Publications: Weapons Cleanup Monitor

“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 […]

The Department of Energy’s Jacobs-led cleanup contractor at the Idaho National Laboratory failed to take proper precautions before a January 2023 worker exposure to carbon monoxide, DOE’s internal enforcement wing wrote in a recent letter. An industrial hygienist suffered physical symptoms linked to “acute” carbon monoxide (CO) exposure immediately following detection of dangerous levels of […]

The Department of Energy expects the number of transuranic waste shipments to the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant will increase by more than 50 in fiscal year 2024, and DOE is also in the early stages of a carbon-free energy procurement for the site, New Mexico lawmakers heard last week. Total shipments to the underground salt […]

Former and current Department of Energy contractors at the Portsmouth Site in Ohio have filed an unopposed motion in federal court seeking until Feb. 26 to answer a complaint by a local resident who blames his leukemia on radioactive contamination from the property. The motion, seeking three weeks beyond the original Feb. 5 deadline, was […]

Maria Chappelle-Nadal, the county prosecutor for St. Louis, is running for the Democratic nomination in this year’s race for a House seat representing Missouri’s 1st district and currently held by two-term Rep. Cori. Bush (D). The St. Louis-area district includes the Jana Elementary school that closed in Oct. 2022 after discovery of radioactive contamination from […]

Missouri’s governor requested some $220,000 from the state legislature to oversee the federal government’s cleanup of Manhattan Project waste in the state and help local governments look for more contamination. The money, $221,131 in total, would go to the Radioactive Waste Investigation fund at the Division of Environmental Quality within the state’s Department of Natural […]

Those interested in bidding on a potentially $3 billion contract for Phase 1B remediation work at the West Valley Demonstration Project in New York state will get an extra week, until March 4, to submit their proposals, the Department of Energy said last week.  In the package of questions and answers released Feb. 1, DOE’s Office of […]

The Department of Energy contractor in charge of tank waste at the Hanford Site in Washington state is shopping for potential subcontractors capable of refurbishing up to 10 miles of underground pipeline for double-shelled waste-storage tanks. Amentum-led Washington River Protection Solutions published its notice seeking expressions of interest in the project on Jan. 30. Replies are due […]

The Department of Energy is looking at two incidents of skin contamination at Los Alamos National Laboratory’s Plutonium Facility in New Mexico during January, according to a recent report from a federal safety agency. In one the likely source was a contaminated phone in a laboratory room, according to the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board […]

Earnings rose at Jacobs, Dallas, in the first quarter of fiscal 2024, which the global engineering, procurement and construction company attributed partly to international infrastructure projects. Tuesday’s press release marked the first earnings results from Jacobs since the company’s Nov. 20 announcement of a plan to merge its government contracting and cyber business lines with Virginia-based Amentum. […]

Department of Energy contractors at the Hanford Site in Washington state are making headway on remaining problems before crews can start turning some less-radioactive tank waste at the property into a solid glass form, the Hanford Advisory Board heard Tuesday. After making a batch of non-radioactive test glass in December, DOE wants to start vitrification of direct-feed-low-activity-waste […]

Butte County, Idaho has not shown the Department of Energy’s storage of spent nuclear fuel at Idaho National Laboratory violates the law, but the county may amend its complaint to preserve its lawsuit, a federal district judge ruled last week. U.S. District Court Judge David Nye on Thursday granted DOE’s motion to dismiss the lawsuit […]

Although the Department of Energy’s nuclear cleanup wing awarded two multibillion-dollar environmental deals in 2023, work has not started on any of the four contracts it prioritized for the past calendar year. On paper at least, DOE’s Office of Environmental Management awarded the $45-billion Hanford Site Integrated Tanks contract in Washington state along with the […]

The Department of Energy’s nuclear cleanup branch thinks it could complete major infrastructure projects in New Mexico and South Carolina during calendar year 2024, the agency said Tuesday. The DOE Office of Environmental Management’s top priorities for 2024 include final testing of a new underground ventilation system at the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) in New Mexico; […]

As the annual Academy Awards prepares to honor a movie on the life of physicist Robert Oppenheimer, Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) hopes people who run the Hollywood movie business might also focus some attention on radiation victims from the Manhattan Project’s nuclear testing program. “The Oppenheimer film tells a compelling story of these test programs,” […]

A longtime federal manager, Jimmy “Mac” McMillian, retires Feb. 29 an advisory board for the Department of Energy’s Savannah River Site in South Carolina heard Monday. McMillian, a member of senior executive service, has been assistant manager for infrastructure and environmental stewardship for Savannah River’s DOE Environmental Management office since February 2019. The “sad news” […]

Rep. Cori Bush (D-Mo.) on Wednesday confirmed that the Department of Justice is investigating her congressional campaign for allegedly spending campaign funds on a personal security detail. Bush, a progressive lawmaker who has advocated for cleaning up Manhattan Project-era radioactive contamination near her St. Louis-area district and compensating residents affected by it, confirmed the investigation in a […]

While Triad National Security’s program appears adequate to detect potentially combustible chemicals in transuranic waste from National Nuclear Security Administration work at the Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico, a safety board wants to see improvement. That is the crux of a Jan. 19 Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board (DNFSB) letter to Secretary of Energy  Jennifer […]

Departing officers of an advisory board for the Department of Energy’s Savannah River Site in South Carolina said this week they are feeling less anxious about the National Nuclear Security Administration taking over the 310-square-mile property on Oct. 1. That’s when the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) , a semi-autonomous branch of DOE, is scheduled […]

Contractors for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers’ St. Louis office have made headway in removing contaminated soil from the banks of Coldwater Creek and cleaning up contamination near an elementary school, a Corps spokesperson said by email Tuesday. Contractors for the Formerly Utilized Sites Remedial Action Program (FUSRAP) program should finish excavating contaminated soil […]