Office of Environmental Management (EM)

The Department of Energy’s Office of Environmental Management is issuing a no-bid contract to the minority-owned firm, Career Communications Group, to give the nuclear cleanup branch a presence at a black engineering conference later this month and help the office improve outreach to technically-savvy minority recruits. The DOE’s Cincinnati-based Environmental Management (EM) Consolidated Business Center […]

Seven states and a national trade association filed legal briefs this week urging the Eleventh U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals to leave in place a Georgia federal judge’s national order blocking the Joe Biden administration from enforcing its COVID-19 vaccination mandate for contractors. The legal arguments were filed Tuesday by Associated Builders and Contractors (ABC) […]

The U.S. House of Representatives Tuesday approved a three-week stopgap funding plan to keep the federal government open through March 11 after the current continuing resolution expires on Feb. 18. The full House voted Tuesday evening  272-to-162 to approve the short-term extension while appropriators continue to work on a spending plan to carry the government […]

A U.S. Court of Federal Claims judge is scheduled to hear oral arguments today on whether Department of Energy contractor Swift & Staley exceeds size limits for the $160-million Paducah Infrastructure Support Services set-aside contract awarded in December 2020 for the former gaseous diffusion plant in Kentucky. Although today’s hearing set for 11 a.m. Eastern […]

The Department of Energy’s Office of Environmental Management is issuing a no-bid contract to the minority-owned firm, Career Communications Group, to give the nuclear cleanup branch a presence at a black engineering conference later this month and help the office improve outreach to technically-savvy minority recruits. The DOE’s Cincinnati-based Environmental Management (EM) Consolidated Business Center […]

Expanding on its decision last week to deny a protest of the Department of Energy’s most recent cleanup contract at the Oak Ridge Site, the Government Accountability Office said Monday that the agency properly vetted a Veolia-led team’s proposal and took into consideration the team’s relevant past experience with cleanup jobs. The agency’s evaluation was […]

The Department of Energy’s Hanford Site in Washington state is done with its remediation of the Plutonium Finishing Plant, according to a recently-posted staff report from the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board.   The DOE Office of Environmental Management has approved Critical Decision 4 for the cleanup of the Plutonium Finishing Plant (PFP), “marking completion of […]

While more than 300 plaintiffs are now listed, an amended complaint last month by guards and other anti-vaccine workers at the Department of Energy’s Hanford Site in Washington has the same central weakness as the original one rejected by a federal judge, government lawyers said in a filing last week. U.S. District Judge Thomas Rice […]

Deputy Secretary of Energy David Turk met privately with the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board Jan. 27, a board spokesperson confirmed Monday. Members of the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board (DNFSB) leadership of DOE and its $7.5-billion Office of Environmental Management “try to meet periodically to discuss updates,” in closed sessions, DNFSB associate director for […]

The House of Representatives could vote Tuesday on a 21-day stopgap budget unveiled Monday by House Appropriations Committee Chair Rosa DeLauro (D-Conn.) to keep the Department of Energy and the rest of the federal government open through March 11. “This Continuing Resolution [CR] – the product of bipartisan, bicameral negotiation – extends funding through March […]

With the promise of a reliable nitrogen supply apparently in hand, the Department of Energy is preparing to resume a final test run to demonstrate operations of a long-awaited plant to treat sodium-bearing radioactive waste at the Idaho National Laboratory, according to a state official. “Warm up” of the Integrated Waste Treatment Unit (IWTU) was […]

The Department of Energy’s Office of Environmental Management has hauled away the last of demolition debris from buildings torn down last year at the Santa Susana Field Laboratory site in Southern California, according to a Tuesday release. Trucks carrying the waste from buildings within DOE’s Energy Technology Engineering Center northwest of Los Angeles rolled out […]

The Department of Energy’s latest best- and worst-case estimates for fully cleaning up the Hanford Site in Washington State were each several tens of billions of dollars lower than the previous estimate, though the calculation released this week does not fully include the cost of delays to the site’s crucial High-Level Waste Facility. The feds […]

Six employees at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory who refused COVID-19 vaccine are assured of their day in court after obtaining a right to sue from a federal agency, the judge in the case confirmed this week. The six plaintiffs filed an amended complaint Jan. 4 against the University of Tennessee- Battelle partnership (UT-Battelle) operating […]

More than two-dozen firms sent multiple representatives to attend virtual meetings last week on the Department of Energy’s potentially $5.87-billion Decontamination and Decommissioning Contract at the Portsmouth Site in Ohio, according to a list published this week.  Parties sending people to virtual sessions on a follow-on contract to clean up the former gaseous diffusion uranium […]

Incumbent North Wind Portage beat out six other small business rivals to win a potentially 10-year, $614-million Moab Remedial Action Contract for cleaning up uranium mill tailings in Utah, the Department of Energy announced Thursday. Idaho-based North Wind Portage holds the existing $197-environmental remediation contract that started in October 2016 and was scheduled to run […]

A three-judge panel for the U.S. Court of Appeals Eleventh Circuit will hear oral arguments April 8 on a nationwide order enjoining the Joe Biden administration from enforcing its COVID-19 vaccine mandate for most workers employed by federal contractors. The hearing in Atlanta, formally scheduled in an online order posted Wednesday, will consider whether to […]

In recent public statements, the two South Carolina Republicans in the Senate sounded receptive to the idea of President Joe Biden nominating a federal judge from their state, U.S. District Court Judge Michelle Childs, to the U.S. Supreme Court.   At the same time, however, some labor unions told The Washington Post recently Childs is not […]

Sen. Ben Ray Luján (D-N.M.), who has taken an active interest in Department of Energy facilities in New Mexico,  has been hospitalized after suffering a stroke, but should make a full recovery, his office staff said in a Twitter posting on Tuesday. In an article citing senior aides to the lawmaker, The Santa Fe New […]

The Government Accountability Office has denied a protest by a group called Oak Ridge Environmental Partners that challenged the Department of Energy’s  $8.3-billion Cleanup Contract issued in October to United Cleanup Oak Ridge, a team led by Amentum and Jacobs, the current incumbents at the Tennessee site. A Government Accountability Office (GAO) notice dated Tuesday […]

In a milestone for U.S. nuclear-weapons cleanup in Washington State, the Department of Energy since Jan. 26 has prepared 50,000 gallons of liquid radioactive waste at the Hanford Site for solidification into stable, storable glass as soon as December 2023. By the end of the year, DOE and its contractors hope the new Tank Side […]

The Department of Energy and the prime for the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant in New Mexico last month brought online the 700-C underground ventilation fan not used regularly since the 2014 accident that forced the disposal site out of service for about three years. Reinhard Knerr, manager of DOE’s Carlsbad Field Office that oversees the […]

Unlike many other federal agencies, the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board did not receive any supplemental funding during fiscal 2021 to ensure emergency operations during the COVID-19 pandemic, according to a financial report released Monday. While the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board (DNFSB) kept running without money from the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security […]

The Department of Energy’s latest best- and worst-case estimates for fully cleaning up the Hanford Site in Washington State were each several tens of billions of dollars lower than the previous estimate, though the calculation released this week does not fully include the cost of delays to the site’s crucial High-Level Waste Facility. The feds […]

In a milestone for U.S. nuclear-weapons cleanup in Washington State, the Department of Energy since Jan. 26 has prepared 50,000 gallons of liquid radioactive waste at the Hanford Site for solidification into stable, storable glass as soon as December 2023. By the end of the year, DOE and its contractors hope the new Tank Side […]

The Department of Energy’s Office of Environmental Management has hauled away the last of demolition debris from buildings torn down last year at the Santa Susana Field Laboratory site in Southern California, according to a Tuesday release. Trucks carrying the waste from buildings within DOE’s Energy Technology Engineering Center northwest of Los Angeles rolled out […]

The Government Accountability Office has denied a protest by a group called Oak Ridge Environmental Partners that challenged the Department of Energy’s  $8.3-billion Cleanup Contract issued in October to United Cleanup Oak Ridge, a team led by Amentum and Jacobs, the current incumbents at the Tennessee site. A Government Accountability Office (GAO) notice dated Tuesday […]

A panel at the Department of Energy has authorized startup of the Tank-Side Cesium Removal project, according to the latest available weekly staff report on operations at the Hanford Site in Washington state from the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board.  “The DOE Startup Authorization Authority for the TSCR [Tank-Side Cesium Removal] system approved its startup,” […]

The Department of Energy is tinkering with the way it will judge proposals for a potentially $5.87-billion Decontamination and Decommissioning Contract at the Portsmouth Site in Ohio, according to a notice released Friday. The agency is considering the changes after last week’s virtual one-on-one meetings with potential bidders who responded to the draft solicitation, which […]

Six employees at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory who refused COVID-19 vaccine are assured of their day in court after obtaining a right to sue from a federal agency, the judge in the case confirmed Monday. The six plaintiffs filed an amended complaint Jan. 4 against the University of Tennessee- Battelle partnership (UT-Battelle) operating the […]