Publications: Weapons Cleanup Monitor

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 […]

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 […]