Office of Environmental Management (EM)

PHOENIX— The Department of Energy’s $7.6 billion Office of Environmental Management is now responsible for only 15 cleanup sites, with the Brookhaven National Laboratory in New York coming off the board. Meanwhile, DOE Environmental Management planned to sign a new collaboration agreement with the United Kingdom’s Nuclear Decommissioning Authority later today (Monday) at the 2022 […]

Todd Shrader, second in command at the Department of Energy’s Office of Environmental Management since 2019, is leaving the cleanup office for a clean energy job at the agency, according to an internal email sent Monday. Longtime DOE hand Candice Robertson will step in for Shrader on an acting basis, William (Ike) White, senior advisor […]

This past week there were only 65 confirmed cases of COVID-19 within the Department of Energy’s Office of Environmental Management, down from 82 the prior week, according to an agency spokesperson. By comparison only a month ago, with the nation still experiencing a surge in the highly transmissible Omicron variant, there were 775 cases within […]

A federal judge in Knoxville overseeing litigation brought by a half-dozen employees refusing vaccination against COVID-19 at the Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory, has called for parties in the case to confer with him by telephone March 25. U.S. District Judge Charles Atchley Jr. issued an order Monday setting the scheduling conference in […]

Sen. Ben Ray Luján (D-N.M.) is back in the U.S. Senate more than a month after the 49-year-old lawmaker suffered a stroke. “Great to be back at work!” Luján said on this Twitter feed Thursday. The post includes pictures of the legislator in a meeting room, in what appears to be a Congressional corridor and […]

Four Rivers Nuclear Partnership, the Department of Energy contractor in charge of remediation at the Paducah Site in Kentucky, was deemed mostly “satisfactory” during fiscal 2021 and earned roughly half of its potential “adjective” fee, according to a recently-released scorecard from the agency. The joint venture made up of Jacobs, Fluor and BWX Technologies, earned […]

The Department of Energy’s facility to treat sodium-bearing radioactive waste at the Idaho National Laboratory was taken offline again after getting 17 days into a scheduled 50-day demonstration intended to clear the way for radioactive operations. The DOE and cleanup contractor Idaho Environmental Coalition decided to curtail operations of the Integrated Waste Treatment Unit (IWTU) […]

A New Mexico citizens group and the Department of Energy filed a proposed settlement agreement Tuesday with a U.S. District Court in a long-running legal fight over a 2016 consent decree governing legacy nuclear cleanup around the Los Alamos National Laboratory. A 33-page agreement outlining proposed changes to the 2016 “compliance order on consent” was […]

After being offline for nearly two years due to a combination of the COVID-19 pandemic and plant upgrades, the Department of Energy says conversion of depleted uranium hexafluoride to a more stable form is resuming at the Paducah Site in Kentucky. Likewise, depleted uranium hexafluoride (DUF6) conversion into uranium oxide at the Portsmouth Site in […]

A joint venture led by BWX Technologies, Savannah River Mission Completion, has taken over liquid waste operations now at the Department of Energy’s Savannah River Site in South Carolina. Savannah River Mission Completion (SRMC), which began its transition at the end of November, was to officially assume control of the waste management operations from Amentum-led […]

Four Rivers Nuclear Partnership, the Department of Energy contractor in charge of remediation at the Paducah Site in Kentucky, was deemed mostly “satisfactory” during fiscal 2021 and earned roughly half of its potential “adjective” fee, according to a recently-released scorecard from the agency. The joint venture made up of Jacobs, Fluor and BWX Technologies, earned […]

The Department of Energy Monday released fee scorecards for four contractors in charge of major reclamation, tank waste management, laboratory operation and site services at the sprawling Hanford Site in Washington state. In its first eight months on the job, Amentum-led Central Plateau Cleanup Co. (CPCC) won 79%, or $20.8 million, of a potential $26.5 […]

A New Mexico citizens group and the Department of Energy filed a proposed settlement agreement Tuesday with a U.S. District Court in a long-running legal fight over a 2016 consent decree governing legacy nuclear cleanup around the Los Alamos National Laboratory. A 33-page agreement outlining proposed changes to the 2016 “compliance order on consent” was […]

The Department of Energy Monday released fee scorecards for four contractors in charge of major reclamation, tank waste management, laboratory operation and site services at the sprawling Hanford Site in Washington state. In its first eight months on the job, Amentum-led Central Plateau Cleanup Co. (CPCC) won 79%, or $20.8 million, of a potential $26.5 […]

Four Rivers Nuclear Partnership, the Department of Energy contractor in charge of remediation at the Paducah Site in Kentucky, was deemed mostly “satisfactory” during fiscal 2021 and earned roughly half of its potential “adjective” fee, according to a recently-released scorecard from the agency. The joint venture made up of Jacobs, Fluor and BWX Technologies, earned […]

With the Department of Energy’s depleted uranium hexafluoride conversion plants offline during fiscal 2021, Atkins-led Mid-America Conversion Services won 70% of its subjective fee and 95% of its performance-based incentive fee, according to a scorecard published last week. The contractor earned more than $1.3 million out of a potential $1.9 million in subjectively reviewed fees […]

A joint venture led by BWX Technologies, Savannah River Mission Completion, has taken over liquid waste operations now at the Department of Energy’s Savannah River Site in South Carolina. Savannah River Mission Completion (SRMC), which began its transition at the end of November, was to officially assume control of the waste management operations from Amentum-led […]

Over the next 10 years, virtually all of the legacy transuranic waste at the Department of Energy’s Idaho National Laboratory will be shipped to New Mexico for underground disposal and the lab’s Radioactive Waste Management Complex will be closed, the president of Jacobs-led Idaho Environmental Coalition, said Thursday. In addition, the Integrated Waste Treatment Unit […]

After being offline for nearly two years due to a combination of the COVID-19 pandemic and plant upgrades, the Department of Energy says conversion of depleted uranium hexafluoride to a more stable form is resuming at the Paducah Site in Kentucky. Likewise, depleted uranium hexafluoride (DUF6) conversion into uranium oxide at the Portsmouth Site in […]

The White House said Friday President Joe Biden intends to nominate Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson as associate justice of the U.S. Supreme Court. Biden was expected to formally introduce the 51-year-old Brown Jackson, currently serving on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, as his choice during a White House ceremony […]

The Department of Energy’s Office of Inspector General could not substantiate allegations that the Amentum-led cleanup contractor at the Oak Ridge Site in Tennessee fudged its safety and health records in order to look better for DOE. That is the crux of an Office of Inspector General (OIG) report posted online Thursday. The office received […]

The legacy cleanup contractor for the Department of Energy’s Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico won 72% of its subjective fee and 91% of its performance-based fee during fiscal 2021, according to an agency scorecard posted this week. Altogether, Newport News Nuclear BWXT (N3B)-Los Alamos took home $8.37 million out of a potential $9.77 […]

Department of Energy contractor Swift & Staley will stay on at least another month while a federal judge decides whether the firm exceeded the size restrictions for the $160-million Infrastructure Support Services contract at the Paducah Site in Kentucky, according to a Friday court filing. In a Feb. 18 order, U.S. Court of Federal Claims […]

Next Monday, Feb. 28, will mark a return-to-onsite work for most Department of Energy Idaho National Laboratory personnel, according to a recent staff report from the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board, which said COVID-19 is still complicating work there. Meanwhile, as of the seven-day period ended Thursday, Feb. 24, there were only 82 confirmed active […]

Both quarterly and annual net earnings rose at BWX Technologies, Lynchburg, Va., the nuclear services provider said in a Tuesday press release. The company also said transition is going well for a BWXT-led team that will handle waste management at the Department of Energy’s Savannah River Site in South Carolina.  Net earnings for the fourth […]

The Salt Waste Processing Facility at the Department of Energy’s Savannah River Site in South Carolina returned to service Feb. 11, and since then has processed about 127,000 gallons of salt waste, a DOE spokesperson said in a Friday email. Earlier this month, DOE confirmed the plant built by Parsons was poised to resume operations […]

After a warm up period, the Integrated Waste Treatment Unit at the Department of Energy’s Idaho National Laboratory last week resumed a 50-day final trial run of the plant expected to treat about 900,000 gallons of liquid sodium-bearing waste, federal and state agencies confirmed Tuesday. Despite a brief hiccup in the latest practice run, the […]

Net income from continuing operations at Fluor, Irving, Texas, fell for both the fourth quarter and 2021 as a whole, which the international company and Department of Energy contractor attributed mostly to a massive, pre-tax charge related to a Dutch pension plan, according to a financial release Tuesday morning. For the quarter ended Dec. 31, […]

The legacy cleanup contractor for the Department of Energy’s Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico won 72% of its subjective fee and 91% of its performance-based fee during fiscal 2021, according to an agency scorecard posted this week. Altogether, Newport News Nuclear BWXT (N3B)-Los Alamos took home $8.37 million out of a potential $9.77 […]

Secretary of Energy Jennifer Granholm is remaining in Washington, D.C., this week after canceling a trip to the Department of Energy’s Hanford Site in Washington state due to tensions in Eastern Europe that on Thursday morning erupted into a full-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine. “Given the uncertainty in global energy markets and the global security […]