Publications: Weapons Cleanup Monitor

The Department of Energy’s Waste Isolation Pilot Plant in New Mexico was among numerous federal entities that suffered a data breach Thursday as part of an international cyber hack involving the “”MOVEit” software. “Upon learning that records from two DOE entities were compromised in the global cyberattack on the file-sharing software MOVEit Transfer, DOE took […]

The story “EnergySolutions eyes state approval for DUF6 disposal in 2024,” [Weapons Complex Monitor Vol. 34 No. 23] should have reported the Utah Department of Environmental Quality has not scheduled a permit modification hearing yet for EnergySolutions.

A House Appropriations subcommittee led by a lawmaker with a local interest in the Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge Site in Tennessee on Thursday voted to keep nuclear cleanup spending roughly $8.3 billion in fiscal 2024, sending the measure onto the full committee. The House Appropriations energy and water development subcommittee, chaired by Rep. Chuck […]

Christopher Leichtweis, the president and CEO of Idaho Falls-based North Wind Group, plans to leave the company by the end of the year, the company announced Tuesday. Leichtweis, who has led the Department of Energy contractor since 2013, will remain on through Dec. 31, “to ensure a smooth and orderly transition,” North Wind said in […]

California’s Department of Toxic Substances Control could start taking public comments as early as this fall on groundwater cleanup for the Department of Energy’s area of the sprawling Santa Susana Field Laboratory, according to a report released Thursday. The California Agency on Thursday issued its long-awaited Final Program Environmental Impact Report (PEIR) for the 2,850-acre […]

One major COVID-19-related lawsuit in the Department of Energy’s weapons complex ended this week when an appeals court ruled there was nothing much to resolve while another, on the other side of the country, is restarting.  A case involving DOE’s COVID-19 vaccination policy at the Hanford Site in Washington state is effectively over, a panel […]

The Department of Energy’s $45-billion liquid waste contract awarded in April for the Hanford Site in Washington state “was improper and is set aside,” a federal judge said in a public one-page document Tuesday. “Performance of the contract is enjoined,” U.S.  Court of Federal Claims Judge Marian Blank Horn said of the Integrated Tanks Contract […]

A House Appropriations panel wants to give the federal government’s independent safety watchdog for nuclear weapon sites almost as much money as the White House requested, bill published this week show. On Thursday, the House Appropriations energy and water development subcommittee chaired by Rep. Chuck Fleischmann (R-Tenn), passed a draft budget bill that would provide […]

An Idaho county this week urged a federal judge to reject the federal governent’s motion to dismiss a lawsuit against the Department of Energy over ongoing use of the Idaho National Laboratory as a repository for spent nuclear fuel. Butte County, which says DOE should shoulder more of the social and economic impact of decades […]

Editor’s note: The Exchange Monitor hosted its annual RadWaste 2.0 Summit in Summerlin, Nev., this week. The summit brings together managers responsible for the day-to-day operations of sites and businesses that treat, transport, store and dispose of radioactive waste. Two of the Monitor’s reporters attended the show and, in addition to news coverage nearby, returned […]

After being down for a while last week for upkeep on a major component, a $1.4-billion facility to treat sodium-bearing waste at the Department of Energy’s Idaho National Laboratory is back in operation, an agency spokesperson said by email this week. The Integrated Waste Treatment Unit (IWTU) “continues to process 100% rad waste,” the DOE […]

SUMMERLIN, NEV. — The manager of the Department of Energy’s Carlsbad, N.M., field office expects the major new ventilation system for the transuranic waste disposal site could start up sometime in 2024. “Preliminary commissioning” work on the Safety Significant Confinement Ventilation System should start this calendar year, said Mark Bollinger, who heads the Carlsbad Field […]

SUMMERLIN, NEV. — By June 30, the Department of Energy’s nuclear cleanup office expects to provide the Texas attorney general with a “detailed schedule” for retrieving boxes of transuranic waste stranded at a private disposal site in Andrews County for nearly a decade. In a May 10 letter to Phillip Ledbetter, managing enforcement lawyer with […]

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission has granted one-time approval for the Department of Energy to return a problem container of transuranic waste with expired paperwork to the Savannah River Site in South Carolina from the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant parking lot in New Mexico. The Nuclear Regulatory Commission authorized the return in a June 2 letter […]

Washington and Oregon officials agreed Tuesday that concrete-like grout could be used instead of glass to solidify a significant portion of Hanford’s radioactive liquid waste, as long as the grouted waste is taken off-site. Suzanne Dahl, tank waste manager for the Washington Ecology Department and Matt Hendrickson, her counterpart at the Oregon Department of Energy, […]

The Department of Energy Thursday told employees in areas with bad air quality resulting from Canadian wildfires they could check with their bosses about telecommuting or alternate schedule options. “As much of the country experiences dangerous air quality conditions from the ongoing Canadian wildfires, the department is committed to protecting the health and wellbeing of […]

SUMMERLIN, NEV. — Amentum-led United Cleanup Oak Ridge will break ground this summer on a new low-level radioactive waste landfill at the Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge Site, U.S. Rep. Chuck Fleischmann (R-Tenn.) told Exchange Monitor’s Radwaste Summit here Tuesday. “I’m proud to announce that on Aug. 2 in Oak Ridge we are going to […]

With extensive bid protest arguments now filed by the Department of Justice and the winning and losing teams for a $45 billion Department of Energy tank waste contract, it will be up to a U.S. Court of Federal Claims judge to decide the next move. As of Thursday night, Judge Marian Blank Horn had not […]

SUMMERLIN, NEV. — EnergySolutions’ radioactive waste disposal site in Clive, Utah, may be able to accept depleted uranium from the Department of Energy early next year, a company executive said here this week. EnergySolutions has worked with DOE Office of Environmental Management waste director Doug Tonkay “to come up with an MOU [memorandum of understanding] […]

The Jacobs-led cleanup contractor at the Department of Energy’s Idaho National Laboratory, along with a subcontractor, are being investigated for a January incident where a worker was exposed to “potentially dangerous levels of carbon monoxide,” according to DOE’s Office of Enterprise Assessments. The exposure happened Jan. 10 during testing of a gasoline-powered welder generator inside […]

The Department of Energy and its prime contractor for radioactive liquid waste at the Hanford Site in Washington state are in the market for technology to better identify and evaluate leaks from single-shell underground tanks, according to a notice Wednesday on a federal procurement website. DOE and Amentum-led Washington River Protection Solutions are seeking expressions […]

After about two years of bid protests, incumbent Centerra Group recently started its 60-day transition into a new 10-year contract to provide security to the Department of Energy’s Savannah River Site near Aiken, S.C., an agency spokesperson said Thursday. The Notice to Proceed was issued on May 15 and Centerra should start its new decade-long, […]

It is time for the Department of Energy to arrange an outside review of its potential alternatives for treating the most highly-radioactive waste at the Hanford Site in Washington state, the Government Accountability Office said in a report issued last week. “DOE has not committed to obtaining an independent review to validate the portions of […]

Mark Menezes, who was deputy secretary of energy under President Donald Trump, will become the United States Energy Association’s new president and chief executive officer, the organization said last week. Menezes will become the top boss at the U.S. Energy Association (USEA) June 15, replacing acting executive director Sheila Hollis, who has led the group […]

President Joe Biden (R) on Sunday signed legislation that would cut much non-defense federal spending over the next two fiscal years in exchange for extending U.S. borrowing authority. The Senate passed the bill on Thursday, averting a U.S. default on its debt payments. Biden negotiated the terms of the deal with the Speaker of the House […]

A member of the House Appropriations Committee, Rep. Chris Stewart (R-Utah) announced plans this week to leave Congress in order to attend to his ill wife. Stewart did not reveal details of the health issues facing his wife but could resign soon, The Salt Lake Tribune reported Tuesday. “I can say with pride that I […]

A federal judge this week did not throw out on technical grounds a $45-billion liquid waste cleanup contract the Department of Energy issued in April, but the BWX Technologies-led joint venture that won the business still must explain its legal eligibility for the award. The team, Hanford Tank Waste Operations and Closure, was given until […]