Idaho National Laboratory

Fluor Idaho has told local officials in eastern Idaho it could in June or July start paring the workforce for the Advanced Mixed Waste Treatment Project (AMWTP) at the Department of Energy’s Idaho National Laboratory. Roughly 200 workers could be let go at that point at the facility, which employs about 650 people, Dana Kirkham, […]

Fluor Idaho has told local officials in eastern Idaho it could in June or July start paring the workforce for the Advanced Mixed Waste Treatment Project (AMWTP) at the Department of Energy’s Idaho National Laboratory. Roughly 200 workers could be let go at that point at the facility, which employs about 650 people, Dana Kirkham, […]

The GeoMelt vitrification system installed at Perma-Fix Northwest in Richland, Wash., has wrapped up its initial demonstration melt of sodium-contaminated radioactive waste from the Department of Energy’s Idaho National Laboratory (INL). Veolia Nuclear Services Federal Services, which owns the technology, in September received the INL contract to “demonstrate at full-scale” the system’s capabilities to process the reactive […]

Two advocacy groups in New Mexico filed a legal appeal Thursday seeking to undo a New Mexico Environment Department order that allows the Energy Department to change the way it records underground transuranic waste volume at its Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) near Carlsbad. The Southwest Research and Information Center (SRIC) and Nuclear Watch New […]

The Energy Department’s Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) near Carlsbad, N.M., received 311 shipments of defense transuranic waste during 2018. May was the busiest month of the year, with 37 shipments. January, with two federal holidays and a two-week maintenance outage, was the slowest month in 2018 with only 14 shipments, according to a monthly […]

The Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board plans to hold a public hearing by May to discuss an April 2018 accident at the Energy Department’s Idaho National Laboratory in which four drums of radioactive sludge blew off their lids. Three of the four DNFSB members voted on Dec. 12 to hold a hearing in Washington, D.C., […]

The states of Washington and Oregon have declared their formal opposition to a federal proposal for a new interpretation of the definition of high-level radioactive waste. Meanwhile, industry and community stakeholder groups are pressing the Department of Energy to proceed with the revised interpretation. The Energy Department is proposing to reconsider its interpretation of material […]

Both the Energy Communities Alliance and the U.S. Nuclear Industry Council favor changing the Energy Department’s interpretation of high-level radioactive waste to focus less on how it was produced and more on its hazard profile. The comment deadline was set to end Wednesday for DOE’s proposed reinterpretation of what constitutes high-level waste (HLW). “We are […]

The Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board plans to hold a public hearing by May to discuss an April 2018 accident at the Energy Department’s Idaho National Laboratory in which four drums of radioactive sludge overheated and blew off their lids. Three of the four DNFSB members voted on Dec. 12 to hold a hearing in […]

Fluor Idaho continues to prepare a plan for restarting waste operations at a fabric filter building at the Energy Department’s Idaho National Laboratory where four drums of radioactive sludge overheated and ejected their lids in April 2018. The contractor has already received feedback from DOE officials in Idaho regarding its corrective action plan to address […]

Fluor Idaho said Thursday it is offering a “targeted voluntary separation program” for up to 50 employees at the Idaho National Laboratory cleanup project. Workers who exercise this option by Jan. 14 would leave the company on Feb. 18. The Department of Energy contractor said personnel at the Advanced Mixed Waste Treatment Project (AMWTP) “are […]

Albuquerque, N.M.-based Energy Department contractor Strategic Management Solutions Inc. has promoted longtime executive David O’Flynn to president effective Jan. 1. O’Flynn, currently senior vice president at SMSI, is a veteran of project management, construction, engineering, and nuclear infrastructure work across the Energy Department and National Nuclear Security Administration complex, the company said in a Wednesday […]

The Department of Energy is accepting comments about security at the Hanford Site as it updates the security section of its dangerous waste permit for the Washington state facility. The proposed update in the permit from the Washington state Department of Ecology spells out in detail the security measures in place, including signs, surveillance systems, […]

An economic development executive in eastern Idaho said Wednesday that a number of questions remain about the Energy Department’s decision to close the Advanced Mixed Waste Treatment Project (AMWTP) at the Idaho National Laboratory. Dana Kirkham, CEO of the Regional Economic Development for Eastern Idaho, will attend a meeting with DOE officials in a few […]

Fluor Idaho has spent roughly $7 million to date on expenses related to the April 11 accident in which four drums of radioactive waste sludge overheated and blew off their lids at the Idaho National Laboratory. Spokesman Erik Simpson provided the figure in an Dec. 7 email responding to questions about Fluor Idaho’s efforts to […]

An Energy Department analysis made public last week finds there was not a compelling business case to continue operating the Advanced Mixed Waste Treatment Project (AMWTP) at the Idaho National Laboratory to process transuranic waste from other states. The agency has officially decided to close the facility in mid-to-late 2019 after it completes treating and […]

Fluor Idaho has presented Energy Department officials with its corrective action plan for preventing another radioactive-waste drum breach at an Idaho National Laboratory facility. Details of the cleanup contractor’s approach have not been made public. Energy Department officials in Idaho are expected to finish their adequacy review of the plan by Dec. 21. At dates […]

The Idaho Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) is taking comments this month on the Energy Department’s annual update to its cleanup plans for the Idaho National Laboratory complex. The comment deadline on DOE’s draft 2019 version of its Site Treatment Plan for the 890-square-mile national laboratory expires at 5 p.m. local time on Dec. 28, […]

The Energy Department and its cleanup contractor for the Idaho National Laboratory confirmed Friday the Advanced Mixed Waste Treatment Project (AMWTP) will close in 2019 once it has finished its work. “The Department of Energy analyzed the feasibility of extending the AMWTP mission to treat waste from other DOE sites, and concluded it would not […]

The Energy Department is giving interested parties additional time to weigh in on the proposed new interpretation of high-level radioactive waste (HLW). The public comment deadline has been pushed back from Dec. 10 to Jan. 9, according to a DOE notice Tuesday in the Federal Register. Comments can be emailed to HLWnotice@em.doe.gov. After the department […]

The Idaho Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) is taking comments this month on the Energy Department’s annual update to its cleanup plans for the Idaho National Laboratory complex. The comment deadline on DOE’s draft 2019 version of its Site Treatment Plan for the 890-square-mile national laboratory expires at 5 p.m. local time on Dec. 28, […]

While details have not been released, Fluor Idaho has presented Energy Department officials with its corrective action plan for preventing another radioactive-waste drum breach at an Idaho National Laboratory facility. Energy Department officials in Idaho are expected to finish their adequacy review of the plan by Dec. 21. At dates yet to be determined, Fluor […]

The Energy Department could reissue the liquid waste management contract for the Savannah River Site in South Carolina within hours, according to the most recent schedule for major procurements at its Office of Environmental Management. The DOE nuclear cleanup office posted the latest timeline on Nov. 19, and said the waste contract could be awarded […]

While the Department of Energy has spent $164 billion since 1989 to remediate Cold War-related nuclear and hazardous waste, its environmental liability has grown, according to the agency’s Office of Inspector General. The department’s environmental liability has more than doubled from a low of $176 billion in fiscal 1997 to $384 billion in fiscal 2017, […]

Mark Gilbertson’s official promotion to the No. 2 spot at the Energy Department’s Office of Environmental Management means added responsibility for his acting replacement as the cleanup office’s head of regulatory and policy issues. Assistant Secretary of Energy for Environmental Management Anne Marie White on Nov. 20 named Gilbertson her permanent principal deputy assistant secretary, […]

The Energy Department’s Office of Environmental Management did not wait until Black Friday to start shopping for ideas on the next round of nuclear cleanup at the Portsmouth Site in Ohio and the Idaho National Laboratory. The office on Wednesday issued separate requests for information (RFI)/sources sought notices for upcoming solicitations at the two sites […]

By John Stang Perma-Fix Environmental Services said Wednesday its GeoMelt radioactive waste treatment system is scheduled to complete its testing by Dec. 31 and should begin operating in the first quarter of 2019. “We are making progress with the GeoMelt system,” Perma-Fix President and CEO Mark Duff said during the company’s quarterly earnings conference call. […]

Fluor Idaho still does not have a date for resuming sludge repackaging inside the building at Energy Department’s Idaho National Laboratory where four drums of the radioactive waste overheated and blew off their lids on April 11. That is a key takeaway from a monthly report the lab’s cleanup contractor filed Oct. 30 with the […]

While Rep. Mike Simpson (R-Idaho) easily won re-election Tuesday, his ability to influence the money flow to the Energy Department’s Idaho National Laboratory, and federal nuclear cleanup operations as a whole, appears to be on the decline. Simpson took more than 60 percent of the vote in Idaho’s 2nd Congressional District to decisively defeat Democrat […]

By John Stang Perma-Fix Environmental Services said Wednesday its GeoMelt radioactive waste treatment system is scheduled to complete its testing by Dec. 31 and should begin operating in the first quarter of 2019. “We are making progress with the GeoMelt system,” Perma-Fix President and CEO Mark Duff said during the company’s quarterly earnings conference call. […]