Publications: Weapons Cleanup Monitor

Two Protests Now Filed Over DOE’s Decision to Again Award to Portage Mike Nartker WC Monitor 2/28/2014 Navarro Research and Engineering this week filed a new challenge  over  the  Department  of Energy’s  decision to once again award Portage the new support services contract for DOE’s Office of Legacy Management. Navarro filed its protest with the Government […]

HANFORD TOUR REGISTRATION OPENS NEXT WEEK WC Monitor 2/28/2014 Registration will open March 3 for all site-wide tours this year of Hanford, and a day later registration will open for tours just of Hanford’s historic B Reactor. Reservations are on a first-come, first-served basis, and seats for the tours, particularly of Hanford, go quickly. It […]

NNSA LOOKING TO ACCELERATE RLWTF UPGRADE WC Monitor 2/28/2014 The National Nuclear Security Administration is looking at options to potentially accelerate the schedule for a project to upgrade Los Alamos National Laboratory’s aging Radioactive Liquid Waste Treatment Facility. NNSA and the lab plan to replace the current facility with two new ones—one that would address […]

GLE TO SUBMIT LICENSE APPLICATION IN SEPTEMBER WC Monitor 2/28/2014 In a another step in a proposal to construct a new enrichment plant at the Paducah site, Global Laser Enrichment intends to submit a license application by September to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, the company told the NRC last week. “GLE expects to submit the […]

URS COMPLETES SLUDGE REMOVAL WC Monitor 2/28/2014 URS late this week completed an effort to treat and remove the remaining radioactive sludge waste from the Separations Process Research Unit (SPRU)—a project the Department of Energy says eliminates the majority of the remaining radioactivity at the site. Since the work began last spring, URS has solidified […]

WC Monitor 2/28/2014 IN CONGRESS Rep. Ed Pastor (D-Ariz.) announced late this week that he will not seek re-election this November. Pastor is a member of the House Energy and Water Appropriations Subcommittee, among other Congressional roles. “After 23 years in Congress serving the people of Arizona, I have decided that I will not seek […]

Kenneth Fletcher WC Monitor 2/21/2014 In another Waste Isolation Pilot Plant event that may delay missions across the Department of Energy complex, WIPP remains shut down indefinitely following the detection of a likely radiation leak from a waste drum late last week. WIPP was already shut down as the result of an investigation into a […]

Is ‘War on Whistleblowers’ Underway at Hanford? Mike Nartker WC Monitor 2/21/2014 In a move that’s prompted new calls for investigations into how the Department of Energy protects whistleblowers, URS this week terminated a key nuclear safety manager at the Hanford Waste Treatment Plant who has alleged she has faced harassment and retaliation for raising […]

Mike Nartker WC Monitor 2/21/2014 CH2M-WG Idaho (CWI) appears to have a hit a new set of challenges in its efforts to get the Idaho Sodium-Bearing Waste Treatment Facility in operation, and it remains to be seen when the facility will actually begin processing waste. The facility has been projected to begin waste processing this […]

Mike Nartker WC Monitor 2/21/2014 Members of Kentucky’s Congressional delegation are calling on the Department of Energy to move “as quickly as possible” to award the new deactivation contract for the Paducah Gaseous Diffusion Plant. DOE’s acquisition forecast currently projects making an award no later than the first quarter of Fiscal Year 2015, a schedule […]

Employee Committee Calls for Ombudsman Mike Nartker WC Monitor 2/21/2014 In another sign of apparent management turmoil within the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board, a group of Board employees tasked with examining morale concerns has found what appears to be a significant divide between staff and senior management. “Overall, the staff feels they no longer […]

Kenneth Fletcher WC Monitor 2/21/2014 Unusually cold weather slowed down shipments at the Moab uranium mill tailings remediation project in Utah this winter, the first in which work continued all season since last year’s winter work curtailment. Cleanup contractor Portage last year undertook a three-month outage during the winter due to budget constraints, but a […]

DOE CONSIDERING UNDERGROUND PRETREAT SYSTEM WC Monitor 2/21/2014 The Department of Energy is considering building an underground interim pretreatment system that would use the same technologies as the planned Pretreatment Facility at Hanford’s Waste Treatment Plant, but on a smaller scale. The possible interim pretreatment system is one of the solutions discussed in what DOE […]

REMAINING HANFORD CLEANUP COST NOW $113.6B WC Monitor 2/21/2014 An estimated $113.6 billion is the new price tag for completing the remaining Hanford cleanup, plus post-cleanup long term stewardship through fiscal 2090.The new estimate was included in the 2014 Hanford Lifecycle Scope, Schedule and Cost Report released this week. It’s the fourth such report released […]

ITG PROVISIONALLY LOSES $150,000 IN FEE WC Monitor 2/21/2014 Idaho Treatment Group, LLC, the managing contractor for the Advanced Mixed Waste Treatment Project, has provisionally lost $150,000 in fee for safety issues, though the contractor may be able to earn back a portion, a Department of Energy spokeswoman said late this week. The fee reduction, […]

USEC RAMPING DOWN SITE SECURITY WC Monitor 2/21/2014 In changes to its security approach at the Paducah Gaseous Diffusion Plant, USEC this week laid off security guards and de-manned a security checkpoint on an access road. USEC has been in the process of winding down its role at Paducah after it decided to end enrichment […]

WC Monitor 2/21/2014 IN THE INDUSTRY Former Nevada Site Office Manager Stephen Mellington has joined Longenecker & Associates as a senior associate. Mellington retired from a 35-year federal career in 2012, serving the last four years as the top federal official at the Nevada National Security Site. Mellington previously served as the site office’s Assistant […]

Mike Nartker WC Monitor 2/14/2014 Senior management at the Hanford Waste Treatment Plant has not established a culture “in which quality is a core value,” an internal review has found. The results of a “common cause analysis” into the long-stand quality assurance issues at the WTP, chartered by project contractor Bechtel National, were outlined in […]

Kenneth Fletcher WC Monitor 2/14/2014 There appears to be ongoing discord between senior officials at the Department of Energy’s Office of Environmental Management and Savannah River Site leaders over efforts to promote the “Enterprise SRS” vision for attracting more work to the site, WC Monitor has learned. Enterprise SRS, an effort to bring future business […]

Mike Nartker WC Monitor 2/14/2014 The long-running search for a new support services contractor for the Department of Energy’s Office of Legacy Management is now set to continue to stretch on, with the team of Wastren Advantage and S.M. Stoller filing a new challenge this week to DOE’s decision to award the contract to Portage. […]

Mike Nartker WC Monitor 2/14/2014 The Department of Energy is dissolving its Office of Health, Safety and Security in a new reorganization officially announced this week that DOE says is intended to better enhance its safety and security functions. As Weapons Complex Morning Briefing first reported, the reorganization will entail the creation of a new […]

Mike Nartker WC Monitor 2/14/2014 Bechtel National is looking to conduct a significant reorganization of its management at the Hanford Waste Treatment Plant that reportedly could see a key safety manager who has alleged she has faced retaliation for raising safety concerns moved out of her position, WC Monitor has learned. Many details of BNI’s […]

Congressman Staunch Supporter of DOE’s Cleanup Efforts Mike Nartker WC Monitor 2/14/2014 Rep. Doc Hastings (R-Wash.), one of the strongest supporters of the Department of Energy’s cleanup program in Congress, announced late this week that he will not seek re-election this fall. Hastings, whose district includes the Hanford site, was first elected to Congress in […]

Mike Nartker WC Monitor 2/14/2014 Bill Lingard abruptly resigned from his position as URS President and Chief Operating Officer this week. URS announced Lingard’s resignation along with the release of the company’s preliminary Fiscal Year 2013 financial results, which came in below expectations. The company said its expected 2013 earnings would be $3.20-$3.30 per share, […]

Admin. Set to Submit Proposal to Modify 2010 Consent Decree By End of Month Mike Nartker WC Monitor 2/14/2014 Washington state officials are calling on the Obama Administration to submit a new plan for addressing Hanford’s tank waste that is “aggressive but realistic” when it submits a proposal to amend a 2010 consent decree that helps […]

Mike Nartker WC Monitor 2/14/2014 LATA Environmental Services of Kentucky, LLC, the cleanup contractor for the Paducah site, earned approximately 90 percent of its available Fiscal Year 2013 fee, according to information the Department of Energy released this week. In total, LATA Kentucky earned $3.02 million out of an available $3.37 million, including $1.80 million […]

Kenneth Fletcher WC Monitor 2/14/2014 In an step towards starting D&D work at the Energy Technology Engineering Center in California, the Department of Energy last week released an amendment to its notice of intent to prepare an environmental impact statement for cleanup work at the site. DOE said it expects to issue a draft EIS […]

Kenneth Fletcher WC Monitor 2/14/2014 The White House Office of Management and Budget has blocked funding from being used at the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant for thermal testing of disposal of high-level waste in salt, officials said this week. The Fiscal Year 2014 omnibus spending bill enacted last month included $18 million in funding for […]