Idaho National Laboratory

BWX Technologies still hopes its team can win the multibillion-dollar liquid waste management contract for the Energy Department’s Savannah River Site in South Carolina, executives said Aug. 7. The Lynchburg, Va., company partnered with Bechtel and Honeywell in Savannah River EcoManagement, which last fall initially won a 10-year, $4.7 billion contract to take over the […]

BWX Technologies still hopes its team can win the multibillion-dollar liquid waste management contract for the Energy Department’s Savannah River Site in South Carolina, executives said Tuesday. The Lynchburg, Va., company partnered with Bechtel and Honeywell in Savannah River EcoManagement, which last fall initially won a 10-year, $4.7 billion contract to take over the work. […]

The Energy Department’s Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) near Carlsbad, N.M., expects in 2019 to receive the first shipments from 6 metric tons of weapon-usable plutonium being downblended at the Savannah River Site in South Carolina. That was the word Thursday from DOE Carlsbad Field Office Manager Todd Shrader during a “WIPP Town Hall” public […]

Fluor Chairman and CEO David Seaton said Thursday the company remains in pursuit of a multibillion-dollar liquid waste management contract at the Savannah River Site in South Carolina that the Department of Energy is due to award again in a few weeks. Seaton offered his take, without elaboration, during Fluor’s quarterly earnings call with Wall Street […]

The White House on Tuesday nominated a former Capitol Hill staffer as general counsel for the Department of Energy. William Cooper is currently senior counsel and director in the Washington, D.C. branch of McConnell Valdés, a corporate law firm based in Puerto Rico. His prior positions as a congressional staffer include staff director for the […]

Fluor Idaho is in the advanced stages of its investigation into the cause of an April 11 incident in which four drums of radioactive sludge overheated and ejected their lids, causing waste to spill onto the floor at an Idaho National Laboratory facility. Representatives of the contractor, Energy Department officials in Idaho, and the Idaho […]

Department of Energy contractor Fluor will discuss its quarterly performance during a conference call with financial analysts at 5:30 p.m. Eastern time Thursday. Financial results for the second quarter, which ended June 30, will be reported at market close before the call. The Irving, Texas-based construction and engineering company is coming off a rough first […]

Total penalties assessed by Idaho against the Energy Department for failing to start treating sodium-bearing waste at the Idaho National Laboratory (INL) hit $4.16 million earlier this month, according to the state’s Department of Environmental Quality. The Idaho DEQ on June 20 approved DOE’s latest round of proposed supplemental environmental projects, which will allow DOE […]

The Department of Energy should reclassify treated liquid waste stored in glass logs at the Savannah River Site near Aiken, S.C., so the material will be eligible for disposal at the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) in Carlsbad, N.M., the SRS Citizens Advisory Board (CAB) recommended Tuesday. The recommendation, approved in a 19-2 vote, asks the […]

Workers for Idaho National Laboratory cleanup contractor Fluor Idaho have full access to glove boxes following an extended suspension of operations after an employee suffered a puncture wound on June 5. The incident occurred while the employee was conducing cleanup activities in a glove box at the lab’s Advanced Mixed Waste Treatment Project (AMWTP). By […]

Workers for Idaho National Laboratory cleanup contractor Fluor Idaho have full access to glove boxes following an extended suspension of operations after an employee on June 5 suffered a puncture wound while using one of the devices. The incident occurred while the employee was conducing cleanup activities in a glove box at the lab’s Advanced […]

Total penalties assessed by Idaho against the Energy Department for failing to start treating sodium-bearing waste at the Idaho National Laboratory (INL) hit $4.16 million earlier this month, according to the state’s Department of Environmental Quality. The Idaho DEQ on June 20 approved DOE’s latest round of proposed supplemental environmental projects, which will allow the […]

The Energy Department is seeking Nuclear Regulatory Commission approval for a one-time shipment of 2.5 kilograms of spent nuclear fuel material from the Oak Ridge National Laboratory in Tennessee to the Idaho National Laboratory for research purposes. The nuclear regulator said June 26 it had received DOE’s application for approval of a shipment route and […]

The Energy Department is seeking Nuclear Regulatory Commission approval for a one-time shipment of 2.5 kilograms of spent nuclear fuel material from the Oak Ridge National Laboratory in Tennessee to the Idaho National Laboratory for research purposes. The nuclear regulator said June 26 it had received DOE’s application for approval of a shipment route and […]

The Idaho Cleanup Project Citizens Advisory Board recently voted 7-4 to urge the Energy Department to extend the lifespan of the Idaho National Laboratory’s Advanced Mixed Waste Treatment Project (AMWTP) by allowing the facility to process radioactive waste from out of state. The letter, posted June 27 on the panel’s website, urges DOE to continue […]

Fluor Idaho expects in September to finish decontamination operations at the Idaho National Laboratory site where four 55-gallon drums of radioactive waste overheated and ruptured on April 11. The company also said, in a June 28 report on the incident to the Idaho Department of Environmental Quality, it should issue its final investigation findings in […]

The Idaho Cleanup Project Citizens Advisory Board recently voted 7-4 to urge the Energy Department to extend the lifespan of the Idaho National Laboratory’s Advanced Waste Treatment Project (AMWTP) by allowing the facility to process radioactive waste from out of state. The letter, posted June 27 on the panel’s website, urges DOE to continue to […]

The Energy Department and contractor Fluor Idaho have gathered up the loose material that spewed out of four breached drums of radioactive waste at the Idaho National Laboratory, but have still not determined the cause of the April 11 incident. Once a root cause is determined, Airlock 5 of the Accelerated Retrieval Project 5 facility […]

With both chambers of Congress having now given their blessing to fiscal 2019 spending packages that provide in the neighborhood of $7 billion for Department of Energy nuclear cleanup operations, it is now up to a House-Senate conference committee to decide the exact amount. The conference committee had not been scheduled to start its work […]

The Energy Department’s Office of Environmental Management would continue to enjoy a hefty budget under the “minibus” appropriation package for fiscal 2019 passed by the Senate on Monday evening. Voting senators approved the proposal 86-5. The Senate bill, which covers funding for energy and water development programs, among others, would provide $7.2 billion in total […]

Fluor Idaho said this week it has not yet lifted a stop work order in effect for certain operations at the Energy Department’s Idaho National Laboratory. The order was issued after a June 5 accident in which an employee suffered a puncture wound while doing cleanup work in a glove box at the Advanced Mixed […]

Fluor Idaho said this week it has not yet lifted a stop work order in effect for certain operations at the Energy Department’s Idaho National Laboratory. The order was issued after a June 5 accident in which an employee suffered a puncture wound while doing cleanup work in a glove box at the Advanced Mixed […]

In an introductory letter to new Assistant Energy Secretary for Environmental Management Anne Marie White, the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board (DNFSB) highlighted a number of safety concerns across the Energy Department’s nuclear cleanup complex. The independent safety watchdog is tracking several issues at the Savannah River Site in South Carolina and the Hanford Site […]

Battelle Energy Alliance, the management contractor for the Idaho National Laboratory, confirmed Tuesday it is offering a voluntary severance package for long-term employees until Sept. 4. “We now have an opportunity that makes it possible for us to offer a self-select voluntary separation program and are able to accept up to 99 applications,” INL Director […]

Former Idaho Gov. Philip Batt opposes potential Energy Department shipment of transuranic waste from the Hanford Site in Washington state to the Idaho National Laboratory. Batt, a Republican, was governor from 1995 to 1999, and championed a landmark settlement between the state, DOE, and the U.S. Navy that limited nuclear waste storage in Idaho. He […]

A June 8 article in Weapons Complex Monitor cited the Idaho Site and the Southwest Experimental Fast Oxide Reactor (SEFOR) as “small cites” in Energy Department cleanup operations, and failed to include the Separations Process Research Unit, the West Valley Demonstration Project, and the Nevada National Security Site. While the Energy Department’s fiscal 2019 budget […]

Three technologies are sufficiently developed for consideration to treat some of the low-activity radioactive waste stored at the Energy Department’s Hanford Site in Washington state, according to a new report from a National Academies panel. The panel plans to issue four reports on supplemental treatment of Hanford low-activity waste. Congress ordered the study, which is […]

The Energy Facility Contractors Group (EFCOG) last week elected a new member to its Board of Directors and re-elected another six members. First-time board member Bob Miklos is director of Production Facilities and Infrastructure at Idaho National Laboratory’s Materials and Fuels Complex. He has 30 years of experience with nuclear facilities and also chairs EFCOG’s project […]

An Idaho environmental group said this week it has significant concerns about the potential for the Energy Department to move 7,000 cubic meters of transuranic waste from the Hanford Site in Washington state to the Idaho National Laboratory for repackaging. While no written application has been filed, the idea has been kicking around DOE for […]

Vendors have until July 20 to bid on a new consolidated technical support services contract for the Energy Department’s Office of Environmental Management’s headquarters in Washington, D.C., and other EM sites. The DOE Environmental Management Consolidated Business Center (EMCBC) issued the final request for proposals (RFP) for technical support on June 7. The RFP is […]