Publications: Weapons Cleanup Monitor

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 […]

DOE, Washington State Looking to Start WTP LAW Facility Ahead of Other Portions of Plant Mike Nartker WC Monitor 4/11/2014 An interim pretreatment system to allow the Department of Energy to move forward with a proposal to begin operation of the Hanford Waste Treatment Plant’s Low Activity Waste Facility ahead of other portions of the […]

Board Working To Address Staff Morale Concerns Mike Nartker WC Monitor 4/11/2014 The Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board is considering establishing some sort of ombudsman capability as part of its efforts to address staff morale concerns, DNFSB Chairman Peter Winokur told WC Monitor this week. A new ombudsman was one of several recommendations developed by […]

Kenneth Fletcher WC Monitor 4/11/2014 The push to identify the cause of the Feb. 14 radiation release at the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant continued this week, as workers moved to establish a third base underground. Last week, workers set up two bases of operations underground in areas free of contamination. While the Department of Energy […]

  Mike Nartker WC Monitor 4/11/2014 With operations at the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant currently on hold, and the timetable for their resumption unclear, Idaho Treatment Group, LLC, is in discussions with the Department of Energy on modifying how it will be able to earn fee for operating the Advanced Mixed Waste Treatment Project. ITG […]

Dounreay Costs May Go up £200 Million Kenneth Fletcher WC Monitor 4/11/2014 The last eight double-shell waste tanks built at Hanford had only minor construction issues, according to the final construction review report released by the Department of Energy this week.  The review concluded that double-shell tanks in the AP Tank Farm were in better […]

  Mike Nartker  WC Monitor 4/11/2014 Sen. Patty Murray (D-Wash.) warned this week that the Department of Energy’s proposed Fiscal Year 2015 budget for Hanford could put milestones at risk of being missed. Hanford came in for one of the largest cuts in the DOE Office of Environmental Management’s  FY 2015 budget request—for work overseen […]

Fluor-B&W Portsmouth Says It Can Save Money Mike Nartker WC Monitor 4/11/2014 Fluor-B&W Portsmouth, LLC, sought to defend its plan to self-perform some work at the Portsmouth D&D project currently being handled by Professional Project Services (Pro2Serve) in a court filing late last week. Pro2Serve is suing FBP in federal court, accusing it of seeking […]

Says Department Hopes to Begin U-233 Shipments to Nevada ‘Later This Year’ Mike Nartker WC Monitor 4/11/2014              Department of Energy cleanup chief David Huizenga this week defended DOE’s decision to seek a funding reduction for D&D activities at Oak Ridge in its Fiscal Year 2015 budget request. DOE is proposing to […]

Sale to be Completed Within the Month Mike Nartker WC Monitor 4/11/2014 Advanced Technologies and Laboratories (ATL) has entered into an agreement to purchase DeNuke Services—a sale DeNuke Services President Fred Gardner said this week that he expects to complete within a month. “We’ve entered in a letter of intent and we’re selling all the […]

Work Underway on Vit Plant Test Facility In about three weeks the control tower outside the Full Scale Vessel Test Facility at Washington State University Tri-Cities will grow to 90 feet tall, as part of an effort to geometrically mimic conditions at the Hanford Waste Treatment Plant’s Pretreatment Facility. The test facility, also called the […]

Will WAI Have Unfair Advantage for Sludge Contract? Some potential bidders on the new contract to provide architect and engineering services for design of the Sludge Processing Facility Buildouts Project at the Oak Ridge Transuranic Waste Processing Center appear to be concerned that Wastren Advantage may have an unfair advantage, according to a set of […]

SWPF, Tank Closure Teams Earn DOE Awards The Department of Energy this week doled out two Honor Awards related to tank waste cleanup at the Savannah River Site, one to the Salt Waste Processing Renegotiation Team and one to the tank closure team. The SWPF team negotiated a new agreement for the construction of the […]

IN DOE The current tension between the United States and Russia over Ukraine appears to have scuttled a planned Russian visit later this month to Hanford. A group of technical representatives from Russia’s mining and chemical combine, the Rosatom state nuclear energy corporation and the Russian embassy in the United States were scheduled to visit […]

The Hanford Waste Treatment Plant, already one of the Department of Energy’s most expensive projects, is at risk of another cost increase of almost half-a-billion dollars, according to a report DOE released late this week. 

Although Fluor-B&W Portsmouth, LLC, saw a drop in fee for its work at the Portsmouth Gaseous Diffusion Plant in Fiscal Year 2013, the contractor is currently on track for “excellent performance” this fiscal year, according to FBP Site Project Director Dennis Carr. 

Though operations at the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant have been halted indefinitely following a fire underground this week, officials are optimistic that it will not put the Los Alamos National Laboratory transuranic waste campaign milestone at risk. 

Republicans and Democrats on the House Armed Services Committee, who previously have sparred over legislative language about the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board, both expressed concern this week about increasing tension and flagging employee morale at the Board that was revealed by WC Monitor last week. 

A group of 12 lawmakers this week expressed concern about the impact on the uranium mining industry of the Department of Energy’s Excess Uranium Inventory Management Plan.

B&W Conversion Services, LLC, the managing contractor for the Department of Energy’s two depleted uranium hexafluoride conversion plants, earned approximately 66 percent of the total fee available for Fiscal Year 2013—$2.93 million out of $4.44 million, according to information DOE released this week. 

UNION SUES WRPS OVER TERMINATED EMPLOYEES The Hanford Atomic Metal Trades Council is suing Hanford tank farms contractor Washington River Protection Solutions over what the union alleges is the unfair termination of four employees last year. In its lawsuit, filed Jan. 27 in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Washington, HAMTC accuses […]

TRU SHIPMENTS TO WIPP COULD RESUME NEXT MONTH

DOE LOOKS TO TRUCK CONTAMINATED GROUNDWATER The Department of Energy is proposing pumping up and trucking the “perched” underground contaminated water at Hanford’s 200-DV-1 Operable Unit  to the new 200 West Pump and Treat Facility in central Hanford. Some of the contaminated water already has been cleaned in a successful test at Hanford’s Effluent Treatment […]