Idaho National Laboratory

The U.S. Senate on Thursday voted to close debate on its version of the National Defense Authorization Act for fiscal 2019, setting up a floor vote Monday on the measure that sets spending caps on defense environmental cleanup at the Department of Energy. Senators voted 81-15 in favor of cloture. The defense policy bill, passed […]

An Idaho environmental group said Wednesday it has significant concerns about an Energy Department plan to move 7,000 cubic meters of transuranic waste from the Hanford Site Washington state to the Idaho National Laboratory for repackaging. The idea has been kicking around DOE for a couple years but seems to be “ripening” in recent months […]

The Energy Department’s staggering environmental liability at its Manhattan Project and Cold War nuclear sites keeps Assistant Energy Secretary for Environmental Management Anne Marie White “up at night,” she said Thursday in Washington, D.C. Environmental liability is one of the U.S. government’s larger line items, behind the federal debt and entitlement programs such as Social […]

The latest version of the Senate’s fiscal 2019 National Defense Authorization Act calls upon the Government Accountability Office (GAO) to report on repackaging of transuranic waste at the Idaho National Laboratory (INL) after an April 11 incident in which the lids blew off four waste drums. It is “disturbing” that at least one of the […]

Fluor Idaho has ordered certain work to temporarily stop while it investigates an employee puncture injury Tuesday at the Radioactive Waste Management Complex at the Energy Department’s Idaho Site. The employee was injured while doing cleanup tasks in a glove box at the Advanced Mixed Waste Treatment Project (AMWTP), DOE said in a Thursday news […]

As expected, a team led by Battelle will continue to manage the Idaho National Laboratory for the Energy Department’s Office of Nuclear Energy through September 2024. The new contract is worth an estimated $5 billion, BWX Technologies, a member of the lab management joint venture, said Wednesday. The announcement came as no surprise. In December, […]

A significant amount of material was ejected when four 55-gallon drums of radioactive waste blew their lids off during an April 11 incident at the Idaho National Laboratory, Fluor Idaho said in a recent report. “A significant portion” of the potential 220 gallons of repackaged waste sludge were found afterward scattered on the floor and […]

It could take several more weeks to complete cleanup of an Idaho National Laboratory facility where four drums of solidified radioactive waste were found to have breached on April 11, the president of site cleanup contractor Fluor Idaho wrote in a May 25 column for local newspapers. The investigation has entered a forensic phase, and […]

It could take several more weeks to complete cleanup of an Idaho National Laboratory facility where four drums of solidified radioactive waste were found to have breached on April 11, the president of site cleanup contractor Fluor Idaho wrote in a Friday column for local newspapers. The investigation has entered a forensic phase, and waste […]

The U.S. Energy Department this week has proposed doing additional supplemental environmental projects (SEPs) in Idaho to offset state fines for the agency’s failure to successfully start the long-delayed Integrated Waste Treatment Unit (IWTU) at the Idaho National Laboratory. The Idaho Department of Environmental Quality on Tuesday received DOE’s written proposal for three more environmental […]

The U.S. Energy Department this week has proposed doing additional supplemental environmental projects (SEPs) in Idaho to offset state fines for the agency’s failure to successfully start the long-delayed Integrated Waste Treatment Unit (IWTU) at the Idaho National Laboratory. The Idaho Department of Environmental Quality on Tuesday received DOE’s written proposal for three more environmental […]

The House Appropriations Committee on Wednesday rejected an amendment to its fiscal 2019 energy and water bill that would have siphoned away certain increased funding for the Yucca Mountain nuclear waste repository and Energy Department environmental cleanup programs. During the committee markup of the bill, Rep. Matt Cartwright (D-Pa.) proposed the amendment to help restore […]

The House Appropriations Committee is recommending $6.9 billion in fiscal 2019 for the nuclear cleanup program overseen by the Energy Department Office of Environmental Management (EM). That would be $257 million less than the fiscal 2018 appropriation but $268 million more than the Trump administration’s request for the budget year beginning Oct. 1. Ahead of […]

Top executives at AECOM and BWX Technologies this week made clear their companies still aim to come out on top in the extended contest for a multibillion-dollar contract at the Department of Energy’s Savannah River Site in South Carolina. David Black, senior vice president and chief financial officer at Virginia-based BWXT, addressed the situation in […]

The Department of Energy’s Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) near Carlsbad, N.M., has received 93 shipments of transuranic waste so far in 2018. The shipment total works out to an average of 5.8 shipments per week to the underground disposal site in the 16 weeks between Jan. 1 and April 20 — the latest date […]

The government sector was one of the few bright spots early this year in what Fluor Chairman and CEO David Seaton described Thursday as “a disastrous quarter.” “I think we have a good brand in that market and are continuing to bid those projects and being successful,” Seaton said of the company’s business with the […]

The Energy Department and cleanup contractor Fluor Idaho are still in the early stages of the investigation of an April 11 breach of four drums of radioactive waste at the Idaho Site, a state official said this week. “They have made several re-entries and are in the process of collecting samples but it will likely […]

Fluor Idaho said Friday it hopes to have a plan in place by the end of this week for the probe and initial site recovery for the April 11 breach of four drums of radioactive waste at the Energy Department’s Idaho Site. A plan for “investigation, sampling, and recovery” should be complete by May 4, […]

Fluor is scheduled the release its first-quarter 2018 financial earnings Thursday immediately after the stock market closes, with a conference call with financial analysts scheduled for 5:30 p.m. Eastern time. The Dallas-based engineering and construction company, a major player in nuclear cleanup for the Department of Energy, slightly raised its full-year company-wide revenue to $19.5 billion […]

Four 55-gallon drums of radioactive waste ejected their lids due to excessive pressure on April 11 at the Accelerated Retrieval Project No. 5 (ARP 5) facility, Idaho Site cleanup contractor Flour Idaho confirmed this week. The Energy Department and the contractor had both indicated last week at least one drum, and possibly more, had been […]

The Energy Department could store transuranic waste up to 10 years at the Separations Process Research Unit (SPRU) cleanup site in Schenectady County, N.Y., under a hazardous waste permit it has requested from the state. In early April, DOE submitted the application to the state Department of Environmental Conservation, which expects to issue the draft […]

Four 55-gallon drums of radioactive waste ejected their lids due to excessive pressure on April 11 at the Accelerated Retrieval Project No. 5 (ARP 5) facility, Idaho Site cleanup contractor Flour Idaho confirmed Monday. The Energy Department and the contractor had both indicated last week at least one drum, and possibly more, had been breached. […]

The Department of Energy has not fully analyzed the risk of certain types of accidents at the Idaho National Laboratory’s Integrated Waste Treatment Unit (IWTU), according to the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board (DNFSB). In a March 27 letter to DOE, the DNFSB cited weaknesses in the safety planning conducted for the IWTU: These types […]

The Energy Department’s Idaho National Laboratory suspended transuranic waste shipments to the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) in New Mexico immediately after an April 11 incident in which at least one 55-gallon drum of radioactive waste overheated and ejected its lid. The suspension was precautionary, and shipments resumed on Tuesday, Idaho Site cleanup contractor Fluor […]

The Energy Department’s Idaho National Laboratory suspended transuranic waste shipments to the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) in New Mexico immediately after an April 11 incident in which at least one 55-gallon drum of radioactive waste overheated and ejected its lid. The suspension was precautionary, and shipments resumed on Tuesday, Idaho Site cleanup contractor Fluor […]

The Energy Department has renewed its Environmental Management Site-Specific Advisory Board (EM SSAB) for a two-year period, through April 11, 2020. The department announced the extension in an April 17 Federal Register notice. The 17-member advisory board provides DOE’s Office of Environmental Management with recommendations on a number of issues concerning specific nuclear cleanup sites. […]

The management and operations contractor for the Energy Department’s Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) near Carlsbad, N.M., is reviewing three bid proposals from companies hoping to build a new permanent underground ventilation system for the deep-underground disposal site. Bid proposals were received March 21 and are now under review, Nuclear Waste Partnership (NWP) spokesman Donavan […]

No injuries or environmental contamination apparently resulted after a drum of radioactive waste overheated and breached Wednesday at the Department of Energy’s Idaho Site, cleanup contractor Fluor Idaho said. The accident occurred Wednesday evening at the Radioactive Waste Management Complex (RWMC) Accelerated Retrieval Project (ARP 5) containment structure before 11 p.m. MDT Thursday, Fluor said in […]

The Energy Department’s Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) near Carlsbad, N.M., anticipates receiving about 300 shipments during the 12 months from February 2018 and February 2019. That’s according to slides shared by Carlsbad Field Office Manager Todd Shrader at the Waste Management Symposium last month in Phoenix, Ariz. During this period, DOE and WIPP management […]

The Energy Department’s Waste Isolation Pilot Plant near Carlsbad, N.M., received 64 shipments of transuranic waste from Jan. 1 through March 21, 2018, according to the latest publicly available data. Of the shipments received by March 21, 48 came from the Idaho National Laboratory. The remaining 16 were split evenly between the Oak Ridge National […]