The head of the joint venture that manages the Department of Energy’s Savannah River Site expects the rate of employee COVID-19 vaccinations to go from a trickle to a steady stream in the near future.
“We have about 1,500 folks that have an appointment ready to go for their vaccinations,” within the next couple of weeks, Savannah River Nuclear Solutions President and CEO Stuart MacVean told the South Carolina Nuclear Advisory Council on Monday.
“We probably have 750 to 1,000 folks who have managed to get at least their first vaccination” and that additional 1,500 in the pipeline, MacVean said, adding the Savannah River could hit 3,000 total vaccinations within weeks.
That would represent more than a quarter of the 11,000-member federal and contractor workforce at the DOE facility located near the Georgia line. MacVean said some medical and first responder staff at Savannah River managed to be vaccinated for COVID-19 during the early phases of the South Carolina shot distribution program, and progress is starting to “ramp up” with people younger than 65 becoming eligible, he said.
About 75% of Savannah River Site’s office workers are working remotely while about a third of the plant workforce at the site are using telework, MacVean said.
Michael Budney, manager for the DOE Office of Environmental Management, said more than 2,000 people in the office’s nationwide cleanup complex have contracted COVID-19 since the pandemic began domestically in early 2020. Unfortunately, there have been some fatalities, he said.
Virginia-based Bechtel announced in a press release this week that Stephen Bechtel Jr., who served three decades as CEO of the privately-held company that bears his family’s name, died Monday at age 95.
In 1960 Stephen Bechtel Jr. became CEO of the company started by his grandfather in 1898, according to the Washington Post, and would continue as its chief executive until 1990 when he turned 65 and was succeeded in the top post by his son. He continued to serve on the board of directors for the engineering, operations and construction giant until 2018, and by that time his grandson, Brendan Bechtel, had taken over as CEO.
Stephen Bechtel Jr. started out at his grandfather’s company as a field engineer in 1948 and during his tenure as CEO would see the organization’s sales increase 11-fold, according to a Washington Post obituary Tuesday. Projects built during his tenure at the company’s helm ranged from the Bay Area Rapid Transit system in San Francisco to the King Khalid International Airport in Saudi Arabia.
It marks the second death of a former Bechtel executive in a little more than a month. George Shultz, a former Bechtel executive vice president who was better known as an adviser to several Republican presidents, died in February at age 100.
Bechtel currently has a multibillion-dollar contract to construct the Waste Treatment Plant at the Department of Energy’s Hanford Site in Washington state. It is also the lead partner in Consolidated Nuclear Security, the outgoing management and operations contractor for the Pantex Plant in Texas and the Y-12 National Security Complex in Tennessee, which are owned by the DOE’s semi-autonomous National Nuclear Security Administration.
The Department of Energy plans a virtual pre-solicitation conference March 30 to share details on procurement for the new Waste Isolation Pilot Plant Transportation Services Contract.
The DOE cleanup office plans to skip the draft-request-for-proposals stage and issue a final solicitation this spring, possibly in May.
The DOE’s Office of Environmental Management will hold the conference via Webex, due to COVID-19 restrictions, at 11:30 a.m. Eastern Time, according to a procurement notice dated March 8. Anyone interested in attending should register here by 4 p.m. Eastern Time on March 26.
A request for information for transportation to the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) was issued in August 2020.
CAST Specialty Transportation holds the current five-year, $112-million contract scheduled to expire in May 2022. It trucks transuranic waste from DOE-approved generator sites to the underground salt mine near Carlsbad, N.M. The hazardous materials hauler founded in 1948 has locations in Carlsbad, Denver, Richland, Wash., and Kingston, Tenn., according to the company website.
Questions about information offered during the March 30 conference should be submitted by 4 p.m. on April 5 and should be emailed to [email protected].
