Publications: Weapons Cleanup Monitor

Troy Wade, a Reagan-era assistant secretary of energy for defense programs and a fixture for decades at what is now called the Nevada National Security Site, died Jan. 16 at his home in Nevada, according to local media and the site. He was 87. Scott Wade, Troy’s son, confirmed his father’s death to the local […]

The liquid waste contractor at the Department of Energy’s Savannah River Site in South Carolina is seeking expressions of interest from firms that could build three new saltsone disposal units at the federal complex near the Georgia line. Amentum-led Savannah River Remediation (SRR) posted the notice Thursday on the government procurement website, SAM.gov for Saltstone […]

Savannah River Remediation, the outgoing, Amentum-led liquid waste contractor at the Department of Energy’s Savannah River Site in South Carolina, took home about $43.8 million, or 98%, of a potential $44.6 million fee during fiscal 2021, according to a scorecard released by the agency this week. Savannah River Remediation (SRR), which includes Amentum, Bechtel, Jacobs […]

The Department of Energy’s Office of Environmental Management plans to award new contracts this year at the Hanford Site in Washington state, the Moab uranium tailings site in Utah and the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant in New Mexico, the office said in its recent list of 2022 priorities. The biggest prize is the potential $45-billion, […]

An article in the Jan. 14 Weapons Complex Monitor [“Tank-side Cesium Removal at Hanford Tracking January Startup”] should have said that subcontractor AVANTech designed the Tank-Side Cesium Removal project at the Hanford Site in Washington state. An article in the same edition, [“Settlement Talks Extended Until April in NMED-DOE Suit Over Los Alamos Cleanup”] should […]

Most staffers with the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board don’t need to return to their pre-pandemic workplaces this month, a spokesperson with the federal safety watchdog said Tuesday morning. The Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board (DNFSB) is no longer requiring a return to work on Jan. 24, as earlier scheduled, “but is giving the staff […]

A U.S. Court of Federal Claims judge was scheduled to hear oral arguments next month on whether Kentucky-based Swift & Staley is too large to qualify for the Department of Energy’s three-year, $160-million small business set-aside contract for Infrastructure Support Services at the Paducah Site in Kentucky. Judge Thompson Dietz plans to hear arguments Feb. […]

The final numbers for December confirm 2021 was a bounce-back year of sorts for the Department of Energy’s Waste Isolation Pilot Plant in New Mexico, which disposed of 21 more shipments of transuranic waste than during its first year of the COVID-19 pandemic. The Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) near Carlsbad, N.M., received 20 shipments […]

Fluor-led Savannah River Nuclear Solutions, the prime in charge of the Department of Energy’s Savannah River Site in South Carolina, garnered an “excellent” scorecard from the feds and took home about $38.8 million, or 96%, of its potential fee for the last 10 months of fiscal 2021. Meanwhile, Battelle Savannah River Alliance, the new spinoff […]

Centerra-Savannah River Site, security provider at the Department of Energy site in South Carolina, won $6.4 million or 95% of a potential $6.7 million fee for a 12-month period ended Oct.7, according to a new DOE scorecard. “Throughout this performance period, Centerra-SRS executed the Site security mission at an excellent level of proficiency,” DOE said […]

The former head of the Department of Energy’s nuclear energy office is headed to the C-Suite of Westinghouse Electric, the company announced Tuesday. Rita Baranwal, assistant secretary for DOE’s Office of Nuclear Energy (NE) from July 2019 to January 2021, was appointed chief technology officer at Westinghouse, according to a press release dated Tuesday. In […]

This week, some 292 plaintiffs, many working in security at the Department of Energy’s Hanford Site in Washington, filed a new complaint in their federal lawsuit opposing government vaccine mandates. But attorneys for the federal government replied the same day with a motion to dismiss the new complaint, saying it is little better than the […]

The Department of Energy and its environmental management contractor at the Idaho National Laboratory hope to resume a test run of the Integrated Waste Treatment Unit by the end of the month, an Idaho state official said Thursday. As of Tuesday Jan. 18, managers at the Integrated Waste Treatment Unit (IWTU) envisioned having a nitrogen […]

The Salt Waste Processing Facility at the Savannah River Site, offline since late October for a combination of an operational outage and technical safety concerns, could get back up by the end of this month, a Department of Energy spokesperson said Monday. The facility near Aiken, S.C remained in an outage early this week, following […]

The U.S. Supreme Court this week agreed to hear the Department of Justice’s challenges to a Washington state law that made it easier for cleanup workers at the Department of Energy’s Hanford Site to claim compensation for certain occupational illnesses. The highest court in the land, an independent branch of the federal government, said Monday […]

Rep. Dina Titus (D-Nev.) wants Secretary of Energy Jennifer Granholm to provide details about a Department of Energy plan to bury certain nuclear waste, now at the Idaho National Laboratory, at the Nevada National Security Site. Titus said she was caught off guard by federal plans for the shipments from Idaho to the Nevada National […]

State and federal settlement talks about revamping the 2016 consent order for legacy cleanup at the Department of Energy’s Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico will continue into early April, according to a status report filed this month with a federal court. Representatives from the New Mexico Department of Environment (NMED) and DOE Office […]

Construction and commissioning of key nuclear-cleanup facilities headline the Department of Energy’s goals for calendar year 2022, according to the Environmental Management (EM) Office’s recently-published list of priorities.  Among these are two big projects at the Hanford Site in Washington state. There, EM intends to finish cold commissioning of the first of two melters at […]

Preparations for a 50-day test-run of a crucial liquid-waste treatment system at the Department of Energy’s Idaho site were cut short Christmas Eve because someone installed an open/closed indicator on the unit’s plumbing backwards, according to the site. The Integrated Waste Treatment Unit (IWTU), designed to solidify some 850,000 gallons of sodium-bearing, radioactive waste leftover […]

With a spike in COVID-19 cases, top management at the Department of Energy plans to go “the extra mile” by stretching out its phased return to onsite work for employees and contractors by an additional month, according to a Thursday email. “We are delaying our increased return to the workplace schedule by one month,” Tarak […]

The Tank-Side Cesium Removal project at the Hanford Site in Washington state, a key cog in the Department of Energy’s plan to begin bulk solidification of liquid radioactive waste there next year, could start up in January, according to a recent memo from the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board. “DOE Hanford is working with the […]

An ongoing federal study into alternative liquid-waste cleanup at the Hanford Site in Washington state should focus narrowly on finding the fastest way to get rid of low-level radioactive waste that can’t be solidified by the site’s Waste Treatment and Immobilization Plant, a national academies panel recommended last week. The waste treatment plant, which is […]

To date, four Republicans have announced plans to run for Rep. Tom Reed’s (R-N.Y.) seat representing New York’s 23rd Congressional District, which includes the West Valley Demonstration Project, a nuclear site being cleaned up by the Department of Energy. After a former lobbyist accused the lawmaker of sexual harassment last March, Reed, who has served […]

Eventual winners of new multibillion-dollar contracts at the Portsmouth Site in Ohio and the Paducah Site in Kentucky are expected to use small businesses to perform work worth 15% to 20% of contract value, not counting the 120-day transition period. That is according to a detailed presentation on the $ 5.87-billion Portsmouth Decontamination and Decommissioning […]

The Department of Energy’s Environmental Management published draft solicitations Tuesday for two contracts potentially worth more than $7.7 billion combined at the Portsmouth Site in Ohio and the Paducah Site in Kentucky. The larger draft request for proposals (RFP) is for the potential $5.87-billion Portsmouth Decontamination and Decommissioning Contract, DOE said in a press release. […]

The Department of Energy Thursday announced plans to solicit Technical Assistance Contracts for several Office of Environmental Management Field Sites within the next 60 days. Requests for proposals could be released by early to mid-March for small business set-aside contracts at the West Valley Demonstration Project in New York, the Moab Uranium Mill Tailings Remedial […]

The Department of Energy could solicit bids for long-term management and storage of elemental mercury in January, the Office of Environmental Management said in a procurement update after Christmas. After court action by gold mining companies forced DOE to drop earlier plans to designate Waste Control Specialists in West Texas as its preferred long-term storage […]