Atkins Nuclear Secured Holding Corp. broke ground Tuesday on a new $20-million technology center in Richland, Wash., near the Department of Energy’s Hanford Site.
Located next door to the current Atkins Engineering Laboratory, the new facility will have a 16,000-square-foot high-bay testing area specifically to develop innovative nuclear and environmental cleanup technologies, the SNC-Lavalin company said in a Wednesday press release.
“This is a big day for us and a very tangible demonstration of our commitment to this community and the important work being done at Hanford,” said Tom Jouvanis, President, Atkins Nuclear Secured. Atkins is working with Fowler General Construction in building the center.
Richland Mayor Michael Alvarez said the new center “will allow students [at Washington State University Tri-Cities] to be a part of engineering and technological innovation which will attract and keep future generations of leaders right here in the Tri-Cities.”
Kristen Ellis, a longtime hand at the Department of Energy, was appointed to the Senior Executive Service, Office of Environmental Management Special Adviser William (Ike) White said last week.
A 21-year veteran of DOE, Ellis is now director for regulatory, intergovernmental, and stakeholder engagement within the Office of Regulatory and Policy Affairs, having served as acting director since June 2021, White said in a Sept. 9 email viewed by ExchangeMonitor.
During her DOE tenure, Ellis has also served as chief of staff to the department’s undersecretary for science during the Donald Trump administration, Paul Dabbar, White said. Ellis has also been Environmental Management’s director of external affairs.
The Senior Executive Service was created via the Civil Service Reform Act of 1978 for staff with executive-level skills serving just below the level of presidential appointee, according to the White House Office of Personnel Management.
Department of Energy contractor Parsons Corp. has been awarded a potential five-year contract worth up to $160 million for enterprise construction management services for DOE and its semi-autonomous National Nuclear Security Administration, the company said last week.
The contract is a blanket purchase agreement with a one-year base period with four single-year options, the company said in a Sept. 8 press release. Parsons has long done such work for the National Nuclear Security Administration.
Services available through task orders under this contract range from technology program strategic planning to design, engineering and construction management, according to the release. A Parsons-led team that also consists of Augur Consulting, Crawford Consulting Services, JGMS Government Services and Longenecker and Associates, will support DOE and the National Nuclear Security Administration under the contract.
One of the company’s bigger DOE weapons complex contracts in recent years was construction of the Salt Waste Processing Facility at the Savannah River Site in South Carolina.
