Publications: Weapons Cleanup Monitor

Bid protests of large federal contracts are a fact of life, a top acquisition manager at the Department of Energy’s Office of Environmental Management said during an online forum Thursday. This is evidenced by the fact that two contract awards have been challenged in a little more than a week with the Government Accountability Office […]

The Department of Energy expects to use one of five firms selected in December for a task order to move transuranic waste currently stored at the Separations Process Research Unit facility in Schenectady County. N.Y., an agency spokesperson said via email this week. EnergySolutions, Perma-Fix Environmental Services, Unitech Services Group, Waste Control Specialists and Veolia […]

A Bechtel-led group, one of four losing bidders for DOE’s Idaho Cleanup Project contract, last week filed a bid protest over the potential 10-year, $6.4-billion nuclear-weapons cleanup pact. Idaho Remediation LLC filed a protest dated June 15 with the Government Accountability Office (GAO) over last month’s award to Idaho Environmental Coalition — made up of […]

WASHINGTON — As federal budget season wears on, details are still scarce on the Joe Biden administration’s plans for a federal interim storage site for the nation’s spent nuclear fuel, and one key appropriator isn’t happy with the lack of specifics. Asked after a Department of Energy budget hearing Wednesday in the Senate Appropriations energy […]

Rep. Tim Ryan (D-Ohio) held a town hall-style meeting Saturday in Piketon, Ohio, to discuss local concerns over open-air demolition of the X-326 Process Building at the Department of Energy’s Portsmouth Site and radioactive contamination discovered around a local school. Ryan and Zack Space, former congressman for Ohio’s 18th district, were scheduled to participate in […]

The transuranic waste sitting at the Separations Process Research Unit in Schenectady County. N.Y. could head to the Idaho National Laboratory starting in fiscal 2024 to be prepped for final shipment to the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant in New Mexico, according to the Department of Energy’s fiscal year 2022 budget request. Processing of the Separations […]

The Department of Energy expects to hand over control of the Savannah River National Laboratory in South Carolina early next week to Battelle Savannah River Alliance. The DOE is “working toward” Monday June 21, an agency spokesperson said by email Tuesday. That is when operations of the national laboratory will shift to the Battelle-led group […]

The Department of Energy’s Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico, like much of the Southwest, is suffering through an “exceptional drought,” a program manager for the legacy cleanup contractor said during an online meeting Wednesday. The U.S. Drought Monitor, a service run by National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and other federal entities, places 60% […]

Tamara Miles is now the deputy director of small business programs for the Department of Energy’s Office of Small and Disadvantaged Business Utilization. Miles took the position in December after spending nearly five years as procurement director at the Cincinnati—based Environmental Management Consolidated Business Center. The Office of Small and Disadvantaged Business Utilization, headed by […]

With no new contract awarded yet, the Department of Energy will keep North Wind Portage on at least through August as its technical assistance provider at the Carlsbad Field Office in New Mexico, an agency spokesperson said Monday. The $51.8-million small business contract that began in November 2015 would have otherwise expired June 3 without […]

National Nuclear Security Administration shipments of transuranic waste from the Department of Energy’s Los Alamos National Laboratory to the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant near Carlsbad, N.M., remain suspended following a February drum sparking incident, a spokesperson for the disposal site said this week. “Shipments from LANL-NNSA [Los Alamos National Laboratory-National Nuclear Security Administration] remain paused,” […]

Sen. Maria Cantwell (D-Wash.) used a Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee hearing Tuesday to question Secretary of Energy Jennifer Granholm on why the Joe Biden administration’s $7.6-billion budget request for nuclear cleanup trims funding for the Hanford Site during fiscal 2022. The White House has proposed to split about $2.47 billion between Hanford’s two […]

The Department of Energy expects the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant could receive up to 14 shipments of transuranic material a week in fiscal year 2022, which starts Oct. 1. The DOE Office of Environmental Management rate of shipments to the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) should go from 10 per week to 14 per week […]

The Amentum-BWX Technologies joint venture that runs the Department of Energy’s Waste Isolation Pilot Plant in New Mexico will be kept on at least until early 2022 as the agency moves ahead with its solicitation for a new prime, according to a nugget tucked inside the White House budget justification for the Office of Environmental […]

The Hanford Site in Washington State would receive a haircut under President Joe Biden’s budget request for the Department of Energy in fiscal 2022, but still account for nearly a third of the entire $7.6-billion budget sought for the Department of Energy’s Office of Environmental Management. Should the spending package for cleanup at the former […]

The Department of Energy’s environmental liability, which stands at more than a half-trillion dollars, continues to grow and most of it is concentrated in the agency’s nuclear cleanup office, the Government Accountability Office said Tuesday in an update to Congress. The DOE liability stands at $512 billion as of fiscal 2020, which is the most […]

Fluor-led Savannah River Nuclear Solutions took home $44.6 or 96% of nearly $46 million in available fee for its work as operator of the Department of Energy’s Savannah River Site in South Carolina for the 16-month period ended Nov. 30. That is according to the latest fee scorecard for the joint venture published Tuesday by […]

Frank Sheppard, former Parsons senior vice president and project manager of the Salt Waste Processing Facility at the Department of Energy’s Savannah River Site in South Carolina, is now part of a senior leadership board with Huntington Ingalls Industries (HII), a company spokesperson confirmed Thursday. Parsons joined Huntington Ingalls in January and “is part of […]

A federal judge in South Carolina has dismissed a racial discrimination lawsuit brought by a white former employee of the management contractor for the Department of Energy’s Savannah River Site. In a May 27 order, U.S. District Court Judge Joseph Anderson, Jr., dismissed the case brought against Savannah River Nuclear Solutions (SRNS) by plaintiff Christopher […]

The Small Business Administration, Swift & Staley and a firm that successfully challenged the latter’s size eligibility for a Department of Energy landlord contract at the Paducah Site in Kentucky have until after Independence Day to file briefs with the U.S. Court of Federal Claims. Federal Claims Judge Thompson Dietz last week gave the government, […]

The April announcement from the Department of Energy that the B-109 tank is leaking at the Hanford Site in Washington state is not a cause for alarm, site manager Brian Vance said this week. The single-shell tank is leaking at the rate of about 1,000 to 1,500 gallons per year, Vance told an online meeting […]

The Joe Biden administration’s $7.6-billion budget request for the Office of Environmental Management was the largest request for nuclear-weapons cleanup since 2015, the office’s acting head told contractors Thursday. Biden’s ask is the “largest administrative request for environmental management that I can recall,” William (Ike) White, acting assistant secretary for environmental management, told the Energy […]

While not divulging details yet, the manager of the Department of Energy’s Hanford Site in Washington state says the complex will loosen its COVID-19 protocols for fully-vaccinated workers next week. The relaxed rules will technically go into effect Friday, which is not a workday at the site, Brian Vance, the top federal boss at the […]

The head of the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board told federal contractors Thursday her agency could approve a memorandum of understanding on its “rules of the road” with the Department of Energy as early as next month. “We did have a great conversation with Deputy Secretary [David] Turk earlier this year and “it looks like […]

The Department of Energy’s Office of Environmental Management on Thursday published its potential $100-million solicitation for a new waste haulage contract for the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant in New Mexico. CAST Specialty Transportation has the current five-year, $112-million contract, set to expire May 27, 2022, for moving transuranic material from DOE generator sites to the […]

After a Department of Energy review prompted by a contract challenge, a joint venture led by Securitas CIS is keeping its $1-billion Security Services contract at the Savannah River Site in South Carolina. The DOE Office of Environmental Management said in a Thursday press release that SRS Critical Infrastructure Security is retaining the contract awarded […]

The Washington state Department of Ecology will continue so-called “holistic” negotiations on Hanford Site cleanup milestones with the Department of Energy and the Environmental Protection Agency at least through the end of June, a state spokesman said this week. “We do have authorization to continue talks through June. No timeline yet for documentation of an […]