Publications: Weapons Cleanup Monitor

A joint venture led by BWX Technologies, Savannah River Mission Completion, has taken over liquid waste operations now at the Department of Energy’s Savannah River Site in South Carolina. Savannah River Mission Completion (SRMC), which began its transition at the end of November, was to officially assume control of the waste management operations from Amentum-led […]

Four Rivers Nuclear Partnership, the Department of Energy contractor in charge of remediation at the Paducah Site in Kentucky, was deemed mostly “satisfactory” during fiscal 2021 and earned roughly half of its potential “adjective” fee, according to a recently-released scorecard from the agency. The joint venture made up of Jacobs, Fluor and BWX Technologies, earned […]

The Department of Energy Monday released fee scorecards for four contractors in charge of major reclamation, tank waste management, laboratory operation and site services at the sprawling Hanford Site in Washington state. In its first eight months on the job, Amentum-led Central Plateau Cleanup Co. (CPCC) won 79%, or $20.8 million, of a potential $26.5 […]

The White House said Friday President Joe Biden intends to nominate Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson as associate justice of the U.S. Supreme Court. Biden was expected to formally introduce the 51-year-old Brown Jackson, currently serving on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, as his choice during a White House ceremony […]

Lawyers for the U.S. Attorney’s office told an Atlanta-based appeals court this week President Joe Biden has authority to restrict federal contracting to businesses that make their employees get a COVID-19 vaccination. “The principal question in this case is whether the President may require federal agencies to do business only with contractors that agree to […]

The Department of Energy’s Office of Inspector General could not substantiate allegations that the Amentum-led cleanup contractor at the Oak Ridge Site in Tennessee fudged its safety and health records in order to look better for DOE. That is the crux of an Office of Inspector General (OIG) report posted online Thursday. The office received […]

The legacy cleanup contractor for the Department of Energy’s Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico won 72% of its subjective fee and 91% of its performance-based fee during fiscal 2021, according to an agency scorecard posted this week. Altogether, Newport News Nuclear BWXT (N3B)-Los Alamos took home $8.37 million out of a potential $9.77 […]

Department of Energy contractor Swift & Staley will stay on at least another month while a federal judge decides whether the firm exceeded the size restrictions for the $160-million Infrastructure Support Services contract at the Paducah Site in Kentucky, according to a Friday court filing. In a Feb. 18 order, U.S. Court of Federal Claims […]

Next Monday, Feb. 28, will mark a return-to-onsite work for most Department of Energy Idaho National Laboratory personnel, according to a recent staff report from the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board, which said COVID-19 is still complicating work there. Meanwhile, as of the seven-day period ended Thursday, Feb. 24, there were only 82 confirmed active […]

Both quarterly and annual net earnings rose at BWX Technologies, Lynchburg, Va., the nuclear services provider said in a Tuesday press release. The company also said transition is going well for a BWXT-led team that will handle waste management at the Department of Energy’s Savannah River Site in South Carolina.  Net earnings for the fourth […]

The Salt Waste Processing Facility at the Department of Energy’s Savannah River Site in South Carolina returned to service Feb. 11, and since then has processed about 127,000 gallons of salt waste, a DOE spokesperson said in a Friday email. Earlier this month, DOE confirmed the plant built by Parsons was poised to resume operations […]

After a warm up period, the Integrated Waste Treatment Unit at the Department of Energy’s Idaho National Laboratory last week resumed a 50-day final trial run of the plant expected to treat about 900,000 gallons of liquid sodium-bearing waste, federal and state agencies confirmed Tuesday. Despite a brief hiccup in the latest practice run, the […]

A little more than a week after completing its purchase of Virginia-based defense contractor PAE, Amentum will make the acquired company’s former chief executive, John Heller, its new CEO and retrain current chief John Vollmer as chairman of the board. Amentum, the Germantown, Md.-based Department of Energy contractor, announced plans to make Heller CEO effective […]

Net income from continuing operations at Fluor, Irving, Texas, fell for both the fourth quarter and 2021 as a whole, which the international company and Department of Energy contractor attributed mostly to a massive, pre-tax charge related to a Dutch pension plan, according to a financial release Tuesday morning. For the quarter ended Dec. 31, […]

By John Stang Longtime Hanford Challenge executive director Tom Carpenter plans to semi-retire on April 1 — beginning a phaseout after roughly 35 years as one of the Hanford site’s leading public watchdogs.  Carpenter, 64, will step down as executive director of the organization that he founded, but will stay on as an advisor. Deputy […]

Net earnings from continuing operations fell at Jacobs, Dallas, in the first quarter of fiscal 2022, which the global engineering firm and Department of Energy contractor attributed largely to tax-related adjustments, according to financial results reported last week. Net earnings from continuing operations for the quarter ended Dec. 31, 2021, were $134 million, or $1.03 […]

A recent Government Accountability Office report confirms what most observers already assumed — the COVID-19 pandemic prompted much of the federal workforce at the Department of Energy and elsewhere to abandon their cubicles in favor of telecommuting, although the practice has its own hassles. The DOE found there were limits to its work-from-home efforts especially […]

In social media posts Thursday, U.S. Sen. Ben Ray Luján (D-N.M.) says he has returned to Washington, D.C., where he is “back at work and will return to the Senate floor soon,” following his January stroke.  “Through the love and support from my family, medical team, and New Mexicans, I’m getting stronger each day in […]

Ben Harp, a Department of Energy manager for several years, has been appointed as an acting senior adviser at the $7.6-million Office of Environmental Management. Harp, a former deputy manager at the Office of River Protection at the Hanford Site in Washington state, is listed on the latest DOE Environmental Management (EM) organization chart published […]

Irving, Texas-based Fluor said in a press release last week CEO David Constable will also become chairman of the company’s board of directors, with executive chairman Alan Boeckmann deciding not to seek re-election to the board during the upcoming shareholders meeting May 5. “Alan rejoined Fluor’s board as executive chairman in 2019 and has served […]

The Department of Energy is required to “fully cooperate” with the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board and will restrict access in only limited cases such as when a representative of the safety watchdog lacks “an appropriate security clearance,” according to a deal reached this week. A Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) that the two parties have […]

With increased telecommuting, more feds and contractors are eating their chips and candy at home during the COVID-19 pandemic and this in turn has driven down vending machine proceeds at the Department of Energy’s Savannah River Site in South Carolina, according to a recent procurement notice. In the notice initially posted Jan. 27 on the […]

The Department of Energy last week issued Amentum-led United Cleanup Oak Ridge its 90-day notice-to-proceed on its potential $8.3-billion, long-term Oak Ridge Reservation Cleanup Contract in Tennessee, a DOE spokesperson said this week in an email. The actual transition begins for  United Cleanup Oak Ridge (UCOR), made up of Amentum, Jacobs and Honeywell, on Feb. […]

Maryland-based Amentum, one of the dominant players in the Department of Energy weapons complex, has completed its $1.9-billion purchase of PAE, a Virginia-based defense and government services contractor, the companies said this week. The deal, which PAE characterized as a “merger” was announced by the parties in October. PAE’s “go-shop” period in which it could […]

The Department of Energy’s $7.6-billion cleanup office will soon move to tear down a land-based reactor in Idaho considered integral to development of the United States first nuclear-powered submarine in the 1950s. The DOE Office of Environmental Management said in a release Tuesday it assumed responsibility for deactivation and demolition of the Submarine 1st Generation […]

The Department of Energy’s Waste Isolation Pilot Plant in New Mexico received eight shipments of defense-related transuranic waste during the month of January, according to the latest data on the public website for the disposal facility. During January the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) received four shipments each from the Idaho National Laboratory and an […]

Eighteen more states, some with Department of Energy nuclear cleanup sites, and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, filed legal briefs this week supporting a U.S. District Court judge’s ruling that blocked President Joe Biden from requiring most federal contractor employees to be vaccinated against COVID-19. Amicus curiae or “friend of the court” briefs were filed […]

Department of Energy Office of Environmental Management staffers at the Los Alamos National Laboratory are preparing to return to onsite work starting Feb. 28, Lee Bishop, deputy designated federal officer for the Northern New Mexico Citizens’ Advisory Board said during an online meeting Wednesday. “Not everybody is coming back into the office, some people have […]