/3/2015 Risk reduction activities at the Savannah River Site’s 235-F facility would be largely put on hold in Fiscal Year 2016 under the Department of Energy’s budget request, DOE Savannah River Operations Office Manager Dave Moody told WC Monitor this week. The Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board urged action at the […]

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 […]