Nevada National Security Site

The Energy Department declined several requests from prospective vendors to extend the Feb. 3 deadline for bidding on a potential 10-year, $3 billion Nationwide Deactivation, Decommissioning, and Removal Contract for excess facilities. The Environmental Management Consolidated Business Center last month published 152 questions and answers from potential bidders on the final request for proposals (RFP) […]

The remaining stockpile of uranium-233 at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) in Tennessee could be processed for disposal as low-level waste by 2025, according to an executive with the company managing the operation. Cleaning out the uranium from Building 3019 is the top cleanup priority at ORNL because, among other things, storing the fissile […]

A transportation provider for the cleanup contractor at the Energy Department’s Oak Ridge Site in Tennessee was involved a January fender-bender while moving low-level radioactive waste along a highway in Arkansas. No injuries resulted and no radioactive soil spilled in the accident, according to a Feb.7 DOE accident report. The subcontractor, Metler Hauling & Rigging, […]

Fluor-BWXT Portsmouth, the Energy Department’s cleanup contractor at the former gaseous diffusion plant in Pike County, Ohio, pocketed 86% of its potential fee for fiscal 2019, or $19.20 million of the available $22.78 million. The vendor claimed about $3.61 million of a potential $6.68 million in subjective fee for the federal budget year that ended […]

A federal judge is not pulling the plug yet on Nevada’s lawsuit to have a half-metric ton of plutonium trucked out of the state, despite the Department of Energy’s repeated requests to dismiss the case. The U.S. District Court for Nevada has scheduled a teleconference for March 12 to discuss the state’s desire to conduct […]

A federal judge is not pulling the plug yet on Nevada’s lawsuit to have a half-metric ton of plutonium trucked out of the state, despite the Department of Energy’s repeated requests to dismiss the case. The U.S. District Court for Nevada has scheduled a teleconference for March 12 to discuss the state’s desire to conduct […]

The U.S. Department of Energy’s Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico still plans this year to begin the next round of subcritical plutonium experiments, a series dubbed Nightshade. “In order to accommodate ongoing experiment preparation, facility work, and other programmatic priorities the Laboratory is planning to execute the Nightshade A SCE [subcritical experiment] in […]

The Los Alamos National Laboratory has traced an unprecedented radioactive leak during an explosive plutonium test in 2019 to a breached diagnostic port in the steel container that housed the subcritical experiment, a lab spokesperson said this week. “A diagnostic port was momentarily displaced due to the dynamic pressure exerted on the confinement vessel during […]

Twelve months ago, Anne Marie White was eagerly anticipating her first full year at the helm of the U.S. Department of Energy’s $7 billion-plus Office of Environmental Management. But her tenure as Energy Department assistant secretary for environmental management turned out to be closer to the end rather than the beginning. After being sworn into […]

In a pound-the-table brief filed this week, Nevada asked a federal judge to hear oral arguments in an ongoing lawsuit to remove 500 kilograms of weapon-usable plutonium from the state. The Department of Energy’s National Nuclear Security Administration shipped the material to the Nevada National Security Site in 2018 to comply with a court order […]

In a pound-the-table brief filed this week, Nevada asked a federal judge to hear oral arguments in an ongoing lawsuit to get some 500 kilograms of weapon-usable plutonium shipped out of the state. The Department of Energy’s National Nuclear Security Administration shipped the material to the Nevada National Security Site in 2018 to comply with […]

New U.S. Energy Secretary Dan Brouillette assured a Senate committee recently that steps are being taken to tighten his department’s shipment of radioactive waste for disposal at the Nevada National Security Site. Brouillette, at the time deputy energy secretary, listed several measures in a written response to a question submitted by Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto […]

Dan Brouillette was sworn in Wednesday as the 15th U.S. secretary of energy, after the Senate voted 70-15 to confirm him for the Cabinet spot earlier this week, a Department of Energy spokesperson said. Brouillette had served since 2017 as the deputy secretary of energy under Rick Perry, who resigned as secretary effective Sunday. The […]

The U.S. Energy Department has formally signed a six-month extension for the incumbent support services vendor at the Hanford Site in Washington state. “We have received notice this morning that extends our period of performance six month, through May 25, 2020,” Rae Moss, a spokeswoman for Leidos-led Mission Support Alliance (MSA), said in a Thursday […]

The U.S. Senate will vote Dec. 2, its first day back in Washington after Thanksgiving holiday break, on Dan Brouillette’s nomination to head the U.S. Department of Energy. The floor vote should occur around 5:30 p.m. ET that day, according to a Thursday Twitter post by the Senate’s Republican majority staff. Earlier Thursday, the Senate […]

The U.S. Senate will vote Dec. 2, its first day back in Washington after Thanksgiving holiday break, on Dan Brouillette’s nomination to head the U.S. Department of Energy. The floor vote should occur around 5:30 p.m. ET that day, according to a Thursday Twitter post by the Senate’s Republican majority staff. Earlier Thursday, the Senate […]

The U.S. government on Nov. 15 urged a federal judge to dismiss a revised lawsuit from the state of Nevada requesting the removal of half-a-metric tons of weapon-usable plutonium from the Department of Energy’s Nevada National Security Site (NNSS). The U.S. District Court for Nevada “lacks subject matter jurisdiction to decide this matter because Plaintiff […]

The nomination of Deputy Energy Secretary Dan Brouillette to become energy secretary easily cleared the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee on Tuesday by a 16-4 vote. The full Senate has not yet scheduled a vote on the nomination, a source said. The previously announced resignation of Energy Secretary Rick Perry takes effect Dec. 1. […]

The U.S. government on Nov. 15 urged a federal judge to dismiss a revised lawsuit from the state of Nevada requesting the removal of half-a-metric tons of weapon-usable plutonium from the Department of Energy’s Nevada National Security Site (NNSS). The U.S. District Court for Nevada “lacks subject matter jurisdiction to decide this matter because Plaintiff […]

A female former security police officer at the U.S. Department of Energy’s Nevada National Security Site, who alleged she was brutally assaulted by fellow officers during a drill, has settled a lawsuit against former site protective services contractor Centerra Group, according to a recent court filing. Jennifer Glover, who told the story of her alleged […]

Nevada will be allowed to seek removal of half a metric ton of nuclear weapon-usable plutonium sent to the Department of Energy’s Nevada National Security Site by amending a nearly year-old lawsuit, a federal judge ruled Monday. The state sued DOE and its semiautonomous National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) in U.S. District Court for Nevada […]

President Donald Trump said he plans to nominate Deputy Secretary of Energy Dan Brouillette to replace Rick Perry as head of the agency responsible for U.S. nuclear weapons and Cold War nuclear-waste cleanup. Brouillette has been Perry's deputy secretary for just over two years. When Trump first nominated him, a source said the longtime insurance […]

Nevada is pressing a federal judge for permission to resume a search for evidence that the U.S. Department of Energy skirted federal environmental law last year in shipping half a metric ton of weapon-usable plutonium to the Nevada National Security Site (NNSS). On Oct. 3, U.S. District Judge Miranda Du reinstated, but did not rule […]

Nevada is pressing a federal judge for permission to resume a search for evidence that the U.S. Department of Energy skirted federal environmental law last year in shipping half a metric ton of weapon-usable plutonium to the Nevada National Security Site (NNSS). On Oct. 3, U.S. District Judge Miranda Du reinstated, but did not rule […]

The U.S. Department of Energy on Sept. 27 officially issued up to one-year contract extensions for waste tank and Central Plateau cleanup at the Hanford Site in Washington state, as federal procurement officials work on long-term awards for those and other major projects. The previously announced extensions will be worth $665 million for AECOM-led Washington […]

After a final brief filed Friday, a federal judge will soon decide whether to dismiss Nevada’s lawsuit seeking to force the Department of Energy to remove half a metric ton of weapon-usable plutonium from the Nevada National Security Site (NNSS). Nevada in August sought permission to modify its 2018 lawsuit in U.S. District Court to […]

Nevada should not be allowed to seek removal of one-half a metric ton of weapon-usable plutonium from its borders by amending a lawsuit it filed against the Department of Energy last year, according to the federal government. “With no success in convincing this Court that DOE’s transportation of plutonium into the state is so dangerous that […]

Nevada should not be allowed to seek removal of one-half a metric ton of weapon-usable plutonium from its borders by amending a lawsuit it filed against the Department of Energy last year, according to the federal government. “With no success in convincing this Court that DOE’s transportation of plutonium into the state is so dangerous that […]

ALEXANDRIA, Va. — While the U.S. Energy Department has moved slower than anticipated in awarding several multibillion-dollar nuclear cleanup contracts, it is important to get the process correct, DOE Undersecretary for Science Paul Dabbar said Wednesday. “We want to make sure we are doing it the right way,” Dabbar said during his speech at the […]

HENDERSON, Nev. – Nuclear cleanup vendors hope the U.S. Energy Department’s new approach to procurement succeeds in quickening the pace of contract awards, one executive said here last week. That was the assessment of the end-state contracting model offered Sept. 3 at the ExchangeMonitor’s RadWaste Summit by Cathy Hickey, executive vice president for Navarro Research […]