Publications: Weapons Cleanup Monitor

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 […]

Mike Nartker WC Monitor 6/13/2014 John Woolery has been named the new President and General Manager of B&W Conversion Services, LLC, the contractor responsible for the Department of Energy’s two depleted uranium hexafluoride conversion plants, effective July 1. That’s the same day that B&W Pantex, which Woolery currently heads, is set to be replaced by […]

Mike Nartker WC Monitor 6/13/2014   Work underway to set up the Department of Energy’s new Office of Independent Enterprise Assessment (IEA) is slowing down ongoing DOE enforcement investigations, IEA Director Glenn Podonsky said late this week. The new office, which was created as part of a reorganization of DOE’s safety and security functions, contains […]

Mike Nartker WC Monitor 6/13/2014   The Department of Energy is moving forward with procurements for new infrastructure support services contracts at the Paducah and Portsmouth sites. This week, DOE issued a draft Request for Proposals for the new Paducah contract, with industry comments due by July 3. The new contract is being set-aside for […]

Staff reports WC Monitor 6/13/2014   Washington state and federal officials will continue to discuss changes to the Hanford court-enforced consent decree, rather than taking the matter back to court, they announced this week. The initial 40-day dispute resolution period expired June 2, which allowed either the state or the Department of Energy to ask […]

Kenneth Fletcher WC Monitor 6/13/2014   The four recent Department of Energy uranium transfers that supported USEC totaling in the hundreds of millions of dollars may have been done illegally, according to a Government Accountability Office report released this week that sparked strong disagreement from DOE. The Department undertook the transfers in 2012 and 2013 […]

Lawmaker Calls for Quick Action on New DOE Manager WC Monitor 6/13/2014 Rep. Doc Hastings (R-Wash.) is calling on the Department of Energy to move quickly to name a new Manager for the Richland Operations Office at Hanford, following the retirement of Matt McCormick last week. “I believe the Richland Operations Office needs a Manager […]

WC Monitor 6/13/2014 IN CONGRESS The Senate Energy and Water Appropriations Subcommittee is looking to mark up its version of the Fiscal Year 2015 energy spending bill next week. The panel has scheduled a hearing June 17 beginning at 10 a.m. to consider the measure. The full Senate Appropriations Committee is expected to take up […]

WC Monitor 3/07/2014 IN DOE The Department of Energy’s Office of Environmental Management has launched a new interactive timeline tracing the history of DOE’s cleanup efforts. The timeline, available on the EM website, stretches from the beginning of the Manhattan Project in the 1940s to the closure of underground waste tanks at the Savannah River Site […]

Kenneth Fletcher WC Monitor 4/04/2014 Secretary of Energy Ernest Moniz said this week that DOE is looking to award the new contract for deactivation services at the Paducah Gaseous Diffusion Plant in September. During a joint House subcommittee hearing this week, Rep. Ed Whitfield (R-Ky.) questioned plans for the contract given USEC’s upcoming return of […]

New Approach Would Use Increased Number of Smaller Plant Vessels Mike Nartker WC Monitor 4/04/2014 In a new effort to finally resolve the long-standing technical concerns that have significantly delayed the completion of the Hanford Waste Treatment Plant’s Pretreatment Facility, the Department of Energy is considering a simplified design approach that would employ smaller-sized plant vessels […]

Kenneth Fletcher WC Monitor 4/04/2014 After reentering the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant underground for the first time since February’s incidents and establishing a clean base of operations this week, the Department of Energy is planning to send workers deeper into the mine next week. The manned reentries are the first to take place since the […]