Publications: Weapons Cleanup Monitor

Jennifer Granholm, the 16th U.S. secretary of energy, formally said goodbye to DOE staff Thursday and the Joe Biden White House announced Ingrid Kolb, the head of the agency’s management office, will become acting secretary effective at noon Monday. In addition, Teresa Robbins will step in as acting administrator of the National Nuclear Security Administration, […]

President-elect Donald Trump this week announced Darío Gil, a senior vice president at IBM, is his pick to be Department of Energy undersecretary of science in the incoming administration. The Office of Science, which supports DOE’s national laboratories, was the administrative stovepipe for DOE’s Office of Environmental Management during the first Trump term. Science, like […]

WASHINGTON — Brandon Williams, a former one-term congressman from New York’s 22nd district, is President Donald Trump’s (R) pick to head the Department of Energy’s semi-autonomous National Nuclear Security Administration. Chris Wright, Trump’s nominee for Secretary of Energy, told the Exchange Monitor here Wednesday after his confirmation hearing that he picked Williams personally for the […]

Herman Potter, president of United Steelworkers Local 689 at the Department of Energy’s Portsmouth Site in Ohio, is retiring from both his job with the government’s landlord contractor and his leadership post with the union. “I plan to retire from North Wind Dynamics” on Feb. 2, Potter said in a Jan. 2 letter distributed to […]

The 118th Congress ended Friday Jan. 3 without the Senate voting to confirm President Joe Biden’s nomination of William (Ike) White, to the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board. So the nomination of White, a longtime fed and former acting head of the Department of Energy’s nuclear cleanup branch, was returned to the president that day […]

The Department of Energy is keeping a watchful eye on the  devastating wildfires sweeping through Southern California, but as of Thursday evening, the blazes had not  reached the Santa Susana Field Laboratory in Simi Valley. DOE’s Office of Environmental Management, Energy Technology and Engineering Center (ETEC) site at the Santa Susana Field Laboratory “is closely […]

A new report calls for continued pump-and-treat operations, better technology and more cooperation between feds and New Mexico officials to combat a chromium plume at the Department of Energy’s Los Alamos National Laboratory. That is from the executive summary of the 980-page Independent Review by a panel of 15 experts into the DOE Interim Measures […]

The Department of Energy sees “many challenges” to identifying and developing a second deep-underground disposal site for defense-related transuranic waste, not the least of which is Congressional authorization, according to a report to New Mexico officials. Before Congress agrees to funding, it will likely want assurance a second transuranic waste repository is needed, and that’s […]

After getting a couple of snow days, employees for Fluor-BWXT, the Department of Energy cleanup contractor at the Portsmouth Site in Ohio, were urged to be cautious in returning to work Wednesday, according to a Facebook post. In the Tuesday post, Fluor-BWXT Portsmouth said the DOE site was providing help to move employees from the […]

“Meet the new boss, same as the old boss” is a line from “Won’t Get Fooled Again,” a hit song by British rock band, The Who from 1971 —but it also could describe today’s political climate. The Department of Energy and the rest of the U.S. government, is preparing for the second presidential term of […]

The unionized guards at the Department of Energy’s Hanford Site in Washington state will return to work Sunday after voting Thursday to accept a labor agreement that the Hanford Guards Union says will not address all its concerns. Leidos-led Hanford Mission Integration Solutions (HMIS) and Hanford Guards Union (HGU) Local 21 “reached agreement on terms […]

Both the prime for the Department of Energy’s transuranic waste disposal site near Carlsbad, N.M., and the legacy cleanup contractor at the Los Alamos National Laboratory received good reviews from DOE’s Office of Environmental Management for fiscal 2024. The Huntington Ingalls Industries-led cleanup contractor, Newport News Nuclear BWXT (N3B)-Los Alamos, earned 82% of its subjective […]

In its latest fee scorecard, Fluor-led Savannah River Nuclear Solutions was credited with easing the Savannah River Site’s ownership transition to the National Nuclear Security Administration during fiscal 2024. Separately, the management contractor for Savannah River National Laboratory drew high marks on its fiscal 2024, fee scorecard released this week. Savannah River Nuclear Solutions (SRNS), […]

Before government types and contractors around the Department of Energy complex clear out for the winter holidays, many still have items to check off their 2024 to-do lists. Here are a few: Dec. 19: Was the deadline for responses to an Office of Environmental Management request for information on Deactivation and Remediation work at the […]

The Department of Energy is seeking public comment between now and Feb. 17 on soil cleanup at the Energy Technology Engineering Center site inside the Santa Susana Field Laboratory property in Simi Valley. DOE said Dec. 19 it is publishing a notice of intent to prepare a supplemental Environmental Impact Statement and is holding a […]

With mega dollar contract awards in the rear view mirror, procurement bosses at the Department of Energy’s Office of Environmental Management could roll out the next solicitation in March, according to a DOE notice dated Monday. A draft request for proposals (RFP) for the next Infrastructure Support Services for DOE’s Paducah Site in Kentucky could […]

The new BWX Technologies-led contractor that will oversee tank waste at the Department of Energy’s Hanford Site in Washington state expects to start making job offers to incumbent employees Jan. 6, the joint venture said recently. Hanford Tank Waste Operations & Closure (H2C) expects to start extending employment offers to workers now employed by Amentum-led […]

After getting bad marks from the Department of Energy during fiscal 2023 for upkeep of fire suppression systems at the Hanford Site in Washington state, a Leidos-led landlord contractor won 85% of its subjective fee from the feds during fiscal 2024. The improved performance by Hanford Mission Integration Solutions (HMIS), which only took home 35% […]

A partial government shutdown loomed after President-elect Donald Trump this week told congressional Republicans to oppose a three-month continuing resolution. With about 12 hours to go until a shutdown at deadline for Weapons Complex Monitor, lawmakers were still scrambling to find a bill that could pass the House. A backstop continuing resolution favored by Trump […]

Earnings fell at Amentum Holdings, Chantilly, Va., in fiscal 2024, although the company, which consolidated this summer with the government contracting and cyber wings of Jacobs, sees better days ahead with new  contracts entering the pipeline, such as at the Department of Energy’s Hanford Site in Washington. For the company’s 2024 fiscal year ended Sept. […]

The Department of Energy’s Waste Isolation Pilot Plant near Carlsbad, N.M., received at least 36 shipments of transuranic waste in November, according to its public website. It takes about two weeks for shipments to appear on the DOE website. As of Wednesday, the latest received shipment posted was on Nov. 27, the day before Thanksgiving. […]

In observance of Christmas Day and New Year’s Day, Weapons Complex Monitor will not publish on Friday, Dec. 27 or Friday, Jan. 3. Look for the next issue in your inbox on Friday, Jan. 10. 

The lockout of unionized guards at the Department of Energy’s Hanford Site in Washington state is entering its fourth week with no resolution and both the union and landlord contractor spinning their own narrative on the labor dispute. Earlier this week, Hanford Guards Union Local 21 President Chris Hall issued a statement saying the reliance […]

Members of Hanford Guards Union Local 21 voted down the latest contract proposal Dec. 6 from the landlord contractor at the Department of Energy’s Hanford Site in Washington state, as the labor dispute entered a third week. As of Thursday, neither the Hanford Guards Union nor Hanford Mission Integration Solutions (HMIS) reported much headway in […]

Businesses interested in leasing warehouse space for the Department of Energy’s Hanford Site in Washington state now have until Dec. 30 to formally express interest in a deal with the Leidos-led landlord contractor at the nuclear cleanup site. Hanford Mission Integration Solutions (HMIS) initially published an online procurement notice Nov. 23 seeking a lease on […]

As of Dec. 8, the New Mexico Environment Department has 37 pages of emails with comments on the Department of Energy’s plan to define legacy transuranic waste for disposal at DOE’s deep underground disposal site near Carlsbad, N.M. Dec. 8 is roughly mid-way in the public comment period that runs through Jan. 3, on DOE’s […]

With time expiring soon on this congressional session, a longtime federal manager is still awaiting Senate confirmation to the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board. The nomination of William “Ike” White to the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board (DNFSB) was unanimously endorsed by the Senate Armed Services Committee in September. The full Senate has yet to […]