Publications: Weapons Cleanup Monitor

David O’Flynn is taking over as chief executive officer of Strategic Management Solutions Inc. as part of a broader leadership shuffle at the Albuquerque, N.M.-based Department of Energy subcontractor.  The changes were part of a letter to employees dated May 1. The letter was shared with the Exchange Monitor. As CEO, O’Flynn, most recently president […]

While happy to see Washington state and federal agencies cut a new deal on cleanup of the Department of Energy’s Hanford Site, Sen. Patty Murray (D-Wash.), who chairs the Senate Appropriations Committee, said Wednesday DOE’s fiscal 2024 budget request is “robbing Peter to pay Paul.” Hanford’s Office of River Protection and Richland Operations Office would […]

The Department of Energy this week started creating space in a double-shelled underground waste tank that was nearly full after taking on additional waste from a single-shell tank, an agency spokesperson said. The Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board (DNFSB), in a report published this week and dated April 7, said that DOE’s effort to drain […]

Washington state and the federal government reached a “conceptual agreement” for future management of about 56 million gallons of radioactive waste at the Department of Energy’s Hanford Site, the parties announced Tuesday. DOE, Washington state Department of Ecology and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) said in a press release negotiators have reached “conceptual agreement […]

The free flow of information through on-site, in-person Department of Energy industry days, coupled with one-on-one meetings, are invaluable to contractors seeking work in the weapons complex, industry representatives said Thursday. “The more interaction you can have … that gets away from boilerplate information,” greatly benefits to contractors, said Thomas Mooney, business development director for […]

Earnings fell at Huntington Ingalls Industries, Newport News, Va., in the first quarter, which the government defense and nuclear cleanup contractor attributed to the conclusion of a shipbuilding project for the Navy. Quarterly segment operating income for Mission Technologies, which includes Huntington Ingalls’ nuclear weapons and defense cleanup work, was $17 million up from $9 […]

An April 21 Weapons Complex Monitor article [WIPP less than half full, DOE says in opposing most restrictions sought by New Mexico] should have reported the Mayor of Carlsbad, N.M. Nuclear Task Force in its public comments said the New Mexico Environment Department engaged in “chest thumping” by certain restrictions included a draft permit for […]

Three long-tenured officials in the Washington State Ecology Department’s nuclear waste program planned to retire beginning in May, an agency spokesperson said. Starting May 1, Theresa Howell will be the new Tri-Party Agreement Section Manager and Beth Rochette will be the new Cleanup Section Manager at Ecology’s Nuclear Waste Program, a spokesperson for the agencies […]

Secretary of Energy Jennifer Granholm touted big liquid-waste-cleanup milestones in Idaho and Washington state in testimony Wednesday at the Senate Armed Services Committee. Though the fiscal year 2024 budget request for the Department of Energy’s Office of Environmental Management (EM) is about flat overall, tweaks to the 2024 proposal support a big “a ramp up […]

As expected, the Department of Energy formally extended the Huntington Ingalls-led legacy cleanup contractor at the Los Alamos National Laboratory by three years, according to an agency document published online this week. The Los Alamos legacy cleanup business held by Newport News Nuclear BWXT Los Alamos (N3B) has been extended through April 29, 2026, according […]

Secretary of Energy Jennifer Granholm, former two-term governor of Michigan, will headline a fundraising event for the South Carolina Democratic Party Friday evening in Columbia, S.C., roughly an hour’s drive from Aiken, where the Department of Energy’s Savannah River Site is located. “She is not on official travel” but personal travel, and the federal government […]

An indictment was filed last Thursday April 20 against a Hanford subcontractor accused of stealing $1.313 million in COVID relief money from the federal government. Filed in U.S. District Court in Eastern Washington, the indictment charged Wilson Stevenson III, 44, owner of BNL Technical Services, with 11 counts of fraud. The fraud charges carry maximum […]

In the first of a trio of reports after its testing last fall, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers St. Louis District said Tuesday the now-closed Jana Elementary School in Florissant, Mo., is safe, from a radiological standpoint. The 460-page report “provides additional data from our structural surveys and sampling, all of which have confirmed […]

Leidos-led Hanford Mission Integration Solutions, the landlord contractor at the Department of Energy’s Hanford Site in Washington state is in the market for a sub to replace old electric power lines and related equipment at the former plutonium production complex. In an online procurement notice this week, the site management contractor said it was seeking […]

The Department of Energy has produced its first 18 canisters of solidified granular waste with the Integrated Waste Treatment Unit (IWTU) at the Idaho National Laboratory, agency officials told a federal advisory panel Thursday. The $1.4-billion Integrated Waste Treatment Unit (IWTU) began radiological operations April 11, Mark Brown, deputy manager of DOE’s Idaho nuclear, told […]

The Department of Energy’s former prime contractor at the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant in New Mexico and an employee who filed suit in 2021, claiming he was wrongly bypassed for promotion because of his race, have agreed to dismiss the federal court case. As a result, a status conference set for April 12 in the […]

Moving long-stranded, potentially combustible radioactive waste to the Department of Energy’s Waste Isolation Pilot Plant in New Mexico from a commercial site in Texas remains a priority, an agency official told a National Academies of Sciences panel this week. “We are continuing to work on a path forward for the LANL [Los Alamos National Laboratory […]

The Department of Energy’s Waste Isolation Pilot Plant near Carlsbad, N.M., received 36 shipments of transuranic waste during March, according to the latest publicly-available figures. The DOE’s public website for the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) shows 25 shipments arriving between March 1 and March 31 from the Idaho National Laboratory; four from the Savannah […]

Cement-like grout might be a viable cleanup alternative for up to 60% of the liquid radioactive waste at the Hanford Site in Washington state, the acting head of the Department of Energy’s nuclear cleanup office told Senators this week.  The long-delayed Waste Treatment and Immobilization Plant being built by Bechtel to solidify radioactive waste into […]

The Department of Energy’s Enforcement Office is investigating a November 2022 accident at the Oak Ridge Site in Tennessee, which resulted in an amputated finger for a carpenter working on construction of the new Mercury Treatment Facility at the Y-12 National Security Complex. Contractor APTIM – North Wind Construction was informed of the planned investigation […]

The Department of Energy should within a week brief bidders about the agency’s reasons for awarding a $45-billion Hanford Site liquid waste cleanup contract to a BWX Technologies-led venture,  industry executives said this week. As a result, any protest by a losing bidder should likely be filed with the Government Accountability Office by May 1 […]

The Waste Isolation Pilot Plant is only 42% full and will be needed well beyond 2034 when a New Mexico permit renewal expires, the Department of Energy said in a regulatory filing this week.   DOE’s Carlsbad Field Office and its prime subcontractor for the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) also want a New Mexico Environment […]

During fiscal 2023, the Department of Energy expects to make 15 shipments of transuranic defense waste from down-blended plutonium stocks to the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant in New Mexico from the Savannah River Site in South Carolina, a contractor executive said last week. Look for the level of such transuranic waste shipments, from the Surplus […]

The $1.4-billion Integrated Waste Treatment Unit, which started up radiological operations last week at the Department of Energy’s Idaho National Laboratory, has turned out seven canisters of “treated, blended” waste so far, the agency said Wednesday. Currently, the Integrated Waste Treatment Unit (IWTU) is processing a blend of 90% simulant and 10% sodium-bearing radioactive waste […]

Perma-Fix Environmental Services said April 14 its team lost the Department of Energy’s Integrated Tank Disposition Contract, potentially worth $45 billion over 10 years at the Hanford Site in Washington state, which went to a joint venture led by BWX Technologies. “Despite the loss of the [Hanford tanks] contract bid, the company expects to continue […]

A longtime Department of Energy hand, Kristen Ellis, is taking over as the acting head of regulatory and policy affairs for the Office of Environmental Management effective this weekend. With the recently-announced departure of Randall Hendrickson, who is taking a job with private industry, Ellis will temporarily assume his responsibilities in addition to her current […]

The Department of Energy is seeking new members to join its federal advisory board for the Office of Environmental Management, according to a Monday Federal Register notice. The deadline for nominations to the Environmental Management Advisory Board is May 15. Customarily DOE draws the advisory board members for the $8-billion-plus Office of Environmental Management from […]