Publications: Weapons Cleanup Monitor

New Mexico’s governor blasted the Secretary of Energy this month for failing to provide “meaningful and transparent public engagement” about the agency’s plans to ship immobilized, surplus plutonium to the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant from South Carolina. “Because the issues raised in the petition can only be addressed by DOE, I am passing this petition […]

The Department of Energy’s Office of Environmental Management officially said in an April 15 press release it is expanding its Minority Serving Institutions Partnership Program thanks to increased funding for the program in the agency’s fiscal 2022 budget, which started Oct. 1. In March, DOE’s Savannah River National Laboratory in South Carolina said Minority Serving […]

A federal district judge in southern Ohio is allowing most claims brought by a group of local residents to proceed against current and former contractors at the Department of Energy’s Portsmouth Site. With the exception of not allowing minor children to be plaintiffs in a lawsuit chiefly concerning property, U.S. District Judge Algenon Marbley rejected […]

The Jacobs-led cleanup contractor the Department of Energy’s Idaho National Laboratory has lifted a self-imposed “stand down” order at the Advanced Mixed Waste Treatment Project, an agency spokesperson said Tuesday. The contractor, Idaho Environmental Coalition, lifted the order March 31, the DOE spokesperson said in a Tuesday email. The spokesperson was responding to a Weapons […]

Until the recent past, the Department of Energy’s Waste Isolation Pilot Plant in New Mexico let its fire trucks fall into disrepair and did a poor job of training firefighters, the agency’s Office of Inspector General said in a just-released report.   While it found no evidence to substantiate the most serious allegations raised about the […]

AVANTech, a Columbia, S.C.,-based radioactive and industrial water treatment solutions provider for the Department of Energy and commercial nuclear markets, said this week it recently completed expansion of its business development staff, by adding or promoting five managers. Tammy Monday joined AVANTech in January as vice president of business development for government services, working out […]

A container of transuranic waste from the Department of Energy’s Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico was put underground at the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant in March without a required flammable gas analysis, a federal safety group said. Analysis of the omitted screening for the Los Alamos container is nearly done, said a DOE […]

The Supreme Court should uphold the constitutionality of a 2018 Washington state law that makes it easier for workers at the Department of Energy’s Hanford site to qualify for compensation for illnesses, the state attorney general’s office argued Monday before the high court. The U.S. Supreme Court, an independent branch of the federal government, agreed […]

William (Ike) White, the top manager of the Department of Energy’s nuclear cleanup branch, expects excess contaminated facilities in the weapons complex to draw more attention in the next decade or so, he told a National Academies of Sciences board Wednesday. Within that span, it will be time for the DOE’s Office of Environmental Management […]

The Department of Energy has withdrawn the federal procurement notice from Monday announcing a planned multi-year extension for the prime at the Savannah River Site in South Carolina, saying it was “done in error.” The DOE Office of Environmental Management (EM) and the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) “are jointly developing contract plans related to […]

Experts will brief the public in May about the Department of Energy’s efforts to protect both Hanford workers and people nearby the site from a compound called acetonitrile: a toxic byproduct liquid radioactive waste treatment scheduled to begin by late 2023 at the former plutonium production site in Washington state. “Subject matter experts” will be […]

The Department of Energy has yet to resume its final test run of the Integrated Waste Treatment Unit at the Idaho National Laboratory, the agency confirmed Thursday. “The IWTU remains shut down,” an Idaho Department of Environmental Quality official said by email Thursday. “They [DOE managers]have completed their investigation and are preparing to start warming […]

The Department of Energy has greenlighted its prime contractor at the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant to resume waste handling in the coming week, although shipments from Idaho National  Laboratory are temporarily on hold after a weekend emergency. The DOE Office of Environmental Management has released Nuclear Waste Partnership to resume waste handling operations and the […]

After the government won a key legal battle last week, the U.S. Department of Justice said Monday that the Fifth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals should allow it to enforce a presidential executive order requiring federal employees to get vaccinated against COVID-19. On April 7 the New Orleans-based 5th Circuit overturned a nationwide preliminary injunction […]

Centerra, which already provides security at multiple Department of Energy sites, recently won a five-year, $195-million award for protective services at the agency’s headquarters in Washington, D.C., and nearby offices in Germantown, Md. Centerra’s parent company, Herndon, Va.,-based Constellis, announced the award in a March 31 press release. Centerra will provide protective forces including K-9 […]

The Department of Energy’s Environmental Management Consolidated Business Center in Cincinnati plans to increase the potential value of its technical support services deal with BTP Services LLC to $84.5-million from the current ceiling of $49.5-million. The DOE office announced plans to increase the cap for the Consolidated Technical Support Services Contract with BTP in a […]

The Department of Energy said Thursday it intends to accelerate removal of all spent nuclear fuel from the L-Basin storage area at Savannah River Site in South Carolina using conventional processing without recovering highly enriched uranium. In a press release, and accompanying Federal Register notice, DOE spelled out plans to  process spent fuel left in […]

Changes in the scope of work for two new Department of Energy contracts planned at the Portsmouth Site in Ohio and Paducah Site in Kentucky, should not cause job cuts or employee transfers between the two former gaseous diffusion plants, the agency said last week in a procurement notice. As DOE has said previously, some […]

Candice Robertson, a familiar face at the Department of Energy, officially started in her new role as acting second-in-command at the agency’s $7.6-billion Office of Environmental Management, according to the latest organizational chart posted Monday.   Robertson is the acting principal deputy assistant secretary, or EM-2, at the DOE nuclear cleanup office, filling the opening created […]

The National Academies invites public comment between now and June 12 on an ongoing federal study of supplemental treatment options, such as grout, for the low-activity waste at the Department of Energy’s Hanford Site in Washington state that won’t be converted into glass by the Waste Treatment Plant. The public comment notification was sent out […]

A scientist who claims his questioning of key safety data related to underground disposal of transuranic waste in New Mexico cost him a permanent job with a Sandia National Laboratories contractor will have his case heard by a federal magistrate.  Plaintiff Charles Oakes agreed in an April 7 filing in U.S. District Court in New […]

The Department of Energy’s Office of Environmental Management is extending the proposal deadline for a potential $120 million small business Technical Assistance Contract solicitation until April 25, the agency said this week. The prior deadline, from a request for proposals (RFP) issued last month, was April 18. But that conflicts with Easter, said one unidentified […]

Cases of COVID-19 within the Department of Energy’s Office of Environmental Management remained low during the past week, with 27 active confirmed cases of the virus reported, a spokesperson said in a Thursday email. That is up six from the prior week total of 21 but far below the hundreds being recorded weekly during the […]

Fluor-BWXT Portsmouth, the deactivation and demolition contractor at the Portsmouth Site in Ohio, should tighten up work control shortcomings that could endanger employee health and safety, according to a new Department of Energy analysis. While the contractor “generally meets the fundamental expectations” of safety requirements, it needs a comprehensive industrial hygiene effort to ensure workplace […]

The Joe Biden administration last week requested a budget of $41 million for the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board in fiscal 2023, an increase of $5 million over $36 million from the 2022 omnibus passed in early March. That 2023 request is about a 14% year-over-year increase for the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board (DNFSB). […]

With COVID-19 illnesses declining nationally, a United Steelworkers officer at the Department of Energy’s Portsmouth Site in Ohio wants Mid-America Conversion Services to reconsider an earlier decision to fire a handful of longtime employees who refused vaccination. United Steelworkers Local 1-689 is negotiating a new contract with Mid-America to replace the one that expired Jan. […]

The Department of Energy will not revoke until August a disputed landlord services contract that could keep Swift & Staley at the Paducah Site in 2027 — but the agency also will not slow down plans to recompete or reward the work, which the incumbent is fighting in court to keep. That was the news […]

The U.S. Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals Thursday overturned a federal district court’s injunction against President Joe Biden’s COVID-19 vaccination mandate for federal employees. Meanwhile, the Eleventh U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Atlanta was scheduled to hear arguments Friday for and against an injunction against the Biden administration’s vaccine mandate for federal contractors. The […]