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David Walker, the president of Bechtel National, was in town this week (reportedly for a board of managers meeting at Y-12) and was in attendance at Tuesday's ceremony marking the start of demolition at K-25 (that's being conducted by Bechtel Jacobs). Bechtel, of course, is a huge contracting force in the DOE/NNSA complex, but I don't see Walker often in Oak Ridge. So I took the opportunity to approach him at the K-25 event for a couple of questions.

Bechtel SAIC Corp. LLC was recently ousted as longtime manager of the U.S. Department of Energy's nuclear waste depository project at Yucca Mountain located 90 miles northwest of Las Vegas. The unexpected move comes at a time of great uncertainty for the project with the presidential elections and likely change of top Energy Department officials. The most recent price for the depository is $90 billion, or $19 billion more than last year's estimate. Mounting federal debt makes the undertaking, whose history stretches back to 1978, costly given the economy's struggles. San Francisco-based Bechtel and SAIC of San Diego lost their bid to keep the job they had held since 2001. TRW Environmental Safety Systems of Fairfax, Va., served as manager before them. Bechtel is also construction manager for McCarran International Airport's f $3.8 billion capital improvement program.

The Department of Energy and Bechtel Jacobs Co. have reached agreement on a newly restructured contract, valued at $1.48 billion, for Oak Ridge cleanup activities through 2011. The new contract replaces Bechtel Jacobs' previous contract and extends the contract period. It also establishes a fixed fee for the company's future work and includes a settlement on previous fees owed to Bechtel Jacobs, which had been the subject of lengthy negotiations.

Egypt will invite Australia's WorleyParsons to negotiate terms for a nuclear power plant consultancy after talks with tender-winner Bechtel Power Corp stalled, state news agency MENA said on Sunday. WorleyParsons had come in second to U.S.-based Bechtel Power Corp in a tender by Egypt's ministry of electricity and energy to consult on the country's first nuclear power plant, a ministry official said in remarks cited by MENA. The agency gave no reason for why talks with Bechtel had foundered.

"Bechtel Jacobs Co., a partnership of Bechtel National and Jacobs Engineering (reportedly a 60/40 arrangement), has been the Dept. of Energy's environmental manager in Oak Ridge since 1998 -- when DOE established the cleanup role as part of its contract reform effort. That contracting relationship is coming to an end, with DOE's announced plan to have a new contractor in place July 1, 2011. A request for proposals on the contract is expected to be issued soon by DOE's Oak Ridge office. So, what happens to Bechtel Jacobs?"

Four years after cleanup work began at the notorious David Witherspoon scrap operations in the Vestal community of South Knoxville, the job is almost done. That's the word from Bechtel Jacobs Co., the Dept. of Energy's environmental contractor. So far, about 235,000 cubic yards of contaminated soil and debris have been removed from two Witherspoon sites off Maryville Pike and hauled to Oak Ridge for disposal at DOE's nuclear landfill. Bechtel Jacobs spokesman Dennis Hill said that's enough to cover a football field (including the end zones) to a depth of 100 feet. Bechtel Jacobs said work should be completed in early 2009, possibly as early as January.

Company will take over management of Niskayuna atomic power lab from Lockheed Martin NISKAYUNA -- In a move that was not unexpected, Bechtel has been awarded a contract by the Department of Energy to manage the Knolls Atomic Power Laboratory in Niskayuna. Bechtel subsidiary Bechtel Marine Propulsion won the $9.7 billion contract, which also includes management of the Bettis Atomic Power Laboratory outside Pittsburgh.

The Department of Energy has confirmed plans to rebid the Oak Ridge cleanup contract currently held by Bechtel Jacobs Co. Bechtel Jacobs has been DOE's cleanup manager since 1998 and the current pact, originally scheduled to conclude this year, was extended through 2011 to make progress on the much-delayed dismantlement project at the K-25 and K-27 uranium-enrichment facilities.

Department of Energy Manager Gerald Boyd said it's "sort of doubtful" that Bechtel Jacobs Co., DOE's cleanup manager in Oak Ridge, will complete the demolition of K-25 by the end 2011 - when the company's contract is due to expire - and federal officials are starting to make other plans. Last year, DOE extended and modified the BJC contract, valued at $1.48 billion, to allow the contractor to finish work on the mile-long and massively contaminated building that once processed uranium for the nation's Cold War arsenal of nuclear weapons.

Department of Energy Manager Gerald Boyd said it's "sort of doubtful" that Bechtel Jacobs Co., DOE's cleanup manager in Oak Ridge, will complete the demolition of K-25 by the end 2011 - when the company's contract is due to expire - and federal officials are starting to make other plans. Last year, DOE extended and modified the BJC contract, valued at $1.48 billion, to allow the contractor to finish work on the mile-long and massively contaminated building that once processed uranium for the nation's Cold War arsenal of nuclear weapons.

The Department of Energy plans to fine Bechtel National $385,000 over repeated quality problems at Hanford's vitrification plant. The contractor designing and constructing the plant has had numerous opportunities to correct problems in the ordering and manufacturing of piping to be used in black cells, Martha Thompson, acting director of the DOE Office of Health, Safety and Security's Office of Enforcement, wrote in a letter to Bechtel on Wednesday. The largest portion of the fine, $220,000, will be for failing to improve quality. The remainder of the fine will cover problems related to the piping, such as what DOE found to be inadequate work procedures and design problems.

The Department of Energy plans to fine Bechtel National $41,250 for laying off an engineer after he raised concerns in 2005 related to the safety of Hanford's vitrification plant. The DOE Office of Enforcement later concluded one of the employee's safety concerns, which were related to the software that will control the plant, was valid and issued a notice of violation to Bechtel about the issue in 2007.

The Department of Energy is concerned about an increase in accidents requiring medical attention and other safety-related incidents at the Hanford vitrification plant this year. "The (vitrification plant) project has recently experienced several reportable and nonreportable events that indicate the construction site safety performance may be in jeopardy," wrote John Eschenberg, DOE manager of the vitrification plant project, in a letter to Bechtel National. The problems "may have resulted from a fundamental breakdown in work planning, hazards identification and control, and/or a generally poor level of diligence and awareness," Eschenberg wrote. Bechtel is redoubling its safety efforts to reverse the trend, said Ted Feigenbaum, the new Bechtel project director for the Waste Treatment Plant, or vitrification plant.

A labor agreement for the potential construction of a new nuclear unit at the Calvert Cliffs nuclear power plant in Maryland was signed with Bechtel Construction Co., the AFL-CIO Building and Construction Trades Department, or BCTD, said June 1. Bechtel and the BCTD said in April 2008 that they were negotiating a labor agreement to lay out the terms for wages, benefits, work hours and working conditions for skilled craft workers on UniStar Nuclear Energy's planned Calvert Cliffs-3 project. UniStar, a joint venture of Constellation Energy and EDF Group, wants to build a fleet of Areva US-EPRs in the US, beginning with a new unit at its two-reactor Calvert Cliffs site.

As of Sept. 30, 2008, the total assets in the BJC pension fund for grandfathered employees were $219 million, according to info provided by Bechtel Jacobs. "The pension plan is not fully funded at this time," Bechtel Jacobs said, but declined to put a percentage on it. Company spokesman Dennis Hill said the company was meeting its requirements. "For a multi-employer plan, the funding regulations require a minimum funding level of 80%," BJC said in a statement. "As required under federal law, all multi-employer plans must provide an annual funding notice to the participants of the pension plant, which will be done in the next few weeks." There are 2,114 participants or beneficiaries covered by the plan

Bechtel National has taken disciplinary action against four managers at the Hanford vitrification plant for reportedly eavesdropping on a meeting between safety representatives and the Department of Energy. An investigation was begun by Bechtel 12 days ago after an anonymous call was made to an employee concerns program.

Faced with a paper trail of minor maintenance problems and mounting pressure from regulators, Southern California Edison has changed maintenance contractors at the San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station. Gil Alexander, a spokesman for Southern California Edison, the plant's majority owner and operator, said Friday that the company has hired Louisiana-based Shaw Industries to conduct all maintenance operations at the seaside plant. Since 1994 that work had been done by multinational Bechtel Inc., which also helped build the plant's atom splitters in the late 1980s. Shaw also performs maintenance activities at 36 of the nation's 104 operating nuclear power plants. A division of Bechtel has been working for years on an $800 million project to replace steam generators inside both of San Onofre's concrete containment domes. Alexander said the company will continue to work on that project.

"The Dept. of Energy announced late today that it had issued a series of safety and security violations against Bechtel Jacobs Co., DOE's cleanup manager in Oak Ridge since 1998. The security violations pertain to a 2007 incident in which Roy Lynn Oakley was arrested and later convicted of stealing and attempting to sell classified equipment from the uranium-enrichment operation at K-25. BJC was fined $562,500 for the security violations associated with those events. Even though DOE said it was unlikely any sensitive information or materials ended up in foreign hands, the agency said it was levying the fine "to help prevent future breaches of security.""

The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) today issued a Preliminary Notice of Violation (PNOV) to Bechtel National, Inc. (BNI) for nuclear safety violations at DOE's Hanford Site near Richland, Washington. BNI is the contractor responsible for the design and construction of the Waste Treatment and Immobilization Plant (WTP) at the Hanford Site in southeast Washington State.

Bechtel Power Corp has won the contract to design and consult on Egypt's first nuclear power plant, Electricity Minister Hassan Ahmed Younes said on Monday. The contract, with a price tag of 1 billion Egyptian pounds ($180 million), is for 10 years, Younes told a news conference called to announce the winner in the tender. ($1 = 5.5162 Egyptian pounds)

U.S.-based Bechtel Power Corp is leading a shortlist of firms and consortia bidding to design Egypt's first nuclear power station, an official at the ministry of electricity said. Speaking on condition of anonymity, the official said the other firms on the shortlist included Australia's WorleyParsons, Sweden's AF Consult, a consortium of Spain's Iberdrola and Empresarios Agrupados, a consortium of Finland's Poyry and Invap of Argentina, a consortium including Belgian Tractebel, and a group of U.S. companies with Egypt's Excel.