Publications: Weapons Cleanup Monitor

The cleanup contractor at the Department of Energy’s Portsmouth Site in Ohio has brought down the 56-acre X-326 Process Building, the agency said Thursday. The demolition of X-326 down to the slab is a big milestone for the DOE Office of Environmental Management and was telegraphed last week by speakers for the agency and contractor […]

A National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine committee is neutral on whether the Department of Energy should lead any revived federal research effort on potential health impacts of low-dose radiation, the head of the panel, said Friday. Tribal communities and atomic workers “generally do not support” a DOE-run low-dose radiation program, Joe Gray, professor […]

SUMMERLIN, NEV. — With the promise of a contamination-free underground panel to work in, and looming infrastructure upgrades, the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant in New Mexico could triple the number of waste shipments it takes in by 2024, compared with 2021, a federal official said Thursday. Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) crews should finish filling […]

Incumbent small business Inalab Consulting of Fairfax, Va., has been awarded a new five-year contract worth up to $4 million from the Department of Energy to provide support services to an Environmental Management Consolidated Business Center facility in Denver. The indefinite delivery/indefinite quantity contract to Inalab, small-disadvantaged business under the Small Business Administration’s 8(a) Program, […]

SUMMERLIN, Nev. — The Department of Energy’s $7.6 billion Office of Environmental Management is cleaning up nuclear hazards from Washington state to New York state while dealing with a “silver tsunami,” Jay Mullis, a top executive at the remediation branch, said here Wednesday at the Radwaste Summit. Mullis, currently the acting associate principal deputy assistant […]

A House Armed Services Committee panel wants the Government Accountability Office to scrutinize quality assurance steps taken by the Depart of Energy’s $7.6-billion nuclear cleanup office, according to a House subcommittee draft  of the National Defense Authorization Act for fiscal 2023. The House Armed Services’ strategic forces , subcommittee chaired by Rep. Jim Cooper, (D-Tenn.) […]

U.S. Court of Federal Claims Judge Thompson Dietz appears unlikely to set an end date for Swift & Staley’s tenure as landlord of the Department of Energy’s Paducah Site in Kentucky, based on an online court filing last week. The June 2 decision, filed under seal but described in the online docket for the Court […]

Amentum, leading contractor for the Department of Energy and other government agencies, last week outlined management roles for a new National Security business group that the Maryland-based company is putting together under a corporate reshuffling by the new CEO.   “Today, I am announcing the leaders of each of these three businesses [within National Security], as […]

SUMMERLIN, NEV. — With the National Nuclear Security Administration hoping to see the Department of Energy’s Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico producing 30 plutonium pits by 2026, the organization is working closely with the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant on plans for the increased transuranic waste levels, speakers told Radwaste Summit Wednesday. With the […]

SUMMERLIN, NEV. — The Department of Energy’s Office of Environmental Management is faced with cleaning up nuclear hazards dating to the 1940s era Manhattan Project and its leadership structure should also be designed for the long run, a Government Accountability Office representative said Wednesday. Nathan Anderson, director of the energy and natural resources team for […]

SUMMERLIN, NEV. —Jacobs-led Four Rivers Nuclear Partnership will stay on beyond the five-year base period of its Deactivation and Remediation contract at the Paducah Site in Kentucky, the contractor’s chief operating officer said here Thursday. “I’m very happy to say that we got the option period to continue to work” for at least another three […]

SUMMERLIN, NEV. — The existing low-level hazardous waste landfill at the Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge Site in Tennessee is likely to hit capacity before its replacement is ready in 2029, a manager with prime contractor United Cleanup Oak Ridge said here Thursday. There are probably about five more years left on the existing Environmental […]

SUMMERLIN, NEV. — Started during the Manhattan Project days of the 1940s, nuclear technology continues to figure into plans for re-industrialization of the Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge Site in Tennessee, attendees at the Radwaste Summit heard here Wednesday. Laura Wilkerson, DOE’s acting manager for the Oak Ridge Office of Environmental Management and Kevin Ironside, […]

This budget season, the Hanford Site got a bigger budget before Congress even published any appropriations bills, with the Joe Biden administration amending its 2023 spending request to provide over $90 million more for the biggest ongoing U.S. nuclear-weapons cleanup. The new Hanford figure is the result of a recent budget amendment from White House’s […]

The annual Radwaste Summit kicks off Wednesday morning in Summerlin, Nev., with presentations from top managers at the Department of Energy’s Office of Environmental Management as well as the National Nuclear Security Administration. Jay Mullis II, acting associate principal deputy assistant secretary for regulatory and policy affairs for the $7.6-billion cleanup office, is one of […]

The Department of Energy’s cleanup contractor at the Portsmouth Site has nearly completed structural demolition of the X-326 Process Building, an agency official at the Ohio site said Thursday. The major demolition is 91% complete “as of today,” Jeremy Davis, acting site lead at the Piketon, Ohio uranium enrichment cleanup site since January, told the […]

After working out various kinks since late December, the Department of Energy has resumed its demonstration run of the Integrated Waste Treatment Unit at the Idaho National Laboratory, a spokesperson said Wednesday. Following a successful heat-up, waste simulant processing resumed on May 23, a DOE spokesperson said in an email. The Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety […]

Following the solicitation of new long-term contracts for its Portsmouth and Paducah sites, the Department of Energy plans to extend the incumbents at both sites for up to six months, according to procurement notes published recently.  In a procurement notice May 27, the DOE’s Office of Environmental Management announced its intent to extend decontamination and […]

Rep. Dan Newhouse (R-Wash), whose 4th Congressional district in Washington state includes the Department of Energy’s Hanford Site, is facing multiple fellow Republicans, one of them a former NASCAR driver and another backed by former President Donald Trump, in an August primary, according to Ballotpedia.org. Jerrod Sessler is the best-funded of the four Republican challengers […]

The Department of Energy and the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board this week wrapped up key details of a memorandum of understanding they inked in February pledging full cooperation on safety at federal nuclear-weapons installations. The 19-page supplement announced by the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board (DNFSB) in a Wednesday press release fleshes out specifics […]

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission says continued storage of potentially-combustible transuranic waste at Waste Control Specialists in Andrews County, Texas until Dec, 31, 2024, should not result in a significant environmental impact, but Texas wants to see the drums gone pronto.  In a May 10 letter to Assistant Secretary of Energy David Turk, Texas Commission on […]

Confirmed cases of COVID-19 among personnel at Office of Environmental Management sites rose to about 80 this week, up about 30 from last week and about 40 higher than a month ago, according to data provided Friday by a Department of Energy spokesperson. Like the rest of the Department of Energy, the Office of Environmental […]

The Court of Federal Claims should let the Department of Energy sunset Swift & Staley’s existing contract for landlord services at the Paducah Site in Kentucky by May 31, 2023, the federal government repeated this week. Swift & Staley is the incumbent on the contract and had won a follow-on award to continue providing these […]

The head of the Department of Energy’s Environmental Management field office at Los Alamos National Laboratory lavished praise on 1,000 firefighters who battled the Cerro Pelado wildfire in New Mexico, which as of Thurseday was 92% contained. The residents who lived through major past fires in the region went through “a traumatic experience,” said environmental […]

United Cleanup Oak Ridge this week started work under the Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge Reservation Cleanup Contract, potentially worth up to $8.3 billion over 10 years. The Amentum-led United Cleanup Oak Ridge (UROR) includes partners Jacobs Engineering and Honeywell International with teaming subcontractors RSI EnTech, Strata-G, Longnecker & Associates and Environmental Alternatives. The company […]

Andrew Kline joined the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board on Monday as an on-site inspector for the Department of Energy’s Savannah River Site near Aiken, S.C., the board announced Monday. Kline was previously a design engineer, operations process manager and project manager at the Savannah River Site, a former Cold War plutonium production complex with […]

The Russian Federation — which in February again invaded neighboring Ukraine — on May 21 expanded a list of sanctions against U.S. citizens. Most, but not all, of these people are federal lawmakers and some of those federal lawmakers have a history of involvement with, or a significant degree of power over, U.S. nuclear weapons […]