Idaho National Laboratory
A Department of Energy national laboratory in eastern Idaho focused on nuclear energy research, reactor testing, and advanced reactor development.
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Contracts & Procurement
No Bid Protests Yet in Idaho Cleanup Award
A week after the Department of Energy awarded a Jacobs-led joint venture remediation business potentially worth $6.4-billion over 10 years, no contract challenges had been announced on the Government Accountability Office website. The Tennessee-based winner, the Idaho Environmental Coalition, comprises Jacobs and North Wind Portage along with three teaming subcontractors: Navarro Research and Engineering, Oak […]
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Budget & Policy
First Biden DOE Budget Request Would Keep Nuclear Cleanup at Flat $7.6B
The Joe Biden administration Friday afternoon proposed level-funding the Department of Energy’s Office of Environmental Management at about $7.6-billion during fiscal 2022, which begins in a little more than four months. Secretary of Energy Jennifer Granholm told Congress recently that the request for the budget year starting Oct. 1 would “sustain” cleanup of nuclear sites […]
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Defense Low-Level Waste
Final Waste Placed Into INL’s Subsurface Disposal Area
The Department of Energy and contractor Fluor Idaho said in a Tuesday press release the final shipment of radioactive waste has been placed into the 97-acre Subsurface Disposal Area at the Idaho National Laboratory. The disposal area, which began accepting waste in the 1950s and has since accepted laboratory-generated waste and shipments from the Rocky […]
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Contracts & Procurement
Jacobs-led Group Wins Potential 10-year, $6.4B Idaho Cleanup Biz
After much anticipation, the Department of Energy’s Office of Environmental Management on Thursday awarded a potentially 10-year, $6.4 billion cleanup contract at the Idaho National Laboratory to the Jacobs-led Idaho Environmental Coalition. The team, chosen from a field of five bidders, includes Dallas-based Jacobs, North Wind Portage, and small business teaming subcontractors Navarro, Oak Ridge […]
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Transuranic Waste
Nevada DOE Managers Make Plans for Transuranic Waste
The Department of Energy’s Office of Environmental Management plans to relocate some transuranic waste from the Nevada National Security Site to the Idaho National Laboratory where it will be prepared for eventual shipment to the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant in New Mexico. The transuranic material is what “we refer to as the Nevada spheres,” Robert […]
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Defense Low-Level Waste
Final Waste Placed Into INL’s Subsurface Disposal Area
The Department of Energy and contractor Fluor Idaho said in a Tuesday press release the final shipment of radioactive waste has been placed into the 97-acre Subsurface Disposal Area at the Idaho National Laboratory. The disposal area, which began accepting waste in the 1950s and has since accepted laboratory-generated waste and shipments from the Rocky […]
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Transuranic Waste
Nevada DOE Managers Make Plans for Transuranic Waste
The Department of Energy’s Office of Environmental Management plans to relocate some transuranic waste from the Nevada National Security Site to the Idaho National Laboratory where it will be prepared for eventual shipment to the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant in New Mexico. The transuranic material is what “we refer to as the Nevada spheres,” Robert […]
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Transuranic Waste
May Could Prove Busy Month for DOE Procurement
The next several weeks could be a busy time for the Department of Energy’s procurement in the weapons complex. The long-awaited draft request for proposals (RFP) for the potential 10-year, $21.5-billion operations contract for the Savannah River Site in South Carolina was issued last week. The draft RFP virtual meetings kick off May 11. The […]
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Contracts & Procurement
BWXT Confirms Pursuit of Big DOE Management Pacts on Earnings Call
BWX Technologies is among the companies in the hunt for high-dollar Department of Energy contracts, president and CEO Rex Geveden said in a conference call this week with financial analysts. “We now have four large DOE proposals submitted and anticipate three of those contracts to be announced sometime later this year,” Geveden told Wall Street […]
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Contracts & Procurement
May Could Prove Busy Month for DOE Procurement
The next several weeks could be a busy time for the Department of Energy’s procurement in the weapons complex. The long-awaited draft request for proposals (RFP) for the potential 10-year, $21.5-billion operations contract for the Savannah River Site in South Carolina was issued last week and anyone interested in participating in next week’s virtual pre-solicitation […]
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Cleanup & Remediation
EM-2 Shrader Talks Telecommuting, Vaccines with Advisory Boards
The Department of Energy’s nuclear cleanup sites will stick with “maximum telework” for the time being, the No. 2 boss at the Office of Environmental Management said Tuesday. “As of right now there is no change in our status that we have been in for several months of maximum telework,” Todd Shrader, DOE’s principal deputy […]
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Contracts & Procurement
DOE Seeks Extension of Bid Offers for Idaho Site, Sources Say
The Department of Energy, apparently not quite ready to make a decision on an award, is asking bidders for a new $6.4-billion cleanup contract at the Idaho National Laboratory to extend the expiration dates on their proposals, sources said this week. Other than asking teams to extend their bids on the Idaho Cleanup Project, apparently […]
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Cleanup & Remediation
DOE Lays Out Ambitious 10-Year Goals for Nuclear Cleanup
Within 10 years, the Department of Energy’s Office of Environmental Management hopes to have its vitrification plant humming at the Hanford Site in Washington state, with 40% of the tanks closed at the Savannah River Site in South Carolina and also be about done with legacy cleanup at the Moab Site in Utah as well […]
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Contracts & Procurement
DOE to Keep Focus on End State Contracting Model in 2021
The Department of Energy’s nuclear cleanup office first rolled out its end state contracting model in 2018 and now wants to flesh out exactly how the program is supposed to work. The DOE Office of Environmental Management (EM) tucked this nugget inside its Strategic Vision for 2021-2031. “In 2021, EM will implement a new End-State […]
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Cleanup & Remediation
DOE Lays Out Ambitious 10-Year Goals for Nuclear Cleanup
Within 10 years, the Department of Energy’s Office of Environmental Management hopes to have its vitrification plant humming at the Hanford Site in Washington state, with 40% of the tanks closed at the Savannah River Site in South Carolina and also be about done with legacy cleanup at the Moab Site in Utah as well […]
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Contracts & Procurement
Waiting Game Continues on New Idaho Cleanup Contract
More than 10 months ago the Department of Energy published its final solicitation for a new $6.4-billion Idaho Cleanup Project contract with a 10-year ordering period and industry sources are keeping watch. Bid proposals for the environmental work around the Idaho National Laboratory were due last July and the contract has not been awarded as […]
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Contracts & Procurement
Waiting Game Continues on New Idaho Cleanup Contract
More than 10 months ago the Department of Energy published its final solicitation for a new $6.4-billion Idaho Cleanup Project contract with a 10-year ordering period and industry sources are keeping watch. Bid proposals for the environmental work around the Idaho National Laboratory were due last July. The two incumbents, Fluor Idaho has the five-year, […]
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Commercial Low-Level Waste
NRC Greenlights New Waste Shipments to US Ecology Idaho From S.C.
A nuclear fuel fabrication facility in South Carolina can ship its low-level waste to a storage facility in Idaho, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission said last week. The agency granted Westinghouse Electric Company a regulatory exemption to send low-activity waste to US Ecology’s disposal site in the Gem State from a Hopkins, S.C. fuel fabrication facility, […]
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Transuranic Waste
Idaho Remains Preferred Shipper to WIPP, State says in Settlement Update
The Department of Energy is meeting its commitment to keep the Idaho National Laboratory as the top-priority shipper to the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant in New Mexico but still needs to get cracking on other directives from a 2019 update to the key legal settlement between Boise and the federal government, the state said. The […]
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Cleanup & Remediation
COVID Numbers Drop Across Cleanup Complex; Some West Valley Work on Hold
The number of confirmed, active COVID-19 cases at Department of Energy nuclear cleanup sites fell again this week to 137 —meanwhile a boss at one of the smaller remediation sites said certain indoor work will not resume there until local coronavirus stats improve. The 137 cases at the Office of Environmental Management (EM) this week […]
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Transuranic Waste
DOE Starts Market Research on Firms to Work With Tribal Panel on Radwaste Transport
The Department of Energy is gathering information on firms interested in providing support services to the Tribal Radioactive Materials Transportation Committee, an organization of 20 federally-recognized tribes touched by shipments of nuclear waste. The request for information notice was posted Tuesday on a federal procurement website by DOE’s Office of Nuclear Energy’s Office of Integrated […]
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Cleanup & Remediation
Idaho Penalties Against DOE Hit $10M; COVID Could Reduce Total
The total civil penalties imposed by the state of Idaho against the Department of Energy for failing to treat sodium-bearing waste at the Idaho National Laboratory now exceeds $10 million, a state official said this week. As of March 31, the assessed penalty will hit $10,062,000, Natalie Creed, hazardous waste bureau chief for the Idaho […]
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Cleanup & Remediation
Idaho Penalties Against DOE Hit $10M; COVID Could Reduce Total
The total civil penalties imposed by the state of Idaho against the Department of Energy for failing to treat sodium-bearing waste at the Idaho National Laboratory now exceeds $10 million, a state official said this week. As of March 31, the assessed penalty will hit $10,062,000, Natalie Creed, hazardous waste bureau chief for the Idaho […]
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Cleanup & Remediation
Idaho Waste Treatment Unit Could Start Operation This Fall
The Department of Energy’s long-awaited Integrated Waste Treatment Unit at the Idaho National Laboratory could start operating in mid-fall, perhaps October, a Fluor Idaho executive told the online Waste Management Symposia this week. The facility is now in the final weeks of an extended maintenance period that will precede a 50-day test run and eventual […]
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Cleanup & Remediation
Idaho Waste Treatment Unit Could Start Operation This Fall
The Department of Energy’s long-awaited Integrated Waste Treatment Unit at the Idaho National Laboratory could start operating in mid-fall, perhaps October, a Fluor Idaho executive told the online Waste Management Symposia Monday. The facility is now in the final weeks of an extended maintenance period that will precede a 50-day test run and eventual approval […]
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Cleanup & Remediation
Waste Management Symposia Kicks Off Online
The Waste Management Symposia, a gathering of industry, government and academic nuclear waste specialists that can normally draw about 2,400 participants to Phoenix during March, starts today online with several sessions about the Department of Energy’s cleanup office. This year’s event, exclusive virtual due to COVID-19 precautions, kicks off at about 10 a.m. Eastern Time […]
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Cleanup & Remediation
COVID-19 Cases at Nuclear Cleanup Sites Continue to Flatten Out
The Department of Energy’s Office of Environmental Management has 180 confirmed active cases of COVID-19 this week, down from 232 last week, and 296 two weeks ago, according to data a spokesperson provided Thursday. At the Savannah River Site in South Carolina there are 67 employees currently quarantined with COVID-19, according to a website run […]
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Transuranic Waste
WIPP Handles 20 Shipments in January Prior to Outage
The Department of Energy’s Waste Isolation Pilot Plant in New Mexico received 20 shipments of transuranic waste during January, which represents its highest monthly total since October, according to the facility’s online waste information database. There were 12 shipments from the Idaho National Laboratory and eight from the Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico. […]
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Transuranic Waste
Correction
An article in the Feb. 9 Weapons Complex Morning Briefing [“DOE Moves Closer to Cleaning Up Major Transuranic Tranche at Idaho”] should have reported that shipment of 5,700 cubic meters of transuranic waste remaining in interim storage at the Idaho National Laboratory to the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant in New Mexico is expected to take […]
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Transuranic Waste
New Shaft, COVID Recovery Among Key Issues in WIPP’s Near Future
New Mexico will hold hearings soon about restarting excavation of a new utility shaft at the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant near Carlsbad, the Department of Energy’s manager for the transuranic waste disposal site told state lawmakers in a virtual briefing Tuesday. In addition, the facility should emplace more shipments of transuranic waste in the next […]





