Hanford Site

The full U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit has rejected a petition to rehear a case asking that full pension benefits be reinstated for up to 500 people who worked at the Hanford Site in Washington state. It issued the denial Tuesday without comment. Retirees of Lockheed Martin Services Inc. in February petitioned […]

The Department of Energy plans in fiscal 2020 to cut funding for cleanup at the Hanford Site in Washington state in part because of progress made and projects completed, according to detailed budget documents released Monday. In total, funding for the two DOE offices at Hanford would drop by more than $400 million from current […]

The Department Energy’s Office of Environmental Management retained a firm to audit proposals for the potential 10-year, $13 billion Tank Closure Contract at the Hanford Site in Washington state. A contract valued at about $415,000 was awarded to Maryland-based CohnReznick, which has done fee-reasonableness audits for DOE in the past. The contract for the proposal […]

Energy Secretary Rick Perry on Tuesday defended his agency’s proposed $400 million-plus budget reduction at the Hanford Site in Washington state, even while the cost of cleanup is on the rise. “On one hand the department is telling us the mission is going to become exponentially more expensive,” even as it cuts the remediation budget […]

The Department of Energy plans in fiscal 2020 to cut funding for cleanup at the Hanford Site in Washington sate in part because of progress made and projects completed, according to detailed budget documents released Monday. In total, funding for the two DOE offices at Hanford would drop by more than $400 million from current […]

The Donald Trump administration on Monday rolled out its full fiscal 2020 budget request for the Energy Department’s Office of Environmental Management, which faces a roughly $700 million funding decrease from the current level. Overall, funding for the cleanup office would drop from almost $7.2 billion in fiscal 2019 to about $6.5 billion proposed for […]

A federal judge should declare a new Washington state workers compensation law constitutional and block a jury trial in a lawsuit brought by the Department of Justice, the state wrote in a Friday court filing. The Justice Department has sued the state in the U.S. District Court for Eastern Washington, arguing that the law, enacted […]

The Department Energy’s Office of Environmental Management retained a firm to audit proposals for the potential 10-year, $13 billion Tank Closure Contract at the Hanford Site in Washington state. A contract valued at about $415,000 was awarded to Maryland-based CohnReznick, which has done fee-reasonableness audits for DOE in the past. The contract for the proposal audit […]

The Washington state Department of Ecology has denied the Department of Energy’s application for a permit to cover Test Bed Initiative (TBI) work at the Hanford Site, but expressed support for the project. Despite the initial setback, the letter of denial issued March 15 also said there is a better and possibly quicker way for […]

The Department of Energy plans to extend the contract for Mission Support Alliance (MSA) to provide site-wide services at the Hanford Site in Eastern Washington by up to six months. Hanford DOE Manager Brian Vance said in a memo to site employees Tuesday that Richland Operations Office Deputy Manager Joe Franco was notifying MSA that […]

The H-Canyon processing facilities at the Energy Department’s Savannah River Site (SRS) in South Carolina currently generate roughly 100,000 gallons per year of radioactive liquid waste, a figure expected to grow to about 200,000 per year in fiscal 2022. After fiscal 2022, the amount of liquid waste going from H-Canyon into the SRS liquid waste […]

By John Stang and Wayne Barber While it faces a potential 10-year ban on contracts with the Canadian government, SNC-Lavalin’s legal woes north of the border do not appear to automatically translate to similar troubles in the United States. The Montreal-based engineering and construction multinational is the parent company to Department of Energy contractor Atkins […]

The Department of Energy plans to extend the contract for Mission Support Alliance (MSA) to provide site-wide services at the Hanford Site in eastern Washington state by up to six months. Hanford DOE Manager Brian Vance said in a memo to site employees Tuesday that Richland Operations Office Deputy Manager Joe Franco was notifying MSA […]

The Department of Energy is proposing a $417 million cut to funding for environmental remediation at the Hanford Site in Washington state, while boosting spending for liquid waste management at the Savannah River Site in South Carolina by $91 million. On March 11, the agency rolled out the broad outlines of its fiscal 2020 budget […]

Columbia, S.C.-based Energy Department subcontractor AVANTech recently hired Mark Ping as its senior vice president of business development for utility services. Ping’s nuclear career spans more than 35 years and includes experience in radioactive water treatment, wet waste processing, and disposal, the company said in a Feb. 19 press release. The company is a provider […]

The Department of Energy does not know yet what action it will take on its proposed reinterpretation of the definition of high-level radioactive waste (HLW), Secretary for Environmental Management Anne Marie White said last week. “We don’t have a real distinct schedule on that. Again, we are trying to take our time and be deliberative,” […]

The Donald Trump administration has proposed a $6.5 billion budget for the Energy Department’s Office of Environmental Management in fiscal 2020, slightly less than the $6.6 billion requested last year but 11 percent below the $7.2 billion eventually enacted by Congress. The office’s funding for the budget year that began Oct. 1 is its largest […]

Prospective contractors have peppered the Energy Department with questions about two requests for proposals issued in February for the Hanford Site in Washington state. The DOE Office of Environmental Management recently posted 75 questions raised by the contractor community about the potential 10-year, $13 billion Tank Closure Contract. The cleanup office posted another 28 questions […]

The Department of Energy’s Carlsbad Field Office (CBFO) is talking with officials in Washington state about long-term plans for resuming shipments of transuranic waste from the Hanford Site to the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant in New Mexico. It has been eight years since DOE sent waste from the former plutonium production complex to the underground […]

Local community leaders are urging the Washington state Department of Ecology to expedite completing an environmental impact statement (EIS) and a revised permit for Perma-Fix Northwest in Richland, Wash., near the Hanford Site. The Department of Ecology said at a public meeting Wednesday in Richland on the scope of the EIS that the permit application […]

Local community leaders are urging the Washington state Department of Ecology to expedite completing an environmental impact statement (EIS) and a revised permit for Perma-Fix Northwest in Richland, Wash., near the Hanford Site. The Department of Ecology said at a public meeting Wednesday in Richland on the scope of the EIS that the permit application […]

Las Vegas-based Energy Department subcontractor Longenecker & Associates this week hired a former regulator with the Washington state Department of Ecology. The newly-hired associate, Ron Skinnarland, will work out of Richland, Wash., and report to Longenecker Senior Vice President for Operations Christine Gelles. He joins the company’s regulatory team, which assists with compliance issues on […]

Prospective contractors have peppered the Energy Department with questions about two requests for proposals issued in February for the Hanford Site in Washington state. The DOE Office of Environmental Management recently posted 75 questions raised by the contractor community about the potential 10-year, $13 billion Tank Closure Contract. The cleanup office posted another 28 questions […]

The Energy Department’s Carlsbad Field Office (CBFO) is talking with officials in Washington state about long-term plans for resuming shipments of transuranic waste from the Hanford Site to the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant in New Mexico. It has been eight years since DOE sent waste from the former plutonium production complex to the underground disposal […]

Columbia, S.C.-based Energy Department subcontractor AVANTech recently hired Mark Ping as its senior vice president of business development for utility services. Ping’s nuclear career spans more than 35 years and includes experience in radioactive water treatment, wet waste processing, and disposal, the company said in a Feb. 19 press release. The company is a provider […]

The U.S. Department of Justice has detailed its complaints about a new Washington state law that makes it easier for Hanford Site personnel to have their workers’ compensation claims approved. The Justice Department filed a motion for summary judgment late on March 1 in U.S. District Court for Eastern Washington state, asking that the court […]

Registration opens at 9 a.m. March 19 for all of the Department of Energy’s 2019 environmental cleanup tours of the Hanford Site in Washington state. Twenty tours will be offered this year, with all bus seats expected to be claimed in a matter of hours. Registration is only available via the Hanford.gov website. However, a […]

The Department of Energy’s nuclear cleanup office should reconsider what work is deemed “operations” as opposed to “capital asset projects,” the Government Accountability Office said Tuesday. Some operations, such as treatment and storage of radioactive liquid tank waste, should be subject to the higher degree of scrutiny applied to capital projects, the government watchdog said. […]

While it has taken initial steps, the U.S. Department of Energy is not collecting the information it needs to attack its $377 billion in environmental liability, the Government Accountability Office (GAO) said Wednesday. Liabilities at the Energy Department, including those of the Office of Environmental Management and the semiautonomous National Nuclear Security Administration, are examined […]

While it has taken initial steps, the U.S. Department of Energy is not collecting the information it needs to attack its $377 billion in environmental liability, the Government Accountability Office (GAO) said Wednesday. Liabilities at the Energy Department, including those of the Office of Environmental Management and the semiautonomous National Nuclear Security Administration, are examined […]