Publications: Weapons Cleanup Monitor

Kenneth Fletcher WC Monitor 1/9/2015 South Carolina Department of Health and Environmental Control Director Catherine Templeton, known for fighting missed milestones by the Department of Energy at the Savannah River Site, announced this week that she will resign effective Jan. 12. Templeton was appointed by South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley (R) to the Secretary of […]

Kenneth Fletcher WC Monitor 1/9/2015 The Department of Energy and the state of Nevada have formalized a working group process that began after controversy over proposed shipments of uranium-233 to the Nevada National Security Site for disposal, and is including a focus on issues including waste acceptance criteria and low-level waste classification, Nevada Department of […]

Final Determination Pending Kenneth Fletcher WC Monitor 1/9/2015 Nuclear Waste Partnership, the managing contractor for the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant, has so far only been paid $21,576 out of about $8.2 million in total available fee for Fiscal Year 2014, according to contractor fee information recently posted by the Department of Energy. The fee chart […]

Kenneth Fletcher WC Monitor 1/9/2015 The recovery plan in place for the resumption of operations at Waste Isolation Pilot Plant “is not fully sufficient to ensure safe conditions underground,” with chief concerns involving ventilation rates for workers while diesel equipment is being operated, according to a recently released Department of Energy review. DOE’s Office of […]

NDA Says It’s Close to Issuing Conclusion on Alternatives for Sellafield  Kenneth Fletcher WC Monitor 1/9/2015 The U.K.’s Nuclear Decommissioning Authority said this week that it is in the final stages of reaching a conclusion on potential alternatives for an approach to cleanup work at Sellafield. The British Parliament’s Public Accounts Committee has questioned the […]

Charges Dismissed Against Final Defendant in Time Card Fraud Case WC Monitor 1/9/2015 Criminal charges related to Hanford timecard fraud were dismissed Dec. 29 against the final defendant who had pleaded not guilty. The federal government reached a civil settlement with Patrick Brannan, the base operations radiological control manager for former Hanford tank farms contractor […]

DOE to Replace Ventilation System at WESF as Part of Shutdown WC Monitor 1/9/2015 The Department of Energy is making plans to replace the hot cell ventilation system at Hanford’s Waste Encapsulation and Storage Facility, a necessary step to shut down the building. Earlier this year, DOE’s Office of Inspector General said that 1,936 capsules […]

New TRU Milestones In The Works WC Monitor 1/9/2015 The state of Tennessee is on the verge of approving a set of extended milestones for processing and disposing of the Department of Energy’s transuranic waste in Oak Ridge because of the inability to ship the material to the troubled Waste Isolation Pilot Plant in New […]

2013 Data Falsification Incident Costs FBP Approx. $50,000 WC Monitor 1/9/2015 An incident in 2013 where workers at the Portsmouth D&D project were found to have falsified records has ended up costing contractor Fluor-B&W Portsmouth, LLC, approximately $50,000 so far, according to information recently obtained by WC Monitor. Last summer, DOE determined that $46,538.03 in […]

Security Contractor Earns About 90 Percent of Available FY 14 Award Fee WC Monitor 1/9/2014 Savannah River Site security contractor, Centerra Group, earned about 90 percent of its available award fee for Fiscal Year 2014, according to a scorecard released by the Department of Energy late last month. Centerra, which was known as G4S-Government Solutions, […]

WC Monitor 1/9/2015 An article in the Dec. 19, 2014, edition of WC Monitor incorrectly stated that the Reduction-Oxidation Plant at Hanford was the last processing plant built at the Hanford site. The REDOX plant was the fourth of five canyons built at the site and the last canyon built at the Central Plateau’s 200 […]

Mike Nartker WC Monitor 12/19/2014 In a new effort to further improve project management, the Department of Energy is moving forward with plans to conduct additional reviews of major projects to better identify and resolve potential problems before they have significant impacts. DOE’s new approach, unveiled late this week, involves what Department officials have described […]

Congress Adjourns Without Voting on Choice to Head Cleanup Program Mike Nartker WC Monitor 12/19/2014 Monica Regalbuto’s nomination to serve as the next Assistant Secretary of Energy for Environmental Management has been returned to the White House after Congress adjourned this week without the Senate holding a vote. Regalbuto was one of three pending DOE […]

Kenneth Fletcher WC Monitor 12/19/2014 The Department of Energy is still assessing  potential impacts to Savannah River Site projects and workers after cleanup funds were cut about $29 million below the DOE request in the Fiscal Year 2015 spending bill recently passed by Congress. While most cleanup sites in the DOE complex saw a funding […]

WC Monitor 12/19/2014 WINNERS Fluor: Fluor saw major contracting success this year, leading a team that won the Department of Energy’s new Paducah deactivation contract and being part of a team that won a new contract to manage the United Kingdom’s 10 Magnox nuclear power stations and two research reactor sites. Huntington Ingalls Industries: HII […]

Please note: the offices of EXCHANGEMONITOR PUBLICATIONS will be closed from Dec. 24 through Jan. 4. The Weapons Complex Morning Briefing will be published Dec. 22-23, and the next full issue of Weapons Complex Monitor will be on your desk Jan. 9. We will issue bulletins should any major news break in the interim. Happy […]

Kenneth Fletcher WC Monitor 12/19/2014 After months of uncertainty regarding hundreds of potential layoffs for Portsmouth cleanup workers, contractor Fluor B&W Portsmouth, LLC, cancelled the workforce reduction planned for this week after the site received a $76.4 million funding boost in the spending bill recently approved by Congress. Contractor officials had warned that without $92.5 […]

Mike Nartker WC Monitor 12/19/2014 A federal fund used to help cover cleanup costs at the Oak Ridge, Paducah and Portsmouth sites remains on track to be empty by Fiscal Year 2020, at which point the Department of Energy will need to find other Congressional funding sources to pay for the work, according to a […]

Board Chairman Winokur to Retire Jan. 3 Mike Nartker WC Monitor 12/19/2014 In one of its last actions before adjourning for the year, the Senate this week approved the White House’s choice of Daniel Santos to serve on the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board. The White House nominated Santos to the Board this summer to […]

Kenneth Fletcher WC Monitor 12/19/2014 A new long-term campaign to downblend 1,200 bundles of spent fuel at Savannah River’s H-Canyon is well underway, site officials said this week. In September, the site’s managing contractor, Savannah River Nuclear Solutions, began initial processing in an eight-to-10-year campaign to downblend highly enriched uranium from research reactor fuel stored […]

Kenneth Fletcher WC Monitor 12/19/2014 The Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board has uncovered “significant flaws” in the hazard and accident analyses at Los Alamos National Laboratory’s facility for loading transuranic waste, according to a Dec. 9 DNFSB staff report. LANL’s Radioassay and Nondestructive Testing Shipping Facility is used to load the waste for shipment, and […]

Kenneth Fletcher WC Monitor 12/19/2014 After delays and cost increases at Hanford’s Plutonium Finishing Plant were highlighted in a recent Department of Energy Office of Inspector General report, DOE has directed cleanup contractor CH2M Hill Plateau Remediation Company to complete a corrective action plan due in mid-January. The IG report, released in September, found issues […]

Dounreay Site Completion Pushed Out Four Years Due to Addition of Scope Kenneth Fletcher WC Monitor 12/18/2014 The completion date for cleanup work at Scotland’s Dounreay site has been pushed out four years to 2029 due to added scope that includes the removal of all nuclear fuels, the U.K. Nuclear Decommissioning Authority announced this week. […]

Settlement Reached in Time Card Fraud Case WC Monitor 12/19/2014 Charges related to timecard fraud are expected to be dropped for two former high-level managers and a former supervisor of CH2M Hill Hanford Group after they agreed to pay civil fines, according to the Department of Justice. Ryan Dodd, who was vice president of the […]

Contractor Requests New Roof for REDOX Plant WC Monitor 12/19/2014 After a failing roof is leading to leaking and contamination migration in the Reduction-Oxidation Plant at Hanford, site cleanup contractor CH2M Hill Plateau Remediation Company has requested funding for a new roof totaling about $7 million. Though the facility has not operated since the 1960s […]

DOE Should Increase Outreach on SRS Monitoring, Lab Report Finds WC Monitor 12/19/2014 Though existing environmental monitoring programs in South Carolina and Georgia are sufficient to protect the public from potential Savannah River radiological releases, an independent lab report found that the Department of Energy should increase outreach efforts on the topic. The Savannah River […]

WC Monitor 12/19/2014 IN CONGRESS Congress wrapped up work on the final version of the Fiscal Year 2015 defense authorization bill late last week, with the Senate approving the measure and sending it to President Obama for signature. Among the bill’s provisions is language that would create a national park comprised of sites tied to […]

NDA Plan Calls for £3.31 Billion in Spending Next Year Kenneth Fletcher WC Monitor 12/12/2014 The U.K.’s Nuclear Decommissioning Authority is calling for a spending level of £3.31 billion ($5.18 billion) in the 2015/16 fiscal year, according to a draft business plan released this week covering cleanup sites across the United Kingdom from 2015 to […]

Mike Nartker WC Monitor 12/12/2014 Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board Chairman Peter Winokur said this week that he is disappointed the Board dropped to the bottom of this year’s list of best “small” federal agencies to work for, but reiterated steps the Board is taking to help improve employee morale and satisfaction. The Board was […]