Publications: Weapons Cleanup Monitor

Fluor chair and CEO David Constable is happy to see a joint venture led by his company remain as prime at the Department of Energy’s Savannah River Site in South Carolina for at least four more years, and said Fluor teams will aggressively pursue two big National Nuclear Security Administration contracts. In an earnings call […]

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers expects to issue a solicitation around Dec. 5 for a contractor to build a viewing platform at the Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge Site in Tennessee. In addition, the Nashville District of the U.S. Army Corps plans to hold a site visit Dec. 13 for prospective bidders on the […]

The Government Accountability Office on Thursday denied a challenge by a Huntington Ingalls Industries-led group to Bechtel’s potential $3 billion management contract for the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant in New Mexico, which the Department of Energy awarded in July. Huntington-led National TRU Solutions of Newport News, Va. challenged the 10-year contract award to Bechtel’s Tularosa […]

Despite some concerns, a Department of Energy contractor at the Hanford Site in Washington state received good marks from an independent assessment of its pretreatment of radioactive wastes prior to vitrifying the waste into a more stable glass form.   The DOE’s Office of Enterprise Assessments conducted the review of Hanford’s Tank Side Cesium Removal (TSCR) […]

Earnings were mixed at Leidos, Reston, Va., in the third quarter, which the government defense and services company said Tuesday was affected by challenges to contract awards by business rivals. Net income for the quarter ended Sept. 30 was $164 million or $1.17 a share, down from $208 million, or $1.43 a share, in the […]

Earnings were mixed at Leidos, Reston, Va., in the third quarter, which the government defense and services company said Tuesday was affected by challenges to contract awards by business rivals. Net income for the quarter ended Sept. 30 was $164 million or $1.17 a share, down from $208 million, or $1.43 a share, in the […]

While most workers surveyed at the Department of Energy Portsmouth Site believe management is looking out for their safety most of the time, many lack confidence in radiation measurements and worry about chemical hazards at the former gaseous diffusion plant. Those are a couple of takeaways from a report done for the United Steelworkers Union […]

Government contractor Leidos started sampling both inside and outside Jana Elementary School in Florissant, Mo., on Monday for signs of radiological contamination, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers said this week. “We are in the process of collecting samples throughout the entire property to ensure the health and safety of the students and staff at […]

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit planned to hear oral arguments at 10 a.m. Eastern Time on Dec. 8 in Washington to consider whether Swift & Staley is  ineligible for a small business contract it won in 2020 for infrastructure support services at the Department of Energy’s Paducah Site in Kentucky. The […]

John Howard, a veteran Department of Energy hand, has been promoted to deputy chief of staff for the agency’s Office of Environmental Management. Howard, who has been acting in that capacity since July, officially became the deputy chief Sunday Oct. 23, according to an “EM Colleagues” email to staff on Friday from Office of Environmental […]

With retirements and resignations depleting key worker ranks, a procurement manager with the Department of Energy’s nuclear cleanup branch said this week the feds should tap parent companies of prime contractors. “Attrition and retention challenges have recently increased the need for the Office of Environmental Management (EM) prime contractors to access corporate support resources to […]

The depleted uranium hexafluoride conversion plants at the Department of Energy’s Portsmouth Site in Ohio and the Paducah Site in Kentucky, both back in service after extended outages, are benefiting from backup sources of hydrogen, the federal agency said Tuesday. The Paducah facility in western Kentucky was the first to restart conversion of depleted uranium […]

As expected, the Department of Energy extended Centerra Group’s paramilitary security contract at the Savannah River Site in South Carolina by two years. That is according to the most recent major contracts summary issued Monday, which says Centerra’s contract now runs through Oct. 7, 2024. A DOE spokesperson confirmed the contract extension in a Wednesday […]

A series of small but troubling safety and health issues triggered a “stop work order” by the legacy cleanup contractor at the Department of Energy’s Los Alamos National Laboratory, federal and company managers said during an online meeting Wednesday. Newport News Nuclear BWXT-Los Alamos (N3B) issued the stop work order Oct. 13, suspending most field […]

The head of the Department of Energy’s Environmental Management field office at the Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico said Wednesday evening the agency could soon pick up its first contract option with the legacy cleanup contractor. “The Department of Energy is getting ready to award our first contract option period under our contract […]

Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.), who chairs the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, pledged last week to seek funds for possible replacement of a middle school closed three years ago after public disclosure of radioactive contamination on the campus near the Department of Energy’s Portsmouth Site in Ohio. Manchin, who also sits on the Senate […]

The Department of Energy’s Waste Isolation Pilot Plant near Carlsbad, N.M., last week emplaced its last shipment of defense-related transuranic waste into Panel 7, the underground work area left contaminated by a radiation leak in February 2014. “Last week, last Thursday to be specific, the last waste was placed in panel 7,” said Sean Dunagan, […]

Two research contractors at the Department of Energy’s Savannah River Site in South Carolina pleaded guilty Wednesday in federal district court after being accused of filing false bills with the government.   Greenway Energy and Savannah River Consulting both agreed to accept a plea agreement in proceedings before U.S. District Judge Terry Wooten in Columbia, S.C. […]

The Department of Energy is again sending transuranic waste to the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant near Carlsbad, N.M., from the Idaho National Laboratory after New Mexico regulators lifted a hold on the shipments.   Idaho resumed sending waste canisters to WIPP on Oct. 6, a New Mexico Environment Department (NMED) spokesperson said in a Thursday email […]

The Department of Energy’s nuclear cleanup procurement office last week laid out what type of foreign ownership and control disclosures bidders should be ready to provide when pursuing contracts in the weapons complex. The DOE’s Cincinnati-based Environmental Management Consolidated Business Center in a seven-page document detailed the Foreign Ownership Control or Influence review that contractors […]

The Department of Energy could be prepared to start transferring control of the Savannah River Site to its semiautonomous nuclear-weapons agency in bits and pieces starting around 2023, a spokesperson at Washington headquarters said Monday. DOE’s Office of Environmental Management (EM), which owns the Aiken, S.C., site now, and the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA), […]

The U.S. Department of Justice is opening a U.S. Attorney’s Office branch in Richland, Wash., near the Department of Energy’s Hanford Site, Vanessa Waldref, U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Washington said Oct. 14 in a press release. Federal prosecutors have handled an average of about 70 cases per year from the Tri-Cities area, […]

The Department of Energy expects it will be early 2023 before an Amentum-led contractor starts pretreating its third batch of low-level radioactive tank waste at the Hanford Site in Washington state. An ongoing planned outage could take a few more months, a DOE spokesperson said by email Wednesday. That is longer than the agency’s characterization […]

After an alarm on a control panel, the Department of Energy has temporarily stopped heating up the first melter for the Waste Treatment and Immobilization Plant at the Hanford Site in Washington state, an advisory panel was told Thursday. The news was shared with a virtual meeting of the Hanford Advisory Board by Mat Irwin, […]

The Department of Energy intends in November to start up the long-delayed Integrated Waste Treatment Unit at the Idaho National Laboratory, the federal agency told state officials. That was the target DOE’s Office of Environmental Management gave officials with the Idaho Department of Environmental Quality on a conference call last week, Kim Custer, a senior […]

Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) Wednesday urged President Joe Biden to declare a federal emergency after the Hazelwood, Mo., school board voted to stop using a local elementary school near which radioactive contamination has been found from a Formerly Utilized Sites Remedial Action Program cleanup site. The Hazelwood Board of Education acted Tuesday night to close […]

The Washington Pollution Control Hearings Board was set Friday to hold a hearing about an environmental group’s appeal of an agreement between the state and the Department of Energy about emptying two leaky radioactive waste tanks at the Hanford Site. Seattle-based Heart of America Northwest filed the appeal on Sept. 26 against the Washington Department […]

In a matter of weeks, the Government Accountability Office could rule on two protests against the Department of Energy’s decision to let a Bechtel National-led group run the agency’s only underground repository for defense-related transuranic waste. There are two appeals pending against the potentially 10-year, $3-billion management and operations contract for the Waste Isolation Pilot […]