Publications: Weapons Cleanup Monitor

Mike Nartker WC Monitor 5/2/2014 Leo Sain is stepping down as President and Project Manager of Oak Ridge cleanup contractor URS-CH2M Oak Ridge, LLC to return to a corporate role at URS. In his new position, announced this week, Sain will head up URS Global Management and Operations Services’  Decontamination and Decommissioning and Waste Management […]

WC Monitor 5/2/2014 IN THE DNFSB House lawmakers are looking to lower the maximum number of employees the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board can have by 20 percent. A provision in the House version of the FY 2015 defense authorization bill, which was reported out of subcommittee this week, would limit the number of full-time […]

Kenneth Fletcher WC Monitor 4/25/2014  The  “preventable” Feb. 14 radiation release at the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant was preceded by poor maintenance, safety culture issues by contractor Nuclear Waste Partnership and lax oversight by Department of Energy headquarters and the Carlsbad Field Office, according to a DOE Accident Investigation Board report released this week. While […]

Mike Nartker WC Monitor 4/25/2014 The Department of Energy has asked the two teams bidding on the new Paducah deactivation contract to submit best-and-final offers, with responses due in early May. DOE is believed to be seeking “final proposal revisions” from the teams of Fluor-CB&I-LATA and AECOM-Stoller-Newport News to help resolve discrepancies between the two […]

Kenneth Fletcher WC Monitor 4/25/2014 Though budget cuts to Savannah River’s liquid waste program raised concerns last year about missed high-level waste tank milestones, a funding boost and efficiencies developed by contractor Savannah River Remediation will allow for closure of two tanks in the near future. SRR so far has closed four of the site’s […]

Kenneth Fletcher WC Monitor 4/25/2014 Alternatives to commissioning the Salt Waste Processing Facility the Department of Energy has studied include use of the existing processing capability combined with a new in-tank treatment technology called small column ion exchange, WC Monitor has learned. The Department originally undertook the study last year when it was in talks […]

Survey Shows Workers Satisfied With Their Jobs, EM Leadership Mike Nartker WC Monitor 4/25/2014 A survey of employees within the Department of Energy’s Office of Environmental Management has found that workers appear to have significant concerns with how their performance—good or bad—is addressed. EM recently provided to WC Monitor specific data on the views of […]

Mike Nartker WC Monitor 4/25/2014 URS has come under criticism for a lack of cooperation in an investigation now underway into the termination of a nuclear safety manager at the Hanford Waste Treatment Plant, WC Monitor has learned. The Department of Energy Inspector General’s Office expressed concern over URS’ lack of cooperation in a letter […]

Kenneth Fletcher WC Monitor 4/25/2014 Procurement of equipment to remove contaminated sludge from at Hanford’s K-Basin near the Columbia River begins later  this year in a major project that received $31.6 million in the Department of Energy’s Fiscal Year 2015 budget request. Extensive preparations are now underway for the actual transfer of the material, including […]

State, DOE Can’t Reach Agreement on Modification Staff Reports WC Monitor 4/25/2014 Washington state has triggered a formal dispute resolution process for Hanford’s court-enforced consent decree following the Department of Energy’s rejection late last week of the state’s proposal for new deadlines and other requirements. State attorneys sent a brief letter April 23 to the […]

Staff Reports WC Monitor 4/25/2014 The Department of Energy has filed an appeal to halt to a Washington state order requiring it to begin emptying waste from Hanford’s double-shell Tank AY-102 because of its interior leak by Sept. 1. DOE filed the appeal late last week with the State Pollution Control Hearing Board over the order […]

Todd Jacobson WC Monitor 4/25/2014 The Department of Energy’s directives revision process is “too cumbersome” and creates confusion, Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board Chairman Peter Winokur said in a letter earlier this month to Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz. In his April 4 letter, which was recently made public, Winokur urged Moniz to review the directives […]

Kenneth Fletcher WC Monitor 4/25/2014 The Department of Energy could potentially save more than $2.3 million over the next three years by increasing efficiency  in acquisition and management of mobile devices such as phones, tablets and air cards, according to a DOE Inspector General report released this week. The IG’s review covered 10 sites in […]

IWTU Enters Planned Outage Period WC Monitor 4/25/2014 The Idaho Integrated Waste Treatment Unit has entered into a planned outage period as the Department of Energy and contractor CH2M-WG Idaho get ready for the next stage of getting the facility ready to begin actual waste treatment. The outage period is expected to last approximately a […]

DUF6 Plant Manager Leaves WC Monitor 4/25/2014 Tom Robinson has stepped down as B&W Conversion Services, LLC’s plant manager of the Paducah depleted uranium hexafluoride conversion plant. Robinson had served as manager of the Paducah plant since BWCS took over as managing contractor for the Department of Energy’s two DUF6 conversion plants (located at the […]

Judge Blocks FBP from Hiring Pro2Serve Workers WC Monitor 4/25/2014 A federal judge late last week blocked Fluor-B&W Portsmouth, LLC, from hiring employees of Professional Project Services (Pro2Serve) at the Portsmouth D&D project. The judge partially granted a request from Pro2Serve for a temporary restraining order as it moves forward in its recently filed lawsuit […]

WC Monitor 4/25/2014 IN DOE The Department of Energy is gearing up for an inquiry into an allegation of a hostile work environment within the DOE Office of Acquisition and Project Management. DOE issued a solicitation this week seeking a contractor to provide “fact finder services” to look into a “recent allegation” of a hostile […]

DOE Conducts Market Research for Performance Assessments WC Monitor 4/25/2014 The Department of Energy is looking to see if small businesses are available that could perform probabilistic performance assessments and apply decision analysis tools to D&D work at the West Valley Demonstration Project, according to a sources sought notice released this week. DOE has begun […]

Readiness Assessment Delay for New H-Canyon Mission WC Monitor 4/25/2014 After delays last year due to conduct of operations issues, the Department of Energy has now pushed to May a planned readiness assessment for a new mission at Savannah River’s HB-Line to produce plutonium oxide for feedstock for the Mixed Oxide Fuel Fabrication Facility, WC […]

Mike Nartker WC Monitor 4/18/2014      Washington state late this week rejected a proposal put forward by the Department of Energy to modify the 2010 consent decree that governs the cleanup of Hanford’s tank waste. DOE had proposed employing a phased approach to getting the Hanford Waste Treatment Plant in operation that would entail […]

DOE Appoints Senderling, Teynor to Head Federal Recovery Team Kenneth Fletcher WC Monitor 4/18/2014 While this week marked two months since the Feb. 14 radiation release at the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant, teams entering the mine still have not identified the source of the incident. In the past week, the two recovery teams entered the […]

Kenneth Fletcher WC Monitor 4/18/2014 The Department of Energy is reportedly examining alternatives to commissioning the Savannah River Site’s Salt Waste Processing Facility as startup talks for the project with facility contractor Parsons have gone on for more than six months without resolution. Parsons submitted a “best and final offer” in late March for commissioning […]

Kenneth Fletcher WC Monitor 4/18/2014 After technetium from the K-25 demolition ended up in an Oak Ridge city wastewater treatment plant, the Department of Energy is making progress in shipping contaminated sewer sludge to the Perma-Fix Northwest Richland facility for processing. Cleanup contractor URS-CH2M Oak Ridge, LLC, wrapped up recently the high-profile effort at the […]

Mike Nartker WC Monitor 4/18/2014 The Department of Energy is seeking industry comment as to whether an employee benefits test should be added to the planned Request for Proposals for the new contract to perform analysis and testing services at Hanford’s 222-S Laboratory. According to a notice issued this week, DOE is considering adding a […]

Kenneth Fletcher WC Monitor 4/18/2014      While the Department of Energy is not seeking any funding next year for a program to reimburse the costs of cleaning up a set of sites that produced uranium and thorium, Sen. Richard Durbin (D-Ill.) has requested $54 million in Fiscal Year 2015 for the effort from Senate […]

Kenneth Fletcher WC Monitor 4/18/2014 NDA Launches Magnox Transition, No Challenges So Far  The Nuclear Decommissioning Authority has launched a five-month transition period for Cavendish Fluor Partnership to take over management of 10 Magnox power plants and two research reactor sites after no legal challenges to the contract award were filed during a recent 10-day […]

Is State Too Focused on Tank Cleanup? The state of Washington’s focus on Hanford tank issues could come at a big price to work at the rest of the site, according to the Tri-City Development Council. TRIDEC warned Gov. Jay Inslee and Attorney General Bob Ferguson in a letter this week that some of those […]

IN CONGRESS The House Cleanup Caucus this week announced the schedule for this year’s set of briefings on specific Department of Energy cleanup sites. The schedule includes: — Idaho National Laboratory on April 30 at 4 p.m. in Room 1334 of the Longworth House Office Building; — Hanford’s Richland Operations Office on May 1 at […]

Questions Persist over Subcontractor Raid Three months after federal law enforcement agents raided the office of a subcontractor to URS-CH2M Oak Ridge, LLC (UCOR), the purpose of the raid remains unclear. On Jan. 16, agents with the FBI and the Department of Energy Inspector General’s Office removed records from the office of Transportation, Operations and […]

After Injury at DWPF, DOE Seeks Improvements The Department of Energy’s Office of Health, Safety and Security this week noted several issues as a result of an investigation into a shoulder injury last year suffered by a Savannah River Remediation worker. The injury occurred in March 2013 at the Defense Waste Processing Facility during replacement […]