Workers for Idaho National Laboratory cleanup contractor Fluor Idaho have full access to glove boxes following an extended suspension of operations after an employee suffered a puncture wound on June 5.
The incident occurred while the employee was conducing cleanup activities in a glove box at the lab’s Advanced Mixed Waste Treatment Project (AMWTP). By June 26, most cleanup-related glove boxes were again in use, and that was extended to the AMWTP supercompactor area as of last week after “additional improvements were implemented,” according to a press release Tuesday from Fluor Idaho.
Fluor Idaho has already mandated that glove-box operators use sleeves designed to prevent punctures and has placed thicker gloves in the devices, the release says. The company also intends to revise its glove-box operating procedures.
Further safety steps could be directed based on the findings of a causal analysis team established to study the accident, Fluor Idaho said.
Glove boxes are sealed containers used for safe work with radioactive or hazardous substances.
The company initiated a partial “stop work” order following the incident in which an unidentified object penetrated the worker’s protective equipment while the employee reached across the glove-box tray. The worker received medical attention and was cleared to return to work.
The suspension covered radiological work in glove boxes and other radiologically contaminated areas where sharp tools are used. Fluor Idaho and DOE this week did not respond to request for more detail about the situation.
The U.S. Department of Energy will argue in September why a federal court in South Carolina should not have prevented the agency from shuttering the Savannah River Site’s Mixed Oxide Fuel Fabrication Facility (MFFF).
Designed to convert weapon-usable plutonium into commercial nuclear reactor fuel, construction at the unfinished MFFF was expected to halt around June 11, per a May 10 directive from Energy Secretary Rick Perry. But in a May 25 lawsuit to protect the project, South Carolina asked U.S. District Judge J. Michelle Childs to issue a preliminary injunction to prevent a full work stoppage at the facility. Childs granted the request on June 7.
The Energy Department is appealing Childs’ decision to the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals. The court announced on July 20 that oral arguments are scheduled for Sept. 27 in Richmond, Va. Each party will have a chance to provide testimony and to respond to the other party.
Last week, Childs froze the full case until the appeals court makes it decision. While the full lawsuit is seeking a permanent decision to continue building MOX, the injunction request asked for a speedy decision to prevent DOE from terminating the project while the case is open.
The MOX project is billions of dollars over budget and years behind schedule, carrying a DOE projected life-cycle cost of $51 billion. That figure, which includes the $5 billion already spent, is three times more than the original estimate when construction began in 2007.
The Energy Department wants to repurpose the facility to make nuclear warhead cores, or plutonium pits. The 34 metric tons of plutonium that would be converted at the MFFF would instead be diluted at Savannah River and shipped to the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) in New Mexico for permanent disposal.
South Carolina argued in the motion for the injunction that DOE had not conducted the proper safety and environmental protocols before making that decision. Childs agreed in her June 7 ruling, stating DOE can’t shutter the MOX project until it produces an environmental impact statement (EIS) on the risks and impacts of terminating work at the facility near Aiken, S.C., as the National Environmental Policy Act requires.
The Department of Energy on Monday took an early step toward issuing a contract for storage of thousands of tons of elemental mercury in coming years.
The department’s Office of Environmental Management is seeking expressions of interest for contractors that could be willing to provide facilities, gear, workers, and other resources needed for receiving and storing elemental mercury. In a notice, the EM Consolidated Business Center cautioned that the notice is not a request for proposals and “does not constitute any commitment for future solicitation.”
The amended Mercury Export Ban Act requires DOE to begin operating at least one long-term storage facility for elemental mercury by Jan. 1 of next year. As federal agencies are prohibited under the act from exporting the material, it would instead go into the Energy Department-designated site. The material – the least toxic form of mercury — would come from commercial mercury recyclers, gold mines, and plants that produce chlorine and caustic soda, according to a DOE fact sheet. Generators would pay a fee to cover the storage expenses.
The storage inventory would increase to upward of 9,615 metric tons over 40 years, according to a DOE projection. Long-term storage is designated as 40 years in the fact sheet.
Responses from interested parties should include a description of the respondent’s capacity to carry out the scope of work; suggestions on leasing and contract formats for the work, specifically possible employment of multiple-award indefinite-delivery/indefinite quantity contracts or basic ordering agreements; means for reducing risks in the scope of work; and other information.
Interested parties have until Aug. 6 to submit responses to the DOE notice, by email to contracting officer Carin Boyd at [email protected].
The Department of Energy on Thursday released a draft request for proposals for what could be a 10-year contract for environmental management services in Nevada.
Navarro Research and Engineering has the contract awarded in September 2014 and valued at over $64 million. The last option period on the contract expires Jan. 31, 2020.
Nevada Environmental Program Services (EPS) cover environmental characterization and remediation at the Nevada National Security Site (NNSS) and parts of the Nevada Test and Training Range, including the Tonopah Test Range, along with acceptance services at generator sites across the country for radioactive waste to be disposed of at NNSS
“The purpose of the Draft RFP is to solicit input from interested parties to assist DOE in developing a Final RFP for this procurement,” according to an announcement from DOE’s Environmental Management Consolidated Business Center. “DOE would like to solicit input from industry and community stakeholders by providing proposed end states within the contract ordering period. DOE is looking for end states that achieve a reduction in environmental liability and risk reduction.”
The department expects during the week of Aug. 13 to conduct a presolicitation conference, community day, individual meetings, and site tour. Registration requests must be submitted by July 31.
Navarro sent representatives to a Jan. 23 industry day on the pending procurement, along with DOE contractors including Pro2Serve, Los Alamos Technical Associates, Veolia, Leidos, and North Wind. Navarro did not respond by deadline Friday on whether it planned to compete to keep the contract.
The Department of Energy’s Office of Environmental Management (EM) has issued a non-competed $1.8 million, one-year contract for information technology cybersecurity at its headquarters.
The contract was not put out for open bidding to avoid a lapse in cybersecurity services after the prior provider informed EM on May 1 that its shaky financial status would force it to end work on the DOE contract at end of that month. Discussions between the company and DOE later pushed the performance period to June 30.
The Environmental Management office had last year been forced to shift some cybersecurity support work to the overall Energy Department information-technology contract, according to the late-June procurement notice from the EM Consolidated Business Center (EMCBC), posted this week on a federal contracting website.
New contractor Cyber Security Professionals is already providing cybersecurity services on a subcontracting basis, the notice says. “It is the opinion of the Acquisition Initiator that CSP is uniquely qualified and highly capable of providing DOE with the critical cyber security support services at a reasonable price through a separate prime contract.”
The services ultimately are expected to be shifted to the Energy Department corporate information-technology contract, which is now out for bid. The one-year award for Cyber Security Professionals is expected to be sufficient to bridge the gap, EMCBC said.
