Bechtel

Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee (R) proposed plans this week for his state to spend $50 million to support the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) Clinch River small modular reactor project Lee’s proposal during Monday’s State of the State address comes about a month after a TVA-led coalition submitted an $800 million grant proposal to the Department […]

Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee (R) proposed plans this week for his state to spend $50 million to support the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) Clinch River small modular reactor project Lee’s proposal during Monday’s State of the State address comes about a month after a TVA-led coalition submitted an $800 million grant proposal to the Department […]

The Department of Energy’s Waste Isolation Pilot Plant near Carlsbad, N.M., received at least 36 shipments of transuranic waste in November, according to its public website. It takes about two weeks for shipments to appear on the DOE website. As of Wednesday, the latest received shipment posted was on Nov. 27, the day before Thanksgiving. […]

Both the prime for the Department of Energy’s transuranic waste disposal site near Carlsbad, N.M., and the legacy cleanup contractor at the Los Alamos National Laboratory received good reviews from DOE’s Office of Environmental Management for fiscal 2024. The Huntington Ingalls Industries-led cleanup contractor, Newport News Nuclear BWXT (N3B)-Los Alamos, earned 82% of its subjective […]

Mission Operations Alliance, a limited liability corporation, has filed a second bid protest with the Government Accountability Office over the Department of Energy’s $2.3-billion award to an Atkins-led group at former uranium enrichment sites in Ohio and Kentucky. The latest bid protest by the Bechtel-led Mission Operations Alliance was filed Dec. 6 with the Government […]

Mission Operations Alliance, a limited liability corporation, has filed a second bid protest with the Government Accountability Office over the Department of Energy’s $2.3-billion award to an Atkins-led group at former uranium enrichment sites in Ohio and Kentucky. The latest bid protest by the Bechtel-led Mission Operations Alliance was filed Dec. 6 with the Government […]

The Waste Treatment and Immobilization Plant at the Hanford site will begin processing non-radioactive simulant waste in ‘a few weeks,’ a site spokesperson said Monday. The non-radioactive simulant, which is still chemically hazardous, is a stand-in for the liquid radioactive waste the facility was built to solidify, according to the site. Processing the non-radioactive liquid […]

The Department of Energy’s Waste Isolation Pilot Plant near Carlsbad, N.M., received 29 shipments of defense-related transuranic waste during October, according to figures posted on the facility’s public website. There were 24 shipments from the Idaho National Laboratory, four from the Savannah River Site in South Carolina and one from the Los Alamos National Laboratory […]

At least one protest was filed over the Department of Energy’s decision this month to award an Atkins-led team $2.3 billion of work at the agency’s Portsmouth and Paducah sites. A limited liability corporation called Mission Operations Alliance filed a bid protest Tuesday with the Government Accountability Office (GAO), according to an online notice. Two […]

By spring, the Department of Energy and its prime contractor for the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant in New Mexico expect to complete overhauling an underground staging area for lifting mined salt to the surface, DOE said Tuesday. “The team is in the process of safely demolishing the old structural steel and will begin work on […]

The Department of Energy and its prime contractor for it transuranic waste disposal site near Carlsbad, N.M., will release a report soon to help define what constitutes legacy transuranic waste, site managers said last week at a public meeting. The legacy waste disposal plan for the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) should be out around […]

The Department of Energy is on track to start operation of a major new underground ventilation system for the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant in New Mexico in 2026, managers for DOE and the disposal site contractor said last week. Construction and integrated system testing is complete for the Safety Significant Confinement Ventilation System (SSCVS) at […]

While the Department of Energy’s Waste Isolation Pilot Plant in Eddy County, N.M., received 490 shipments during fiscal 2024, DOE envisions a more modest 425 shipments during fiscal 2025, top managers said during a public meeting last week. For the short term at least, the rate of defense-related transuranic waste shipments is “probably going to […]

Publicly-traded companies involved with Department of Energy nuclear programs were not exempt from Monday’s stock market nosedive, although most rallied by the close of trading Thursday. Companies that are big players in both the DOE Office of Environmental Management and National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) and Office of Nuclear Energy posted per-share declines on Monday, […]

A federal district court judge in Washington state last week formally approved giving the Department of Energy four more months to start cold commissioning of a facility to turn some of the less radioactive waste at the Hanford Site into a solid glass form. The prior deadline was Thursday Aug. 1 for startup of cold […]

A federal district court judge in Washington state last week formally approved giving the Department of Energy four more months to start cold commissioning of a facility to turn some of the less radioactive waste at the Hanford Site into a solid glass form. The prior deadline was Thursday Aug. 1 for startup of cold […]

The Department of Energy and its Waste Isolation Pilot Plant prime expect to file a draft plan with New Mexico regulators in November seeking to define “legacy” transuranic waste, managers said during a public meeting Tuesday. The draft will be filed Nov. 3 with the New Mexico Environment Department as required by the new 10-year […]

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is accepting comments between now and Sept. 16 on the Department of Energy’s plans for two new disposal panels at the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant near Carlsbad, N.M. The new panels will help the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) replace disposal capacity lost due to the February 2014 underground radiological […]

The Department of Energy’s Hanford Site could still use the help of a mediator to resolve its differences with the Washington state Department of Ecology over contaminated soil at the Hanford Site, a congressional watchdog agency said this week. The so-called holistic agreement that DOE, the state and the Environmental Protection Agency reached on Hanford […]

The construction subcontractor could formally transfer possession of the new underground ventilation system at the Department of Energy’s transuranic waste disposal site in New Mexico to the Bechtel-led prime contractor by the end of August, according to a government safety board. The tentative date for turnover from the construction subcontractor to Waste Isolation Pilot Plant […]

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit has ordered final briefs by July 18 in a COVID-19 vaccination lawsuit brought by a former employee against the Department of Energy’s environmental prime at the Oak Ridge Site in Tennessee. The Cincinnati-based federal appeals court said May 31 it “has determined that oral argument is […]

The Department of Energy expects to miss a legally binding Aug. 1 milestone for starting cold commissioning, making glass from non-radioactive liquid, at the Waste Treatment and Immobilization Plant at the Hanford Site in Washington state. DOE’s site manager for the former plutonium production complex, Brian Vance, told the Washington Department of Ecology of the […]

LOUISVILLE, KY. —A readiness assessment should occur by December for the new ventilation system at the Department of Energy’s disposal site in New Mexico for defense-related transuranic waste, a manager for the prime said here Tuesday. That review and a DOE safety assessment should clear the way the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) to start […]

LOUISVILLE, KY. —A readiness assessment should occur by December for the new ventilation system at the Department of Energy’s disposal site in New Mexico for defense-related transuranic waste, a manager for prime said here Tuesday. That review and a DOE safety assessment should clear the way the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) to start phasing […]

After multiple incidents and two recordable injuries this spring, the prime contractor has tried a “safety stand-down” for both surface and underground work at the Department of Energy’s Waste Isolation Pilot Plant in New Mexico, according to a safety board report. Salado Isolation Mining Contractors, made up of Bechtel and subcontractor Los Alamos Technical Associates, […]

The Department of Energy’s Waste Isolation Pilot Plant near Carlsbad, N.M., received 54 shipments of defense-related transuranic waste during April, according to the disposal facility’s public website. April marked the first full month of shipments since the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) ended an extended maintenance outage that kept the facility offline for February. Shipments […]

The Department of Energy prime for the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant in New Mexico has hired a mine company to refurbish a large underground salt bin this year. Bechtel’s Salado Isolation Mining Contractors, which runs the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) for DOE, has retained Cementation, a mine development company with offices in Utah and […]

The Department of Energy’s Waste Isolation Pilot Plant in New Mexico, coming out of a maintenance outage, received 23 shipments of transuranic waste during the last half of March, according to online data. Because of the extended maintenance outage, which kept the underground salt mine offline all of February, shipment only resumed March 15. The […]

Federal and state agencies could soon provide details about a new conceptual agreement for cleanup at the Department of Energy’s Hanford Site in Washington state, Sen. Maria Cantwell (D-Wash.), said Tuesday. Cantwell spoke during a Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee hearing on DOE’s fiscal 2025 budget request. The conceptual agreement, announced in May 2023, […]

The Department of Energy’s Waste Isolation Pilot Plant in New Mexico, coming out of a maintenance outage, received 23 shipments of transuranic waste during the last half of March, according to online data. Because of the extended maintenance outage, which kept the underground salt mine offline all of February, shipment only resumed March 15. The […]