Publications: Weapons Cleanup Monitor

A U.S. District Court magistrate judge in Ohio issued an order last week coordinating pre-trial discovery in four federal lawsuits against present and former contractors at the Department of Energy’s Portsmouth Site. Magistrate Judge Elizabeth Preston Deavers issued the stipulation and order Friday in U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Ohio. “Overlapping discovery” […]

The Department of Energy Tuesday rolled out its second market information request for carbon-free electricity at the Savannah River Site in South Carolina, with an eye toward bigger projects that might generate power for locals near the nuclear complex. A top DOE nuclear cleanup manager at Savannah River said recently the agency is evaluating solar […]

The Department of Energy in late May will hold an information session and site tour for potential bidders on a new Infrastructure Support Service contract at the Paducah Site in Kentucky. DOE’s Office of Environmental Management recently announced it would extend the incumbent landlord contractor Swift & Staley for up to 16 months, potentially through […]

Jessica Kunkle. a Los Alamos, N.M., native and longtime National Nuclear Security Administration executive, will lead the Department of Energy Office of Environmental Management field operation at the Los Alamos National Laboratory starting in June. Kunkle has been with the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) about 15 years and is a deputy administrator with NNSA’s […]

The Department of Energy’s Hanford Advisory Board for the nuclear cleanup site in Washington state, wants the feds to start looking for a second underground disposal site for defense-related transuranic waste —just in case. DOE’s Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP), near Carlsbad, N.M., is permitted by the New Mexico Environment Department to continue disposing of […]

Earnings rose at AtkinsRéalis, Montreal, Canada, in the first quarter, which the company attributed in part Wednesday to surging international interest in new nuclear power. Net earnings for the first quarter ended were C$45.5 million (US$33.45 million) or C$0.26 (US$0.19) a share, up from C$28.4 million (US$20.88 million) or or C$0.16 a share (U.S. 0.12 […]

A trio of small businesses based in Oak Ridge Tenn., have teamed up to form Nuclear Services Partners LLC, to pursue nuclear contracts in Tennessee and nationally, the companies announced last week. Nuclear Services Partners is a joint venture of Navarro Research and Engineering, MS Technology and Strata-G. Together the three small businesses have a […]

With a June 7 deadline looming, supporters of reauthorizing the Radiation Exposure Compensation Act gathered in the U.S. Capitol grounds Thursday to urge House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) to hold a vote on the bill. As of the Thursday May 16 rally and press conference, the House of Representatives had nine working days left to […]

The Department of Energy’s Waste Isolation Pilot Plant near Carlsbad, N.M., received 54 shipments of defense-related transuranic waste during April, according to the disposal facility’s public website. April marked the first full month of shipments since the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) ended an extended maintenance outage that kept the facility offline for February. Shipments […]

The Department of Justice and the landlord contractor for the Department of Energy’s Hanford Site in Washington state both anticipate a fraud trial lasting several weeks could be held in federal district court during fall of 2025. That is one of the key takeaways from a joint filing Thursday by Justice, on behalf of a […]

The legacy cleanup contractor for the Department of Energy’s Los Alamos National Laboratory said this week it has signed two subcontracts, worth a combined $36.5 million, with small businesses for building maintenance and health services. Newport News Nuclear BWTX Los Alamos (N3B) said in a Wednesday press release it has signed a roughly $30-million contract […]

Earnings fell at Jacobs, Dallas, in the second quarter of its fiscal 2024, which the international engineering and technical services company attributed to a $95-million share repurchase program. Importantly, Jacobs also said in its Tuesday earnings release that it has major regulatory approvals in hand for the announced merger of its government contracting and cyber […]

Despite protests by a rival, a team led by BWX Technologies has now twice won a $45 billion Department of Energy liquid waste contract at the Hanford Site in Washington state, which shows it is a “superior” proposal, CEO Rex Geveden said Monday during an earnings call. “After multiple protests… the DOE decided to re-award […]

No decision has been made on whether grouting of some low-level radioactive tank waste at the Department of Energy’s Hanford Site would occur inside the 580-square-mile federal complex, or elsewhere, government attorneys told an advisory board Tuesday. A pathway to grout for some Hanford waste sparked questions from the Hanford Advisory Board, which was briefed […]

More than two-dozen U.S. lawmakers urged House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) last week to set a floor vote on the Radiation Exposure Compensation Reauthorization Act, which easily passed the Senate in March. Although the Senate took a “laudable step by passing an amendment in the National Defense Authorization Act for FY2024 to strengthen RECA [Radiation […]

Rep. Dan Newhouse (R-Wash)., who represents the area around the Department of Energy’s Hanford Site, in the House of Representatives, is getting a new challenger, a former GOP Senate candidate, Tiffany Smiley. Smiley, who ran an unsuccessful race against incumbent Sen. Patty Murray (D-Wash.) in November 2022, announced Monday she will challenge fellow Republican Newhouse […]

The Department of Energy kicks off its second Cleanup to Clean Energy information day for the Savannah River Site in South Carolina at noon May 23 at 12 p.m. Eastern Time at Aiken Technical College, according to a notice issued by the agency this week. The session is scheduled to run through about 4 p.m. […]

The Department of Energy’s decision not to impose its new high-level radioactive waste interpretation at the Hanford Site in Washington state avoided a lengthy squabble and made it easier for agencies to cut a new deal for cleaning up tank waste, an advisory panel heard Tuesday. By not using a DOE 2020 reinterpretation that allows […]

Earnings rose at Fluor, Irving, Texas, in the first quarter, which the weapons complex contractor attributed to new awards in its Urban Solutions segment. Net earnings for the first quarter ended March 31 were $59 million, or $0.34 a share, up from a loss of $107 million or 0.82 a share, in the year-ago quarter, […]

Washington State politicians do not want the Department of Energy treating high-level waste at the Hanford Site as low-level waste, and a long awaited update to cleanup rules at the site reflects that. In December 2021, DOE affirmed a policy proposed in 2019 during the Donald Trump administration that the agency could reinterpret an existing […]

A Southern Co. subsidiary Georgia Power has started commercial operations of the new Vogtle Unit 4 nuclear reactor in Waynesboro, Ga., the company announced in a Monday press release. The new reactor can generate enough electricity to power about 500,000 homes and businesses, Southern said in the release. Bechtel, which is also a Department of […]

A long-awaited settlement agreement rolled out Monday by state and federal agencies says the Department of Energy’s Hanford Site in Washington state still intends to start turning low-level radioactive tank waste into glass starting next year, with high-level waste vitrification to follow in the 2030s. DOE, the Washington state Department of Ecology (Ecology), and U.S. […]

A settlement agreement for cleaning up underground tank waste at the Department of Energy’s Hanford Site in Washington state, still subject to public comment and submission to a federal court, lays out a path for using grout to stabilize some less-radioactive liquid waste. The so-called “holistic” agreement, in the works since 2019 and announced Monday […]

The Department of Energy plans an August “transition readiness review” of plans to transfer management of the Savannah River Site in South Carolina to its nuclear weapons branch from its Office of Environmental Management. The readiness review will run from Aug. 5 through Aug. 30, before the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) takes the reins […]

In response to a Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board review, the Department of Energy’s nuclear branches are taking a “deep dive” into aging infrastructure, DOE said last week. In an April 24 letter to the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board (DNFSB), the head of DOE’s Office of Nuclear Safety said progress is being made on […]

Net earnings fell drastically for Parsons, Chantilly, Va., after a big tax hit in its first quarter, but the federal contractor on Wednesday reported record revenue and healthy core operations. Parsons posted a net loss of about $107 million, or $1.01 a share, for the quarter ended March 31, down from earnings of roughly $25.5 […]

Earnings rose at Leidos, Reston, Va., in the first quarter, which the national security and technology company attributed to strong business demand across all its sectors. Net earnings for the first quarter ended March 29 were $283 million, or $2.07 a share, up from $164 million or $1.17 a share, in the year-ago quarter, according […]

The Department of Energy nuclear cleanup branch has selected 14 small businesses to share in a set-aside contract worth up to $2 billion for Nationwide Deactivation, Decommissioning, and Removal work across the weapons complex, the agency said Thursday. The DOE Office of Environmental Management said in the same press release that the contract’s first task […]