Publications: Weapons Cleanup Monitor

Two years after a St. Louis-area school was closed following reports of radioactive contamination, Missouri lawmakers are laying groundwork for new state laws about risks from legacy nuclear-weapons. Missouri House Speaker Rep. Dean Plocher (R) announced the formation of the committee in a statement dated Oct. 3. The eight-member Special Interim Committee on the Impact […]

Savannah River Site returned to its normal operations Monday after the site was limited to essential personnel in the aftermath of Hurricane Helene, a spokesperson told the ExchangeMonitor. “Phased resumption of workers returning back to the site began [in the] middle of last week,” the spokesperson told the Monitor in an email. “During the storm itself and immediate […]

By John Stang The Department of Energy’s Hanford Site should again consider reclassifying high-level radioactive wastes into something that existing technology can legally treat, a recent Government Accountability Office report recommended. The recommendation was part of a Sept. 26 report by Congress’ investigative arm, titled “Hanford Cleanup: Alternatives for Treating and Disposing of High-Level Waste […]

For the first time in a while, the Department of Energy and its contractor have reached full operation of Depleted Uranium Hexafluoride Conversion Facilities in Ohio and Kentucky, the agency said Tuesday. The Portsmouth Site in Piketon, Ohio recently completed a planned maintenance outage, during which plant upgrades were made, including upgraded control systems to […]

The Department of Energy’s semiautonomous National Nuclear Security Administration was set to become landlord of the Savannah River Site in South Carolina effective Tuesday, Oct. 1. The nuclear-weapons agency will take over management of the 310-square-mile federal complex near the Georgia line from DOE’s Office of Environmental Management, which cleans up shuttered nuclear-weapons production sites. […]

A U.S. Court of Federal Claims judge will hear oral arguments Oct. 10 at the request of an AtkinsRéalis-led team that the judge ruled against last month in a $45-billion legal dispute over award of the Department of Energy’s liquid waste contract at the Hanford Site in Washington state. Senior Claims Court Judge Marian Blank […]

As of Tuesday, there was only one field office serving the Department of Energy’s Hanford Site in Washington state, the department’s largest nuclear cleanup job. As previously reported, DOE consolidated its Office of River Protection and Richland Operations Office into the Hanford Field Office effective Oct. 1. The Richland Office opened in the 1960s while […]

The Department of Energy has awarded a Knoxville business a $1.6-million contract to make upgrades to a pond on former uranium enrichment plant land at the Oak Ridge Site in Tennessee, according to a recent online procurement notice. SES Constructors LLC was awarded the contract to repair or replace the P1 Pond Weir Dam and […]

A woman driving westbound on the main thoroughfare through Los Alamos left her lane and ran head-on into an SUV driven by Charles McMillan, killing him, the Los Alamos Police Department said. Charles McMillan, 69, was the only person to die in the crash in Los Alamos, N.M. Sept. 6. His wife Janet McMillan, and […]

Steven Becker, Allen Croff, Tissa Illangasekare and Kenneth Peddicord left the Nuclear Waste Technical Review Board Friday as part of a major membership facelift finalized last week by President Joe Biden. A board spokesperson confirmed the four people had left in an email sent Tuesday to the Exchange Monitor. The White House on Friday said it […]

WASHINGTON — Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) told a room of Navajo Nation members this week that the Radiation Exposure Compensation Reauthorization Act would pass by supermajority, but that the House speaker hadn’t “committed” to giving it a vote. “’l just thank Speaker Johnson for being very involved,” Hawley said Tuesday at a press conference on […]

A Department of Energy report to Congress about cleaning up excess nuclear weapons facilities will be a few months late next year, the Government Accountability Office reported Tuesday. DOE’s report will arrive by June 30 instead of March 31 as required by law, according to an attachment to a letter signed by Candice Robertson, senior […]

The Senate Armed Services Committee this week recommended that the Senate vote on William “Ike” White’s nomination to join the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board. Tuesday’s approval by the committee, which received White’s nomination in May, clears the way for the full Senate Senate to send the former head of the Department of Energy’s Office […]

The mega-merger of Amentum Services, Chantilly, and the government and cyber businesses of Jacobs Solutions, Dallas, was scheduled to close Friday, after deadline for Weapons Complex Monitor. The was to be finalized by 4:10 p.m. Eastern time on Friday, according to Jacobs’ press release, creating a new, publicly traded government and defense behemoth that would […]

With less than a month of legislative work days remaining in the 118th Congress, lawmakers from California and Texas on Tuesday introduced a bill that would create a Nuclear Waste Administration. Sponsored by a bipartisan pair whose districts contain or border large nuclear constituencies, it was the latest show of support for an old idea […]

Seeking a hearing and a restraining order, an AtkinsRéalis-led team made a flurry of motions in federal court aimed at reversing a ruling that cleared the way for a rival to take over liquid-radioactive-waste cleanup at the Hanford Site. Hanford Tank Disposition Alliance (HTDA), comprising Atkins, Jacobs Solutions, Dallas, and Westinghouse, on Wednesday asked for […]

WASHINGTON — After passing the House and being rushed to the Senate, a three-month continuing resolution was agreed to by both chambers days before the end of fiscal year 2024. The bill, voted on Wednesday as Congress prepared to leave town until November, passed 341-82 in the House, with unanimous Democratic approval, 132 Republicans for […]

Garret Harencak plans to step down as president of the prime contractor of the National Nuclear Security Administration’s Nevada National Security Site, people familiar with his plans said this week. In August, the board of directors of Mission Support and Test Services (MSTS), the site’s Honeywell-led prime, informed site employees that Harencak, a retired Air […]

In court papers last week, a federal judge declined to stop construction of a walking trail that environmentalists said could endanger hikers near the demolished Rocky Flats plutonium pit factory in Colorado. Workers had planned to break ground on parts of a pedestrian bridge and underpass on Sept. 9 and the U.S. District Court for […]

ARLINGTON, VA — After earlier trouble scrubbing liquid radioactive waste down to levels acceptable for solidification, the Hanford Site has produced more than 550,000 gallons of compliant waste, a federal official said here at an industry gathering. That is the beginning of a batch of roughly 800,000 gallons of compliant waste that the site wants […]

ARLINGTON, VA — Groups helping the Department of Energy define both consent and who may give it, when it comes to storage of spent nuclear fuel, will give the agency a progress report in December, an official said here Tuesday at an industry gathering. That should give DOE time to incorporate feedback from the 13 […]

The Department of Energy’s Waste Isolation Pilot Plant near Carlsbad, N.M., received 50 shipments of transuranic waste during August, according to DOE’s public website. Leading the shipments again was the Idaho National Laboratory, accounting for 36 of the month’s 50 shipments. Savannah River Site sent seven, Los Alamos sent five, and the Oak Ridge National […]

Rep. Joe Wilson (R-S.C.), who collapsed at an event in Washington last week, got a pacemaker and can return to his duties on Capitol Hill, he said Monday in a video message. “With the pacemaker implant, issues have been now resolved for my public service,” Wilson said in a recorded video statement posted Monday to YouTube. In […]

The Savannah River National Laboratory will this week formally begin its search for a new lab director, a Department of Energy official said Monday at a public meeting in South Carolina. DOE’s Office of Environmental Management will post a job announcement seeking a replacement for Majidi this week, Edwin Deshong, EM’s deputy manager the Savannah […]

WASHINGTON — After lurching back to the House floor Wednesday, the House speaker’s six-month continuing resolution again failed to rally enough support to pass the chamber. The bill went down 202-220, with 14 Republican holdouts, two Republicans voting present and three Democratic supporters. It was mostly clean for the Department of Energy, aside from an […]

WASHINGTON — House speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) announced Wednesday in Washington that he was pulling his stopgap six-month GOP spending bill that would extend federal agencies’ 2024 budgets from its scheduled House floor vote. The bill was mostly clean for the Department of Energy aside from an anomaly that grants the agency permission “to sustain specialized security […]

A federal advisory panel heard Tuesday the Department of Energy’s top manager at the Hanford Site in Washington state still expects to start making test glass in November from a simulant designed to mimic low-level radioactive tank waste. DOE site manager Brian Vance told the Hanford Advisory Board cold commissioning of the Direct-Feed Low-Activity Waste […]