Archive

Idaho National Laboratory

A Department of Energy national laboratory in eastern Idaho focused on nuclear energy research, reactor testing, and advanced reactor development.

  • Idaho National Lab shipments provide more than 70% of WIPP traffic

    The Idaho National Laboratory has accounted for about 71% of shipments to the Department of Energy’s Waste Isolation Pilot Plant near Carlsbad, N.M., over three years, the manager of DOE’s Idaho Cleanup Project told an advisory board Wednesday. Under Idaho’s updated spent fuel settlement agreement with DOE and the U.S. Navy, the lab is supposed […]

  • Idaho National Lab shipments provide more than 70% of WIPP traffic

    The Idaho National Laboratory has accounted for about 71% of shipments to the Department of Energy’s Waste Isolation Pilot Plant near Carlsbad, N.M., over three years, the manager of DOE’s Idaho Cleanup Project told an advisory board Wednesday. Under Idaho’s updated spent fuel settlement agreement with DOE and the U.S. Navy, the lab is supposed […]

  • Broken ceramic filter elements linked to latest IWTU woes, DOE says

    Environmental crews at the Department of Energy’s Idaho National Laboratory have discovered three broken ceramic filter elements are to blame for stalling operations at a plant built to solidify liquid sodium-bearing radioactive waste. In March, DOE and its Jacobs-led contractor Idaho Environmental Coalition, decided to suspend restart of the Integrated Waste Treatment Unit (IWTU). While […]

  • Two developers picked by DOE for solar projects at Idaho National Lab

    The Department of Energy Wednesday announced the selection of two companies that will potentially develop hundreds of megawatts of electricity from solar power at the Idaho National Laboratory. NorthRenew Energy Partners and Spitfire propose to install a combined total of 400 megawatts of carbon-free electricity at Idaho National Laboratory under DOE’s Cleanup to Clean Energy […]

  • Two developers picked by DOE for solar projects at Idaho National Lab

    The Department of Energy Wednesday announced the selection of two companies that will potentially develop hundreds of megawatts of electricity from solar power at the Idaho National Laboratory. NorthRenew Energy Partners and Spitfire propose to install a combined total of 400 megawatts of carbon-free electricity at Idaho National Laboratory under DOE’s Cleanup to Clean Energy […]

  • Two developers picked by DOE for solar projects at Idaho National Lab

    The Department of Energy Wednesday announced the selection of two companies that will potentially develop hundreds of megawatts of electricity from solar power at the Idaho National Laboratory. NorthRenew Energy Partners and Spitfire propose to install a combined total of 400 megawatts of carbon-free electricity at Idaho National Laboratory under DOE’s Cleanup to Clean Energy […]

  • House appropriator Simpson wins Idaho GOP primary

    Rep. Mike Simpson (R-Idaho), who has used his seat on the House Appropriations Committee to support funding for the Department of Energy’s Idaho National Laboratory, has again won the GOP nomination to represent the state’s 2nd Congressional district. Simpson received over half the votes cast in Tuesday’s Republican primary, defeating two GOP challengers, the Idaho […]

  • House appropriator Simpson wins Idaho GOP primary

    Rep. Mike Simpson (R-Idaho), who has used his seat on the House Appropriations Committee to support funding for the Department of Energy’s Idaho National Laboratory, has again won the GOP nomination to represent the state’s 2nd Congressional district. Simpson received over half the votes cast in Tuesday’s Republican primary, defeating two GOP challengers, the Idaho Capital […]

  • House appropriator Simpson wins Idaho GOP primary

    Rep. Mike Simpson (R-Idaho), who has used his seat on the House Appropriations Committee to support funding for the Department of Energy’s Idaho National Laboratory, has again won the GOP nomination to represent the state’s 2nd Congressional district. Simpson received over half the votes cast in Tuesday’s Republican primary, defeating two GOP challengers, the Idaho […]

  • Wrap up: 2025 trial possible in case against Hanford landlord; Ex- Canada lab exec joins SRS prime; Ex-DOE manager Flohr joins Navarro; and more

    The Department of Justice and the landlord contractor for the Department of Energy’s Hanford Site in Washington state both anticipate a fraud trial lasting several weeks could be held in federal district court during fall of 2025. That is one of the key takeaways from a joint filing Thursday by Justice, on behalf of a […]

  • Ex-DOE manager Flohr joints Navarro

    Connie Flohr, a longtime Department of Energy executive who retired from the agency last month after being manager of cleanup at Idaho National Laboratory, has joined contractor Navarro Research & Engineering. In her role at Oak Ridge, Tenn.,-based Navarro, Flohr will concentrate on partnerships and growing the company’s footprint within DOE, NASA and the Department […]

  • WIPP shipments dip from March 2023 as outage shortens availability

    The Department of Energy’s Waste Isolation Pilot Plant in New Mexico, coming out of a maintenance outage, received 23 shipments of transuranic waste during the last half of March, according to online data. Because of the extended maintenance outage, which kept the underground salt mine offline all of February, shipment only resumed March 15. The […]

  • Wrap Up: EM forecasts only 2 RFPs this summer; Ex-Hanford EPA boss dies in accident; Idaho DOE managers to brief congress; and more

    The Department of Energy’s Office of Environmental Management expects to issue at most two final solicitations between now and September, according to a quarterly notice published Wednesday. The final request for proposals (RFP) for Consolidated Technical Support Services would be released no sooner than June and the Paducah Infrastructure Support Services contract no sooner than […]

  • Hanford remediation could extend to nearly 22nd century

    A 21-year-old who starts working at the Department of Energy’s Hanford Site in Washington state this year could have a 50-plus-year career and still retire before the former plutonium production facility is officially cleaned up. DOE currently projects, with between 50% and 80% confidence, the Hanford Site will be deemed clean sometime between 2078 and […]

  • Idaho DOE managers to brief congress on spent fuel plans

    PHOENIX —A trio of managers from branches of the Department of Energy at the Idaho National Laboratory planned to travel to Washington, D.C., later this month to brief congressional staffers on sitewide spent nuclear fuel management at the lab. Connie Flohr, who is retiring from DOE next month, said at the Waste Management Symposia conference […]

  • DOE hopes to select early clean power projects this fiscal year

    PHOENIX — The Department of Energy has issued requests for qualifications at four of the initial five nuclear properties in the agency’s Cleanup to Clean Energy program, officials here said Tuesday at the Waste Management Symposia conference. As of this week, requests for qualifications (RFQ) have gone out at the Hanford Site in Washington state, […]

  • IWTU hits a re-start snag, crews look for a fix

    The Department of Energy has scrubbed its goal to restart this month the Integrated Waste Treatment Unit at Idaho National Laboratory. “This week, while performing start-up operations at the Integrated Waste Treatment Unit (IWTU), crews identified abnormal conditions while performing testing in preparation for resuming waste processing,” DOE said in an email press release shared […]

  • Wrap Up: New Idaho cleanup boss starts soon; West Valley bidders get extension; New Mexico fines LANL and more

    Mark Brown, deputy manager of Department of Energy nuclear cleanup at the Idaho National Laboratory, will become manager of the field operation earlier than announced, the agency said Thursday. Brown will assume the Idaho Cleanup Project manager job starting Sunday, March 10, a DOE spokesperson said by email. Connie Flohr will remain on staff serving […]

  • Spending at DOE’s big nuclear cleanup sites inch upward in compromise bill

    The largest nuclear cleanup sites run by the Department of Energy’s Office of Environmental Management would meet or beat fiscal 2023 funding levels, under the compromise 2024 appropriations bill released over the weekend. At the Hanford Site in Washington state, the former plutonium-making complex that is now DOE’s most expensive cleanup project, the two operational […]

  • DOE studies vitrification options for solidifying calcine at Idaho lab

    The U.S. Department of Energy is studying vitrification technologies as options for treating 1.2 million gallons of calcine, a high-level radioactive waste at the Idaho National Laboratory, a DOE advisory board heard Thursday, Feb. 21. DOE is looking at options from three prospective suppliers: an Atkins-Catholic University joint venture, Orano and Veolia, said Valerie Kimbro, […]

  • Wrap Up: Power projects sought for INL; Feds, Physicians group debate Rocky Flats; Hawley pushes for radiation compensation; and more

    The Department of Energy on Friday issued a request for qualifications for developers interested in installing carbon-free electric power projects of 200 megawatts or more at the Idaho National Laboratory. The request for qualifications is part of DOE’s Cleanup to Clean Energy initiative to tap unused land on Cold War and Manhattan Project sites for […]

  • Race for Simpson’s congressional seat draws interest

    Despite his relatively easy re-election in 2022, a couple of Republicans are set to challenge Rep. Mike Simpson (R-Idaho), a longtime member of the House Appropriations Committee and vocal supporter of the Department of Energy’s Idaho National Laboratory. A couple of Democrats also plan to run in their party’s 2nd congressional district primary, which like […]

  • Race for Simpson’s congressional seat draws interest

    Despite his relatively easy re-election in 2022, a couple of Republicans are set to challenge Rep. Mike Simpson (R-Idaho), a longtime member of the House Appropriations Committee and vocal supporter of the Department of Energy’s Idaho National Laboratory. A couple of Democrats also plan to run in their party’s 2nd congressional district primary, which like […]

  • DOE studies vitrification options for solidifying calcine at Idaho lab

    The U.S. Department of Energy is studying vitrification technologies as options for treating 1.2 million gallons of calcine, a high-level radioactive waste at the Idaho National Laboratory, a DOE advisory board heard Thursday. DOE is looking at options from three prospective suppliers: an Atkins-Catholic University joint venture, Orano and Veolia, said Valerie Kimbro, a nuclear […]

  • Wrap Up: DUF6 contractor faces $382K fine; Hanford tank pipeline deadline extended; INL has money in reserve; more

    Atkins-led Mid-America Conversion Services has 30 days to contest $382,500 in Department of Energy fines stemming from allegations that the contractor failed to ensure a crane used in Depleted Uranium Hexafluoride Conversion at the Portsmouth Site in Ohio was maintained in a safe manner. The contractor “has not acknowledged these nuclear safety deficiencies, they have […]

  • IWTU to resume ops in March but DNFSB says problems remain, DOE seeks higher output

    The cleanup contractor at the Department of Energy’s Idaho National Laboratory will need to treat about twice as much sodium-bearing waste annually as it did during 2023 in order to meet the agency’s target for the new Integrated Waste Treatment Unit, an advisory panel heard Thursday.  After treatment resumes, DOE wants the Integrated Waste Treatment […]

  • Idaho on pace to ship legacy waste to WIPP by 2032

    While the Department of Energy is satisfying a New Mexico push to move more transuranic waste from Los Alamos National Laboratory to the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant near Carlsbad, N.M., the Idaho National Laboratory remains the underground mine’s top shipper, a DOE panel heard Thursday. Although a 2019 update to a legal settlement between the […]

  • IWTU to resume ops in March but DNFSB says problems remain

    The cleanup contractor at the Department of Energy’s Idaho National Laboratory is on track to resume treating sodium-bearing liquid waste in March, but some fixes are still needed, according to a Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board update. Jacobs-led Idaho Environmental Coalition finished a maintenance outage at the Integrated Waste Treatment Unit (IWTU) in mid-January after […]

  • 50 shipments of transuranic waste arrive at WIPP during January

    The Department of Energy’s Waste Isolation Pilot Plant in New Mexico received 50 shipments of transuranic waste during January, according to the facility’s public website. 39 of the 50 came from the Idaho National Laboratory while five were shipped from the Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico, four from the Savannah River Site in […]

  • DOE picks No. 2 Brown to succeed Flohr as Idaho cleanup boss

    The Department of Energy said Wednesday evening it will promote Mark Brown to become the new cleanup project manager at the Idaho National Laboratory where he will replace Connie Flohr who plans to retire from the agency in April and take a job in industry. Brown is deputy manager of the Idaho Cleanup Project and […]