Publications: Weapons Cleanup Monitor

RECORD NUMBER OF BALD EAGLES COUNTED WC Monitor 1/17/2014 A record number of bald eagles have been counted at Hanford this winter, possibly attracted by the record salmon runs. Hanford scientists spotted 60 eagles during boat trips on the Columbia River in December, said Michael Sackschewski, an environmental scientist for Mission Support Alliance. During the […]

MTOA-2 TASK BIDDERS TO GET EXTRA TIME WC Monitor 1/17/2014 Los Alamos National Laboratory is providing an extra two weeks to prepare proposals to companies interested in bidding on a new task order being competed under the lab’s Master Task Order Agreement-2, which covers sorting, segregating, and repacking of drums containing transuranic (TRU) waste. Bids […]

WC Monitor 1/17/2014 IN CONGRESS Lawmakers are backing the Obama Administration’s Fiscal Year 2014 budget request for the Department of Energy’s Office of Legacy Management in the omnibus spending bill for the remainder of this fiscal year unveiled this week. Under the bill, LM would receive approximately $177 million. Congress is expected to approve the […]

Preliminary Conclusions Highlight Design Concerns With Various Facility Systems Mike Nartker WC Monitor 1/10/2014 As the Department of Energy gears up to begin resuming some long-paused activities at the Hanford Waste Treatment Plant’s High-Level Waste Facility, a new review is highlighting design concerns with various facility systems that could impact how much work comes back online. […]

Mike Nartker WC Monitor 1/10/2014 Huntington Ingalls Industries late last week wrapped up its acquisition of S.M. Stoller in a move intended to help HII expand its role in the Department of Energy marketplace. Going forward, Stoller will operate as a wholly owned subsidiary under HII’s Newport News Shipbuilding Division, which also includes Newport News […]

Todd Jacobson WC Monitor 1/10/2014 Congressional appropriators have largely wrapped up work on the Energy and Water portion of a planned omnibus spending bill for the remainder of the fiscal year, but there is growing sentiment among Capitol Hill aides that a short-term Continuing Resolution will be necessary to give lawmakers time to iron out […]

Kenneth Fletcher WC Monitor 1/10/2014 Savannah River Nuclear Solutions, the managing contractor for the Savannah River Site, earned 84 percent of its total available award fee in Fiscal Year 2013, earning about $47 million out of $56 million, according to information the Department of Energy released this week. The contractor did best in DOE Office […]

Committees Expected to Move Quickly on Already Cleared Noms, but Senate Floor Action Unclear Todd Jacobson WC Monitor 1/10/2014 The Obama Administration this week returned dozens of nominations to the Senate, including a handful of Department of Energy selections, and Senate committees began acting quickly to report out the nominations, with the Senate Armed Services Committee […]

Kenneth Fletcher WC Monitor 1/10/2014 Savannah River Remediation, LLC, the liquid waste cleanup contractor for the Savannah River Site, earned 95 percent of its total available award fee in Fiscal Year 2013, or about $29.7 million out of $31.4 million, according to information the Department of Energy released this week. “SRR has provided safe, timely, […]

Kenneth Fletcher WC Monitor 1/10/2014 The Department of Energy this week released a final Request for Proposals for technical and administrative support services for Building 55 at the Denver Federal Center in Colorado. The fixed-price contract is being set aside for 8(a) small businesses, has an estimated value of $5-$10 million, and has an indefinite […]

Kenneth Fletcher WC Monitor 1/10/2014 West Valley Demonstration Project cleanup contractor CH2M Hill B&W West Valley, LLC, earned about 60 percent of the total award fee available for the evaluation period that ran from March 1, 2013, through the end of August, according to an award fee determination scorecard recently posted by the Department of […]

Mike Nartker WC Monitor 1/10/2014 EnergySolutions is starting off the new year with a set of senior management changes. As part of a new “consolidation” of the company’s management team, Mark Morant and Alan Parker have been named to oversee Projects; and Products, Projects and Technology, according to EnergySolutions spokesman Mark Walker. “Mark Morant is […]

Kenneth Fletcher WC Monitor 1/10/2014 The Department of Energy late last week released a final Request for Task Proposals for environmental monitoring and D&D work at the Energy Technology Engineering Center site in California. The procurement, which is being conducted under DOE’s nationwide small business set-aside indefinite quantity/indefinite delivery contracts, is open to contract holders […]

Kenneth Fletcher WC Monitor 1/10/2014 The Department of Energy appears to be making progress on closing still-pending recommendations from the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board, with the DNFSB recently agreeing to close one recommendation and the Department seeking to have another one also closed. Last month, the DNFSB closed a recommendation from 2000 called “Prioritization […]

WC Monitor 1/10/2014 IN THE DNFSB Kenneth Mossman, the newest member of the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board, passed away this week. In November, he was confirmed by the Senate to join the Board. Mossman previously served as a professor of health physics at Arizona State University and an Administrative Judge for the Nuclear Regulatory […]

UCOR EARNS 90 PERCENT OF AWARD FEE WC Monitor 1/10/2014 Oak Ridge cleanup contractor URS-CH2M Oak Ridge, LLC, earned about 90 percent of its available award fee in the period from April 1 through September 30, 2013, according to information recently released by the Department of Energy. UCOR received about $3.11 million out of a […]

TRIDEC LOOKING AT BRINGING SMR TO HANFORD WC Monitor  1/10/2014 The Tri-City Development Council has issued a request for proposals to analyze the pros and cons of a small modular nuclear reactor system at Hanford to provide power for Department of Energy projects. Proposals are due Jan. 17. State Sen. Sharon Brown ( R-Kennewick) made […]

Kenneth Fletcher WC Monitor 1/10/2014 The U.K.’s Nuclear Decommissioning Authority is set to launch next month a four-year research effort on waste treatment technologies with Sellafield Limited, the National Nuclear Laboratory, numerous U.K. universities and other partners, the NDA announced this week. The program is expected to cost £8-£9 million ($13.2 million to $14.8 million) […]

Kenneth Fletcher WC Monitor 5/30/2014 A set of internal Los Alamos National Laboratory emails made public this week outline additional changes made in materials used to process transuranic waste at the lab as the Department of Energy continues to investigate how those changes were approved and if they were factors in the radiation release at […]

Kenneth Fletcher WC Monitor 5/30/2014 Closure of old-style high-level waste tanks at the Savannah River Site is now set to be pushed out 10 years beyond regulatory commitments due to reduced funding and delays in getting the site’s Salt Waste Processing Facility in operation, according to the latest Department of Energy liquid waste cleanup plan, […]

Move Could Have Impact on Waste Shipments Mike Nartker WC Monitor 5/30/2014 Quality concerns could soon impact the ability of Fluor-B&W Portsmouth, LLC, the D&D contractor for the Portsmouth Gaseous Diffusion Plant, to ship some waste off-site for disposal. Late last week, FBP halted its Non-Destructive Assay program after a “routine assessment” found “potential quality […]

Mike Nartker WC Monitor 5/30/2014 Jack Zimmerman, federal project director for the Department of Energy’s two depleted uranium hexafluoride conversion plants, has been selected as DOE’s next cleanup chief for the Idaho site. Zimmerman is set to begin his new role as the DOE Idaho Operations Office’s Deputy Manager for the Idaho Cleanup Project in […]

Kenneth Fletcher WC Monitor 5/30/2014 Demolition of the West Valley Main Plant Process Building won’t be done by the current end of CH2M Hill B&W West Valley’s contract in 2019 as originally expected, and the contractor is working with the Department of Energy on an extension, CHBWV President Dan Coyne told WC Monitor this week. […]

Additional Assessment Needed Before Actual Waste is Introduced, Board Says Mike Nartker WC Monitor 5/30/2014 As the Department of Energy works to get the Idaho Integrated Waste Treatment Unit fully operational, the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board is calling on DOE to consider performing additional assessments prior to the introduction of actual radioactive waste due […]

Mike Nartker WC Monitor 5/30/2014 Jennifer Woodard has been tapped to serve as the Department of Energy’s new Paducah Site Lead, responsible for overseeing all day-to-day activities at the site, effective June 15. Woodard has been a DOE employee at Paducah for the last six years, during which she has held roles such as Federal […]

Board Hears from Experts on How To Assess and Address Culture Issues Mike Nartker WC Monitor 5/30/2014 As the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board begins gearing up to take a new look at whether workers across the Department of Energy complex feel safe to raise concerns, one Board member warned this week that there is […]

Kenneth Fletcher WC Monitor 5/30/2014 The Department of Energy said this week that it plans to prepare an environmental assessment for accepting German experimental spent fuel for processing at the Savannah River Site’s H-Canyon facility. The 900 kilograms of U.S.-origin highly enriched uranium comes in the form of graphite spheres from the pebble bed AVR […]

The following interview with Glenn Podonsky, Director of the Department of Energy’s new Office of Independent Enterprise Assessments; and Matthew Moury, acting Associate Under Secretary for Environment, Health, Safety and Security, was conducted by ExchangeMonitor Publications Editor-in-Chief Mike Nartker.  WC Monitor 5/30/2014 To start things off, what was the thinking behind the creation of this […]

More Workers Report Vapor Exposure Symptoms WC Monitor 5/30/2014 Five Hanford workers experienced symptoms consistent with exposure to chemical vapors from waste tanks late this week, and one was taken to the hospital in Richland, Wash. A sixth worker who did not have symptoms also requested an evaluation at the hospital. That brings the number […]