Bechtel

A transuranic waste container potentially too contaminated to be disposed of, yet already shipped to the Department of Energy’s Waste Isolation Pilot Plant in New Mexico, will be sent back to the Savannah River Site in South Carolina in August, the prime contractor for disposal site said Tuesday. The standard waste box, now located in […]

The Department of Energy’s Carlsbad N.M. Field Office and its Bechtel contractor for the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant hold a community forum Tuesday evening July 11 at the Marriott Albuquerque. The public forum, viewable online, will be the first major public discussion by managers at the field office and Bechtel’s Salado Isolation Mining Contractors since […]

The Department of Energy resumed heating the first melter at the Waste Treatment and Immobilization Plant at the Hanford Site in Washington state, a process on hold since fall, the agency said this week. Resumption of the heatup was signaled last month by the acting head of the DOE Office of Environmental Management, William (Ike) […]

Stakeholders have agreed to a deal for a new 10-year draft permit for the Department of Energy’s underground disposal site for defense-related transuranic waste near Carlsbad, N.M., the New Mexico Environment Department said late Tuesday  Various stakeholders had requested a hearing on the new Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) permit, but the deal announced Tuesday […]

The Department of Energy resumed heating the first melter at the Waste Treatment and Immobilization Plant at the Hanford Site in Washington state, a process on hold since fall, the agency said Monday. Resumption of the heatup was signaled last month by the acting head of the DOE Office of Environmental Management, William (Ike) White […]

The Department of Energy’s Waste Isolation Pilot Plant near Carlsbad, N.M., received 28 shipments of transuranic waste during May, according to its website. Twenty shipments during the month came from the Idaho National Laboratory, four from the Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico, three from the Savannah River Site in South Carolina and one […]

Washington and Oregon officials agreed Tuesday that concrete-like grout could be used instead of glass to solidify a significant portion of Hanford’s radioactive liquid waste, as long as the grouted waste is taken off-site. Suzanne Dahl, tank waste manager for the Washington Ecology Department and Matt Hendrickson, her counterpart at the Oregon Department of Energy, […]

It is time for the Department of Energy to arrange an outside review of its potential alternatives for treating the most highly-radioactive waste at the Hanford Site in Washington state, the Government Accountability Office said in a report issued last week. “DOE has not committed to obtaining an independent review to validate the portions of […]

It is time for the Department of Energy to arrange an outside review of its potential alternatives for treating the most highly-radioactive waste at the Hanford Site in Washington state, the Government Accountability Office said in a report issued Thursday. “DOE has not committed to obtaining an independent review to validate the portions of the […]

A long-awaited report released Monday from the National Academies finds a “strong technical case” for using concrete-like grout to augment operation of the Waste Treatment and Immobilization Plant at the Department of Energy’s Hanford Site in Washington state. The report from the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine lauded a study by DOE’s Savannah […]

Crews at the Department of Energy’s Hanford Site in Washington state are doing electrical testing, setting the stage to again start heating up the first melter at the Waste Treatment and Immobilization Plant, the agency’s acting nuclear cleanup boss said this week. “At Hanford we resumed our electrical testing for the vitrification plant,” William (Ike) […]

Bechtel National has turned to a senior vice president and longtime company manager, Brian Hartman, as it’s next project director for the Waste Treatment and Immobilization Plant at the Department of Energy’s Hanford Site in Washington state. Bechtel, which has a $15-billion contact that started in 2000 to build the plant to convert radioactive tank […]

Crews at the Department of Energy’s Hanford Site in Washington state are doing electrical testing, setting the stage to again start heating up the first melter at the Waste Treatment and Immobilization Plant, the agency’s acting nuclear cleanup boss said Monday. “At Hanford we resumed our electrical testing for the vitrification plant,” William (Ike) White, […]

A long-awaited report released Monday from the National Academies finds a “strong technical case” for using concrete-like grout to augment operation of the Waste Treatment and Immobilization Plant at the Department of Energy’s Hanford Site in Washington state. The report from the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine lauded a study by DOE’s Savannah […]

The Department of Energy’s Waste Isolation Pilot Plant in New Mexico appears headed for its busiest calendar year since the disposal site reopened in 2017.  The Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) received 47 shipments of defense-related transuranic waste during the month of April, based upon a search of DOE’s public website for the facility this […]

In court papers filed this week, current and past contractors at the Department of Energy’s Portsmouth Site in Ohio deny their work led to the cancer suffered by a former student at a now-closed middle school near the nuclear cleanup property. In a 12-page document filed Monday in U.S. District Court for Southern Ohio, the […]

The Department of Energy’s Waste Isolation Pilot Plant in New Mexico appears headed for its busiest calendar year since the disposal site reopened in 2017.  The Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) received 47 shipments of defense-related transuranic waste during the month of April, based upon a search of DOE’s public website for the facility on […]

If New Mexico and the Department of Energy do not soon resolve starkly different ideas about the long-term future of the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant, the agencies may try to bridge the gap in a public hearing this summer. The public hearing, if necessary, would take place in August or September, a spokesperson for the […]

Washington state and the federal government reached a “conceptual agreement” for future management of about 56 million gallons of radioactive waste at the Department of Energy’s Hanford Site, the parties announced Tuesday. DOE, Washington state Department of Ecology and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) said in a press release negotiators have reached “conceptual agreement […]

WASHINGTON — The secretary of energy must approve the National Nuclear Security Administration’s plan to let one company manage the Pantex Plant in Amarillo, Texas, for up to 20 years, the head of the nuclear-weapons agency said here Wednesday. Details of the cost-plus-fixed-fee contract were published on April 28. The draft solicitation included a five-year […]

The Waste Isolation Pilot Plant is only 42% full and will be needed well beyond 2034 when a New Mexico permit renewal expires, the Department of Energy said in a regulatory filing this week.   DOE’s Carlsbad Field Office and its prime subcontractor for the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) also want a New Mexico Environment […]

The Department of Energy’s former prime contractor at the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant in New Mexico and an employee who filed suit in 2021, claiming he was wrongly bypassed for promotion because of his race, have agreed to dismiss the federal court case. As a result, a status conference set for April 12 in the […]

The Department of Energy’s Waste Isolation Pilot Plant near Carlsbad, N.M., received 36 shipments of transuranic waste during March, according to the latest publicly-available figures. The DOE’s public website for the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) shows 25 shipments arriving between March 1 and March 31 from the Idaho National Laboratory; four from the Savannah […]

The Department of Energy’s “fast-track, design-build approach” at the multibillion-dollar Waste Treatment and Immobilization Plant at the Hanford Site in Washington state resulted in cost increases and schedule delays, according to an Office of Inspector General probe of whistleblower allegations. The report by DOE Inspector General Teri Donaldson was drafted back in August 2020 but […]

A team led by BWX Technologies, Lynchburg, Va., won a potentially 10-year, $45-billion liquid-waste cleanup contract at the Hanford Site in Washington state, the Department of Energy said Thursday. The winning team, Hanford Tank Waste Operations & Closure, consists of BWXT, Amentum and Fluor.  The Integrated Tank Disposition Contract awarded by DOE’s Office of Environmental […]

The Department of Energy’s “fast-track, design-build approach” at the multibillion-dollar Waste Treatment and Immobilization Plant at the Hanford Site in Washington state resulted in cost increases and schedule delays, according to an Office of Inspector General probe of whistleblower allegations. The report by DOE Inspector General Teri Donaldson was drafted back in August 2020 but […]

The Department of Energy and a contractor await permission from the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission to return a problem transuranic waste container, now in a parking lot at the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant in New Mexico, back to the Savannah River Site in South Carolina, managers in Carlsbad, N.M., said recently. The issue came up […]

Bechtel National chose an executive who led construction of two new nuclear power reactors in Georgia to temporarily run the Waste Immobilization and Treatment Plant project at the Department of Energy’s Hanford Site in Washington state, the company said late Thursday. Effective immediately John Atwell is the acting project director for the Waste Immobilization and […]

The head of the new prime at the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant in New Mexico aims to meet the Department of Energy and dispose of 400 shipments of transuranic waste at the site in 2023. Ken Harrawood, president and project manager for Bechtel’s Salado Isolation Mining Contractors, told a Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) Public […]

The Department of Energy and a contractor await permission from the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission to return a problem transuranic waste container, now in a parking lot at the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant in New Mexico, back to the Savannah River Site in South Carolina, managers in Carlsbad, N.M., said recently. The issue came up […]