Hanford Site

Fluor, Irving, Texas, reported a dip in total revenue for the 2020 third quarter, even as its government sector enjoyed higher profits in the three months ended Sept. 30. Fluor’s third-quarter revenue was $3.8 billion, down from $4.6 billion during the same quarter in 2019, according to the release. Net earnings from continuing operations attributable […]

The Department of Energy’s manager for the Hanford Site declined Wednesday to say how many employees have tested positive for the coronavirus so far this year at the former plutonium production complex in Washington state. “I report those numbers through headquarters now, and there is a more formal reporting process at the headquarters level,” in […]

The advisory board to the Department of Energy’s Hanford Site in Washington state meets today at 9 a.m. Pacific Time and will hear updates on Tri-Party Agreement cleanup plans. Brian Vance, manager of DOE’s Richland Operations Office and Office of River Protection at the former plutonium production facility, is among the speakers scheduled to address […]

Twelve more employees at the Department of Energy’s Hanford Site in Washington state reported to management that they have tested positive for the coronavirus, according to an online notice posted Friday. The latest batch of positive tests showed up on the employee alerts section of a DOE emergency operations website at Hanford operated by the […]

The Oregon Department of Energy is studying updated rules governing transport and disposal of radioactive materials within the state, which could potentially sock violators with millions of dollars in fines. The state department’s Energy Facility Siting Council has been working on tightening Oregon’s radioactive waste rules since May, according to a slide presentation put together […]

An environmental advocacy group’s report that questions safety compliance at the Perma-Fix Northwest waste treatment facility located just outside the Department of Energy’s Hanford Site is “very misleading,” a company spokesman said this week.  The report last week by Hanford Challenge claims the subsidiary of Atlanta-based Perma-Fix has “a checkered and worrisome history of environmental […]

The total number of active cases of COVID-19 at nuclear cleanup sites overseen by the Department of Energy’s Office of Environmental Management remained high this week at 282, which is still lower than the 298 active cases during Thanksgiving week, a spokesperson said Thursday.  Active, reported cases were in the double digits as recently as […]

Another 16 workers at the Department of Energy’s Hanford Site in Washington state informed management Monday they have tested positive for the coronavirus. The latest COVID-19 cases were disclosed on the emergency operations website run by contractor Mission Support Alliance at the former plutonium production complex. The unofficial tally of cases is now 244 based […]

An environmental advocacy group focused on the Department of Energy’s Hanford Site issued a report  last week that questions safety compliance at a commercial waste treatment facility, Perma-Fix Northwest, located just outside the former plutonium production reservation. The report by Hanford Challenge claims the subsidiary of Atlanta-based Perma-Fix has “a checkered and worrisome history of […]

Rep. Rick Allen (R-Ga.), whose district includes Augusta, a major bedroom community for the Department of Energy’s Savannah River Site in neighboring South Carolina, has tested positive for the coronavirus. “I have been undergoing regular COVID-19 testing and learned today that I have tested positive for COVID-19,” Allen said in a press release posted on […]

Even with the Department of Energy missing its groundwater sampling targets for 2020, officials with both the Washington state Department of Ecology and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency are satisfied with catchup efforts, officials said Friday. “Under the circumstances, we think what USDOE doing is OK,” Washington Ecology spokesman Randy Bradbury said in an email, […]

The Department of Energy’s Hanford Site in Washington state saw four more employees test positive for the coronavirus Saturday. That is according to an employee advisory posted on the emergency operations website, for Hanford, currently managed by site services contractor Mission Support Alliance. The unofficial total of cases is now 228 based largely upon bulletins […]

Rep. Dan Newhouse (R-Wash.), whose district includes the Department of Energy’s Hanford Site, announced Wednesday he has tested positive for the coronavirus and is experiencing mild symptoms.  Newhouse, who represents Washington’s 4th congressional district, tweeted that he “began to feel a little run down yesterday, so I took a COVID-19 test” and the results came […]

Cleaning up the former plutonium production complex at the Hanford Site in Washington state could be even more costly and take longer than expected, a Department of Energy official said Wednesday during a virtual meeting. The forecast is from DOE’s ninth and latest revision of the River Protection Project System Plan. Brian Harkins, the agency’s […]

The Department of Energy’s 2020 groundwater sampling goals for the Hanford Site in Washington state are going to miss their target largely because of the COVID-19 pandemic, an agency official said this week. . Out of the 2,500 or so groundwater samples normally taken at the former plutonium production complex in the course of a […]

As is the case nationally, the COVID-19 pandemic continues to take a heavy toll on the 16 nuclear cleanup properties overseen by the Department of Energy’s Office of Environmental Management, including a death at the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant that, a state regulator said, showed the site cannot protect people from the disease. The prime […]

Cleaning up the former plutonium production complex at the Hanford Site in Washington state could be even more costly and take longer than expected, a Department of Energy official said Wednesday during a virtual meeting. The forecast is from DOE’s ninth and latest revision of the River Protection Project System Plan. Brian Harkins, the agency’s […]

The congressman representing the Hanford Site has tested positive for COVID-19, the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant uncovered 20 more cases among its workforce, and someone at the Los Alamos National Laboratory has died from the disease caused by the novel coronavirus. Rep. Dan Newhouse (R-Wash.), whose district includes the Department of Energy’s Hanford Site, announced […]

The Department of Energy’s 2020 groundwater sampling goals for the Hanford Site in Washington state are going to miss their target largely because of the COVID-19 pandemic, an agency official said Tuesday. Out of the 2,500 or so groundwater samples normally taken at the former plutonium production complex in the course of a year, DOE […]

Seven more workers informed management at the Department of Energy’s Hanford Site in Washington state on Saturday they have tested positive for COVID-19. The latest confirmed coronavirus infections were reported in a Saturday afternoon post on Hanford’s emergency operations website, which is run by site services contractor Mission Support Alliance. That brings the confirmed total […]

With the Department of Energy and other federal agencies now working under a continuing budget resolution keeping spending at 2020 levels, the Senate Appropriations Committee finally released its fiscal 2021 budget proposal Tuesday that would keep nuclear cleanup at the 2020 level of nearly $7.5 billion. The Senate Appropriations’ Energy and Water Development bill would […]

There are 194 active cases of COVID-19 across the Department of Energy’s nuclear cleanup complex as of Thursday. The number represents an increase of 53 over the 141 active cases a week ago, a DOE Office of Environmental Management (EM) spokesperson said by email. It also means that the number of active cases has increased […]

Leidos-led Mission Support Alliance, the landlord services provider at the Department of Energy’s Hanford Site in Washington state, awarded a $13-million subcontract for local firm Fowler General Construction to build a new water treatment plant. The new facility would replace the current 1940s vintage plant and automate water services and support treatment of tank waste […]

With the Department of Energy and other federal agencies now working under a continuing budget resolution keeping spending at 2020 levels, the Senate Appropriations Committee finally released its fiscal 2021 budget proposal Tuesday that would keep nuclear cleanup at the 2020 level of nearly $7.5 billion. The Senate Appropriations’ Energy and Water Development bill would […]

Leidos-led Mission Support Alliance, the landlord services provider at the Department of Energy’s Hanford Site in Washington state, awarded a $13-million subcontract for local firm Fowler General Construction to build a new water treatment plant. The new facility would replace the current 1940s vintage plant and automate water services and support treatment of tank waste […]

After 4 p.m. Pacific Time Monday, managers at the Department of Energy’s Hanford Site in Washington state were informed that six more employees have tested positive for the coronavirus. News of the latest surge of COVID-19 cases at Hanford was posted on the DOE emergency operations website for the former plutonium production complex. This pushes […]

Late Friday there was word of seven additional employees at the Department of Energy headquarters at Washington, D.C., testing positive for the coronavirus and four more positive cases across the country at the Hanford Site in Washington state. Secretary of Energy Dan Brouillette talked about the spate of COVID-19 cases at the Forrestal Building in […]

The director of the Washington state Department of Ecology Laura Watson hopes to have a new person in charge of nuclear waste cleanup by the end of the year. The agency had not settled on a replacement as of Thursday, spokesman Randy Bradbury said in an email.  After spending five-and-a-half years in charge of Washington’s […]

As Friday deadline approached for Weapons Complex Monitor, the Associated Press had not declared a winner in the presidential election between President Donald Trump (R) and the former vice president, Joe Biden (D).  Biden was leading in electoral votes. Whomever is declared president-elect an intense legal challenge is expected, according to media outlets. While a […]

Across the Department of Energy’s Office of Environmental Management complex, there are currently 141 active cases of COVID-19, a spokesperson for the office said Thursday. That is 32 more than the active case count for the Environmental Management (EM) office last week, and more than double the 61 acknowledged a month ago. The EM office […]