Idaho National Laboratory

The Department of Energy expects to treat the remainder of transuranic waste, held in interim storage at Idaho National Laboratory by the end of year, a DOE official in Idaho said recently.  Of the 65,000 cubic meters of material shipped to Idaho from the former Rocky Flats nuclear weapons plant in Colorado between 1970 and […]

After disposing of only 192 shipments of transuranic waste during 2020, the Department of Energy expects the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant will receive many more over the next 12 months as the COVID-19 pandemic gradually subsides. The Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) could receive up to 325 shipments of transuranic waste for disposal between Feb. […]

The end is within sight for the Department of Energy’s effort to treat 65,000 cubic yards of transuranic waste, held in interim storage at Idaho National Laboratory, to the Waste isolation Pilot Plant near Carlsbad, N.M. Of the material shipped to Idaho from the former Rocky Flats nuclear weapons plant in Colorado between 1970 and […]

Less than a month after officially calling off a $13-billion liquid-waste cleanup award at the Hanford Site, the Department of Energy has started procurement of a replacement pact called the Hanford Integrated Tank Disposition Contract, with a draft solicitation expected by March. The draft request for proposals (RFP) will, unlike the now-revoked tank-waste contract awarded […]

Former Department of Energy official Dr. Rita Baranwal broke a year of social media silence Wednesday to announce that she is filling a senior position at the Electric Power Research Institute, her new professional home post-Trump administration. Baranwal joined the Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI) as the chief nuclear officer and vice president of the […]

The Waste Isolation Pilot Plant near Carlsbad, N.M. plans to restart an old ventilation fan soon and was recently criticized by the Department of Energy for poor oversight of a major infrastructure project, according to a recently released scorecard. The Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) also accepted fewer shipments in the pandemic-beleaguered 2020, taking in […]

As part of the omnibus spending package signed Dec. 27 by President Donald Trump, the Department of Energy’s Office of Environmental Management will receive almost $7.6 billion for fiscal 2021, which is $131 million above its funding level for the 2020 budget year that ended Sept. 30, 2020. It is also about 22% more than […]

In a long-awaited report published this week, the Department of Energy estimated it could save up to $230 billion by lowering the classification level of certain radioactive waste from nuclear-weapons production — and while some neighbors of nuclear-cleanup sites welcomed the idea, it remained far from certain that Congress will give the agency clear legal […]

Lowering the hazard classification of some defense-nuclear waste could save the Department of Energy more than $200 billion in disposal costs, the agency told Congress in a report three years in the making. Most of the potential savings, between roughly $70 billion and $200 billion, would come from reclassifying low-activity waste at the Hanford West […]

Cold War and Manhattan Project locations being cleaned up by the Department of Energy could be viable candidates for new nuclear power plants, a federal official said during an online presentation Wednesday. About a dozen of the 16 nuclear cleanup properties run by the DOE Office of Environmental Management (EM) boast “unique characteristics” potentially attractive […]

While the coronavirus pandemic affected nuclear cleanup at the Department of Energy in ways great and small, it did not slow down the acquisition process in 2020, when the Environmental Management Office awarded about $31 billion worth of new cleanup contracts. That includes $17 billion of contracts during the 2020 calendar year and some $14 […]

After reviewing its options, cleanup contractor Fluor Idaho has decided to pay the $580,700 civil penalty issued by the Department of Energy over an April 2018 explosion at the Idaho National Laboratory where four 55-gallon drums overheated and blew off their lids spewing radioactive sludge. “Fluor Idaho chose not to contest the findings” in the […]

After reviewing its options, cleanup contractor Fluor Idaho has decided to pay the $580,700 civil penalty issued by the Department of Energy over an April 2018 explosion at the Idaho National Laboratory where four 55-gallon drums overheated and blew off their lids spewing radioactive sludge. “Fluor Idaho chose not to contest the findings” in the […]

Cleanup contractor Fluor Idaho expects to file a formal response this month to the Department of Energy’s proposed $580,700 civil penalty over an April 2018 accident at the Idaho National Laboratory where four drums of radioactive sludge overheated and blew off their lids. “We are reviewing the preliminary notice of violation and considering our response, […]

The Department of Energy’s enforcement branch has proposed a $580,700 civil penalty against the cleanup contractor at the Idaho National Laboratory in connection with an April 2018 episode where four drums of radioactive sludge overheated and blew off their lids. In a letter dated Nov. 20, Kevin Dressman who directs the enforcement office for DOE’s […]

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 […]

The Department of Energy’s Idaho National Laboratory has a new director, John Wagner, who is being promoted from his current post as associate director for nuclear science and technology. Wagner has been Idaho National Laboratory’s associate director since 2017. Battelle Energy Alliance, the lab prime, announced his elevation to the top job last week. Battelle […]

The Department of Energy’s Idaho National Laboratory has a new directory, John Wagner, who is being promoted from his current post as associate director for nuclear science and technology. Wagner has been Idaho National Laboratory’s associate director since 2017. Battelle Energy Alliance, the lab prime, announced his elevation to the top job last week. Battelle […]

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 […]

Idaho has now imposed about $9.16 million in fines against the Department of Energy for failing to treat sodium-bearing liquid radioactive waste at the Idaho National Laboratory with the long-delayed Integrated Waste Treatment Unit, a state official said this week. Depending on how COVID-19 plays out, the Integrated Waste Treatment Unit (IWTU) could start radioactive […]

The top executive for regulatory and policy at the Department of Energy’s Office of Environmental Management is calling it a career soon. Elizabeth “Betsy” Connell, the associate principal deputy assistant secretary for regulatory and policy affairs, will retire at the end of the month following a career of more than 30 years around the DOE […]

The prime for the Department of Energy’s Waste Isolation Pilot Plant in New Mexico has signed a construction subcontractor to keep a major ventilation project going while a new provider is selected. Nuclear Waste Partnership said Thursday it has awarded a $3-million subcontract to Kiewit US Contractors Co. to support construction of the Safety Significant […]

As of this morning, the Department of Energy’s Savannah River Site in South Carolina has confirmed a total of 609 cases of COVID-19 among its roughly 11,000-member workforce. The numbers, posted online by the Aiken, S.C., site, represent a rise of 18 cases from the prior week’s total of 591. Also, 568 of those employees […]

Shipments to the Department of Energy’s Waste Isolation Pilot Plant in New Mexico are down more than 40% for both the first nine months of 2020, and the just-completed 2020 fiscal year, based on figures from the site’s public database. During the first nine months of pandemic-affected 2020, the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) received […]

The top executive for regulatory and policy at the Department of Energy’s Office of Environmental Management is calling it a career in a couple of weeks. Elizabeth “Betsy” Connell, the associate principal deputy assistant secretary for regulatory and policy affairs, will retire at the end of the month following a career of more than 30 […]

Tank waste operations, particularly a project at the Idaho National Laboratory, are hard hit by workplace restrictions brought about by the COVID-19 pandemic, the No. 2 official at the Department of Energy cleanup office said Monday. A year ago, the DOE Office of Environmental Management (EM) expected the Integrated Waste Treatment Unit (IWTU) at Idaho […]

As of mid-week, there had been a total of 175 confirmed cases of COVID-19 at the Department of Energy’s Hanford Site in Washington state, Hanford Site Manager Brian Vance said Wednesday during a webcast advisory board meeting. Vance, the Hanford site manager, provided the number in response to a question from a member of the […]

Idaho-based North Wind Group got a three-year, $4.5-million task order for cleanup work at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in California. The Department of Energy’s Office of Environmental Management announced the small-business set-aside award to North Wind this week in a press release. The new task order was issued under an existing indefinite-delivery, indefinite-quantity contract […]

For the first time in 15 years, the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in California is making shipments of transuranic waste to the Department of Energy’s Waste Isolation Pilot Plant in New Mexico, a lab spokesman said this week. Three shipments left Lawrence Livermore for WIPP during the week of Sept. 21, one week after a […]

There are 74 active cases of COVID-19 currently within the Department of Energy’s Office of Environmental Management’s nuclear cleanup sites, an agency spokesperson said late Thursday. That is slightly up from the 70 active cases the prior week across the 16 former Cold War and Manhattan Project sites overseen by the office, but still less […]