Publications: Weapons Cleanup Monitor

Louisiana-based Aptim Federal Services has landed a maximum $630 million worth of naval reactor cleanup work at sites in the Northeast, the Department of Energy’s Office of Environmental Management said Thursday. The new task order contract is being issued via the Nationwide Deactivation, Decommissioning, and Removal program and involves tearing down decaying facilities and related […]

House appropriators on Thursday rolled out a Department of Energy budget bill that proposes $8.32 billion for the agency’s Office of Environmental Management, down about $160 million from this year. Still, the topline figure for DOE’s nuclear cleanup branch is $100 million more than what President Joe Biden’s administration sought. The act, announced via press […]

The Department of Energy expects to miss a legally binding Aug. 1 milestone for starting cold commissioning, making glass from non-radioactive liquid, at the Waste Treatment and Immobilization Plant at the Hanford Site in Washington state. DOE’s site manager for the former plutonium production complex, Brian Vance, told the Washington Department of Ecology of the […]

Two final Department of Energy small business solicitations, one for technical support at the Oak Ridge Site in Tennessee and another for a landlord contract at the Paducah Site in Kentucky, could be released as early as July, the agency said Thursday. In a June 20 online notice,  DOE’s Office of Environmental Management said final […]

After spending five years as acting boss of the Department of Energy’s $8-billion Office of Environmental Management, William (Ike) White has passed the keys to another longtime fed, Candice Robertson. The previously-announced transition is officially reflected in a new organizational chart posted Friday by DOE’s nuclear cleanup office. The chart shows Robertson as senior adviser […]

A U.S. Court of Federal Claims judge held a closed-door hearing June 14 but had yet to issue a decision in a legal fight over a potential $45-billion Department of Energy contract for emptying liquid waste tanks at the Hanford Site in Washington state. In a Washington, D.C. courtroom, U.S. Court of Federal Claims Judge […]

ARLINGTON, VA — Candice Robertson, the new senior adviser in charge of the Department of Energy’s $8-billion Office of Environmental Management, said here Tuesday she first became acquainted with nuclear cleanup issues by growing up around Nye County, Nev., the home of DOE’s Nevada National Security Site. Robertson would subsequently win a “landslide” election by […]

The Department of Energy’s Waste Isolation Pilot Plant near Carlsbad, N.M., received 51 shipments of transuranic waste during May, according to the facility’s public website. Also this week, DOE formally announced construction completion of the Safety Significant Confinement Ventilation System after crews finished ductwork on the project.  The majority, 36, of the May shipments to […]

As signaled earlier in the week by the new head of the Department of Energy’s nuclear cleanup branch, a developer for a carbon-free electricity project at the Savannah River Site in South Carolina was selected. DOE announced in a Thursday press release that it chose Dallas-based Stellar Renewable Power to enter negotiations for a utility-scale […]

The Department of Energy’s Hanford Site in Washington state has awarded an $8.3 million contract to California-based Innovative Claim Solutions to run the workers compensation processing program at the nuclear cleanup site. DOE procurement managers at Hanford said in a Monday press release that Innovative Claims has won a potential five-year contract to be the […]

ARLINGTON, VA — Contractor and federal managers from across the Department of Energy’s nuclear weapons complex are using technology to help predict issues from workplace accidents to infrastructure failure, these people said at a meeting here Tuesday. Using technology to help school new hires on potential hazards in a nuclear workplace is important amid the […]

The U.S. Senate made some parliamentary moves that could pave the way for a Department of Energy manager from the Savannah River National Laboratory, Patricia Lee, to receive a voice vote on her nomination to the Defense Nuclear Facilities. A cloture motion was presented in the Senate Thursday on Lee’s nomination to become a member […]

Jack Anderson and Sandra Fairchild, two experienced hands around the Department of Energy’s weapons complex, have joined the advisory board for Las Vegas-based contractor Longenecker & Associates, the company said this week. Anderson logged more than 30 years with DOE and its national laboratories, including tours with Brookhaven National Laboratory in New York and the […]

Harry Boston, founder of Boston Government Services, is stepping down as CEO and being succeeded by chief operating officer Doug Freund, the Oak Ridge, Tenn.-based Department of Energy contractor said May 31. Boston, who started Boston Government Services (BGS) in 2007, sold his ownership stake to Louisiana-based Bernhard Capital Partners in 2022, according to the […]

The Department of Energy’s Office of Environmental Management is commencing market research for its cyber security needs in Cincinnati and Washington, D.C. In a May 30 notice, DOE issued a request for information for technology and cyber security needs at the cleanup office’s Washington, D.C., headquarters and the Environmental Management Consolidated Business Center in Ohio. […]

An executive at American Demolition and Nuclear Decommissioning, John (Rick) Dearholt has died, the head of a Knoxville-based nuclear trade organization confirmed by phone Tuesday morning. A memorial service for Dearholt, a longtime board member for the Energy, Technology & Environmental Business Association, is set for Friday June 21, said the executive director of the […]

The Department of Energy nuclear cleanup branch has issued its final solicitation for a five-year, potential $90-million Consolidated Technical Support Services contract for field offices and sub- offices. The final request for proposals (RFP) for the small business set-aside contract was published Thursday June 6 in the government’s online System for Award Management (SAM.gov), by […]

Environmental crews at the Department of Energy’s Idaho National Laboratory have discovered three broken ceramic filter elements are to blame for stalling operations at a plant built to solidify liquid sodium-bearing radioactive waste. In March, DOE and its Jacobs-led contractor Idaho Environmental Coalition, decided to suspend restart of the Integrated Waste Treatment Unit (IWTU). While […]

The Department of Energy and its Nevada National Security Administration Wednesday announced the selection of a solar developer to pursue a carbon-free electric project at the Nevada National Security Site. Under the Cleanup to Clean Energy initiative, DOE and the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) have selected Estuary Power LLC & NV Energy as the […]

Although 11 months have elapsed since the Department of Energy awarded a new $5.9-billion environmental cleanup contract at the Portsmouth Site in Ohio, DOE’s cleanup office still isn’t saying when the new contractor will take over from Fluor-BWXT Portsmouth. In an email reply Monday to Exchange Monitor, a DOE spokesperson declined to say when Southern […]

A baker’s dozen of contractors joined Department of Energy representatives May 29 to learn more about the draft solicitation for a new small business landlord contractor at the Paducah Site in Kentucky. The DOE Office of Environmental Management issued a draft request for proposals (RFP) last month for a small business to act as a […]

The Idaho National Laboratory has accounted for about 71% of shipments to the Department of Energy’s Waste Isolation Pilot Plant near Carlsbad, N.M., over three years, the manager of DOE’s Idaho Cleanup Project told an advisory board Wednesday. Under Idaho’s updated spent fuel settlement agreement with DOE and the U.S. Navy, the lab is supposed […]

California-based Deep Isolation has appointed Rod Baltzer as its new chief executive officer effective Jane 1, the company said May 31. Baltzer has been chief operating officer of Deep Isolation since 2018, the company said in a press release. Baltzer was previously president and CEO of Waste Control Specialists in Andrews County, Texas. Baltzer helped […]

The Department of Energy Wednesday announced the selection of two companies that will potentially develop hundreds of megawatts of electricity from solar power at the Idaho National Laboratory. NorthRenew Energy Partners and Spitfire propose to install a combined total of 400 megawatts of carbon-free electricity at Idaho National Laboratory under DOE’s Cleanup to Clean Energy […]

The Department of Energy should finish soil remediation this year at the former K-25 gaseous diffusion complex at the Oak Ridge Site in Tennessee, and turn to groundwater now that regulators have signed off on written decisions. The Department of Energy’s (DOE) Office of Environmental Management said last week in a press release the Tennessee […]

With the Nuclear Regulatory Commission moving toward updated regulations on disposal of  both low-level waste and Greater Than Class C waste, the governor of Texas is reluctant to allow the latter in his state. Texas Gov. Greg Abbott (R) in a May letter to the head of the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality said his […]

LOUISVILLE, KY. —A readiness assessment should occur by December for the new ventilation system at the Department of Energy’s disposal site in New Mexico for defense-related transuranic waste, a manager for the prime said here Tuesday. That review and a DOE safety assessment should clear the way the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) to start […]