Publications: Weapons Cleanup Monitor

The Department of Energy is starting to shop for developers of carbon-free electricity projects on land at the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant near Carlsbad, N.M., the agency announced Tuesday. The request for information notice was published online in the federal government’s System for Award Management (SAM.gov). The targeted projects should be capable of generating at […]

Congressional delay in funding legacy cleanup from nuclear weapons tests in the Marshall Islands — covered in a recent Government Accountability Office report —hurts relations between the United States and the strategically-located Pacific nation, the president of the Marshall Islands told a U.K. newspaper this week. U.S. lawmakers are dragging their feet in funding a […]

As signaled, the Department of Energy’s final solicitation for a new Technical Support Services contract at the Portsmouth/Paducah Project Office was published Tuesday. DOE’s Office of Environmental Management procurement office  said in mid-February that the final request for proposals (RFP) for technical support at the Portsmouth Site in Ohio, the Paducah Site in Kentucky and […]

The Defense Nuclear Safety Board staff says some seismic monitoring equipment at the Department of Energy’s Waste Isolation Pilot Plant is out of service and DOE’s prime contractor plans to replace the gear later this year.  The Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) seismic equipment  on the surface “has failed and is unable to perform its […]

Earnings rose at BWX Technologies, Lynchburg, Va., for 2023, which the maker of nuclear naval reactors and manager of nuclear weapons sites attributed Tuesday mostly to favorable adjustments on government contracts. For the year, net earnings were $246.3 million, or $2.68 per share, up about 7.7% from $238.6 million, or $2.60 a share in 2023. […]

Despite his relatively easy re-election in 2022, a couple of Republicans are set to challenge Rep. Mike Simpson (R-Idaho), a longtime member of the House Appropriations Committee and vocal supporter of the Department of Energy’s Idaho National Laboratory. A couple of Democrats also plan to run in their party’s 2nd congressional district primary, which like […]

After federal litigation, the Department of Energy has again chosen a BWX Technologies-led group as winner of the Integrated Tank Disposition contract, potentially worth $45 billion over a decade. In a Thursday press release, the DOE Office of Environmental Management announced the selection of Hanford Tank Waste Operations & Closure to oversee closure of underground […]

Atkins-led Mid-America Conversion Services has 30 days to contest $382,500 in Department of Energy fines stemming from allegations that the contractor failed to ensure a crane used in Depleted Uranium Hexafluoride Conversion at the Portsmouth Site in Ohio was maintained in a safe manner. The contractor “has not acknowledged these nuclear safety deficiencies, they have […]

A group of 21 plaintiffs who claim they were fired after seeking a religious exemption from COVID-19 vaccinations have filed a lawsuit in federal court against the Department of Energy’s cleanup contractor at the Oak Ridge Site in Tennessee. The former employees of Amentum-led United Cleanup Oak Ridge (UCOR) filed suit against the contractor Feb. […]

The Amentum-led environmental prime at the Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge Site in Tennessee this week told a federal appeals court it should have sovereign immunity, as a federal contractor, from a lawsuit by a radiation technician who was fired after refusing COVID- 19 vaccination. In its 36-page filing Tuesday, UCOR LLC told the U.S. […]

A private equity firm that acquired and merged several businesses working for the Department of Energy sold the rolled-up companies to Cadre Holdings, a Jacksonville, Fla., maker of law-enforcement equipment. Cadre bought Alpha Safety Group, created by Benford Capital Partners of Chicago in 2021 from the former Nuclear Filter Technologies, for a little more than […]

Fluor Chairman and CEO David Constable expects the Department of Energy’s National Nuclear Security Administration to decide on a new management contractor for the Pantex Plant in Texas in the second or third quarter of this calendar year. Constable made the comment during a Tuesday earnings call with Wall Street analysts. The Fluor chief is […]

Proposals are due by the end of February from subcontractors interested in overhauling the electric power infrastructure within Area 100 of the Department of Energy’s Hanford Site in Washington state, according to an updated procurement notice. Proposals in response to the solicitation launched by Leidos-led Hanford Mission Integration Solutions, which acts as city manager for […]

The partial evacuation Tuesday afternoon at the 222-S Laboratory at the Department of Energy’s Hanford Site in Washington state was done as a precaution after “about a thimble full” of a legacy chemical was discovered prior to disposal, an agency spokesperson said in Wednesday emails. The evacuation of 50 to 60 people, initially reported by […]

The cleanup contractor at the Department of Energy’s Idaho National Laboratory will need to treat about twice as much sodium-bearing waste annually as it did during 2023 in order to meet the agency’s target for the new Integrated Waste Treatment Unit, an advisory panel heard Thursday.  After treatment resumes, DOE wants the Integrated Waste Treatment […]

While the Department of Energy is satisfying a New Mexico push to move more transuranic waste from Los Alamos National Laboratory to the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant near Carlsbad, N.M., the Idaho National Laboratory remains the underground mine’s top shipper, a DOE panel heard Thursday. Although a 2019 update to a legal settlement between the […]

Rep. Dan Newhouse (R-Wash.), a member of the House Appropriations Committee who champions increased cleanup funding for the Department of Energy’s Hanford Site, will have a primary challenger again this cycle for his fourth district congressional seat.   So far, there are only two announced candidates for a nonpartisan primary scheduled for Aug. 6: Newhouse and […]

The Oak Ridge, Tenn., City Airport, to be built on remediated land transferred from the Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge Site, could still run a deficit in its fifth year of operation, according to a recent analysis from an aviation consulting firm in Kentucky. Financial performance in the fifth year, when the general aviation airport […]

During fiscal 2023 the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers released three reports from “extensive sampling and testing” around the closed Jana Elementary School near St. Louis and the Coldwater Creek Superfund area and “no known data exists that indicates any radiological concern,” at the school, according to a recent report. During the fiscal year ended […]

“Downwind” producers said this week their 2023 documentary about the aftermath of decades of nuclear testing at the Department of Energy’s Nevada National Security Site, can be seen on Peacock, the same platform where the Oscar-nominated blockbuster “Oppenheimer” is available for streaming this weekend. According to a press release, “Downwind” can help the public understand […]

In roughly a month the Washington state Department of Ecology will take comments on a Department of Energy proposal that could lead to offsite solidification and disposal of 2,000 gallons of less-radioactive tank waste from the Hanford Site in Washington state. The 45-day public comment period, on whether to grant a Research, Development, and Demonstration […]

The Department of Energy said Tuesday workers have installed startup heaters to warm up the second 300-ton melter for the Waste Treatment and Immobilization Plant at the Hanford Site in Washington state. The 18 temporary startup heaters are meant to raise the operating temperature of the second melter to 2,100 degrees Fahrenheit, DOE said in […]

Honeywell this month marked its 75th year of work at what is now the Kansas City National Security Campus in Kansas City, Mo. Run by the National Nuclear Security Administration today, the campus relocated in 2014 from the old Bannister Federal Complex, portions of which were scheduled for transfer to the Department of Energy’s Office […]

It is both “premature and improper” to grant employees fired from a Department of Energy contractor at the Oak Ridge Site a break from the normal statute of limitations before they even join a lawsuit, a federal judge ruled in Tennessee last week. “Plaintiffs’ motion for joinder is improper because they have no authority to […]

The Department of Energy’s Waste Isolation Pilot Plant in New Mexico received 50 shipments of transuranic waste during January, according to the facility’s public website. 39 of the 50 came from the Idaho National Laboratory while five were shipped from the Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico, four from the Savannah River Site in […]

The Oak Ridge, Tenn., City Council voted Monday to continue pursuit of a grant worth up to $2 million from the Department of Energy’s Office of Environmental Management, according to online documents. The decision to go ahead with a full grant application to DOE was approved without comment as part of the council’s “consent agenda,” […]

The Department of Energy said Wednesday evening it will promote Mark Brown to become the new cleanup project manager at the Idaho National Laboratory where he will replace Connie Flohr who plans to retire from the agency in April and take a job in industry. Brown is deputy manager of the Idaho Cleanup Project and […]