Publications: Weapons Cleanup Monitor

Efforts Continue to Startup Idaho Facility Mike Nartker WC Monitor 7/11/2014 As the Department of Energy continues to work to get the Idaho Integrated Waste Treatment Unit up and operating to address liquid waste at the Idaho site, the Department also appears to be already considering future uses for the facility, which could include the […]

Kenneth Fletcher WC Monitor 7/11/2014 In yet another issue linked to the incidents at the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant, Los Alamos National Laboratory last week reported noncompliances in how it processed waste in a batch of drums suspected of contributing to the WIPP release. The Department of Energy and contractor Los Alamos National Security reported […]

Kenneth Fletcher WC Monitor 7/11/2014 Opposition is growing in South Carolina to the Department of Energy’s proposal to bring 900 kilograms of highly enriched uranium from Germany to the Savannah River Site for processing. This month local media in the Savannah River area ran editorials against the plan, and the proposal has become a campaign […]

Mike Nartker WC Monitor 7/11/2014 Fluor-B&W Portsmouth, LLC, the D&D contractor at the Portsmouth Gaseous Diffusion Plant, and two of its subcontractors won’t face fines from the Department of Energy for a set of safety incidents that occurred in 2012. This week, the DOE Office of Enforcement issued FBP a preliminary notice of violation, citing […]

Wash. Closure Completes Demolition of Last Reactor Support Facility WC Monitor 7/11/2014 Washington Closure Hanford has demolished the last obsolete reactor support facility around the seven reactors under its contract as it works to finish most Columbia River Corridor cleanup in 2015. It recently completed demolition of the final facility, the 183-B Clearwell, one of […]

DOE to Seek to Renegotiate TRU Waste Milestones WC Monitor 7/11/2014 Sue Cange, the Department of Energy’s acting environmental manager in Oak Ridge, confirmed this week that DOE plans to enter into formal discussions with Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation in hopes of changing milestones associated with the deliveries of transuranic waste to the […]

SRR Seeking Interested Companies for Glass Waste Storage, Operations Support WC Monitor 7/11/2014 Liquid waste contractor Savannah River Remediation is seeking companies able to propose improvements or alternatives for plans involving future storage of vitrified waste, and in a separate effort is looking for support in other areas of work. Savannah River’s Defense Waste Processing […]

WC Monitor 7/11/2014 IN DOE Moses Madera has been named manager of diversity programs and employee concerns at the Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge office. Before coming to Oak Ridge, Madera was deputy equal employment opportunity officer at the Naval Undersea Warfare Center. He holds a master’s degree in aeronautical science from Embry Riddle Aeronautical […]

Firms Have Received More Than $3M in Reimbursed Legal Costs Over Hanford Whistleblowers Mike Nartker and staff reports WC Monitor 7/3/2014 URS appears to be considering seeking reimbursement from the Department of Energy of more than half-a-million dollars for having one of its executives testify before Congress on whistleblowers at Hanford, according to a letter […]

Should Only Small Businesses Have Fixed-Price Work? Mike Nartker WC Monitor 7/3/2014 Some industry officials are questioning the Department of Energy’s recently announced plans to compete new contracts at the Idaho site, including the decision to set aside only fixed-price scope for small businesses. DOE’s new acquisition plan for post-Fiscal Year 2015 cleanup work at […]

Todd Jacobson WC Monitor 7/3/2014 Nine Department of Energy nominees remain in a sort of limbo with the Senate confirmation process gridlocked, and with Republicans still smarting over Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid’s use of the nuclear option last year and the mid-term elections looming, there’s likely no relief in sight. The list of unconfirmed […]

Industry Day Scheduled For July 15 Kenneth Fletcher WC Monitor 7/3/2014 The Department of Energy this week released a draft Request for Proposals for the new Portsmouth infrastructure support services contract, which has an estimated value of more than $100 million. The new contract, which is being set aside for small businesses, is set to […]

Todd Jacobson WC Monitor 7/3/2014 More than six months after an investigation into operations at the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board began and then had to be curtailed, it’s unclear whether that investigation has picked up again. The Postal Service Inspector General began an investigation in December into concerns about whether DNFSB Chairman Peter Winokur […]

Kenneth Fletcher WC Monitor 7/3/2014 Entries are scheduled to resume at the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant to begin some initial cleanup work as the second phase of recovery is launched, the Department of Energy said this week. No teams have entered the mine since May 30, when it was shut down for filter replacement and […]

Mike Nartker WC Monitor 7/3/2014 A second deadline came and went late last week without resolution for the Department of Energy and the state of Washington on how to modify a court-enforced consent decree that helps govern the cleanup of Hanford’s tank waste. The two sides have proposed differing approaches for modifying the consent decree […]

Move Comes After Lab Misses ‘3,706 Campaign’ Deadline Kenneth Fletcher WC Monitor 7/3/2014 The New Mexico Environment Department is denying requests to extend 21 legally enforceable cleanup deadlines at Los Alamos National Laboratory after the Department of Energy failed to meet a high-profile transuranic waste disposition target. “NMED has granted extensions based on the Permittees’ […]

Questions Persist Over DOE’s New Plans to Award Follow-On Contract Mike Nartker WC Monitor 7/3/2014 S.M. Stoller (now a wholly owned subsidiary of Huntington Ingalls Industries) has received yet another extension to its contract to provide support services for the Department of Energy’s Office of Legacy Management as the Department continues to work to award […]

Department Issues Draft RFP for Follow-On Contract Mike Nartker WC Monitor 7/3/2014 While Wastren Advantage Inc.’s current contract to operate the Oak Ridge Transuranic Waste Processing Center is set to expire in early 2015, the Department of Energy appears to be planning for at least a multi-month extension, according to the draft Request for Proposals […]

Mike Nartker WC Monitor 7/3/2014 Some potential bidders on the new contract to provide analytical and testing services at Hanford’s 222-S Laboratory appear to be worried that Hanford tank farms contractor Washington River Protection Solutions may have an unfair advantage if it chooses to participate in the procurement. In a recently released set of Q&As […]

Sellafield Launching £1.5 Billion Procurement for Cleanup Suppliers Kenneth Fletcher WC Monitor 7/3/2014 Sellafield Limited is looking to “broaden the base” for long-term cleanup suppliers at the U.K. site under a new 10-year agreement that could be worth up to £1.5 billion ($2.5 billion), Sellafield Chief Decommissioning Officer Jack DeVine told WC Monitor this week. […]

Delay Hits First Planned Trial Over Alleged Time Card Fraud WC Monitor 7/3/2014 The first of three trials related to alleged timecard fraud at Hanford will not start next week as planned. The only defendant remaining in the group of two that had been scheduled to go to trial July 9 will undergo a competency […]

Workers Prepare to Enter ‘McCluskey Room’ at PFP WC Monitor 7/3/2014 Hanford workers are preparing to enter and clean out the McCluskey Room at the Plutonium Finishing Plant, the site of one of Hanford’s worst radiological accidents. It still contains the glove box where a 1976 chemical explosion shattered the windows of the box and […]

CWI Completes Sodium Treatment Ahead of Schedule WC Monitor 7/3/2014 Contractor CH2M-WG Idaho, LLC, has completed ahead of schedule and under budget an effort to clean up 480 pounds bulk sodium in drums at the Materials and Fuels complex. Using new techniques that included detailed modeling and redesigned injection nozzles, CWI finished the project seven […]

EnergySolutions Cuts TRU Workforce Further WC Monitor 7/3/2014 EnergySolutions, a subcontractor at Los Alamos National Laboratory involved in transuranic waste disposition, this week laid off 26 workers as a result of $20 million in funding being reallocated to the ongoing effort to reopen the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant. “The number laid off on June 30 […]

DOE Official Happy With Community Outreach on Cleanup Priorities WC Monitor 7/3/2014 Sue Cange, the Department of Energy’s acting cleanup manager in Oak Ridge, said the federal team was “extremely pleased” with the feedback the agency received from last week’s community workshop addressing cleanup priorities and possible partnerships for future projects. “We are fortunate to […]

SRNS Working to Establish New Capability to Downblend Pu for WIPP  WC Monitor 7/3/2014 In order to continue downblending surplus plutonium for disposition, the Department of Energy is establishing a new capability in the Savannah River Site’s K-Area that is slated for completion next year.  The new plant would follow an initial round of plutonium […]

WC Monitor 7/3/2014 IN DOE The Secretary of Energy Advisory Board’s Task Force on Technology Development for Environmental Management is scheduled to hold a public meeting at DOE headquarters July 15. The task force has been charged with “assessing the value of a renewed EM science and technology development effort and how such a program […]

WC Monitor 7/3/2014 An article in the June 27 issue of Weapons Complex Monitor incorrectly listed the name of the incumbent environmental services contractor at the Nevada National Security Site as Navarro Nevada Environmental Services. The correct name is Navarro-INTERA, Inc. WC Monitor regrets the error. 

FBP Resumes Off-Site Waste Shipments Halted Due to NDA Program Issues WC Monitor 6/27/2014 Fluor-B&W Portsmouth, LLC, the D&D contractor for the Portsmouth Gaseous Diffusion Plant, this week resumed shipments of waste off-site for disposal that had been impacted by the contractor’s recent pause to its non-destructive assay program. FBP halted its NDA program in […]