Hanford Site

Rep. Dan Newhouse (R-Wash.) has introduced a bill in the U.S. House of Representatives to prevent unvaccinated federal workers and contractors from being fired if they provide proof of COVID–19 antibodies. Newhouse, whose congressional district includes the Department of Energy’s Hanford Site, announced the introduction of the Options Over Terminations Act Tuesday. “Federal employees who […]

Part of the unionized workforce at the Department of Energy’s Hanford Site in Washington state will vote Nov. 5 on a one-year contract extension negotiated by the Hanford Atomic Metals Trade Council, according to monthly reports filed by two major contractors at the federal complex. Leidos-led Hanford Mission Integrated Solutions (HMIS) entered into negotiations with […]

Part of the unionized workforce at the Department of Energy’s Hanford Site in Washington state will vote Nov. 5 on a one-year contract extension negotiated by the Hanford Atomic Metals Trade Council, according to monthly reports filed by two major contractors at the federal complex. Leidos-led Hanford Mission Integrated Solutions (HMIS) entered into negotiations with […]

Rep. Dan Newhouse (R-Wash.) has introduced a bill in the U.S. House of Representatives to prevent unvaccinated federal workers and contractors from being fired if they provide proof of COVID–19 antibodies. Newhouse, whose congressional district includes the Department of Energy’s Hanford Site, announced the introduction of the Options Over Terminations Act Tuesday. “Federal employees who […]

A group called the Silent Majority Foundation is planning a class action lawsuit on behalf of workers at the Department of Energy’s Hanford Site in Washington state refusing to comply with a federal mandate to be vaccinated against COVID-19, according to a Sunday online announcement. “The plan includes bringing a suit for a temporary restraining […]

While not flat-out opposed to future use of grout for radioactive tank waste at the Department of Energy’s Hanford Site, state officials in Washington and Oregon said Thursday feds for now should not become distracted from the more immediate task of converting low-activity waste into a stabler glass form. Direct-feed low-activity waste (DFLAW) treatment at […]

Maryland-based Amentum has appointed senior vice president Jim Blankenhorn to lead its Technical Services business, which involves engineering, design and operation of environmental projects for domestic and international governmental customers. The promotion is effective Monday, Amentum said in a Thursday press release. Technical Services does work for clients such as the Department of Energy, the […]

A solicitation for a massive contract worth up to $45 billion over 10 years for overseeing radioactive tank waste and running the vitrification plant at the Department of Energy’s Hanford Site in Washington state was released Thursday by the agency’s Office of Environmental Management. The deal far exceeds the maximum value of any agreement on […]

A bipartisan group of four senators reintroduced a bill to protect whistleblowers at the Department of Energy and the Nuclear Regulatory Commission from retaliation, according to a recent press release. Before the Senate adjourned last week, Sens. Tammy Duckworth (D-Ill.), Ron Wyden (D-Wash.), Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) and James Lankford (R-Okla.) announced that they filed their […]

A pump-and-treat system that captures groundwater contamination near radioactive waste tanks inside the Hanford Site in Washington would be expanded under a joint interim record of decision announced Wednesday by state and federal agencies.  The interim decision for groundwater operable units in Hanford’s 200 East Area — 200-BP-5 and 200-PO-1 — was issued jointly by […]

A pump-and-treat system that captures groundwater contamination near radioactive waste tanks inside the Hanford Site in Washington would be expanded under a joint interim record of decision announced Wednesday by state and federal agencies.  The interim decision for groundwater operable units in Hanford’s 200 East Area — 200-BP-5 and 200-PO-1 — was issued jointly by […]

An article in the Oct. 6 edition of Weapons Complex Morning Briefing [“DOE Completes Startup Testing for Liquid Disposal at Waste Treatment Plant”] should have said that by December, Hanford crews will gradually start heating up the first melter at the Low Activity Waste Facility to 2,100 degrees Fahrenheit.

Department of Energy contractor officers should by Friday, and unilaterally, if necessary, modify the agency’s existing major site contracts to include a COVID-19 mandate, according to long-awaited guidance published Wednesday by DOE. The directive applies to “Management and Operating (M&O) contracts, major site/facility contracts and onsite support service contracts,” the agency wrote in the guidance. […]

More than 60 members of the Washington state legislature this week asked President Joe Biden to reconsider the Department of Justice’s challenge to an “overwhelmingly bipartisan state law to provide industrial insurance coverage to workers made sick” while doing cleanup work at the Department of Energy’s Hanford Site. In 2018 the legislature easily passed HB […]

The Department of Energy’s Office of Inspector General has a busy fiscal 2022 schedule of audits and inspections planned for projects affecting the DOE’s Office of Environmental Management and the semiautonomous National Nuclear Security Administration. Last week, the DOE Office of Inspector General (OIG) published its work plan for the fiscal year that began Oct. […]

The Southern Bench fire, which burned about 1,000 acres since late August, has been put out by firefighters from the Department of Energy’s Nevada National Security Site and the U.S. Bureau of Land Management, the operations contractor for the Nevada Site said this week. The Southern Bench wildland fire is now “fully contained and extinguished,” […]

The Department of Energy’s advisory board for the Portsmouth Site in Ohio postponed a meeting scheduled this week in Piketon, Ohio and planned to reschedule it, according to a statement from the administrative contractor for the board. A Monday email from EHI Consultants, on behalf of the advisory board cited two factors. First, “the high […]

Personnel at the Department of Energy’s Hanford Site recently tested a drainage system that will funnel byproducts of liquid waste cleanup to an outbuilding from the Low Activity Waste Facility, the Department of Energy’s Office of Environmental Management said this week. The system includes large tanks and miles of pipes inside the Low-Activity Waste Facility […]

Ty Blackford, who was CEO of the Jacobs subsidiary formerly in charge of cleanup at the Central Plateau of the Hanford Site in Washington state, is leading transition efforts for the Jacobs-led joint venture scheduled to take over remediation for the Department of Energy’s Idaho National Laboratory by Jan. 1. That is according to a […]

Nobody was hurt Monday morning when a truck caught fire in the 200 East Area of the Department of Energy’s Hanford Site in Washington state, according to a notice posted on the website for the federal property. The fire occurred under the hood of the truck loaded with an empty container from the Site’s Environmental […]

More than 60 members of the Washington state legislature have asked President Joe Biden to reconsider the Department of Justice’s challenge to an “overwhelmingly bipartisan state law to provide industrial insurance coverage to workers made sick” while doing cleanup work at the Department of Energy’s Hanford Site. In 2018 the legislature easily passed HB 1723 […]

Personnel at the Department of Energy’s Hanford Site recently tested a drainage system that will funnel byproducts of liquid waste cleanup to an outbuilding from the Low Activity Waste Facility, the Department of Energy’s Office of Environmental Management said Tuesday. The system includes large tanks and miles of pipes inside the Low-Activity Waste Facility — […]

The Department of Energy’s Office of Inspector General has a busy fiscal 2022 schedule of audits and inspections planned for projects affecting the DOE’s Office of Environmental Management and the semiautonomous National Nuclear Security Administration. Last Thursday the DOE Office of Inspector General (OIG) published its work plan for the fiscal year that began Friday. […]

The Department of Energy’s Waste Isolation Pilot Plant near Carlsbad, N.M. is again receiving transuranic shipments after a combination of underground conditions and temporary staffing problems from COVID-19 halted disposal for a month. “Yes, shipments resumed,” a spokesman for Nuclear Waste Partnership, prime contractor for the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP), said by email Wednesday. […]

United Steelworkers local unions at five Department of Energy sites are urging elected officials from their states to intercede on their behalf against President Joe Biden’s plans for mandatory vaccinations of federal contractor employees. The Sept. 17 letter was sent to the governors in all five states: Gov. Brad Little (R) of Idaho, Gov. Mike […]

A total of 20 employees at the Department of Energy’s Hanford Site in Washington state informed management this week that they tested positive for COVID-19. In addition, federal employees and contractors at Hanford were told Wednesday that visitors coming to the site must either attest they are fully vaccinated or provide evidence of a negative […]

The Department of Energy missed its self-imposed target to issue a final request for proposals by Sept. 30 for the multibillion-dollar Savannah River Site Management and Operating Contract and now plans to put the deal on the street in October. The agency made the announcement in a procurement notice posted online Thursday. If the date […]

Washington Attorney General Bob Ferguson plans to file legal arguments with the U.S. Supreme Court by Nov. 15 responding to a U.S. Department of Justice petition to overturn a 2018 state law that made it easier for cleanup employees at the Department of Energy’s Hanford Site to qualify for worker compensation. That’s according to Brionna […]

United Steelworkers local unions at five Department of Energy sites are urging elected officials from their states to intercede on their behalf against President Joe Biden’s plans for mandatory vaccinations of federal contractor employees. “The government has not done a very good job of winning a large percentage of the public’s trust when it comes […]

A total of nine employees at the Department of Energy Hanford Site in Washington state informed management Monday they have tested positive for COVID-19. That is according to a post on a DOE website for Hanford maintained by Leidos-led Hanford Mission Integration Solutions. Meanwhile, on Friday, the Savannah River Site in South Carolina posted on […]