Publications: Weapons Cleanup Monitor

Uranium Producers Oppose DOE View That Transfers Won’t Impact Market Mike Nartker WC Monitor 5/16/2014 In a move that could have serious impacts for D&D efforts underway at the Portsmouth Gaseous Diffusion Plant, the Department of Energy is revamping how it manages its stocks of excess uranium, with less to be provided to help fund […]

Kenneth Fletcher WC Monitor 5/16/2014 As this week marked three months since the Feb. 14 radiation release at the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant that has left the facility shut down for the foreseeable future, there is still no clear answer as to what caused the release, though officials have found evidence of a reaction that […]

Mike Nartker WC Monitor 5/16/2014 Bechtel’s Systems and Infrastructure unit, responsible for the company’s government businesses, is undergoing a reorganization to consolidate “five regionally focused business lines to three global business lines”—Nuclear Security & Operations (NS&O), Environmental (ENV), and Defense & Security (D&S), according to a message sent to employees last week. The reorganization, set […]

Shipments Halted as DOE Examines Potential Reactions In LANL Drums Kenneth Fletcher WC Monitor 5/16/2014 With shipments suspended for the past two weeks, it could soon be impossible to meet a high-profile June 30 commitment to New Mexico to remove aboveground transuranic waste from Los Alamos National Laboratory. The campaign has been the top priority […]

Todd Jacobson WC Monitor 5/16/2014 Fresh off its defeat at Y-12 and Pantex, Babcock & Wilcox is planning to make a push for an increased role at the Savannah River Site, President and Chief Executive Officer Jim Ferland said on a conference call with investors this week. B&W is “working hard on positioning for Savannah […]

Poor Maintenance Found to Be Factor in Incidents at Repository Kenneth Fletcher WC Monitor 5/16/2014 With the Department of Energy and Nuclear Waste Partnership, the managing contractor for the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant, coming under heavy criticism for inadequate maintenance at WIPP, documents obtained by WC Monitor through a Freedom of Information Act request show […]

Local Officials Near Site Want to Block Award of New Contract to TFE, Inc. Kenneth Fletcher WC Monitor 5/16/2014 Local officials in Carlsbad, N.M., are pushing the Department of Energy to block the recent award of a $24.5 million Waste Isolation Pilot Plant subcontract to Tennessee-based TFE, Inc. URS-led M&O contractor Nuclear Waste Partnership last […]

Agreement Originally Envisioned Cleanup to be Done in 30 Years Staff reports WC Monitor 5/16/2014 Hanford cleanup is possibly a third complete after the Tri-Party Agreement was signed 25 years ago this week, officially starting a work plan to clean up the site in 30 years. Now officials are looking at continuing cleanup work into […]

DOE Transfers 25 Acres for Reuse WC Monitor 5/16/2014 The Department of Energy Oak Ridge Office of Environmental Management this week transferred 25 acres at the East Tennessee Technology Park—the scene of major demolition of old uranium-enrichment facilities and cleanup projects—to the Community Reuse Organization of East Tennessee. It was the 12th time since 1995 […]

WC Monitor 5/16/2014 IN DOE The Department of Energy late this week issued a draft performance work statement for the planned new Paducah infrastructure support services contract. According to a DOE notice issued May 14, the Department expects to issue a draft Request for Proposals for the procurement within the next 30 days, and a […]

Officials Focus on Reaction in Los Alamos Drums as Possible Cause of Release Kenneth Fletcher WC Monitor 5/9/2014 It could be two -to-three years before operations fully resume at the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant following the Feb. 14 radiation release at the facility, the head of the recovery effort for contractor Nuclear Waste Partnership said […]

Fluor-B&W Past Halfway Point of Removing Cells from Former Enrichment Process Building Mike Nartker WC Monitor 5/9/2014 Fluor-B&W Portsmouth, LLC, has reached a significant milestone in cleaning out one of the three former enrichment process buildings at the Portsmouth Gaseous Diffusion Plant, but funding challenges currently appear set to prevent FBP from reaching a goal […]

Mike Nartker WC Monitor 5/9/2014   Oak Ridge cleanup chief Mark Whitney has been tapped to serve as the new No. 2 official in the Department of Energy’s Office of Environmental Management. Effective May 18, Whitney will hold the position of EM Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary, replacing Jim Owendoff, who will return to his previous […]

Kenneth Fletcher WC Monitor 5/9/2014 During the protracted shutdown of the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant, sites with transuranic waste, including Oak Ridge and Idaho, are coming up with solutions to storage issues in order to keep processing waste. While waste from those sites was being disposed of at WIPP to meet agreements with Idaho and […]

Contract to be Set-Aside for Small Businesses, Official Says Mike Nartker WC Monitor 5/9/2014 While the schedule for release of a Request for Proposals for the new contract to operate the Oak Ridge Transuranic Waste Processing Center is uncertain, the Department of Energy expects to be able to make an award decision by the time […]

Todd Jacobson WC Monitor 5/9/2014 The House Appropriations Committee formally unveiled its subcommittee allocations for Fiscal Year 2015 this week, and lawmakers on the House Energy and Water Appropriations Subcommittee will have a little less funding to work with this year. The committee set the Energy and Water allocation at $34.010 billion, $50 million less […]

Bill Reported Out of Committee Late This Week Mike Nartker WC Monitor 5/9/2014 Members of the House Armed Services Committee dropped funding for a new federal contribution to the Uranium Enrichment D&D Fund from the Fiscal Year 2015 National Defense Authorization Act before reporting the bill out of committee late this week. As originally drafted, […]

DOE-State Working Group Again Met This Week to Discuss Issues Kenneth Fletcher WC Monitor 5/9/2014 While a Department of Energy and Nevada working group met again this week to discuss controversial proposed shipments of uranium-233, there is still no timeline for disposal of the material at the Nevada National Security Site, a DOE official said […]

Kenneth Fletcher WC Monitor 5/9/2014 Former URS executive Carol Johnson has been picked as the new head of Fluor-led Savannah River Nuclear Solutions, the managing contractor for the Savannah River Site, WC Monitor has learned, after President and CEO Dwayne Wilson announced this week that he is transferring to another post within Fluor. SRNS’ choice […]

Kenneth Fletcher WC Monitor 5/9/2014 Numerous issues handled by the Savannah River Site’s two cleanup contractors so far this year have impacted productivity at the site, including the temporary suspension of operations at H-Canyon, according to a recently released Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board site representative report. “During the first quarter of 2014, the site […]

Kenneth Fletcher WC Monitor 5/9/2014 With numerous cleanup milestones at risk due to insufficient budget requests, the Department of Energy Office of Environmental Management’s set of ECitizens Advisory Boards are emphasizing that DOE should ask for adequate cleanup funding to meet commitments. “The Environmental Management Site Specific Advisory Board (EM SSAB) believes the fiscal year […]

Kenneth Fletcher WC Monitor 5/9/2014 Regulator Issues ‘Formal Cautions’ after Sellafield Contamination Incident The U.K.’s Office for Nuclear Regulation last week issued “formal cautions” to two Sellafield workers after a contamination incident in December at the Highly Active Liquor Evaporation and Storage facility (HALES). The event occurred when the workers removed without permission a contaminated […]

More Sludge Sent to Perma-Fix WC Monitor 5/9/2014 A second 5,000-gallon shipment of radioactive sludge has made its way from Oak Ridge to Richland, Wash.,for treatment and there could be another dozen or more as the Department of Energy works to clean up an Oak Ridge sewage-treatment facility that was contaminated by discharges of radioactive […]

DOE Manager to Retire WC Monitor 5/9/2014 Matt McCormick, Manager of the Department of Energy’s Richland Operations Office, announced this week that he is retiring from federal service in mid-June. McCormick has been at the post since July 2010, and prior to that he was assistant manager for the Central Plateau at the Richland Operations […]

NWP Awards WIPP Records Subcontract to TFE WC Monitor 5/9/2014 Oak Ridge, Tenn.-based TFE, Inc. has won a new subcontract to provide records management services at the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant. The subcontract is worth $24.5 million over five years and is set to begin July 1, according to a release from Nuclear Waste Partnership, […]

WC Monitor 5/9/2014 IN CONGRESS The Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee is set to hold a hearing next week to consider the nomination of Monica Regalbuto to serve as Assistant Secretary of Energy for Environmental Management. The hearing is scheduled to be held May 13 beginning at 10 a.m. Regalbuto currently holds the position […]

Owner of Occupational Med Contractor Arrested WC Monitor 5/2/2014 A co-owner of HPM Corp., which holds the Department of Energy contract to provide occupational medicine services at Hanford, has been arrested on suspicion of assault in the fourth degree, a gross misdemeanor. Grover Cleveland “Cleve” Mooers is accused in documents filed in Franklin County District […]

SRNL TO Conduct Review of Tank Vapors WC Monitor 5/2/2014 The Savannah River National Laboratory will lead an independent review of chemical vapors and worker protection at the Hanford tank farms, it announced late last week. Early this week, two more workers reported smelling tank vapors, this time at the C Tank Farm where work […]

Kenneth Fletcher WC Monitor 5/2/2014 While the cause of the Feb. 14 radiation release at the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant still remains unknown, crews entering the mine this week discovered that magnesium oxide bags covering waste drums at the likely leak site were disturbed. After initial entries to WIPP’s Panel 7 in recent weeks, this […]

Kenneth Fletcher WC Monitor 5/2/2014 The Department of Energy’s Office of Environmental Management has asked contractors and site field offices across the complex to perform a review of deferred maintenance in response to the recent incidents at the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant that have shut down operations there. “One of the early lessons learned from […]