Office of Environmental Management (EM)

A total of 20 employees at the Department of Energy’s Hanford Site in Washington state informed management this week that they tested positive for COVID-19. In addition, federal employees and contractors at Hanford were told Wednesday that visitors coming to the site must either attest they are fully vaccinated or provide evidence of a negative […]

The Department of Energy missed its self-imposed target to issue a final request for proposals by Sept. 30 for the multibillion-dollar Savannah River Site Management and Operating Contract and now plans to put the deal on the street in October. The agency made the announcement in a procurement notice posted online Thursday. If the date […]

The Department of Energy’s Waste Isolation Pilot Plant near Carlsbad, N.M. is again receiving transuranic shipments after a combination of underground conditions and temporary staffing problems from COVID-19 halted disposal for a month. “Yes, shipments resumed,” a spokesman for Nuclear Waste Partnership, prime contractor for the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP), said by email Wednesday. […]

Washington Attorney General Bob Ferguson plans to file legal arguments with the U.S. Supreme Court by Nov. 15 responding to a U.S. Department of Justice petition to overturn a 2018 state law that made it easier for cleanup employees at the Department of Energy’s Hanford Site to qualify for worker compensation. That’s according to Brionna […]

The ripple effects of the COVID-19 pandemic and a June legal settlement between the state and the Department of Energy to prevent mislabeled radioactive waste shipments from again ending up at the Nevada National Security Site dominate the site’s just released 2020 environmental report. The settlement reached this summer calls upon DOE to increase the […]

United Steelworkers local unions at five Department of Energy sites are urging elected officials from their states to intercede on their behalf against President Joe Biden’s plans for mandatory vaccinations of federal contractor employees. “The government has not done a very good job of winning a large percentage of the public’s trust when it comes […]

A total of nine employees at the Department of Energy Hanford Site in Washington state informed management Monday they have tested positive for COVID-19. That is according to a post on a DOE website for Hanford maintained by Leidos-led Hanford Mission Integration Solutions. Meanwhile, on Friday, the Savannah River Site in South Carolina posted on […]

As of last week, the legacy cleanup contractor at the Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico had excavated most potholes along a radiologically contaminated stretch of Middle DP Road in Los Alamos County, N.M., and believes the attendant risk to human health is low, a manager with the Department of Energy told a meeting […]

The Department of Energy nuclear cleanup office has until Thursday to meet its own previously-announced target of issuing a final request for proposals this month for the multibillion-dollar  Savannah River Site Management and Operating Contract in South Carolina. Also, Jacobs-led Idaho Environmental Coalition will begin its 90-day transition Friday, Oct. 1, to head what is […]

Two industry sources said Thursday the Department of Energy has asked teams bidding on the Savannah River Site’s multibillion-dollar liquid waste contract to keep their offers open until early November — a sign that DOE could make the long-awaited decision before the winter holidays. The request for proposals went out on Oct. 1, 2020, and […]

Recent problems behind it, the Department of Energy said Friday it is ready to resume taking shipments of transuranic waste at the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant in New Mexico after being unable to do so for about a month. Having addressed difficulties with the mine’s underground floor and COVID, shipments should resume next week, a […]

While the Department of Energy’s Carlsbad, N.M., field office believes passage of time has made transuranic drums stranded since 2014 at Waste Control Specialists in Texas safe for travel to the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant, the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board is not yet convinced. That is the crux of a Sept. 8 letter sent to […]

Now that a state administrative law judge recommends the Department of Energy be allowed to continue digging a new underground shaft at the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant near Carlsbad, N.M., parties in the case have until Wednesday, Sept. 29, to file responses. In a 56-page report provided Sept. 14 to DOE, prime contractor Nuclear Waste […]

By John Stang For want of a quorum, the Hanford Advisory Board this week could not officially recommend that the Department of Energy do something about a radioactive waste tank leak reported in April and plan for future leaks the board feels are sure to follow.  DOE recently told the board that the terms of […]

By John Stang The first melter at Hanford’s first vitrification facility is scheduled to start up in December, site officials told the Hanford Advisory Board this week, teeing up the long-awaited solidification of liquified Cold War plutonium-byproducts by 2023. After the startup, it should take two months to increase the melter’s temperature to 2,100 degrees […]

A local wish list for speeding cleanup at the Department of Energy’s Paducah Site in Kentucky headed the agenda as Paducah Chamber of Commerce representatives visited federal officials in Washington, D.C. this week. “During this two-day trip, we will meet with Members of Congress, federal officials and key federal agencies to share details on what’s […]

With the number of weekly cases still well into triple digits in the old weapons complex, the Department of Energy wants its employees to receive their final vaccination against COVID-19 by Nov. 8, and said it could soon set a deadline for contractor employees to get the shot, according to a memo from the agency’s […]

The Department of Energy’s Savannah River Site in South Carolina spends much of its infrastructure money taking care of “aging, old systems” some of which are 70 years old, an agency official told the site’s Citizens Advisory Board Monday. David Bender, the DOE infrastructure services director at the federal complex along the Georgia state line, […]

An assistant attorney general for the state of Washington in a filing Monday asked a federal court to dismiss Gov. Jay Inslee (D) from litigation filed last month by an individual angered by COVID-19 policies implemented by both the state and federal government. Joseph B. Jensen, Sr., who reportedly works at the Department of Energy’s […]

Idaho-based North Wind Portage is expected to remain on the job as a remediation contractor for up to two more years at an old Department of Energy research site within the Santa Susana Field Laboratory in Simi Valley, Calif., the Department of Energy said this week.  In an amendment to a justification for an exception […]

The House Appropriations Committee’s proposed two-month stopgap spending bill for 2022 that would keep the Department of Energy cleanup office at roughly fiscal 2021 levels, but also includes a provision to prevent a shortfall in uranium cleanup funds after Oct. 1. The plan released Tuesday by House Appropriations, and passed later the same day in […]

The Department of Energy plans to hire a firm, Co-Physics., to provide emergency response support services for mixed transuranic waste storage at the Separations Process Research Unit in New York. The DOE Office of Environmental Management  Consolidated Business Center announced its intention to hire Co-Physics, which has provided radioactive materials support services in the Northeast […]

A North Wind Group company will continue to carry out the Portsmouth Infrastructure Support Services Contract work at the Department of Energy cleanup site in Ohio under a potential five-year, $135-million award announced last week. Idaho-based North Wind Dynamics was chosen as the bidder that would provide the best value to the government, DOE said […]

Now that a state administrative law judge recommends the Department of Energy be allowed to continue digging a new underground shaft at the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant near Carlsbad, N.M., parties in the case have until Wednesday, Sept. 29, to file responses. In a 56-page report provided Sept. 14 to DOE, prime contractor Nuclear Waste […]

While the Department of Energy’s Carlsbad, N.M., field office believes passage of time has made transuranic drums stranded since 2014 at Waste Control Specialists in Texas safe for travel to the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant, the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board is not yet convinced. That is the crux of a Sept. 8  letter sent to […]

An uptick in COVID-19 cases and some uneven underground floor conditions led the Department of Energy to temporarily halt disposal of defense-related transuranic waste at the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant recently, according to a safety board report. An increase in COVID cases required some Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) workers to quarantine, according to a […]

An assistant attorney general for the state of Washington in a filing Monday asked a federal court to dismiss Gov. Jay Inslee (D) from litigation filed last month by an individual angered by COVID-19 policies implemented by both the state and federal government. Joseph B. Jensen, Sr., who reportedly works at the Department of Energy’s […]

The Department of Energy wants its employees fully vaccinated against COVID-19 before Thanksgiving, which means they have until Nov. 8 to receive their final injection, according to a memo from the agency’s chief of staff. The memo, dated Tuesday from DOE’s chief of staff Tarak Shah and viewed by Weapons Complex Morning Briefing, does not […]

A local wish list for speeding cleanup at the Department of Energy’s Paducah Site in Kentucky headed the agenda as Paducah Chamber of Commerce representatives visited federal officials in Washington, D.C. yesterday and today. “During this two-day trip, we will meet with Members of Congress, federal officials and key federal agencies to share details on […]

The Department of Energy’s Savannah River Site in South Carolina spends much of its infrastructure money taking care of “aging, old systems” some of which are 70 years old, an agency official told the site’s Citizens Advisory Board Monday. David Bender, the DOE infrastructure services director at the federal complex along the Georgia state line, […]