Publications: Weapons Cleanup Monitor

Kenneth Fletcher WC Monitor 3/6/2015 In an incident now under investigation, it took nearly a month for Savannah River Nuclear Solutions, the managing contractor for the Savannah River Site, to notice that a tank agitator at the H-Canyon facility was down, which compromised one of the facility’s nuclear criticality controls. The incident occurred after electrical […]

Mike Nartker WC Monitor 3/6/2015 The Department of Energy has reached a settlement with Idaho environmental regulators to resolve violations issued against DOE for delays in emptying waste tanks at the Idaho site of liquid radioactive waste. The settlement, announced late this week, includes a civil penalty of $648,000, for which DOE can perform supplemental […]

FBP Earned Approx. 82 Percent of Available Fee Mike Nartker WC Monitor 3/6/2015 After years of steadily decreasing fee performance at the Portsmouth Gaseous Diffusion Plant, D&D contractor Fluor-B&W Portsmouth, LLC, received a boost in fee for its work in Fiscal Year 2014, according to information the Department of Energy released this week. FBP earned […]

Jeremy L. Dillon RW Monitor 3/6/2015 The Department of Energy issued a Request for Proposals this week for low-level and mixed-low level waste treatment services for its Office of Environmental Management cleanup program. The current set of Indefinite Delivery/Indefinite Quantity-type contracts for waste treatment services ends in June 2015. The RFP could result in the […]

Kenneth Fletcher WC Monitor 3/6/2015 The Department of Energy late last week released a draft request for proposals for a probabilistic performance assessment at the West Valley Demonstration Project in New York state. One-on-one sessions with potential bidders are scheduled for March 10.The assessment would support the DOE and the New York State Energy Research […]

Sellafield Cleanup Cost Increases by £5 Billion Kenneth Fletcher WC Monitor 3/6/2015 The estimated total cost of cleaning up Sellafield has increased £5 billion ($7.6 billion), while the early termination of the Nuclear Management Partners contract will cost the government £430,000 ($656,000), according to a U.K. National Audit Office report released this week. Following the […]

Appeals Court Declines to Review Jury Trial Decision in Tamosaitis Case WC Monitor 3/6/2015 The 9th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals declined this week to review a November ruling in favor of Hanford whistleblower Walt Tamosaitis. In November, a three-judge panel of the appeals court found that Tamosaitis’ case was wrongly dismissed from federal court […]

Registration Begins Next Week for 2015 Tours WC Monitor 3/6/2015 Registration will begin at 9 a.m. March 9 for Hanford tours this year, with a choice of two tours offered initially. Visitors can choose between a tour focused on Hanford cleanup, which includes a look inside B Reactor, or a more in depth tour of […]

Sheppard to Serve as Next SWPF Project Manager WC Monitor 3/6/2015 Frank Sheppard is set to become Parsons’ new Project Manager for the Salt Waste Processing Facility under construction at the Savannah River Site. Sheppard currently serves as deputy project manager, and he is set to assume the top spot at the project upon the […]

WC Monitor 3/6/2015 IN CONGRESS Sen. Barbara Mikulski (D-Md.), the ranking member on the Senate Appropriations Committee, said this week that she will not seek re-election in 2016, opening up the top Democratic slot on the powerful spending panel. Mikulski, 78, has spent the last 30 years in the Senate, becoming chairman of the Senate […]

Kenneth Fletcher WC Monitor 2/27/2015 As the Department of Energy’s cleanup program disposes of thousands of excess facilities and properties, data and policy issues are hampering effective DOE management of those facilities, according to a Government Accountability Office report released this week. Between 2003 and 2013, DOE disposed of almost 2,000 facilities, the vast majority […]

Final RFP for New Contract to be Issued in Two Weeks Mike Nartker WC Monitor 2/27/2015 In another attempt to assuage industry concerns and boost potential competition for the new Idaho Cleanup Project (ICP) Core contract, the Department of Energy unveiled late this week a new set of planned changes to the fee structure for […]

Move Comes Ahead of Next Week’s Industry Day Kenneth Fletcher WC Monitor 2/27/2015 In advance of next week’s industry day on future Los Alamos cleanup contracting, the Department of Energy this week released a sources sought notice seeking companies interested in competing in the upcoming procurement. DOE announced last fall plans to shift management of […]

Richland, WIPP Focus of Concern Kenneth Fletcher WC Monitor 2/27/2015 House lawmakers pressed Secretary of Energy Ernest Moniz about proposed budget cuts for cleanup work at Hanford and the Waste Isolation Pilot in a set of hearings this week. Among the areas of concerns is DOE’s proposed cut for funding to the Richland Operations Office […]

Mike Nartker WC Monitor 2/27/2015 The Obama Administration nominated for a second time this week Monica Regalbuto to serve as Assistant Secretary of Energy for Environmental Management. Regalbuto was first nominated last spring to fill the vacancy left when Ines Triay stepped down as Assistant Energy Secretary for Environmental Management in July 2011. Regalbuto had […]

Kenneth Fletcher WC Monitor 2/27/2015 The Department of Energy should incentivize contractors through performance and award fee or risk losing competition on procurements, industry executives said last week in a roundtable discussion at the seventh annual Nuclear Deterrence Summit. The discussion comes as the Department is undertaking a new contract management strategy that includes moving […]

Kenneth Fletcher WC Monitor 2/27/2015 As the Department of Energy hopes to launch a pilot program for deep borehole disposal  of radioactive waste next fiscal year, Secretary of Energy Ernest Moniz said this week that Hanford’s cesium-strontium capsules could be a good candidate for borehole disposal. The 1,936 high activity capsules stored at Hanford’s Waste […]

Mike Nartker WC Monitor 2/27/2015 Colin Jones, a senior official in the Department of Energy’s Office of Environmental Management, is leaving DOE to take a corporate vice president position with CH2M Hill, WC Monitor has learned. Jones is stepping down as EM Chief of Staff effective March 13, acting Assistant Energy Secretary for EM Mark […]

Schedule Set for Hearings on NMED Compliance Orders Kenneth Fletcher WC Monitor 2/27/2015 New Mexico has asked Los Alamos National Laboratory to turn over records for a suspect batch of waste dating back to 2006, threatening fines of up to $10,000 per day if the Department of Energy doesn’t comply. The documents cover nitrate salt-bearing […]

Kenneth Fletcher WC Monitor 2/27/2015 In preparation for a Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board hearing this spring on last year’s incidents at the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant, DNFSB Members Sean Sullivan and Daniel Santos plan to visit Carlsbad, N.M. next week. While the date and agenda for this spring’s public meeting have not yet been […]

Todd Jacobson WC Monitor 2/27/2015 The Department of Energy is considering establishing a committee to help prioritize infrastructure needs across the DOE complex, a senior Office of Science official told a panel examining the effectiveness of the Department’s national laboratories this week. Joseph McBrearty, the Office of Science’s Deputy Director for Field Operations, stressed that […]

Todd Jacobson WC Monitor 2/27/2015 Operating income for B&W’s Technical Services Group took a significant dip in the fourth quarter of 2014, dropping to $345,000—$10 million less than during the fourth quarter of 2013—as B&W dealt with the loss of its Y-12 and Pantex management and operating contracts and lower fee from weapons complex sites […]

Kenneth Fletcher WC Monitor 2/27/2015 The South Carolina Department of Health and Environmental Control is searching for a new director after the previous nominee for the slot withdrew from consideration this week. Last month, the DHEC Board tapped Eleanor Kitzman for the post following the resignation of director Catherine Templeton. But at Kitzman’s confirmation hearing […]

Remaining Cleanup Costs at Hanford Total Approx. $110 Billion WC Monitor 2/27/2015 An estimated $110.2 billion is needed to complete the remaining cleanup at Hanford, plus some post-cleanup oversight, according to the fifth annual lifecycle report since they became an annual requirement added to the Tri-Party Agreement in 2010. The price tag is down from […]

WC Monitor 2/27/2015 IN MEMORIAM Larry Kelly, manager of the Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge office, passed away late this week following a two-year battle with cancer. He was 58 years old. Kelly had more than 30 years of federal service and had worked at DOE’s Oak Ridge operations since 1990. He was named Manager […]

Kenneth Fletcher WC Monitor 2/20/2015 With the Department of Energy facing cleanup-related fines in numerous states, some state officials are balking at the Office of Environmental Management’s position that any penalties will come out of cleanup dollars. Notably, New Mexico recently levied $54 million in fines against DOE and has warned of potentially $100 million […]

Kenneth Fletcher WC Monitor 2/20/2015 Gearing up for the upcoming procurement for a new contract for legacy cleanup work at the Los Alamos National Laboratory, the Department of Energy plans to hold an industry day March 3 in Pojoaque, N.M. DOE announced last fall plans to shift management of the legacy cleanup work at LANL […]

Kenneth Fletcher WC Monitor 2/20/2015 A senior Fluor executive late this week questioned the Department of Energy’s recent decision to issue a fine of almost a quarter-of-a-million dollars against Fluor-B&W Portsmouth, LLC, for a data falsification incident at the Portsmouth D&D project. Saying that some DOE enforcement decisions “don’t make a lot of sense to […]