Idaho National Laboratory

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 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 […]

The Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board (DNFSB) says the Energy Department should do more to reduce the risk of combustion of stored radioactive waste sludge similar to the April 2018 accident at the Idaho National Laboratory in which four drums blew off their lids. In a March 12 letter, the DNFSB asked Energy Secretary Rick […]

A number of nuclear cleanup sites would make due with less money under the Department of Energy budget plan for the next fiscal year. On March 11, the agency rolled out the broad outlines of its fiscal 2020 budget, with nearly $6.5 billion planned for the Office of Environmental Management — down by over $700 […]

The Department of Energy indicated Monday it intends in the upcoming budget year to cut tens of millions of dollars from environmental remediation funding at some of its national laboratories. As part of the continuing rollout of the Trump administration budget plan for fiscal 2020, the Energy Department released preliminary funding tables for its laboratories. […]

Idaho state regulators are reviewing documents drafted by Fluor Idaho, which the company hopes will allow resumption of sludge repackaging this spring at the Idaho National Laboratory facility where four waste drums overheated and ejected their lids last April. The “corrective action plan” and “evaluation of the safety of the situation” reports are being discussed […]

The Department of Energy indicated Monday it intends in the upcoming budget year to cut tens of millions of dollars from environmental remediation funding at some of its national laboratories. As part of the continuing rollout of the Trump administration budget plan for fiscal 2020, the Energy Department released preliminary funding tables for its laboratories. […]

Idaho state regulators are reviewing documents drafted by Fluor Idaho, which the company hopes will allow resumption of sludge repackaging this spring at the Idaho National Laboratory facility where four waste drums overheated and ejected their lids last April. The “corrective action plan” and “evaluation of the safety of the situation” reports are being discussed […]

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 […]

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 […]

Department of Energy contractor Fluor Idaho intends in April to resume sludge repackaging at an Idaho National Laboratory fabric filter building where four drums of radioactive waste overheated and ejected their lids about one year earlier. The company informed the Idaho Department of Environmental Quality of its plans on Feb. 28 in a monthly report […]

PHOENIX, Ariz. – While the Energy Department and its nuclear cleanup contractors acknowledge they are learning on the job, both sides Wednesday stressed the urgency of meeting deadlines for the first set of solicitations issued under the agency’s overhauled approach to procurement. Requests for proposals are due March 18 for two potential 10-year, multibillion-dollar contracts […]

Department of Energy contractor Fluor Idaho intends in April to resume sludge repackaging at an Idaho National Laboratory fabric filter building where four drums of radioactive waste overheated and ejected their lids about one year earlier. The company informed the Idaho Department of Environmental Quality of its plans on Feb. 28 in a monthly report […]

The U.S. Department of Energy could do a better job of monitoring how its contractors spend billions of dollars in federal money, the Government Accountability Office said Tuesday. A new GAO report recommends DOE entities, including the Office of Environmental Management and the semiautonomous National Nuclear Security Administration, put more emphasis on how management and […]

The latest procurement schedule from the Energy Department’s Office of Environmental Management indicates draft requests for proposals for major work at the Oak Ridge Site in Tennessee and the West Valley Demonstration Project in New York could be issued this spring. A draft RFP for a new Idaho Cleanup Project contract could go out this […]

A Department of Energy official acknowledged on Feb. 21 that the Idaho National Laboratory missed its Dec. 31, 2018, deadline to move defense-related transuranic waste to the federal disposal facility in New Mexico. Under a 1995 settlement between DOE, Idaho, and the U.S. Navy over in-state nuclear waste storage, the Energy Department was supposed to […]

While the Energy Communities Alliance (ECA) hopes the Department of Energy will readjust its classification of high-level radioactive waste, it has not forgotten the federal agency still owes Congress a report on the issue. The ECA asked the House and Senate Armed Services committees on Tuesday to “attempt to require” compliance with a provision of the […]

While the Energy Communities Alliance (ECA) hopes the Department of Energy will change what it considers high-level radioactive waste, it has not forgotten the federal agency still owes Congress a report on the issue. The ECA asked the House and Senate Armed Services committees on Tuesday to “attempt to require” compliance with a provision of […]

A Department of Energy official acknowledged Thursday the Idaho National Laboratory missed its Dec. 31, 2018, deadline to move defense-related transuranic waste to the federal disposal facility in New Mexico. Under a 1995 settlement between DOE, Idaho, and the U.S. Navy over in-state nuclear waste storage, the Energy Department was supposed to ship 65,000 cubic […]

Fluor, a major Energy Department contractor, on Thursday reported a drop in revenue but higher earnings for 2018. The Dallas-area company took in $225 million in earnings attributable to Fluor, $1.59 per diluted share, for the 12 months ended Dec. 31. That was up from roughly $191 million, or $1.36 per diluted share, for 2017, […]

The need to develop and win regulatory approval for new “oversized boxes” to move radioactive waste to the Idaho National Laboratory was central to the Energy Department’s decision against keeping the Advanced Mixed Waste Treatment Project (AMWTP) open past this year. After considering sustaining operations at the facility open after it finishes its mission to […]

The Department of Energy needs to be more realistic in tracking and reporting progress toward environmental milestones at its nuclear cleanup sites, the Government Accountability Office (GAO) said Thursday. “We found that DOE didn’t accurately track or report whether milestones were met, missed, or postponed. We also found that sites continually renegotiate milestones they are […]

The need to develop and win regulatory approval for new “oversized boxes” to move radioactive waste to the Idaho National Laboratory was central to the Energy Department’s decision against keeping the Advanced Mixed Waste Treatment Project (AMWTP) open past this year. After considering sustaining operations at the facility open after it finishes its mission to process […]

The state of Idaho has fined the Energy Department more than $5.3 million for failure to begin operating the Integrated Waste Treatment Unit (IWTU) at the Idaho National Laboratory. The $5.3 million figure represents the total penalties as of Jan. 19, Natalie Creed, hazardous waste unit manager at the Idaho Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ), […]

The state of Idaho has fined the Energy Department more than $5.3 million for failure to begin operating the Integrated Waste Treatment Unit (IWTU) at the Idaho National Laboratory. The $5.3 million figure represents the total penalties as of Jan. 19, Natalie Creed, hazardous waste unit manager at the Idaho Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ), […]

The Energy Department’s Waste Isolation Pilot Plant near Carlsbad, N.M., is expected to receive 330 shipments of transuranic waste over the next 12 months, with some coming from sites that have not shipped material in years. The Energy Department and its WIPP contractor, Nuclear Waste Partnership, held a breakfast presentation Monday for New Mexico lawmakers, […]

Cleaning up the contamination left by Cold War nuclear weapons operations could cost the Energy Department’s Office of Environmental Management (EM) another $377 billion, or $109 billion more than last year’s estimate, the Government Accountability Office said in a report Tuesday. Agency cleanup officials interviewed by GAO are aware of the increase, but have not […]

The Energy Department’s Waste Isolation Pilot Plant near Carlsbad, N.M., expects to receive 330 shipments of transuranic waste over the next 12 months, with some coming from sites that have not shipped material in years. The Energy Department and its WIPP contractor, Nuclear Waste Partnership, held a legislative breakfast presentation Monday for New Mexico lawmakers, […]

The Energy Department has questioned the way Fluor Idaho followed up on a summer 2018 glove box accident in which a worker suffered a puncture wound at the Idaho National Laboratory’s Advanced Mixed Waste Treatment Project (AMWTP). The DOE Office of Enterprise Assessments (EA) said the company’s root cause analysis found “management failed to recognize […]