Publications: Weapons Cleanup Monitor

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 […]

Suit Filed Against Battelle Over 2011 Contamination Incident at INL WC Monitor 6/27/2014 The family of a worker contaminated by a 2011 incident at the Idaho National Laboratory is suing INL managing contractor Battelle Energy Alliance for damages related to the event. The suit centers on a Nov. 8 , 2011, event in which 16 […]

DOE Sees Reduction of Mercury into Local Creek WC Monitor 6/27/2014 It looks like the Recovery Act-funded cleanup of the old storm-sewer system at the Y-12 nuclear weapons plant is finally starting to pay off with a reduction of mercury entering the East Fork Poplar Creek in Oak Ridge. “It looks like it’s getting better,” […]

DOE to Launch Safety Investigation at Pacific Northwest National Lab WC Monitor 6/27/2014 The Department of Energy’s Office of Enforcement is gearing up to launch an investigation into potential violations of DOE regulations at the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory. The investigation could lead to financial penalties for the lab’s managing contractor, Battelle Memorial Institute. The […]

DNFSB Raises Issues With Hanford Evaporator Safety Basis WC Monitor 6/27/2014   The Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board last week raised issues with the safety basis for an evaporator at Hanford’s tank farms. In a March review, the DNFSB found several concerns with the safety basis for the 242-A Evaporator, which is used to concentrate […]

NDA Tells Lawmakers Sellafield Lifecycle Cost to Increase by £6 Billion Kenneth Fletcher WC Monitor 6/27/2014 Lifecycle cleanup costs at the U.K.’s Sellafield site have risen by more than £6 billion ($10.2 billion) from last year’s estimate, according to an annual financial report the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority submitted to Parliament this week. The current undiscounted […]

Todd Jacobson WC Monitor 6/27/2014 Raising questions about how much the Department of Energy’s Office of Environmental Management supports National Nuclear Security Administration missions, the House Appropriations Committee last week directed $21.3 million in funding for nonproliferation work in Russia to go toward spent foreign fuel work at the Savannah River Site and the Idaho […]

Mike Nartker WC Monitor 6/27/2014   CH2M-WG Idaho is continuing to push to receive more fee for work performed under the initial Idaho Cleanup Project contract, taking its case to the General Services Administration’s Civilian Board of Contract Appeals. John Corsi, a spokesman for CH2M Hill, the lead company in CWI, declined to comment this […]

Mike Nartker WC Monitor 6/27/2014   The team of CTI-URS has been eliminated from the competition underway for the new Nevada National Security Site environmental characterization and remediation services contract, WC Monitor has learned. The National Nuclear Security Administration rejected the team’s bid because it was found to be technically unacceptable, according to officials. The […]

Mike Nartker WC Monitor 6/27/2014   The Department of Energy has decided to conduct a third evaluation of all of the bids submitted for the new Office of Legacy Management support services contract in response to a recent Government Accountability Office decision to sustain a protest filed over DOE’s award of the new contract to […]