Publications: Weapons Cleanup Monitor

Mike Nartker WC Monitor 10/10/2014 A new approach to how the Department of Energy manages its projects is set to be rolled out in the coming weeks, Secretary of Energy Ernest Moniz said this week, though he provided few concrete details about what changes may be in the works.  DOE has been looking at “redoing […]

Mike Nartker WC Monitor 10/10/2014 While contractors have made management changes in connection with the current shutdown of the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant, the federal government doesn’t appear likely to follow suit anytime soon. Both WIPP’s managing contractor and the Los Alamos National Laboratory, where waste processing issues are suspected of being a factor in […]

Kenneth Fletcher WC Monitor 10/10/2014 CH2M Hill has been selected as the “most highly qualified” contractor in the procurement for design of the Sludge Processing Facility Buildouts project at the Oak Ridge Transuranic Waste Processing Center. The project will address about 2,000 cubic meters of remote-handled transuranic waste sludge and associated supernate. DOE is seeking […]

Mike Nartker WC Monitor 10/10/2014 INTERA is the firm behind a pending size standard challenge filed against Navarro Research and Engineering over its recent win of a new contract to perform environmental program services at the Nevada National Security Site, the Small Business Administration confirmed this week. At issue in the challenge, WC Monitor has […]

Mike Nartker WC Monitor 10/10/2014 Companies interested in competing for the Department of Energy’s new Paducah infrastructure support services contract currently have until Nov. 20 to submit bids, according to a final Request for Proposals issued this week. Among the changes in the final RFP from a draft issued this summer, according to DOE, is […]

Todd Jacobson WC Monitor 10/10/2014 The top manager at the Department of Energy’s Lawrence Berkeley Site Office improperly utilized her position to force employees to perform work on personal matters and created a “negative work environment” before being terminated, DOE’s Inspector General said in a report released late last week. The publicly released version of […]

Former Hanford Occupational Med. Doctor Agrees to Monitoring WC Monitor 10/10/2014 A former Hanford occupational medicine doctor has agreed to be monitored by the Washington State Department of Health for 30 months after prescribing painkillers to a dancer he met at an adult club. Dr. Steven Angerbauer, 61, also agreed to pay a $1,500 fine […]

Idaho Regulator Cites CWI for Five Violations WC Monitor 10/10/2014 The Idaho Department of Environmental Quality cited Idaho Cleanup Project contractor CH2M-WG Idaho for five violations last month and is considering levying a small fine for the non-compliances, according to CWI. The violations involve failing to remove a damaged Accelerated Retrieval Project-V containment pan from […]

DOE Releases Sources Sought for West Valley Technical Assistance Contract WC Monitor 10/10/2014 The Department of Energy this week released a sources sought notice for a potential new small business contract to provide technical assistance to the West Valley Demonstration Project. The market research effort is open to small businesses with a size standard of […]

WC Monitor 10/10/2014 IN DOE Liz Sherwood-Randall, the Department of Energy’s new deputy secretary, will participate in a town hall meeting with Secretary of Energy Ernest Moniz for DOE employees on Oct. 15 at 1:00 p.m. at DOE headquarters in Washington, D.C. Sherwood-Randall began her DOE tenure earlier this week, replacing former Deputy Secretary Dan […]

Staff Reports WC Monitor 10/3/2014 The state of Washington has agreed to give the Department of Energy 18 more months to start emptying waste from the Hanford double-shell tank with a leaking inner shell. DOE and Hanford tank farms contractor Washington River Protection Solutions are working to complete the planning, design and installation of equipment […]

Incumbent Passing Two-Year Mark in Extensions Mike Nartker WC Monitor 10/3/2014 S.M. Stoller (now a wholly owned subsidiary of Huntington Ingalls Industries) has once again received an extension to its current contract to provide support services for the Department of Energy’s Office of Legacy Management, as the Department’s long-troubled search for a follow-on contract drags […]

At Least Four Teams Have Formed to Compete for New Work Mike Nartker WC Monitor 10/3/2014 In the wake of the Department of Energy issuing this week a partial draft Request for Proposals for the new Idaho Cleanup Project (ICP) Core contract, industry officials have already begun to question proposed provisions related to fee. At […]

DOE Inspector General Identifies Weaknesses in LANL Waste Processing Kenneth Fletcher WC Monitor 10/3/2014 More changes are underway at Los Alamos National Laboratory as planning begins to transition lab cleanup work from the National Nuclear Security Administration to the Department of Energy’s Office of Environmental Management. This week, the lab announced that Randy Erickson will […]

Todd Jacobson WC Monitor 10/3/2014 Babcock & Wilcox confirmed this week that its Board of Directors is considering splitting its Government and Nuclear Operations business segment and its commercially focused Power Generation unit into two publicly traded companies, with B&W President and CEO Jim Ferland suggesting Oct. 1 that the move could enhance the value […]

Mike Nartker WC Monitor 10/3/2014 Navarro Research and Engineering is facing a size standard challenge over its recent win of the new National Nuclear Security Administration contract to perform environmental program services at the Nevada National Security Site. “NNSA and Navarro have agreed to suspend performance of the new contract pending the outcome of an […]

DOE Looking At Initial Restart in 2016 for $242 Million Kenneth Fletcher WC Monitor 10/3/2014 The resumption of full-scale operations at the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant may not occur until 2019 and could cost up to $551 million, though a Department of Energy WIPP Recovery Plan released this week calls for initial operations to resume […]

Mike Nartker WC Monitor 10/3/2014 The Department of Energy was unable to meet a Sept. 30 goal to have a final cost-and-schedule baseline in place for D&D efforts underway at the Separations Process Research Unit (SPRU) site. “Discussions are ongoing with URS in an attempt to clarify remaining project technical risks and uncertainties which will […]

Mike Nartker WC Monitor 10/3/2014 The Department of Energy failed to meet a Sept. 30 commitment to begin operations at the Idaho Integrated Waste Treatment Unit, and it continues to be unclear when the facility will begin actually processing waste. A DOE spokesman confirmed late last week that the Department would not be able to […]

Kenneth Fletcher WC Monitor 10/3/2014 In the next move in a lawsuit filed by uranium conversion company ConverDyn aiming to limit the Department of Energy’s transfers of excess uranium to pay for cleanup work, DOE late last week urged the court to grant summary judgment in its favor. ConverDyn has argued that DOE’s transfers violate […]

Sellafield Awards £336M Contract to Jacobs-Led Team  Kenneth Fletcher WC Monitor 10/2/2014 A team of team of Jacobs, AMEC and Balfour Beatty has won a contract framework worth up to £336 million ($546 million) for the Box Encapsulation Project at Sellafield, site license company Sellafield Ltd. announced this week. The project aims to treat waste […]

DOE Completes Waste Retrieval From 13 of 16 Tanks by Deadline WC Monitor 10/3/2014 Washington state agreed this week that the Department of Energy had met the 2010 consent decree requirements for emptying another waste tank at Hanford. That brought DOE closer to meeting the consent decree deadline to have the 16 C Farm Tanks […]

Leak at Old Research Reactor Stable, Officials Say WC Monitor 10/3/2014 The search for the leak in a reactor pool at one of Oak Ridge National Laboratory’s stable of shutdown nuclear research reactors is still ongoing, but officials emphasized that the situation is stable and not getting worse. Some issues have apparently been ruled out. […]

FY14 Comes and Goes, and Still No FY 2013 Fee for CHPRC WC Monitor 10/3/2014 With Fiscal Year 2015 getting underway this week, the Department of Energy has yet to finalize a FY 2013 fee determination for Hanford cleanup contractor CH2M Hill Plateau Remediation Co. The DOE Richland Operations Office confirmed this week that the […]

SRNS Launches Coal Ash Cleanup Effort WC Monitor 10/3/2014 Savannah River Nuclear Solutions, the managing contractor for the Savannah River Site, has launched a project to clean up 1.3 million cubic yards of coal ash by June 2019 to remediate a 90-acre spot in the site’s D Area. The ash landfill and three adjacent basins […]

WC Monitor 10/3/2014 IN DOE Elizabeth Sherwood-Randall is set to begin serving as the new Deputy Secretary of Energy Oct. 6, Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz said in a message to employees this week. She replaces Dan Poneman, who formally retired this week from the Department of Energy after serving as deputy secretary for five years. […]

Kenneth Fletcher WC Monitor 9/26/2014 As the Department of Energy moves to shift responsibility for cleanup work at Los Alamos National Laboratory to the DOE Office of Environmental Management, four LANL cleanup managers late this week were relieved of their duties in a major management change following issues with the site’s transuranic waste program. The […]

Kenneth Fletcher WC Monitor 9/26/2014 After numerous issues led to a three-year delay and increased costs at Hanford’s Plutonium Finishing Plant, the Department of Energy is taking steps to increase oversight of CH2M Hill Plateau Remediation Company’s contract. D&D work at the former plutonium processing facility was originally expected to be complete by September 2013 […]