Publications: Weapons Cleanup Monitor

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 […]

DOE FY’15 Budget Request Would Cut RL Funding by Approx. $93 Million Kenneth Fletcher WC Monitor 5/2/2014 As many as seven cleanup milestones at Hanford are at risk of being missed in Fiscal Year 2015 due to funding issues, a DOE official said this week. DOE’s Richland Operations Office faced one of the largest cuts […]

D&D Work May be Broken Out for Small Businesses Kenneth Fletcher WC Monitor 5/2/2014 As the Department of Energy moves forward with planning for a procurement for cleanup work at the Idaho site post-Fiscal Year 2015, DOE is considering combining the site’s two current cleanup contracts and separating out D&D work for small businesses, a […]

Mike Nartker WC Monitor 5/2/2014 Transportation, Operations and Professional Services (TOPS), which was raided by federal law enforcement agents earlier this year, has sold the waste transportation subcontract it had with URS-CH2M Oak Ridge, LLC (UCOR). UCOR spokesman Allen Schubert confirmed this week that Oak Ridge, Tenn.-based TFE Inc. had acquired the subcontract. “This acquisition […]

Kenneth Fletcher WC Monitor 5/2/2014 Moving ahead with potentially processing German experimental spent fuel at the Savannah River Site’s H-Canyon, the Department of Energy recently signed a statement of intent with the German government to examine the idea. The highly enriched uranium comes in the form of graphite spheres from the pebble bed AVR gas-cooled […]

Kenneth Fletcher WC Monitor 5/2/2014 As the Department of Energy considers its options for disposing of surplus plutonium, a new study released this week suggests that downblending the material and disposing of it at the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant may be the least expensive alternative. While DOE’s current plans calls for the material to be […]

Kenneth Fletcher WC Monitor 5/2/2014 EnergySolutions Sues NDA for Damages in Magnox Award Incumbent contractor EnergySolutions this week filed a claim for damages against the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority in a challenge to the recent award of the Magnox/RSRL contract to the Cavendish Fluor Partnership. Bechtel, EnergySolutions’ teaming partner in the Reactor Site Solutions bid for […]

Mike Nartker WC Monitor 5/2/2014 A draft Request for Proposals for the new Paducah infrastructure services contract is set to be issued within the next 15 to 45 days, the Department of Energy said in a notice issued April 30.  The new contract is being set-aside for small businesses, with the procurement to use a […]

WCS, DOE Look to Change Acceptance Criteria Kenneth Fletcher WC Monitor 5/2/2014 More than 75 of the transuranic waste containers slated for shipment from Los Alamos National Laboratory to Waste Control Specialists may not meet the current WCS acceptance criteria, complicating a high-profile push to remove all aboveground LANL transuranic waste by the end of […]

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 […]