Idaho National Laboratory

The Energy Department’s Waste Isolation Pilot Plant near Carlsbad, N.M., received 60 shipments of transuranic waste in just over the first two-and-a-half months of 2018, according to the latest publicly available data. Of the shipments received by March 18, 44 came from the Idaho National Laboratory. The remaining 16 were split evenly between the Oak […]

The fiscal 2018 omnibus budget bill signed by President Donald Trump on Friday would provide $7.1 billion for Department of Energy’s environmental management activities, $706 million above the $6.4 billion fiscal 2017 enacted level. That amounts to roughly an 11-percent increase on a year-over-year basis. Congress by early Friday approved the $1.3 trillion budget that […]

The Idaho Cleanup Project Citizens Advisory Board is preparing to issue a recommendation on the future of the Idaho National Laboratory’s Advanced Mixed Waste Treatment Project (AMWTP), sources said this week. The Energy Department advisory board will hear public input on potential future uses for the AMWTP during a conference call on March 28. The […]

The Idaho Cleanup Project Citizens Advisory Board is preparing to issue a recommendation on the future of the Idaho National Laboratory’s Advanced Mixed Waste Treatment Project (AMWTP), sources said this week. The Energy Department advisory board will hear public input on potential future uses for the AMWTP during a conference call on March 28. The […]

The aftermath of the February 2014 radiation release that closed the Energy Department’s Waste Isolation Pilot Plant in New Mexico for almost three years is the common thread between two recent developments at the nation’s only underground repository for transuranic waste. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is taking comments through April 19 on whether to […]

During the first month-and-a-half of operations in 2018, the Energy Department’s Waste Isolation Pilot Plant near Carlsbad, N.M., received 30 shipments of transuranic waste, with two-thirds of them coming from the Idaho National Laboratory. That comes out to an average of almost five shipments per week over a six-week period. In addition to 20 shipments […]

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is taking comments through April 19 on whether to sign off on the updated transuranic waste characterization program at the Energy Department’s Idaho National Laboratory Advanced Mixed Waste Treatment Project. An affirmative decision could lead to AMWTP shipping TRU waste to DOE’s Waste Isolation Pilot Plant near Carlsbad, N.M. Energy […]

Shipbuilder Huntington Ingalls Industries said Wednesday that Michael Smith will become president of subsidiary Stoller Newport News Nuclear (SN3) effective immediately. Smith has been Huntington Ingalls’ executive vice president for strategy and development. In his new post, Smith will report to Michael Lempke, president of Huntington Ingalls’ nuclear and environmental group. As president of SN3, […]

The Trump administration is again proposing to increase the budget for the Energy Department’s nuclear cleanup office, to $6.6 billion for fiscal 2019. That would be $182 million above the fiscal 2017 enacted level and $100 million above the amount proposed for the current budget year for DOE’s Office of Environmental Management (EM). Two industry […]

The U.S. Department of Energy has as of Tuesday incurred $3.2 million in fines from the state of Idaho for failure to successfully start operating the Integrated Waste Treatment Unit (IWTU) at the Idaho National Laboratory. The federal agency has paid part of that amount, primarily through environmental cleanup projects in the state, but the […]

The Energy Department is at risk of missing the 2018 deadline to ship all transuranic waste at the Idaho National Laboratory out of the state, a senior official said recently. That comes even as the agency has increased its pace of shipments to the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant in New Mexico for permanent disposal, Energy […]

The U.S. Department of Energy has as of Tuesday incurred $3.2 million in fines from the state of Idaho for failure to successfully start operating the Integrated Waste Treatment Unit at the Idaho National Laboratory. The facility is intended to process 900,000 gallons of liquid sodium-bearing waste produced during Cold War-era spent fuel reprocessing at […]

The Trump administration is again proposing to increase the budget for the Energy Department’s nuclear cleanup office, to $6.6 billion for fiscal 2019. That would be $182 million above the fiscal 2017 enacted level and $100 million above the amount proposed for the current budget year for DOE’s Office of Environmental Management (EM). Since the […]

Signs increasingly point toward startup by the end of 2018 of operations of the long-delayed Integrated Waste Treatment Unit (IWTU) at the Energy Department’s Idaho National Laboratory. DOE Idaho Deputy Manager Jack Zimmerman said during a meeting of the Leadership in Nuclear Energy Commission in Boise the IWTU could start treating radioactive waste by the […]

The Energy Department’s Waste Isolation Pilot Plant near Carlsbad, N.M., received 133 shipments of transuranic waste from around the DOE complex during 2017, exceeding its own target since resuming waste emplacement. Last March, during a WIPP Town Hall meeting, DOE Carlsbad Field Office Manager Todd Shrader publicly identified a target of 128 shipments from April […]

The Energy Department’s Waste Isolation Pilot Plant near Carlsbad, N.M., by taking 133 shipments of transuranic waste from around the DOE complex during 2017, beat its own target for resuming waste emplacement. Last March, during a WIPP Town Hall presentation, DOE Carlsbad Field Office Manager Todd Shrader publicly identified a target of 128 shipments from […]

Since reopening to shipments in April 2017, the Energy Department’s Waste Isolation Pilot Plant near Carlsbad, N.M., received 133 transports of transuranic waste as of Dec. 21, the last date for which data is publicly available. The Idaho National Laboratory made nearly two-thirds, or 88, of the shipments. Under a 1995 settlement agreement with Idaho, […]

The Energy Department is seeking public comment until Jan. 15 on plans to build a 65,280- cubic-foot above-ground concrete storage facility at the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant near Carlsbad, N.M., for contact-handled transuranic waste. The comment period opened Dec. 15 on the draft environmental assessment, required by the National Environmental Policy Act. The surface storage […]

The U.S. Department of Energy must be prepared to safely manage its 2,510-metric-ton stockpile of spent nuclear reactor fuel for decades until it can be placed in a permanent repository, according to new findings from a federal panel of experts. “While disposal of spent nuclear fuel (SNF) and high-level radioactive waste (HLW) in a deep […]

While some details remain to be worked out, Energy Secretary Rick Perry has approved a five-year extension for Battelle Energy Alliance to continue as the management and operations contractor for the Idaho National Laboratory through Sept. 30, 2024. Battelle Energy Alliance LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Battelle Memorial Institute, manages the laboratory with integrated […]

While some details still need to be worked out, Energy Secretary Rick Perry has approved a five-year extension for Battelle Energy Alliance to continue as the management and operations contractor for Idaho National Laboratory through Sept. 30, 2024. Battelle Energy Alliance LLC also has BWX Technologies, AECOM and the Electric Power Research Institute as integrated […]

The Energy Department’s Waste Isolation Pilot Plant in New Mexico has received 118 shipments of transuranic waste since reopening to shipments in April, officials said Wednesday night at the WIPP Town Hall in Carlsbad. WIPP is now averaging between five and six shipments per week from other DOE sites, according to Bruce Covert, president and […]

Controlling the costs of multibillion-dollar Cold War cleanup projects remains a struggle for the Energy Department and its Office of Environmental Management, the DOE Office of inspector General said in a Nov. 27 special report. In the report, the Inspector General’s Office analyzed management challenges facing the department and its semiautonomous National Nuclear Security Administration […]

The Idaho Department of Environmental Quality said Tuesday that it is seeking comment on a revised air quality permit for the Idaho National Laboratory. The proposed air quality permit to construct (PTC) will govern emissions from the sprawling national laboratory overseen by the Department of Energy. Chiefly, this permit consolidates some existing air permits for […]

The Idaho National Laboratory sent 66 of the first 102 shipments of transuranic waste to the reopened Waste Isolation Pilot Plant in New Mexico, according to data posted online as of Nov. 22. The update arrived as the Energy Department works to comply with an agreement on moving TRU waste stored at the Idaho site […]

When engineering company and Energy Department contractor CH2M was looking for potential merger partners this past spring, eventual buyer Jacobs Engineering wasn’t the only party showing interest, CH2M noted in a mammoth filing Tuesday with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. On Aug. 2, the two companies announced they had entered into an agreement for […]

With the House of Representatives already planning to look at the issue, the Senate on Oct. 19 approved a measure that could result in more predictable Payments in Lieu of Taxes (PILT) for communities surrounding federal facilities, including many across the Energy Department complex. The amendment to the Senate’s fiscal 2018 budget package won approval […]

CH2M anticipates the Energy Department will pursue a legal challenge to a $33.2 million decision from the Civilian Board of Contract Appeals last month in favor of a CH2M joint venture that was the former prime cleanup contractor for the Idaho National Laboratory. That is according to documents that CH2M filed Tuesday with the U.S. […]

A fledgling effort by the Department of Energy to revive domestic production of plutonium-238 (Pu-238) in order to fuel deep space missions by NASA shows promise but still faces challenges, according to a Government Accountability Office report released Oct. 4. The Energy Department has demonstrated “a proof of concept” by producing 100 grams of Pu-238 […]

The Energy Department’s Waste Isolation Pilot Plant in New Mexico is expected to receive 170 shipments of transuranic waste from the Idaho National Laboratory between August 2017 and August 2018, officials said during a WIPP Town Hall last week in the city of Carlsbad. Idaho will account for nearly two-thirds of the 258 anticipated total […]