Publications: Weapons Cleanup Monitor

Virginia-based Akima Intra-Data withdrew its protest of the Department of Energy’s September award of a five-year, $135-million Infrastructure Support Services contract at the Portsmouth Site in Ohio to North Wind Dynamics. Akima dropped the protest Nov. 16, according to a notice on the Government Accountability Office (GAO) website. The company protested the award on Oct. […]

The Department of Energy said in a Nov. 18 posting there will be a 120-day transition period for the winner of the potential $45-billion Integrated Tank Disposition Contract, at the Hanford Site in Washington state, to take over from the existing contractors. The final Request for Proposals issued last month included some incorrect references to […]

Profits at Jacobs Engineering, Dallas, fell 3% for the fiscal year ended Oct. 1 as revenue rose by proportionally the same amount, the company said early Nov. 30 in its latest earnings release.  Net earnings for the year were about $477 million, or $3.20 a share, down from more than $490 million, or $3.71 a […]

While he is no longer acting assistant secretary, career fed William (Ike) White remains the top boss at the Department of Energy’s $7-billion-plus Office of Environmental Management as he has been for about two-and-a-half years, an agency spokesperson confirmed before Thanksgiving. The latest DOE Office of Environmental Management (EM) organizational chart dated Nov. 17 shows […]

A compromise stopgap budget bill passed Congress Thursday to avert a government shutdown and keep Department of Energy nuclear weapons and waste budgets at 2021 levels past Valentine’s Day and preserve a funding safety valve for uranium-enrichment cleanup. The Senate voted 69-to-28 Thursday evening to approve the continuing budget resolution to keep the federal government […]

The Department of Energy’s Waste Isolation Pilot Plant has received 13,000 shipments of defense-related transuranic waste at the underground disposal site near Carlsbad, N.M., since it opened in 1999, the agency said Nov. 23. The shipment arrived at the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) Nov. 11 from the Idaho National Laboratory, which had produced more […]

With COVID-19 cases declining again in the Department of Energy weapons complex and government officials considering how to deal with an emerging variant of the virus, much of this week’s industry focus is on courtroom battles concerning a small number of employees who refuse to comply with a vaccination mandate for federal contractors. On the […]

The Department of Energy’s prime at the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant in New Mexico says a ventilation fan that has been dormant for years will start operating again during the New Year. “While the 700-C fan is functionally operational and has been through all of the necessary testing and monitoring, including underground testing and balancing […]

It could be three to four years before the Department of Energy resumes taking regular shipments of highly radioactive, remote-handled transuranic waste at the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant near Carlsbad, N.M., the top local federal manager said recently. During a virtual town hall-style meeting earlier this month for the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP), Reinhard […]

Out of perhaps 950-to-1,000 United Steelworkers members employed by various companies at the Department of Energy’s Portsmouth Site in Piketon, Ohio between 10 and 15 are expected to be fired as a result of the COVID-19 vaccination mandate for federal contractors, a union official said Tuesday. It is always possible a couple of those heretofore […]

The monthly pace of retirement notices among prime contractor employees during 2021 at the Department of Energy’s Hanford Site in Washington state is up sharply compared with last year, especially in recent months, according to the two most recent monthly reports by the site’s services contractor. “The Retirement Program has had a significant increase in […]

The new BWX Technologies-led joint venture scheduled to take over nuclear waste work at the Department of Energy’s Savannah River Site in South Carolina announced its top managers on Wednesday.  Savannah River Mission Completion (SRMC) said in a press release that Dave Olson, who has 34 years of experience at the Savannah River Site, will […]

Two contractors at the Department of Energy’s Portsmouth Site in Ohio are expected to send home dozens of union employees this week with plans to fire them for refusing to be vaccinated against COVID-19, a local United Steelworkers president at the site said Tuesday in a press release. To this, a spokesperson for remediation contractor […]

The top federal manager at the Department of Energy’s Savannah River Site in South Carolina said COVID-19 infection rates are falling around the complex near the Georgia line. “The good news is for the first time in some time we have no one in the hospital,” Michael Budney, manager of the DOE Office of Environmental […]

As expected, the Washington state attorney general has filed formal arguments saying there is no need for the U.S. Supreme Court to revisit an appeals court ruling that backed a state law boosting workers’ compensation eligibility for Hanford Site employees with certain work-related illnesses. State Attorney General Bob Ferguson filed his 45-page “brief in opposition” […]

The Department of Energy’s Waste Isolation Pilot Plant in southern New Mexico received 17 shipments of transuranic waste during October, according to figures posted on its public website. That means the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) has now received 166 shipments of the defense-related waste so far this calendar year, a figure nearly identical to […]

The Small Business Administration again ruled that incumbent Swift and Staley is too large to be the next landlord services provider at the Department of Energy’s Paducah site, kicking the matter back to a federal court and keeping the company on site at least through February 2022. That’s according to filings in recent days with […]

Fluor Idaho, which is winding down its $2.3-billion cleanup contract at the Department of Energy’s Idaho National Laboratory, paused a test run with simulant at the long-anticipated Integrated Waste Treatment Unit due to visible emissions coming from a stack during heat-up, a manager with the Idaho Department of Environmental Quality said via email Tuesday. As […]

A three-judge panel at the New Mexico Court of Appeals has upheld a state environmental agency’s approval of the Department of Energy’s revised method for calculating underground waste volumes at the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant. The new counting method, approved as part of a state permit modification by the New Mexico Environment Department in December […]

Members of the Hanford Atomic Metals Trade Council at the Department of Energy’s Hanford Site in Washington state have ratified labor agreement extensions for much of the unionized workforces of four of the largest federal contractors at the nuclear cleanup site, according to a recent Facebook post by the council. “All four of the contractor’s […]

The Department of Energy expects to issue a finding by July 2022 on the practicality of solidifying 2,000 gallons of tank waste at the Hanford Site in Washington using concrete-like grout, federal officials said during an online public meeting Thursday. But before DOE issues the finding, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) was expected to check […]

Management and contractors at the Department of Energy’s Hanford Site in Washington state were targeted in a lawsuit filed this week by a group of about 290 employees resisting a federal order to take the COVID-19 vaccine. Security guards and various other employees at the site filed suit Tuesday in the U.S. District Court of […]

The Department of Energy does not expect a delay to a crucial cesium-removal demonstration at the Hanford Site’s tank farms, despite the discovery last month that parts of the system might be prone to leaks, an agency spokesperson said this week.  The “leak-tightness” issue, as the Defense Nuclear Facility Safety Board (DNFSB) called it in […]

Before it even started, the Department of Energy this week cancelled a competition for a Savannah River Site management and operations contract worth billions, citing an increase of National Nuclear Security Administration nuclear weapons work at the site. “The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) is indefinitely delaying the Final Request for Proposal (RFP) for the […]

Centrus Energy, Bethesda, Md., on Wednesday posted net income of about $41.5 million, or $2.95 a share for the 2021 third quarter, up from a loss of $7 million or 83 cents a share, in the year-ago period.  Quarterly revenue was about $91 million, up from more than $57.5 million a year ago, mostly due […]

A United Steelworkers local president at the Department of Energy’s Portsmouth Site in Ohio expects about 100 of his members employed by cleanup contractor Fluor-BWXT Portsmouth will be sent home in the coming week, with firings coming a few weeks afterward, for refusal to be vaccinated against COVID-19. The workers who for various reasons don’t […]

Exchangemonitor.com has refreshed its website and now posts news and commentary from across the defense- and civilian-nuclear industries in (near) real time.  If you haven’t gotten used to checking exchangemonitor.com throughout the day, we could hardly blame you. Our old website didn’t allow us to push updates to you as quickly as we could write […]

Ninety people suing the contractor over a COVID-19 vaccine mandate lack valid legal arguments or safety concerns and “simply do not want to do what is being asked,” the manager of the Department of Energy’s Savannah River Site in South Carolina said in a legal filing this week. That is the thrust of Fluor-led Savannah […]