Publications: Weapons Cleanup Monitor

John (Jack) William Crawford, Jr., a Navy captain who served on the staff of Admiral Hyman Rickover prior to stints with the Atomic Energy Commission and later the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board, has died, the board announced in a press release last week. The Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board (DNFSB) was created by Congress […]

Thanks to more than a quarter-billion dollars of congressional funds since 2018, the Department of Energy’s Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory is tearing down some of the most contaminated facilities in the weapons complex and “making bad things go away,” a manager at the California nuclear-weapons design lab said recently. Much progress has happened since the […]

The new liquid waste contractor at the Department of Energy’s Savannah River Site in South Carolina is taking charge of the Salt Waste Processing Facility, an agency spokesperson confirmed Monday. The transition to BWX Technologies-led Savannah River Mission Completion from Parsons Government Services, which built and started up the Salt Waste Processing Facility (SWPF), began […]

As of March 9, 427 intermodal containers filled with radiologically-contaminated soil or debris had been shipped to EnergySolutions from the Balance of Site Facilities cleanup at the West Valley Demonstration Project in New York, a contractor representative told the West Valley Citizen Task Force meeting last week. Kelly Wooley, deputy general manager for the West […]

A Hanford occupational health contractor agreed to pay almost $3 million in restitution and penalties for false financial statements that enabled it to obtain a COVID-related loan from the U.S. Small Business Administration, which was later forgiven. The loan ended up in the personal bank accounts of the owners of HPMCorp., Holly and Grover Cleveland […]

The Department of Energy’s Office of Environmental Management logged 21 confirmed cases of COVID-19 during the past week, a decrease of 14 from the prior week’s total of 35, a spokesperson for the organization said Thursday by email. Two weeks ago the weekly confirmed number was 43, a fraction of the high of 775 for […]

Construction of the 200 Mercury Treatment Facility at the Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge Site in Tennessee is now 40% complete, an agency spokesperson said by email Wednesday. The project includes building a treatment facility, headworks facility, and a 3,000-foot pipeline connecting the two facilities.  “Crews are currently installing floors and walls at the treatment […]

The Department Energy’s nuclear remediation branch would see its total funding slide to $7.64 billion under the Joe Biden administration’s budget request for fiscal 2023, down from almost $7.9 billion appropriated for fiscal 2022. If Congress approved the requested funding, it would return the DOE Office of Environmental Management to roughly its fiscal 2021 appropriation.  […]

After a probe, the Department of Energy’s Office of Inspector General could not substantiate claims of cheating and other problems with Bechtel’s substance abuse program at the Waste Treatment Plant at the Hanford Site in Washington state. “Specifically, we found that management had taken several actions to address drug-related concerns,” the Office of Inspector General […]

The Department of Energy is apparently not counting upon a speedy resolution of litigation surrounding the landlord services contract for the Paducah Site, as a spokesperson confirmed Thursday the incumbent is receiving a four-month extension. Kentucky-based Swift & Staley is now scheduled to stay on the job through July 31, a spokesperson for the DOE […]

Anne Marie White, the last Senate-confirmed assistant secretary for the Department of Energy’s Office of Environmental Management, is opening a new distillery in her hometown in Michigan. White and Scott Anderson, another longtime hand on the old DOE weapons complex, will soon open “The Honorable Distillery” in a renovated movie theater in downtown Marquette, Mich., […]

The Hanford Advisory Board again stressed its concerns about leaking tanks in two pieces of written advice sent to the U.S. Department of Energy on Thursday. In the second day of a virtual meeting, the board voted to tell DOE that it wants the feds to prioritize removal of 3.37 million gallons of liquid wastes […]

Members of the Hanford Advisory Board said Wednesday they should have a voice in the Department of Energy’s plans to diversify the panel that provides policy recommendations on cleanup of the Hanford Site in Washington state. During an online meeting of the Hanford Advisory Board (HAB), many members said they want to provide input on […]

There were 35 confirmed cases of COVID-19 within the Department of Energy’s Office of Environmental Management over the past week, up seven from the prior week’s total of 28, a nuclear cleanup spokesperson said by email Thursday. The count is down from the 43 confirmed two weeks ago and a far cry from the 775 […]

The Department of Energy on Thursday formally resumed its quest for a domestic site to store elemental mercury with publication of a solicitation for bids. The DOE’s Cincinnati-based Environmental Management Consolidated Business Center announced in a press release a final request for proposals (RFP) for a long-term elemental mercury storage contractor. The move comes weeks […]

Department of Energy and Washington state Department of Ecology managers reassured the Hanford Advisory Board Wednesday their agencies remain interested in the Test Bed Initiative to grout 2,000 gallons of low-activity tank waste that would be shipped out of state. Brian Vance, the DOE’s manager for the Hanford Site, expects the Nuclear Regulation Commission to […]

The U.S. District Court for New Mexico has approved the proposed settlement filed earlier this month between the Department of Energy and Nuclear Watch New Mexico, or NukeWatch, over a 2016 federal-state consent decree covering legacy cleanup at the Los Alamos National Laboratory complex. In a Wednesday press release, NukeWatch said the deal approved by […]

Top federal and contractor managers at the Department of Energy’s Waste Isolation Pilot Plant in New Mexico said Thursday they still hope to beat a 2026 date for operation of a new underground ventilation project criticized recently by the Government Accountability Office. There will be no additional public written report issued on corrective actions being […]

The Nevada National Security Site disposed of roughly 550,000 cubic feet of radioactive waste from other federal sites around the country during 2021, according to the Department of Energy. The total includes classified and low-level or mixed low-level radioactive waste, the DOE Office of Environmental Management said in its Strategic Vision for the former Nevada […]

Washington state Department of Ecology Director Laura Watson and her top nuclear waste manager, David Bowen, visited Washington, D.C., last week to urge that more cleanup funds for the Hanford Site be included in the Department of Energy’s fiscal 2023 budget. The Ecology officials were in the nation’s capital March 14-16 while President Joe Biden […]

Scott Sax, top contractor boss for Central Plateau cleanup at the Department of Energy’s Hanford Site in Washington state is retiring in May and will be succeeded by the head of another Amentum-led Hanford joint venture, the company said Monday. Sax, president and project manager for Central Plateau Cleanup Co., is retiring effective May 16 […]

UCOR, the Amentum-Jacobs partnership in charge of remediation at the Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge Site in Tennessee, earned 98% of total potential fee or $24.7 million, during a seven-month period ended Oct. 31, according to a scorecard released this week. The contractor, being succeeded by a joint venture made up of Amentum, Jacobs and […]

With declining demand for employee vaccination against COVID-19, the occupational medical provider serving the Department of Energy’s Hanford Site in Washington Site will soon be offering only one option, Moderna, for initial inoculations or booster shots. The provider of occupational medical services, HMP Corp. (HMPC), is dropping the Pfizer shot after March 24 and discontinuing […]

The Washington Department of Ecology says Congress’ Hanford’s fiscal 2022 appropriation is a few hundred million dollars short of meeting the site’s legal obligations for the year. At a Tuesday public Zoom briefing, the Washington State Department of Ecology put Hanford’s  congressional appropriation for fiscal 2022 at $2.95 billion, under the omnibus budget bill signed […]

The prime contractor for the Savannah River National Laboratory in South Carolina is inviting inquiries from “minority serving institutions” interested in helping carry out research for the Department of Energy’s Office of Environmental Management. Battelle Savannah River Alliance said in a March 11 notice on the federal procurement website (sam.gov) expressions of interest for such […]

Talks on the future of the Savannah River Site in South Carolina are continuing between the Department of Energy’s Office of Environmental Management and the National Nuclear Security Administration, Nicole Nelson-Jean, a veteran of both DOE branches, told the Waste Management Symposia late last week in Phoenix. Nelson-Jean, currently associate principal deputy assistant secretary for […]

Security guards and other plaintiffs suing President Joe Biden and the Department of Energy over COVID19 workforce vaccination requirements at the Hanford Site in Washington state have agreed to drop contractor executives from the litigation, according to a recent federal court filing. The plaintiffs will withdraw claims against Valerie McCain who heads Bechtel’s Waste Treatment […]