Publications: Weapons Cleanup Monitor

Kenneth Fletcher WC Monitor 6/20/2014 Both House and Senate appropriators plan to provide more than $100 million in extra funds to help reopen the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant following incidents earlier this year, though the two chambers disagree on where the funds will come from. The Department of Energy is expected to need significant funding […]

Kenneth Fletcher WC Monitor 6/19/2014 While both the House and Senate versions of the Fiscal Year 2015 Energy and Water Appropriations bills would boost funding overall for the Department of Energy’s Office of Environmental Management above DOE’s budget request, House appropriators are looking to provide less than what DOE is seeking for liquid waste cleanup […]

Kenneth Fletcher WC Monitor 6/20/2014 As the Department of Energy plans procurements in the coming years for another round of major prime cleanup contracts, a significant question for small businesses is how the Department will consider promoting meaningful small business subcontracting. Small businesses have expressed concern in recent years as a number of prime contractors […]

The following interview with Deputy Energy Secretary Dan Poneman, who announced this week plans to leave DOE in the fall, was conducted by ExchangeMonitor Publications Editor-in-Chief Mike Nartker. WC Monitor 6/20/2014 To start things off, I think one of the things you’ll be remembered for during your time at DOE is the Department’s efforts to […]

Kenneth Fletcher WC Monitor 6/20/2014 The Obama Administration’s next choice to head the Department of Energy’s cleanup program, Monica Regalbuto, breezed through a hearing the Senate Armed Services Committee held on her nomination this week, and she has so far not indicated any big changes are in store for the structure of the DOE Office […]

Mike Nartker WC Monitor 6/20/2014 After five years, Daniel Poneman is stepping down as Deputy Energy Secretary this fall. Poneman’s departure plans were announced in a message Secretary of Energy Ernest Moniz sent to employees late this week. “It has been my pleasure to work with Dan in many settings over a couple of decades—from […]

This is an idea whose time has come at last: The Department of Energy needs to break out cleanup work at Los Alamos National Laboratory and other National Nuclear Security Administration sites under separate contracts managed by the Office of Environmental Management. The Department’s national transuranic waste program has been brought to its knees in […]

Will Department be Able to Make Award Before Current Contract Expires? Mike Nartker WC Monitor 6/20/2014 The Department of Energy is moving forward with plans to compete a new contract to manage the Oak Ridge Transuranic Waste Processing Center, announcing late this week that a draft Request for Proposals is set to be issued for […]

Mike Nartker WC Monitor 6/20/2014 House appropriators are once again expressing concern over how the Department of Energy manages major projects in the Office of Environmental Management and the National Nuclear Security Administration. While DOE has made some improvement in its ability to “deliver small projects on schedule and within budget,” the Department “continues to […]

Mike Nartker WC Monitor 6/20/2014 After years of trying, the Department of Energy may be moving closer to realizing a goal of getting new funding for the federal Uranium Enrichment D&D Fund, which helps cover cleanup costs at the Paducah, Portsmouth and Oak Ridge sites. The Senate version of the Fiscal Year 2015 Energy and […]

Some Employees Say More Significant Changes Needed Mike Nartker WC Monitor 6/20/2014 Fluor-B&W Portsmouth, LLC, the D&D contractor for the Portsmouth Gaseous Diffusion Plant, is working to make improvements to its non-destructive assay program in the wake of a recent assessment that identified concerns, and expects to be able to resume by the end of […]

Kenneth Fletcher WC Monitor 6/20/2014  The Department of Energy’s Office of Independent Enterprise Assessments is launching an investigation into the February incidents at the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant, according to a notification sent to WIPP contractor Nuclear Waste Partnership this week. The Office of Enforcement will look into “the facts and circumstances associated with potential […]

Kenneth Fletcher WC Monitor 6/20/2014 South Carolina is continuing to push against the Department of Energy’s latest plan for the closure of high-level waste tanks at the Savannah River Site, warning this week of hundreds of millions of dollars in penalties if the Department does not request enough funding for Savannah River cleanup. DOE recently […]

Kenneth Fletcher WC Monitor 6/20/2014 Uranium conversion company Converdyn has filed a lawsuit against the Department of Energy in an effort to stop the Department’s uranium transfers, which the company claims will cost it $40.5 million in lost revenue over the next two years. In May, a DOE Secretarial Determination declared that its ongoing uranium […]

Kenneth Fletcher WC Monitor  6/20/2014 URS moved this week to shuffle the top leadership at two of its major cleanup contracts. Ken Reuter, president of Savannah River Remediation, LLC, the liquid waste contractor at Savannah River, is moving back to URS-CH2M Oak Ridge, LLC, to take over for outgoing President Leo Sain. At SRR, Chief […]

Kenneth Fletcher WC Monitor  6/20/2014 Parsons last week rejected the Department of Energy’s “best and final” offer for a new agreement for commissioning and startup of the Salt Waste Processing Facility, leaving uncertainty in the path forward for startup, WC Monitor has learned. SWPF startup talks have been ongoing since last summer, when a new […]

Kenneth Fletcher WC Monitor 6/20/2014 EnergySolutions Not Seeking to Overturn Magnox Decision, But Is Claiming Damages From the NDA  Incumbent contractor EnergySolutions is not looking to overturn  the U.K. Nuclear Decommissioning Authority’s decision to award the Cavendish Fluor Partnership the new contract to manage and decommission the U.K.’s set of nuclear power stations in its […]

Group Calls on State to Order Protections for Tank Farm Workers WC Monitor 6/20/2014 As concerns continue to grow over workers at the Hanford tank farms being exposed to hazardous vapors, the watchdog group Hanford Challenge is calling on the Washington state Attorney General’s Office to use the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act to order […]

John Ciucci to Serve as New Head of CHPRC  WC Monitor 6/20/2014 John Ciucci has been picked to be president of CH2M Hill Plateau Remediation Co. at Hanford effective Oct. 1. He will replace John Fulton, who last week announced his retirement from the position effective Sept. 30. Ciucci came to Hanford in 2011 as […]

K-31 Demolition Set to Get Underway This Fall WC Monitor 6/20/2014 URS-CH2M Oak Ridge, LLC, the Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge cleanup manager, said this week it is ahead of schedule in getting the K-31 Building ready for demolition, which should begin sometimes this fall. K-31 is potentially a bridge between the demolition of K-25, […]

WC Monitor 6/20/2014 IN DOE Mildred López-Ferré has been named deputy assistant manager for safety and technical services at the Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge office. She began her DOE career in 1991 as a program manager in the former Environmental Restoration Division at the Oak Ridge office. Most recently, she was special projects assistant […]

Kenneth Fletcher WC Monitor 6/13/2014 As the Department of Energy pushes for more firm-fixed price contracts and aims to better define which efforts fall under regulations for capital asset projects, the move has led to some concern within the Department. DOE Office of Acquisition and Project Management Director Paul Bosco is working on new contracting […]

DOE Earns Failing Score From SBA In FY’13 Kenneth Fletcher WC Monitor 6/13/2014 It may once again be hard for the Department of Energy to earn a passing grade from the Small Business Administration this fiscal year, as DOE and the SBA continue to work out details on a new law allowing some subcontracts to […]

Kenneth Fletcher WC Monitor 6/13/2014 Responding to criticism from South Carolina regulators of a new Savannah River Site liquid waste plan with lengthy delays, the site’s top official emphasized this week that the site is still committed to closing tanks. The Department recently released the latest revision of the site’s liquid waste system plan, which […]

GAO Releases Protest Decision Details Mike Nartker WC Monitor 6/13/2014   Almost a month after the Government Accountability Office called on the Department of Energy to re-evaluate two bids submitted for the new Office of Legacy Management support services contract in response to a successful protest, the Department’s plans for making a new award decision […]

Mike Nartker WC Monitor 6/13/2014   House appropriators are looking to spend less next year than what the Department of Energy is seeking for work at its set of major cleanup sites. The House version of the Fiscal Year 2015 energy appropriations bill, reported out of subcommittee this week, would provide a total of approximately […]

Kenneth Fletcher WC Monitor 6/13/2014 As investigations continue into the breached drum at the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant, the Department of Energy is scrutinizing five additional Los Alamos waste drums  from the same acidic waste stream currently stored at Waste Control Specialists.  A leading theory has been that nitrate salts and organic kitty litter in […]

Mike Nartker WC Monitor 6/13/2014 As the Department of Energy and contractor CH2M-WG Idaho continue to move forward with startup testing at the Idaho Integrated Waste Treatment Unit, Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board Technical Director Steve Stokes said this week that it’s too early to say whether the facility will be able to begin processing […]