Moab

All 16 nuclear cleanup sites overseen by the Energy Department Office of Environmental Management have at least initiated Phase 1 remobilization operations, after on-site work was drastically scaled back this spring in an effort to reduce the potential spread of COVID-19 among the workforce. In addition, Phase 2 is now underway at the Idaho National […]

The Energy Department’s Office of Environmental Management will cut contractors some slack when it comes to work deadlines missed because of the COVID-19 pandemic, according to a policy that became official last week. The nuclear cleanup office “will continue to evaluate COVID-19 impacts on the ability of contractors to perform required work,” according to the […]

Starting Monday, more than half of the Energy Department’s nuclear cleanup sites will be in Phase 1 of a gradual return to normal operations that have been effectively suspended since March during the COVID-19 pandemic. Environmental remediation operations at the Portsmouth Site in Ohio, the Paducah Site in Kentucky, and the Los Alamos National Laboratory […]

The Department of Energy confirmed this week that the Savannah River Site in South Carolina, as well as the cleanup vendor at the Nevada National Security Site, are gradually restarting operations scaled back two months ago to curb the spread of COVID-19 among workers. At press time Friday, there have been 32 confirmed cases of […]

After weeks of speculation, three Department of Energy nuclear sites are entering the first phase of the full resumption of remediation amid the COVID-19 pandemic, the agency’s Office of Environmental Management confirmed Friday. The Hanford Site in Washington state, the Idaho National Laboratory, and the Oak Ridge Site in Tennessee are the first to take […]

Precautions are being taken to protect returning employees at Department of Energy nuclear cleanup sites from COVID-19, Undersecretary of Energy Mark Menezes said Wednesday. “We are moving to reopen some of the facilities” overseen by DOE’s Office of Environmental Management, Menezes told the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee during his nomination hearing to become […]

Even as the Energy Department stays mum on the schedule for staffing up operations that have been depopulated during the COVID-19 pandemic, there are increasing indicators that nuclear remediation sites will gradually start bring more workers back inside the fence before the end of June. This is based on comments from sources around the DOE […]

The Energy Department’s Savannah River Site in South Carolina might have to revisit the schedule for operation of the Salt Waste Processing Facility due to the COVID-19 pandemic, a spokesperson said Thursday. Eight cases of infection by the novel coronavirus 2019 have been confirmed at Savannah River. That is more than half of the 14 […]

A couple of smaller vendors to the nuclear industry say they are prepared to help clients withstand the current COVID-19 pandemic. UniTech Services Group, a provider of personal protective equipment for the nuclear industry in North America, last week predicted no “service disruptions” through the second quarter. “We’re going to take the right preventative measures […]

The Moab Uranium Mill Tailings Remediation Action (UMTRA) project in Utah as of this week was the sole Energy Department Office of Environmental Management nuclear cleanup site maintaining normal operations during the COVID-19 crisis. The project’s two work sites are “fully operational” while following Centers for Disease Control and Prevention guidelines to minimize the risk […]

Federal and industry sources said this week they don’t foresee major environmental or public safety concerns emerging if the current level of reduced staffing at Energy Department nuclear cleanup sites due to COVID-19 lingers for months. Nearly all of the 16 remediation sites overseen by DOE’s Office of Environmental Management have temporarily reduced their workforce […]

S&K Federal Services, a small tribally owned business based in Montana, has received a potential five-year, $22 million contract to provide technical support services to the Energy Department Office of Environmental Management. The office said in a Wednesday press release the S&K contract supports the Environmental Management Consolidated Business Center (EMCBC) in Cincinnati and small […]

S&K Federal Services, a small tribally owned business based in Montana, has received a potential five-year, $22 million contract to provide technical support services to the Energy Department Office of Environmental Management. The office said in a Wednesday press release the S&K contract supports the Environmental Management Consolidated Business Center (EMCBC) in Cincinnati and small […]

The Moab Uranium Mill Tailings Remediation Action (UMTRA) project in Utah as of Tuesday was the sole Energy Department Office of Environmental Management nuclear cleanup site maintaining normal operations during the COVID-19 crisis. The project’s two work sites are “fully operational” while following Centers for Disease Control and Prevention guidelines to minimize the risk of […]

A couple of smaller vendors to the nuclear industry say they are prepared to help clients withstand the current COVID-19 pandemic. UniTech Services Group, a provider of personal protective equipment for the nuclear industry in North America, last week predicted no “service disruptions” through the second quarter. “We’re going to take the right preventative measures […]

President Donald Trump on Friday signed into law the $2 trillion relief bill to support national recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic. In addition to nearly $100 million for the Energy Department’s Office of Science and semiautonomous National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) to support research and development to help contain the fallout of COVID-19, at national […]

While only a handful of COVID-19 cases have been confirmed to date across the Energy Department nuclear complex, most nuclear remediation sites are dramatically scaling back operations as the pandemic expands. That finding is based on conversations with sources who work with DOE’s Office of Environmental Management, public websites and social media posts, and stay-at-home […]

Rep. Dan Newhouse (R-Wash.) on Thursday expressed dismay at the dramatically reduced level of money the Energy Department’s Hanford Site in Washington state would receive under the White House latest budget request. The agency has a moral and legal obligation to clean up 56 million gallons of liquid waste, generated by decades of plutonium production […]

While remediation is nearly complete at a couple of the 16 sites overseen by the Energy Department’s Office of Environmental Management, other cleanup efforts could last late into this century, according a roundup included in the Donald Trump administration’s budget request for fiscal 2021. The Energy Department announced in June 2019 that demolition of facilities […]

Operations at the Moab Uranium Mill Tailings Remedial Action (UMTRA) project in Utah resumed within just a few days earlier this month after a truck overturned while carrying a load of waste, an Energy Department spokesperson confirmed Tuesday. A truck carrying a container of uranium mill tailings rolled onto its side while rounding a corner […]

Operations at the Moab Uranium Mill Tailings Remedial Action (UMTRA) project in Utah resumed within just a few days earlier this month after a truck overturned while carrying a load of waste, an Energy Department spokesperson confirmed Tuesday. A truck carrying a container of uranium mill tailings rolled onto its side while rounding a corner […]

The U.S. Energy Department on Monday issued a request for information kicking off market research for the next cleanup contract at the Moab Uranium Mill Tailings Remedial Action (UMTRA) project in Utah. The current contract, held by North Wind Portage, expires after September 2021. The work involves moving tailings from the old Atlas Mineral Corp. […]

The U.S. Energy Department on Monday issued a request for information kicking off market research for the next cleanup contract at the Moab Uranium Mill Tailings Remedial Action (UMTRA) project in Utah. The current contract, held by North Wind Portage, expires after September 2021. The work involves moving tailings from the old Atlas Mineral Corp. […]

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is giving the Energy Department and the state of Tennessee a chance to file more information in a dispute over water discharge standards for radionuclides at the Oak Ridge Site. EPA Region 4 is seeking a much more stringent standard on water discharges at Oak Ridge than those now used […]

The Energy Department’s Moab Uranium Mill Tailings Remedial Action (UMTRA) Project in Utah recently marked 10 years of uranium mill tailings shipments to off-site disposal. On April 20, 2009, the first load of mill tailings left the Moab site by rail. Today, more than 9.5 million tons of the estimated 16 million tons of tailings […]

The Energy Department Office of Environmental Management (EM) expects to speed cleanup of its nuclear sites by decades and save “$100s of millions” in life-cycle costs, according to the Donald Trump administration’s fiscal 2020 budget request. The request, issued in March, would trim the DOE nuclear remediation appropriation from $7.2 billion in fiscal 2019 to […]

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 […]

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 Energy Department Office of Environmental Management plans closer oversight of the Moab Uranium Mill Tailings Remedial Action (UMTRA) Project after workers at the Utah site knowingly falsified certain records. Contractor North Wind Group has taken disciplinary action against the employees involved, a DOE spokesperson said in a Wednesday email, adding that more business ethics […]

The Energy Department has removed about 57 percent of the tailings from an old uranium concentrate production mill 3 miles northwest of Moab, Utah, according to the latest available figures. At the end of March, the Moab Uranium Mill Tailings Remedial Action (UMTRA) Project had moved about 9.06 million tons of the estimated 16 million […]