The Department of Energy’s Office of Environmental Management expects to issue at most two final solicitations between now and September, according to a quarterly notice published Wednesday.
The final request for proposals (RFP) for Consolidated Technical Support Services would be released no sooner than June and the Paducah Infrastructure Support Services contract no sooner than July. That’s according to a notice posted in the March 20 System for Award Management (sam.gov). The draft RFP for the potential $90-million technical support services award was announced earlier this month.
The DOE cleanup branch issued a request for information last July on the Paducah landlord contract. Incumbent Swift & Staley holds the business, now worth $396-million, under a contract that began in October 2015. In March 2023, DOE canceled a new landlord contract award for Swift & Staley four months after the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit said the company exceeded the small business size standard for the 2020 contract award.
A trio of managers from branches of the Department of Energy at the Idaho National Laboratory planned to travel to Washington, D.C., later this month to brief congressional staffers on sitewide spent nuclear fuel management at the lab.
Connie Flohr, who is retiring from DOE next month, said at the Waste Management Symposia conference she will be part of a team to brief Senate and House of Representatives staff March 28 on a new sitewide waste spent fuel management plan. Flohr now holds the title of special adviser for the Idaho Cleanup Project after passing the DOE cleanup manager post to her former deputy Mark Brown, last week.
Flohr will be accompanied by DOE Office of Nuclear Energy manager at Idaho, Lance Lacroix, and Gil Pratt, a manager for the Naval Nuclear Propulsion Program within DOE’s National Nuclear Security Administration. All three were part of an Idaho National Laboratory panel discussion March 13 at the conference.
The second phase of construction for a new onsite landfill is underway at the Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge Site in Tennessee, the agency said last week.
This phase involves taking down trees, groundwater monitoring and other chores. A minority-owned small business, CTI and Associates, was hired to do a groundwater demonstration study, the site prime contractor, Amentum-led United Cleanup Oak Ridge (UCOR), said last week in a press release. The first phase of landfill construction, which includes rerouting Bear Creek Road and Haul Road, should be wrapped up this spring, DOE said in the press release.
DOE and UCOR held a groundbreaking ceremony for the 2.2-million-cubic-yard Environmental Management Disposal Facility in August. It will eventually replace the existing Environmental Management Waste Management Facility, which should be full within four years or so.
Michael Moulin-Ramsden, a former Veolia Nuclear Solutions manager, joined Alpha Safety last month as its director of business development for the United Kingdom and Continental Europe, according to a LinkedIn post.
Moulin-Ramsden, who spent about eight years with Veolia in business development roles, is also a founding director of a consulting firm, Haslam Advisory Ltd.
Aiken, S.C.-based Citizens for Nuclear Technology Awareness this month announced changes to its board of directors.
New additions to the board are Kenny Lee, mechanical equipment engineer with Merrick & Company as well as Scott McKay, dean of the College of Science and Engineering and the assistant vice chancellor of research at the University of South Carolina – Aiken. Aiken Technical College President Forest Mahan is the group’s new chair. Jesus Mancilla, a manager for Department of Energy contractor Savannah River Nuclear Solutions is the new vice chair and Charlie Hansen, a retired contractor and former Naval Nuclear Propulsion Program manager, is returning for another term as treasurer.
In a March 11 press release, Citizens for Nuclear Technology Awareness thanked departing board members Steve Sheetz, a retired Savannah River National Laboratory manager, Wyatt Clarkan executive for Savannah River Mission Completion, for their service.
Dennis Faulk, a retired Environmental Protection Agency manager who regulated the Department of Energy’s nuclear cleanup at the Hanford Site in Washington state for years, died earlier this week after his car was engulfed by water, according to published reports.
The Tri-City Herald and other local news outlets, citing the Washington State Patrol, reported the 64-year-old Faulk was in the vicinity of Copalis Beach in Grays Harbor County, Wash., Monday evening when his sport utility vehicle entered a river access point. The automobile started to flood and was soon submerged, according to the Thursday article. Faulk was taken to Aberdeen Community Hospital and died Tuesday, according to the highway patrol, which said the investigation is continuing.
Faulk retired as EPA’s Hanford manager in the summer of 2017 and was succeeded by Dave Einan the following January. Before joining EPA in the 1990s, Faulk taught school and worked for Hanford for years, including a stint at the Plutonium Finishing Plant, he told the Atomic Heritage Foundation in a May 2019 interview posted online.
