Publications: Weapons Cleanup Monitor

The Office of Management and Budget and the Office of Personnel Management released a joint memo Wednesday detailing how federal agencies should develop agency reorganization plans to reduce their work force. The memo also said President Donald Trump and his Department of Government Efficiency directed agencies to draft the plans by March 13 and to […]

Secretary of Energy Chris Wright has advised Department of Energy employees to “please pause” on responding directly to an email from the Office of Personnel Management entitled, “What did you do last week?” “The Department of Energy is responsible for reviewing the performance of its personnel and will conduct any review in accordance with its […]

Soon-to-retire Department of Energy senior executive Jim Owendoff is not worried about there being enough management talent around the nuclear cleanup complex to make up for seasoned hands departing in the near future. In a Friday Feb. 21 afternoon telephone interview with Exchange Monitor  Owendoff confirmed he plans to leave government, after about a half-century […]

Effective this week, BWX Technologies-led Tank Waste Operations & Closure (H2C) is taking over as the contractor in charge of about 56 million gallons of liquid radioactive and chemical waste at the Department of Energy’s Hanford Site in Washington state. “H2C leads the nation’s largest and most complex radioactive waste cleanup, including closure of the […]

A plant built to solidify sodium-bearing liquid radioactive waste at the Department of Energy’s Idaho National Laboratory is offline for maintenance until June, according to the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board (DNFSB). According to a DNFSB staff report dated Feb. 7 and recently posted on the board’s website, the Integrated Waste Treatment Unit (IWTU) started […]

Earnings rose at BWX Technologies, Lynchburg, Va., in the fourth quarter, and 2024 as a whole, which the company chalked up partly to Department of Energy contracts and rising interest in commercial nuclear power. Net earnings for the fourth quarter ended Dec. 31 were $71.1 million, or $ 0.77 a share up from $ 66.3 […]

The Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board recently welcomed Secretary of Energy Chris Wright to the weapons complex with a summary of safety issues including waste drums and transportation. “On behalf of the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board (DNFSB), I extend our warmest congratulations and welcome you to this pivotal role,” DNFSB Acting Chair Thomas Summers […]

The Huntington Ingalls-led Department of Energy contractor in charge of remediating legacy waste at the Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico has finished excavating and cutting down to size corrugated metal pipes long buried at Technical Area 54. That is according to an update this week from Newport News Nuclear BWXT Los Alamos (N3B) […]

The Leidos-led landlord contractor at the Department of Energy’s Hanford Site in Washington state is looking for a subcontractor to build a new fire station at the former plutonium production complex site. Hanford Mission Integration Solutions, which acts as a city manager for the Hanford Site, posted an online request for proposals Feb. 18 seeking […]

The Department of Energy has awarded Bechtel National almost 95% of a potential $15 million in fee for the company’s work on the Waste Treatment and Immobilization Plant during 2024 at the Hanford Site in Washington state. Bechtel is taking home $14.2 million or 94.7% of a potential $15 million in total fee available for […]

BWX Technologies-led West Valley Cleanup Alliance is starting a four-month transition to a potential $3-billion Department of Energy remediation contract at the West Valley Demonstration Project in western New York state. West Valley Cleanup Alliance also said in a Thursday press release it is keeping on Jason Casper as president and program manager. Casper holds […]

WASHINGTON — Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), the upper chamber’s top defense appropriator, said Thursday he will not seek reelection in 2026. McConnell will end his four-decade career after having served as the longest-tenured Senate leader in U.S. history, a role he stepped down from ahead of the current Congress and as he took over as […]

White House efforts to reduce the federal workforce have hit the Department of Energy’s largest nuclear cleanup project, the Hanford Site, and it does not sit well with Democrats in Washington state. President Donald Trump is “indiscriminately firing workers at the Hanford nuclear cleanup site,” Sen. Patty Murray (D-Wash.), said in a Friday Feb. 14 […]

Texas-based Fluor announced early Tuesday it is promoting chief operating officer Jim Breuer to chief executive officer while the current CEO and board chair David Constable will become executive chair effective May 1. Fluor, a publicly-traded company, which has a large footprint in nuclear power as well as government contracts with the Department of Energy […]

Earnings rose at Fluor, Irving, Texas, in the fourth quarter as well as for the full year ended Dec. 31, 2024, which the company attributed Tuesday to projects ranging from data centers to Department of Energy nuclear cleanup. The numbers were also affected by the “equity method” of accounting for Fluor’s investment and “de-consolidation” from […]

Earnings rose at Parsons, Chantilly, Va., in the fourth quarter and the full year of 2024, the company reported early Wednesday. Net earnings for the fourth quarter ended Dec. 31 were $54 million or $ $0.49 a share, up from $49 million, or $ $0.39a share, in the year-ago quarter. Quarterly revenue was $1.7 billion […]

Sen. Patty Murray (D-Wash.) and Rep. Marcy Kaptur (D-Ohio) issued a joint statement demanding an immediate briefing on the firings in the Department of Energy by its secretary Chris Wright. “While there have been reports that the Department has halted firings of NNSA [National Nuclear Security Administration] employees, we remain deeply troubled that the Department […]

With the White House seeking to dramatically shrink the federal workforce, sources told Exchange Monitor recently that senior executives with decades of experience in the Department of Energy’s weapons complex are leaving the government. Those who may be departing, either through taking the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) deferred resignation or other means, such as […]

Jeffrey Baran, a former member of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission who more recently worked at the Department of Energy, has taken a deferred resignation offer from the Office of Personnel Management and is leaving the federal government. Baran joined DOE last September as deputy assistant secretary for waste and materials management at the Office of […]

The Government Accountability Office this week dismissed a bid protest by a Bechtel-led group over a potential $2.3-billion Department of Energy contract awarded to an Atkins Nuclear Secured-led team, —but that won’t be the final word, as DOE will re-evaluate the original award. A Government Accountability Office (GAO) document viewed by Exchange Monitor said GAO’s […]

John (Jay) Mullis, who heads the Department of Energy’s Environmental Management office at the Oak Ridge Site in Tennessee, will retire at the end of March, Exchange Monitor confirmed Tuesday afternoon. Mullis is not taking a White House Office of Personnel Management deferred resignation, just a “regular federal retirement,” a DOE representative said Tuesday. The […]

Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee (R) proposed plans this week for his state to spend $50 million to support the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) Clinch River small modular reactor project Lee’s proposal during Monday’s State of the State address comes about a month after a TVA-led coalition submitted an $800 million grant proposal to the Department […]

Many workers at the Department of Energy’s Hanford Site near Richland, Wash., were sent home early Thursday evening due to a snowstorm that hit parts of Washington and Oregon, the Tri-City Herald reported.  The chance of continued snow showers lingers through the weekend, according to the National Weather Service forecast.   Perma-Fix Environmental Services has […]

As the Donald Trump administration moves ahead with its agenda to shrink the federal workforce, roughly one-sixth of the National Nuclear Security Administration’s staff was terminated Thursday. According to NPR, who broke the story Thursday, 300 of the agency’s 1,800 staff were fired.  The Department of Energy, of which the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) […]

The Piketon, Ohio Village Council has for now at least called off a plan, vehemently opposed by local union members, to annex 3,500 acres of land at the Department of Energy’s Portsmouth Site.  The council abandoned the proposal after a Monday night meeting where perhaps 200 people showed up, according to coverage in the Scioto […]

The BWX Technologies-led contractor soon to be in charge of the 56 million gallons of liquid tank waste at the Department of Energy’s Hanford Site has already lined up most of its rank-and-file workforce. Hanford Tank Waste Operations & Closure (H2C) had already secured commitments from 92% of the workforce at Amentum-led Washington River Protection […]

A new Department of Energy prime contractor for liquid waste should take over Feb. 23 at Hanford Site in Washington state, the DOE manager for the nuclear cleanup property said Wednesday. The transition to BWX Technologies-led Hanford Tank Waste Operations & Closure (H2C) from Amentum-led Washington River Protection Solutions (WRPS) is nearly finished, DOE Site […]

Brian Vance, the Department of Energy’s manager of the Hanford Site in Washington state said Wednesday it is too early to tell how White House personnel policies might affect federal staff levels at the nuclear cleanup site. “At this point I can’t speculate what the numbers will look like over time,” Vance said in response […]