Publications: Weapons Cleanup Monitor

SRNL Panel Calls for Improvements Against Brief Tank Vapor Exposures WC Monitor 10/31/2014 Hanford tank farms contractor Washington River Protection Solutions can take steps to better protect workers from brief exposures to relatively high concentrations of chemicals that are difficult to measure and document, according to the Hanford Tank Vapor Assessment Report released late this week. […]

Yakama Nation Preparing Lawsuit Over 300 Area Cleanup ROD WC Monitor 10/31/2014 The Yakama Nation is preparing to sue the Department of Energy and the Environmental Protection Agency over the final record of decision for the Hanford 300 Area just north of Richland, Wash. The Yakama Tribal Council has provided formal notice to the federal […]

Link Technologies Wins EM Support Contract WC Monitor 10/24/2014 Link Technologies has won a five-year contract worth approximately $20 million to provide support to the Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge Office of Environmental Management. Notably, while Link Technologies is a small business, the contract was competed on an unrestricted basis. Services to be provided under […]

Third Evaluation of Bids Underway Mike Nartker WC Monitor 10/24/2014 The Department of Energy’s search for a new support services contractor for the Office of Legacy Management continues to drag on, as DOE asked bidders this week to again extend their proposals’ expiration dates, this time by another six weeks to mid-December. DOE did not […]

Todd Jacobson WC Monitor 10/24/2014 The Department of Energy has stopped work on a recent support services contract award to Link Technologies after a team led by Project Enhancement Corporation filed a protest with the Government Accountability Office late last week. The protest represents the latest turn of events in a battle over the three-year, […]

Mike Nartker WC Monitor 10/24/2014 AMELIA ISLAND, Fla.—Senior executives from most major Department of Energy cleanup contractors gave a resounding thumbs down here this week to DOE’s new Idaho cleanup contract as currently planned in draft form, and it remains to be seen if, and to what degree, DOE makes changes when it issues a […]

Mike Nartker WC Monitor 10/24/2014 Two companies have filed protests with the Government Accountability Office over Navarro Research and Engineering’s win of the new Nevada National Security Site environmental program services contract. The GAO currently expects to resolve the protests, filed by Portage and INTERA, by late January, according to the agency’s website. Navarro and […]

Kenneth Fletcher WC Monitor 10/24/2014 AMELIA ISLAND, Fla.—The Department of Energy’s Office of Environmental Management is taking steps to overcome its challenges and become a “healthier” organization, acting Assistant Energy Secretary for EM Mark Whitney said here this week at the Weapons Complex Monitor Decisionmakers’ Forum. EM “needs to be a healthier organization than it […]

Todd Jacobson WC Monitor 10/24/2014 AMELIA ISLAND, Fla.—The Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board has easily absorbed recent Congressionally mandated changes to its statute, but outgoing Board Chairman Peter Winokur said this week that he feared that more drastic proposals for the Board would be damaging to the Board’s mission. Led by House Republicans, Congress last […]

Martin Schneider WC Monitor 10/24/2014 AMELIA ISLAND, Fla.—The Department of Energy this week sought to clarify the steps it will be taking to mitigate the impact of the current shutdown of the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant on sites across the complex, reiterating that DOE will not reclassify transuranic waste as a means to seek alternate […]

Kenneth Fletcher WC Monitor 10/24/2014 AMELIA ISLAND, Fla.—A continued lack of a Senate-confirmed assistant secretary is one of several challenges facing the Department of Energy’s Office of Environmental Management, Rep. Doc Hastings (R-Wash.) said here this week at the Weapons Complex Monitor Decisionmakers’ Forum. EM has not had a confirmed assistant secretary since the departure […]

Kenneth Fletcher WC Monitor 10/24/2014 AMELIA ISLAND, Fla.—South Carolina is pushing for a $150 million investment in increasing tank waste processing at the Savannah River Site, but will seek a court order if conflict with the Department of Energy on tank closure milestones is not settled in the dispute resolution process, a state official said […]

Kenneth Fletcher WC Monitor 10/24/2014 AMELIA ISLAND, Fla.—This week marked the official handoff of the Paducah Gaseous Diffusion Plant to the Department of Energy and deactivation contractor Fluor, and the focus in the coming months will now be on deactivation work and integrating scope with outgoing cleanup contractor LATA Environmental Services of Kentucky, officials said […]

Mike Nartker WC Monitor 10/24/2014 Contrary to what some industry officials had hoped, the new contract to operate the Department of Energy’s depleted uranium hexafluoride conversion plants won’t be set aside for small businesses. Instead, DOE plans to compete the new contract on a full-and-open basis, according to a notice issued late this week. Prior […]

Kenneth Fletcher WC Monitor 10/24/2014 AMELIA ISLAND, Fla.—A mission support-type contract for the Savannah River Site could be one of the options considered as the Department of Energy discusses future contracts at the site, DOE Savannah River Manager David Moody said here this week. “We are talking to our sister sites that have mission support […]

Todd Jacobson WC Monitor 10/24/2014 AMELIA ISLAND, Fla.—As the Department of Energy wrestles with revamping its contracting approaches, increasing an emphasis on nuclear safety while cutting back on fee, it doesn’t appear likely to continue the approach pursued in Bechtel’s contract for the Hanford Waste Treatment Plant. The WTP contract sought to incentivize safety culture […]

Mike Nartker WC Monitor 10/24/2014 The Department of Energy Inspector General’s Office was unable to determine if a former senior manager at the Hanford Waste Treatment Plant was terminated as an act of retaliation due to a lack of access to information from the main contractors involved on the project, according to a report released […]

Mike Nartker WC Monitor 10/24/2014 AECOM late last week wrapped up its acquisition of URS following approval of the deal by URS shareholders and approval of a stock issuance proposal by AECOM shareholders. “Today is an exciting and historic day–for our industry, for AECOM and URS, and for our nearly 100,000 people around the world […]

WC Monitor 10/24/2014 Rep. Doc Hastings (R-Wash.) was awarded this week with the first annual Leo Duffy Decisionmakers Award by ExchangeMonitor Publications and Forums. Hastings, who is not seeking re-election this fall after serving 20 years in Congress, was presented with the award at this year’s Weapons Complex Monitor Decisionmakers’ Forum. Hastings, who represents Hanford […]

WC Monitor 10/24/2014 Below is the full speech, as prepared for delivery, given by Rep. Doc Hastings (R-Wash.) at this year’s Weapons Complex Monitor Decisionmakers’ Forum, held this week in Amelia Island, Fla. Thank you for inviting me to speak with you this evening. As I complete my final months serving my last term it’s […]

Schedules Set in Consent Decree Lawsuit WC Monitor 10/24/2014 The schedule for hearings on amending the Hanford consent decree has been set, with arguments by the state of Washington and the Department of Justice to be heard Feb. 19 in Eastern Washington District U.S. Court in Richland, Wash. If the state of Oregon intervenes in […]

Rep. Hastings Seeking Answers on Hanford’s K Basin Project WC Monitor 10/24/2014 After the Department of Energy missed a Sept. 30 milestone to begin removing sludge out of Hanford’s K-Basin, Rep. Doc Hastings (R-Wash.) this week asked DOE for a detailed plan on the project. This month, the Environmental Protection Agency denied DOE’s extension request […]

WC Monitor 10/24/2014 IN DOE The Department of Energy plans to issue in the next 15-30 days a draft Request for Proposals for the new Carlsbad technical and administrative support services contract, according to a notice released Oct. 22. The new contract is anticipated to be set aside for small businesses that meet a size […]

WC Monitor 10/17/2014 An article in the Oct. 10 edition of WC Monitor incorrectly reported that the Department of Energy failed to empty waste from 13 of the 16 C Farm single-shell tanks at Hanford by the end of Fiscal Year 2014. DOE did empty the waste from the 13 tanks by the end of […]

Board to Undergo Safety Culture Assessment of Itself Mike Nartker WC Monitor 10/17/2014 Employee dissatisfaction at the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board has hit a four-year low, according to the results of the 2014 Federal Employee Viewpoint Survey, which the DNFSB posted on its website this week. The survey found a drop in positive responses […]

Kenneth Fletcher WC Monitor 10/17/2014 With transition set to wrap up next week on the Paducah deactivation services contract to a Fluor-led team, the local United Steelworkers union is raising concerns about a lack of transparency on worker hiring for the new contractor. The Department of Energy awarded the work to Fluor in July under […]

More than 90 percent of the Department of Energy’s $26 billion budget is contracted out to a host of firms, large and small. DOE has been working hard over the past several years to improve how it reports, records and tracks contractor performance—a laudable goal, considering how much money is on the line. But there’s […]

Company Also Has Pending Size Standard Challenge Mike Nartker WC Monitor 10/17/2014 INTERA intends to file a protest with the Government Accountability Office next week over Navarro Research and Engineering’s win of the new contract to perform environmental program services at the Nevada National Security Site. INTERA President and CEO Marsh Lavenue confirmed the company’s […]