Office of Environmental Management (EM)

A lawsuit by a fired ventilation project subcontractor against the Department of Energy’s prime for the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant has been settled, according to papers filed in a federal district court in New Mexico. The litigation brought by Christensen Building Group and its Critical Applications Alliance venture against Nuclear Waste Partnership was dismissed by […]

A federal district court in New Mexico has set a Nov. 17 settlement conference for federal and state agencies to bridge their differences surrounding a 2016 consent order on cleanup of legacy waste around the Department of Energy’s Los Alamos National Laboratory. U.S. Magistrate Judge John Robbenhaar issued a May 18 order scheduling the formal […]

The Department of Energy Wednesday rolled out its much-anticipated solicitation for a new long-term operations and management contract potentially worth $3 billion at its Waste Isolation Pilot Plant near Carlsbad, N.M. The final request for proposals (RFP) is for up to 10 years, starting with a four-year base followed by six one-year options, the DOE […]

The Department of Energy spending request put forward Friday by the Joe Biden administration for fiscal 2022 would increase funding for environmental cleanup of past weapons work at several National Nuclear Security Administration sites. The DOE Office of Environmental Management budget for physical cleanup of this legacy contamination would rise by about a third, to […]

The Department of Energy said Tuesday that rubble removal at the Hanford Site’s Plutonium Finishing Plant in Washington state is resuming after an extended COVID-19 hiatus. After taking down the last major processing facility at the Plutonium Finishing Plant (PFP), DOE said last February it anticipated removing all the rubble from the site by summer […]

Thanks to an easy victory in Tuesday’s special election, the Democratic Party maintains control of Mexico’s 1st Congressional District seat vacated in March when Deb Haaland resigned to become President Joe Biden’s secretary of interior. Democrat Melanie Ann Stansbury, a member of the New Mexico House of Representatives, won 60% of the vote to defeat […]

A May 24 article in Weapons Complex Morning Briefing, “Nevada DOE Managers Make Plans for Transuranic Waste” should have said the Honeywell-led Mission Support and Test Services is overseeing preparation of Nevada spheres for shipment to the Idaho National Laboratory from the Nevada National Security Site. In Idaho, the transuranic waste will be processed for […]

The nearly $7.6-billion fiscal 2022 budget request the Joe Biden administration made Friday for the Department of Energy Office of Environmental Management is larger than White House requests for nuclear cleanup made during the Donald Trump administration and, if enacted by Congress, would continue a run of beefy appropriations. In February 2020, the Trump White […]

The Joe Biden administration Friday afternoon proposed level-funding the Department of Energy’s Office of Environmental Management at about $7.6-billion during fiscal 2022, which begins in a little more than four months. Secretary of Energy Jennifer Granholm told Congress recently that the request for the budget year starting Oct. 1 would “sustain” cleanup of nuclear sites […]

The Department of Energy has named Brian Stickney deputy manager and chief operating officer for the Richland Operations Office at the Hanford Site in Washington state effective this week. Stickney had been acting as deputy manager since October following the retirement of Joe Franco, Hanford’s site manager Brian Vance announced in a May 19 email […]

The Department of Energy and contractor Fluor Idaho said in a Tuesday press release the final shipment of radioactive waste has been placed into the 97-acre Subsurface Disposal Area at the Idaho National Laboratory. The disposal area, which began accepting waste in the 1950s and has since accepted laboratory-generated waste and shipments from the Rocky […]

Current and former contractors at the Department of Energy’s Portsmouth Site in Ohio this week filed a motion to dismiss one of the two class action lawsuits brought against those companies by local residents following the May 2019 disclosure of radioactive contamination of a public school outside the fence. The dismissal motion arrived at about […]

It could be late fall before New Mexico Environment Secretary James Kenney makes a ruling on whether the Department of Energy’s Waste Isolation Pilot Plant can complete development of a new underground shaft. That is based on timelines allotted by the New Mexico Environment Department, a state agency spokesperson said in a Monday email. Up […]

A regional group to promote communities around the Department of Energy’s Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico has decided to close up shop. “We are looking toward officially dissolving by June 30,” Darien Fernandez, the Taos Town Council member and chair of the Regional Coalition  of LANL [Los Alamos National Laboratory] Communities, said by […]

After a lawsuit by gold companies forced it to back off its initial selection of a commercial site in Texas for long-term storage of elemental mercury, the Department of Energy is again shopping around for a contractor and Waste Control Specialists is again one of the finalists. That is a key takeaway from DOE’s notice […]

The legacy cleanup contractor for the Department of Energy’s Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico now has a public website about its efforts to remediate contamination along a public road in Los Alamos County. Radioactive contamination was discovered in February 2020 within a 28-acre parcel of land along DP Road that DOE had already […]

The next big contract procurement update from the Department of Energy’s Office of Environmental Management should be out by Independence Day, according to a recent notice. The next quarterly procurement update from the Environmental Management Consolidated Business Center will be posted within about 30 to 45 calendar days, meaning it should be out by July […]

After much anticipation, the Department of Energy’s Office of Environmental Management on Thursday awarded a potentially 10-year, $6.4 billion cleanup contract at the Idaho National Laboratory to the Jacobs-led Idaho Environmental Coalition. The team, chosen from a field of five bidders, includes Dallas-based Jacobs, North Wind Portage, and small business teaming subcontractors Navarro, Oak Ridge […]

The Department of Energy’s Office of Environmental Management plans to relocate some transuranic waste from the Nevada National Security Site to the Idaho National Laboratory where it will be prepared for eventual shipment to the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant in New Mexico. The transuranic material is what “we refer to as the Nevada spheres,” Robert […]

For the second time in three weeks, the number of confirmed active cases of COVID-19 at the Department of Energy’s Office of Environmental Management worksites is below triple-digits. There are currently 65 active COVID-19 cases in the Environmental Management (EM) complex, a DOE spokesperson said by email Thursday. It represents a big drop from the […]

A group of plaintiffs who last year sued current and former Department of Energy contractors at the Portsmouth Site in Ohio have asked a federal court for a four-month delay in the case while they replace two Florida attorneys, one of which is apparently facing disbarment proceedings back home. The plaintiffs, including former Portsmouth security […]

It could be late fall before New Mexico Environment Secretary James Kenney makes a ruling on whether the Department of Energy’s Waste Isolation Pilot Plant can complete development of a new underground shaft. That is based on timelines allotted by the New Mexico Environment Department, a state agency spokesperson said in a Monday email. Up […]

After a lawsuit by gold companies forced it to back off its initial selection of a commercial site in Texas for long-term storage of elemental mercury, the Department of Energy is again shopping around for a contractor and Waste Control Specialists is again one of the finalists. That is a key takeaway from DOE’s notice […]

The Department of Energy and contractor Fluor Idaho said in a Tuesday press release the final shipment of radioactive waste has been placed into the 97-acre Subsurface Disposal Area at the Idaho National Laboratory. The disposal area, which began accepting waste in the 1950s and has since accepted laboratory-generated waste and shipments from the Rocky […]

A regional group to promote communities around the Department of Energy’s Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico has reportedly decided to close up shop. The Santa Fe New Mexican reported Monday the Regional Coalition  of LANL [Los Alamos National Laboratory] Communities voted during its Friday online meeting to start wrapping up operations. The move […]

The legacy cleanup contractor for the Department of Energy’s Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico now has a public website about its efforts to remediate contamination along a public road in Los Alamos County. Radioactive contamination was discovered in February 2020 within a 28-acre parcel of land along DP Road that DOE had already […]

The top fed at the Department of Energy’s Hanford Site in Washington state has reversed course and will keep the mask mandate in place for now regardless of whether workers are fully vaccinated against COVID-19. After initially saying last week fully-inoculated employees could stop wearing face coverings as soon as Tuesday, Hanford’s site manager Brian […]

The Department of Energy’s Office of Environmental Management plans to relocate some transuranic waste from the Nevada National Security Site to the Idaho National Laboratory where it will be prepared for eventual shipment to the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant in New Mexico. The transuranic material is what “we refer to as the Nevada spheres,” Robert […]

The next big contract procurement update from the Department of Energy’s Office of Environmental Management should be out by Independence Day, according to a Thursday notice. The next quarterly procurement update from the Environmental Management Consolidated Business Center will be posted within about 30 to 45 calendar days, meaning it should be out by July […]

Bechtel, Reston, Va., and Fluor, Irving, Texas, are leading separate bids for the potentially $10-year, $21.5 billion management and operations contract for the Department of Energy’s Savannah River Site, people familiar with the competitive landscape said this week. Amentum, Germantown, Md., is also in the mix as a partner, one of these people said. The […]