Publications: Weapons Cleanup Monitor

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 […]

Kenneth Fletcher WC Monitor 3/20/2015 PHOENIX, Ariz.—In order to limit the impacts of proposed budget cuts to new processing missions at Savannah River’s H-Canyon facility, the Department of Energy’s Savannah River Operations Office is working with the National Nuclear Security Administration on H-Canyon funding, DOE Savannah River Manager Dave Moody said here this week. Programs […]

Mike Nartker WC Monitor 3/20/2015 PHOENIX, Ariz.—Executives from several major Department of Energy contractors urged the DOE Office of Environmental Management here this week to take a more “balanced” approach when it comes to evaluation criteria for bids on new contracts. In recent years, EM has moved to make past performance the top evaluation criteria […]

DOE to Stand Up New Los Alamos EM Field Office Next Week Kenneth Fletcher and Mike Nartker WC Monitor 3/20/2015 PHOENIX, Ariz.—As the Department of Energy’s Office of Environmental Management prepares to stand up its new Los Alamos Site Office next week, the top EM procurement official said here this week that he is “fairly […]

Kenneth Fletcher WC Monitor 3/20/2015 PHOENIX, Ariz.—Recovery of the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant is in full swing after the site’s managing contractor, Nuclear Waste Partnership, began major decontamination efforts last month and hopes to meet a goal this spring to close an underground panel, NWP WIPP Recovery Manager Jim Blankenhorn said here this week. The […]

Mike Nartker WC Monitor 3/20/2015 As the Department of Energy works on a new Secretarial determination to govern future transfers of excess uranium to help fund cleanup work, among other activities, DOE appears to be considering a potential decrease in the amount of material to be provided, according to information the Department released this week. […]

Director Jack Craig Heading to SRS Kenneth Fletcher WC Monitor 3/20/2015 Management changes are underway at the Department of Energy Office of Environmental Management’s Consolidated Business Center, with DOE announcing this week that EMCBC Director Jack Craig has been named to head up the Savannah River Operations Office. Craig is expected to transition to the […]

Kenneth Fletcher WC Monitor 3/20/2015 Portsmouth site facility support services contractor Wastren-EnergX Mission Support, LLC, earned 93 percent of its available Fiscal Year 2014 fee, or $1.44 million out of $1.56 million available, according to fee information the Department of Energy released this week. Overall, the contractor received an “excellent” rating from DOE’s Portsmouth/Paducah Project […]

ERDF Reaches New Waste Disposal Milestone WC Monitor 3/20/2015 The Environmental Restoration Disposal Facility has reached a new milestone of 17 tons of hazardous chemical and low level radioactive waste from across Hanford disposed since it opened in 1996. “Reaching 17 million tons of material disposed at ERDF shows the excellent cleanup work being done […]

Oak Ridge Increases Oversight at TWPC Preparing for Contract Transition WC Monitor 3/20/2015 The Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge Environmental Management Office will increase oversight of the Transuranic Waste Processing Center during the transition to a new contractor. DOE last month notified incumbent contractor Wastren Advantage, Inc. that it will be implementing an “enhanced oversight […]

WC Monitor 3/20/2015 IN CONGRESS Acting DOE cleanup chief Mark Whitney is among those scheduled to testify before the House Armed Services Strategic Forces Subcommittee during a hearing set for next week. The March 24 hearing is also set to include National Nuclear Security Administration chief Frank Klotz and Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board Vice […]

ExchangeMonitor Publications and Forums Acquired by Access Intelligence WC Monitor 3/13/2015 ExchangeMonitor Publications and Forums was acquired this week by Access Intelligence, LLC, a business-to-business media and information company headquartered in Rockville, Md., serving the chemical, defense, satellite, aviation, cable, telecommunications, media and public relations markets. The acquisition comes roughly three months after Ed Helminski, […]

Kenneth Fletcher WC Monitor 3/13/2015 After more than a year of probes into the 2014 radiological release at the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant, the Department of Energy is poised to release in the coming weeks its final Accident Investigation Board report into the root cause of the incident. The report is expected to implicate failures […]

Mike Nartker WC Monitor 3/13/2015 Bechtel National received a slight uptick in fee for its work at the Hanford Waste Treatment Plant in the second half of 2014, according to information the Department of Energy released late this week. Bechtel National earned 65 percent of the award fee available for the six-month period, or $4.095 […]

Kenneth Fletcher and Todd Jacobson WC Monitor 3/13/2015 The appointment of former Deputy Secretary of Energy Dan Poneman as the new President and CEO of uranium enrichment firm Centrus Energy Corp. is causing concern among some on Capitol Hill. During Poneman’s tenure at DOE, the Department played a big role in plans by the company, […]

Kenneth Fletcher WC Monitor 3/13/2015 With 57 drums currently at Los Alamos National Laboratory containing similar materials to a drum that caused a major radiological release, officials plan to repackage the drums within the next two years using a “cold and dry” process. A drum processed at Los Alamos containing a volatile mixture of nitrate […]

Kenneth Fletcher WC Monitor 5/12/2015 B&W Conversion Services, LLC, the managing contractor for the Department of Energy’s two depleted uranium hexafluoride (DUF6) conversion plants, earned 72 percent of the total available award fee for Fiscal Year 2014—$1.51 million out of $2.10 million, according to information DOE released this week. That is up from FY’13, when […]

Kenneth Fletcher WC Monitor 3/13/2015 The Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board is calling on improvements for controlling safety risks at Hanford after completing a review of decommissioning safety systems at the site’s Plutonium Finishing Plant, according to a letter sent to the Department of Energy late last week. An attached DNFSB staff report highlighted numerous […]

Local Business Group Questions Proposed FY16 Funding Cut WC Monitor 3/13/2015 At a time that the Department of Energy’s overall budget is increasing, the administration’s budget requests for environmental cleanup have been decreasing, the Tri-City Development Council pointed out in a recent letter to members of the Washington state Congressional delegation. “DOE made commitments with […]