Publications: Weapons Cleanup Monitor

Jim Breuer, currently president of Fluor’s Energy Solutions group, becomes Fluor’s chief operating officer effective Monday, Aug. 5, CEO David Constable said during an earnings call Friday.  As chief operating officer, Breuer will report directly to Constable, and will oversee the company’s three business lines, including Mission Solutions, where the international engineering and construction company […]

The Department of Energy and Stellar Renewable Power started lease negotiations last month for a solar project at the Savannah River Site in South Carolina, a federal advisory board heard Monday. The agency hopes to wrap up negotiations by mid-August, Edwin Deshong, deputy manager for DOE’s Office of Environmental Management at Savannah River, told the […]

The Leidos-led landlord contractor at the Department of Energy’s Hanford Site in Washington state is shopping for a subcontractor to provide office and warehouse space at the former plutonium production site. Hanford Mission Integration Solutions (HMIS) on Tuesday put out a request for proposals on an Information Management Field Support Services Replacement Facility at the […]

The Department of Energy’s $8-billion nuclear cleanup office needs better oversight of contractors doing big, expensive infrastructure projects, according to a federal audit released Wednesday. The Government Accountability Office (GAO) wants DOE’s Office of Environmental Management (EM) to better monitor performance “and hold contractors accountable,” according to the new report. “GAO reviewed five selected EM […]

An amended Department of Energy competition for a $45-billion liquid waste contract permitted bidders with gaps in their federal procurement registration, the company twice awarded the work argued last week in court.  That fact alone should sink the losing bidder’s claim that the DOE award should be thrown out because of a ruling in a […]

Earnings rose at Fluor, Irving, Texas, in the second quarter, which the global engineering company with a big footprint in the Department of Energy, attributed to long-term government and commercial contracts, according to a Friday press release. Net earnings for the second quarter ended June 30 were $169 million, or $0.97 a share, up from […]

On Tuesday, more than two-dozen advocacy groups with an anti-nuclear bent called on the Senate Appropriations Committee to fund a federal nuclear watchdog agency at the $47.2 million level sought by President Joe Biden for fiscal 2025 and the panel came close.  Senate appropriators took up their version of the legislation Thursday and  called for […]

The Department of Energy and its Waste Isolation Pilot Plant prime expect to file a draft plan with New Mexico regulators in November seeking to define “legacy” transuranic waste, managers said during a public meeting Tuesday. The draft will be filed Nov. 3 with the New Mexico Environment Department as required by the new 10-year […]

Two vice presidents at a Leidos-led joint venture in charge of overseeing workaday operations at the Department of Energy’s Hanford Site are retiring. In a post last week on LinkedIn, Hanford Mission Integration Solutions (HMIS) said two executives, each with more than 35 years of experience at the former plutonium production site, are retiring.  Darci […]

An amended record of decision published Tuesday clears an environmental hurdle for sending contaminated soil to the Nevada National Security Site from the Department of Energy’s section of the Santa Susana Field Laboratory in California. The Nevada Nuclear Security Site (NNSS) expects to receive between 3-million and 4-million cubic feet of soil potentially contaminated with […]

The Washington state Department of Ecology plans to start taking public comment later this summer on a research and development permit application for a technology to reduce hazardous tank waste vapors at the Department of Energy’s Hanford Site. On Friday July 26 the state agency emailed out a 30-day notice of public comment on a […]

An Amentum-led Department of Energy contractor at the Hanford Site in Washington state is starting to remove radioactive waste from single-shell Tank A-101 and transfer it to a newer double-shell tank, DOE said in a Tuesday press release. Removal began of the 325,000 gallons of radioactive and chemical waste in Hanford’s A Tank Farm a […]

Hecate Energy, Chicago, was selected as the developer of up to 1,000 megawatts of solar power at the Department of Energy’s Hanford Site in Washington state, DOE said Thursday. Hecate will now enter into realty negotiations with DOE for the right to develop the solar power project within 8,000 acres of buffer area at the […]

Roughly 25 miles up the road from the Savannah River Site, about equidistant between Aiken in South Carolina and Augusta in Georgia, sits Aiken Technical College. Founded in 1972, the public community college has about 1,800 students, many of whom focus on the coursework necessary for a career in health care. This year, school leaders […]

A joint venture that lost twice in a $45B Department of Energy competition at the Hanford Site in Washington state has presented a federal court with a legal ruling it hopes will disqualify the winner. AtkinsRéalis-led Hanford Tank Disposition Alliance (HTDA) on July 18 told Judge Marian Blank Horn a decision in a similar case […]

After hours of debate on more than 60 amendments this week, the House of Representatives canceled a planned vote on several 2025 appropriations bills, including the one that funds the Department of Energy. Media reported Wednesday that a fractious, razor-thin Republican majority could not wrangle enough votes in their own party to pass the bills […]

The Department of Energy’s Office of Environmental Management lacks consistent policy on allowing staff to work remotely, and efforts to use internship-type programs to recruit younger workers have yet to pay off, according to last week’s congressional watchdog report. Those are a couple of sidenotes inside the Government Accountability Office (GAO) report on staffing shortages […]

After Virginia-based Amentum merges with the Jacobs government contracting and cyber businesses this year, the company plans to trade on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol “AMTM,”, according to a financial filing last week. Dallas-based Jacobs will still trade under the symbol “J,” according to a joint Securities and Exchange Commission filing by […]

The Department of Energy’s Carlsbad Field Office in New Mexico intends to increase the value of its existing small business Technical Assistance Contract with Navarro Research and Engineering by up to $65 million, the agency said in an online notice Thursday. The DOE Office of Environmental Management announced the planned sole source modification July 25 […]

The Department of Energy has implemented all 34 corrective actions required by a June 2021 settlement agreement over mislabeled waste sent to the Nevada National Security Site from the Y-12 National Security Site in Tennessee, officials said last week. Completion of enhanced waste verification at the Nevada Site, before and after waste arrives, was noted […]

Top Department of Energy executives for the weapons complex Monday evening got an earful from a large and vocal crowd of New Mexico residents on everything from plutonium pit production to proposed new electric power lines near the Los Alamos National Laboratory. Also at one point during the 90-minute meeting, National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) […]

A federal safety watchdog will hear testimony from government agencies next month on best practices for taking care of aging nuclear infrastructure, some of which is a half-century old. The Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board (DNFSB) has set a public hearing Aug.14 at its Washington, headquarters to hear testimony from representatives of the Government Accountability […]

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is accepting comments between now and Sept. 16 on the Department of Energy’s plans for two new disposal panels at the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant near Carlsbad, N.M. The new panels will help the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) replace disposal capacity lost due to the February 2014 underground radiological […]

The Department of Energy’s Carlsbad Field Office in New Mexico intends to increase the value of its existing small business Technical Assistance Contract with Navarro Research and Engineering by up to $65 million, the agency said in an online notice Thursday. The DOE Office of Environmental Management announced the planned sole source modification July 25 […]

A federal judge in Washington won’t expedite a collective bargain action brought by the Hanford Guards Union until Department of Energy contractor Hanford Mission Integration Solutions has a chance to answer the union’s complaint. Chief U.S. District Judge Stanley Bastian on July 11 ruled against the Hanford Guards Union Local 21 request to expedite the […]

Two members of the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board on Monday praised Senate confirmation of a third, putting the board back at a quorum but two members short of a full roster. “We look forward to her arrival,” Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board (DNFSB) Chair Joyce Connery and vice chair Thomas Summers said in a […]

–The Department of Energy’s Waste Isolation Pilot Plant near Carlsbad, N.M., received 64 shipments of transuranic waste during June, according to DOE’s public website. The Idaho National Laboratory was as usual the top generator, sending 50 shipments to the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP). Meanwhile eight shipments of defense-related transuranic waste came to WIPP from […]

Robert Wilkinson started his new job this week as president and project manager of the Amentum-led solid-waste prime at the Department of Energy’s Hanford Site in Washington state. Wilkinson, previously president of Leidos-led Hanford Mission Integration Solutions, is succeeding John Eschenberg atop Amentum-led Central Plateau Cleanup Company, which also includes Fluor and Atkins. Wilkinson’s first […]