Oak Ridge Reservation

URS-CH2M Oak Ridge (UCOR) officially announced Monday that it has hired a former Energy Department senior adviser for environmental management issues, Roger Jarrell, for a government and stakeholder relations position. Jarrell, who left DOE on June 15, was a Trump administration political appointee who joined the department in January 2017 and started working on nuclear […]

URS-CH2M Oak Ridge (UCOR), prime cleanup contractor for the Energy Department’s Oak Ridge Site in Tennessee, earned a total of $6.24 million in fee awards for the first half of 2018, according to a recent performance scorecard. The contractor garnered 100 percent of the potential $2.59 million in objective criteria fee, along with $3.65 million, […]

The Energy Department is advertising for a deputy manager at the Oak Ridge Office of Environmental Management (OREM) in Tennessee. The position has not been filled permanently since Jay Mullis became OREM manager last fall. Mullis had been OREM’s acting manager since October 2016, and was also the deputy manager since February 2015. The Energy […]

Louisiana-based PacTec Inc., a maker of industrial containment bags used at both Energy Department and commercial nuclear cleanup sites, claims in a new federal lawsuit that another company is violating its patents. PacTec claims Pennsylvania-based ICE Service Group and two Tennessee-based affiliates, ICE Packaging and Strategic Packaging, are “making, using, offering for sale, selling, or […]

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 […]

Louisiana-based PacTec Inc., a maker of industrial containment bags used at both Energy Department and commercial nuclear cleanup sites, claims in a new federal lawsuit that another company is violating its patents. PacTec claims Pennsylvania-based ICE Service Group and two Tennessee-based affiliates, ICE Packaging, and Strategic Packaging, are “making, using, offering for sale, selling, or […]

Spending plans that would ensure the Energy Department’s Office of Environmental Management (EM) will have somewhere in the neighborhood of $7 billion for cleanup of Cold War nuclear sites in fiscal 2019 continue to make their way through Congress. On Friday morning, the House of Representatives approved its fiscal 2019 energy and water appropriations as […]

The Senate’s latest National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) would allow the Department of Energy to spend $5.63 billion on defense environmental cleanup operations in fiscal 2019. That matches the department’s request for the budget year beginning Oct. 1, but it is $50 million lower than the level authorized in the House NDAA. The Senate measure […]

The full Senate Appropriations Committee on Thursday approved a $43.8 billion energy and water development bill for fiscal 2019, which includes almost $7.2 billion for the Energy Department’s Office of Environmental Management. The panel’s provision for the Cold War cleanup program exceeds the $6.9 billion passed last week by the House Appropriations Committee. The bill […]

Las Vegas-based Longenecker & Associates said Tuesday it has hired nuclear industry veteran Mike Briggs to the newly created post of senior program manager for operational support. Briggs, who has worked on major projects within the Energy Department complex, will oversee L&A’s operational support business, which includes training, nuclear safety, and radiation protection. “As L&A […]

The House of Representatives’ Appropriations Committee on Wednesday approved a $16 million funding haircut for cleanup of the Oak Ridge Gaseous Diffusion Plant in Tennessee. If the spending level survives the congressional appropriations process, financing from the Energy Department’s Uranium Enrichment Decontamination and Decommissioning Fund for the project would drop from about $195 million in […]

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 […]

Lynchburg, Va.-based BWX Technologies has named Joel Duling, currently leading its Nuclear Fuel Services subsidiary, to become president of its Nuclear Operations Groups as of June 22. Duling will succeed Joe Henry, who is retiring. Before joining Tennessee-based Nuclear Fuel Services five years ago as director of operations, Duling served at the Y-12 National Security […]

An Energy Department contractor at the Savannah River Site (SRS) in South Carolina is seeking expressions of interest from subcontractors potentially interested in conducting concrete testing at Saltstone Disposal Unit (SDU) 7. Savannah River Remediation said in a May 8 post on a federal contracting website it is seeking responses by June 15. The AECOM-led […]

The Energy Department indicated May 7 it has made another revision to the request for proposals (RFP) package for the Outfall 200 Mercury Treatment Facility at the Y-12 National Security Complex in Oak Ridge, Tenn. This latest amendment concerns the level of experience needed for the contractor installing micropiles” at the site for the mercury […]

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 Oak Ridge National Laboratory in Tennessee is replacing an inner reflector plug at its neutron source with a new one, filled with about 6 metric tons of heavy water purchased from Iran. The Energy Department’s lab Spallation Neutron Source (SNS) produces neutrons for experiments to support scientific disciplines including physics, chemistry, materials science, and […]

The Department of Energy is allowing an extra two weeks for submission of bids to build the Outfall 200 Mercury Treatment Facility at the Y-12 National Security Complex in Oak Ridge, Tenn. A new amendment to the request for proposals, among other things, extends the deadline for submission to 3 p.m. Eastern time on May […]

About two months after he left the federal ranks, the former top Department of Energy official at the Savannah River Site in Aiken, S.C., joined Atkins in a new role created for him. Jack Craig, who in February retired as manager of DOE’s Savannah River Site office after three years in that role and over […]

The Energy Communities Alliance got some good news last month when the omnibus budget for fiscal 2018 kept in place existing Payment in Lieu of Taxes (PILT) agreements, ECA Director of Nuclear Energy Programs Kara Colton said Monday. The budget does call for a report on how the Energy Department formulates PILT payments to communities […]

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 prime cleanup contractor for the Energy Department’s Oak Ridge Reservation in Tennessee said this week it self-reported the unauthorized work done by two employees at a retired experimental reactor in February 2017, which led to a $120,000 penalty. URS-CH2M Oak Ridge (UCOR) is taking corrective actions not just at the Molten Salt Reactor Experiment […]

Procurement officials at the U.S. Energy Department’s Office of Environmental Management (EM) are seeking to reduce the typical two-year process for awarding major contracts to one year. Tamara Miles, federal procurement director for the DOE Environmental Management Consolidated Business Center, discussed efforts to expedite contract awards during a panel session last month at the Waste […]

The Department of Energy this week suggested it would not push back the deadline for would-be bidders to submit their proposals to build the Outfall 200 Mercury Treatment Facility in Oak Ridge, Tenn. In the request for proposals issued March 22, DOE allowed 46 days for bids to be submitted. Questions on the RFP were due […]

The Energy Department’s Office of Environmental Management (EM) has a busy procurement schedule for bid proposals and contract awards into 2019. The most recent Environmental Management Consolidated Business Center timeline for requests for proposals and contract awards was presented last month at the Waste Management Symposia by Norbert Doyle, EM’s acting deputy assistant secretary for […]

The Department of Energy has removed the fuel, but not the salt, from the Molten Salt Reactor Experiment (MSRE) at Oak Ridge, Tenn. An article in the April 10 Weapons Complex Morning Briefing misstated the situation. Also, an article in April 9 Morning Briefing should have noted that a current procurement at the Y-12 National Security […]

The prime cleanup contractor for the Energy Department’s Oak Ridge Reservation in Tennessee said Tuesday it self-reported the unauthorized work done by two employees at a retired experimental reactor in February 2017, which led to a $120,000 penalty. URS-CH2M Oak Ridge (UCOR) is also taking corrective actions not just at the Molten Salt Reactor Experiment […]

The prime contractor for the Energy Department’s Oak Ridge Office of Environmental Management (OREM) in Tennessee has been fined $120,000 for not getting proper approval before carrying out certain work at the long-retired molten site reactor experiment (MSRE) during 2017. The Office of Enforcement within DOE’s Office of Enterprise Assessments outlined the penalty in a […]

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 […]

With an industry pre-proposal site tour set for Tuesday, the Outfall 200 Mercury Treatment Facility contract solicitation In Oak Ridge, Tenn., is already drawing a lot of questions from prospective bidders. Fourteen questions and answers were posted on the solicitation website April 6. They cover everything from conflict of interest, to weight limits for dump […]