Office of Environmental Management (EM)

Nuclear cleanup contractors for the Department of Energy’s Office of Environmental Management received $426-million during fiscal 2020 to help cushion the financial impact of the COVID-19 pandemic for employees not able to report to work. That’s according to a spokesperson for the agency’s Office of Environmental Management (EM). The figure represents reimbursements EM paid to […]

The Department of Energy is giving potential bidders until Dec. 1 to respond to a final request for proposals for a new five-year infrastructure support services contract at the Portsmouth Site in Ohio. The DOE Office of Environmental Management (EM) issued the request for proposals (RFP) notice Tuesday. The DOE nuclear cleanup branch said in […]

Officials at the Department of Energy’s Los Alamos National Laboratory are looking into Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board concerns that the New Mexico site should do more to minimize the risk of a transuranic waste drum explosion. The board, in a letter dated Sept. 24, found that safety bases for both DOE’s semiautonomous National Nuclear […]

The Department of Energy is giving potential bidders until Dec. 1 to respond to a final request for proposals for a new five-year infrastructure support services contract at the Portsmouth Site in Ohio. The DOE Office of Environmental Management (EM) issued the request for proposals (RFP) notice Tuesday. The DOE nuclear cleanup branch said in […]

While some work at the Department of Energy’s Office of Environmental Management is being delayed by the COVID-19 pandemic, contract procurement has hardly missed a beat, officials told an online industry conference this week. Thus far in 2020 there have been “almost no drop offs [and] ironically enough, almost some acceleration” in contract solicitations and […]

COVID-19 has made remote work much more common for the Department of Energy’s Office of Environmental Management, and could alter work practices even after the pandemic recedes, the office’s top career official said Tuesday. Even with some people return to cleanup sites across the country, at EM headquarters in Washington, D.C., there is still only […]

The Department of Energy’s top brass joined the governor of Tennessee, congressmen and local dignitaries Tuesday at the Oak Ridge Site to celebrate taking down contaminated facilities at what was originally the K-25 uranium enrichment complex, now the East Tennessee Technology Park. “The work that this entailed is simply staggering,” Energy Secretary Dan Brouillette said […]

Bill Moore, a geologist with more than 25 years of experience in the environmental cleanup business, is the new executive director for the Tennessee-based Energy Technology and Environmental Business Association. Bob Eby, the organization’s board president, announced Moore’s appointment Tuesday during the trade group’s first virtual 2020 Business Opportunities and Technical Conference. Moore has worked […]

The No. 2 manager at the Department of Energy’s nuclear cleanup office will keynote a Tennessee-based organization’s virtual Business Opportunities Conference this morning. Todd Shrader, principal deputy assistant secretary in the Department of Energy’s Office of Environmental Management, addresses the Energy, Technology and Environmental Business Association’s gathering at about 10:30 a.m. Eastern time. Shrader is […]

The Department of Energy’s Hanford Site in Washington state can use education along with the specter of financial loss in pushing ethical standards for contractors, the site’s local fed said recently.  The DOE has mandated ethics programs for major contractors and this effort is “very similar to a safety program” in that it’s designed to […]

Kentucky-based Swift & Staley appears to be staying on another 22 months as the infrastructure support services contractor at the Department of Energy’s Paducah Site in Kentucky. The latest summary of major contracts from DOE, dated last Friday, shows Swift & Staley’s term as the services provider at the former gaseous diffusion plant site has […]

The Department of Energy’s Waste Isolation Pilot Plant in New Mexico received six new positive COVID-19 tests for its workers between Oct. 1 and Oct. 7, bringing the site total to 45 so far in the pandemic. In addition, another worker at the DOE Hanford Site in Washington state has tested positive, bringing the total […]

Comments are due Thursday on a request for information notice issued by the Department of Energy on plans to build the Advanced Manufacturing Collaborative facility near the Savannah River National Laboratory site in South Carolina. The estimated $45-million facility will be built on about five acres within the campus of the University of South Carolina-Aiken […]

The Department of Energy said in a Tuesday Federal Register notice that it is withdrawing its designation of Waste Control Specialists in West Texas as its long-term storage site for elemental mercury. The DOE and the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality previously granted the necessary approvals for the Waste Control Specialists (WCS) site in Andrews […]

As of mid-week, there had been a total of 175 confirmed cases of COVID-19 at the Department of Energy’s Hanford Site in Washington state, Hanford Site Manager Brian Vance said Wednesday during a webcast advisory board meeting. Vance, the Hanford site manager, provided the number in response to a question from a member of the […]

Amentum-led Central Plateau Cleanup Co. kicked off its 60-day transition period this week to become the new major remediation contractor at the Central Plateau area of Department of Energy’s Hanford Site in Washington state, under a potential 10-year, $10-billion agreement. On Dec. 4 the joint venture comprising Amentum, Fluor and Atkins will take over from […]

The Department of Energy’s Hanford Site in Washington state needs to be better prepared to cope with additional failure of single-shell tanks holding radioactive wastes, according to the agency’s Office of Inspector General. That is a key takeaway from a report, dated Sept. 30 and posted this week. If many existing underground tanks fail there […]

The liquid waste contractor at the Department of Energy’s Savannah River Site in South Carolina hired 151 new employees with an average age of 37 during fiscal 2020. As a result, the average age of the 2,600-person workforce at Amentum-led Savannah River Remediation (SRR) is 48-years old, Phil Breidenbach, president & project manager of the […]

Hot commissioning of the Salt Waste Processing Facility at the Department of Energy’s Savannah River Site in South Carolina is underway, the agency said this week in a press release. On Monday afternoon, Amentum-led Savannah River Remediation, the Savannah River Site (SRS) liquid waste contractor, transferred 4,000 gallons of waste from the H Tank Farm […]

Unhappy with the proposals it has seen to date from the Department of Energy, the New Mexico Environment Department is moving toward dispute resolution to bridge differences over cleanup milestones at the Los Alamos National Laboratory. The state is invoking dispute resolution over remediation milestones for 2021 under the parties’ 2016 compliance order on consent. […]

The National Aeronautics and Space Administration has released its record of decision for cleaning up contaminated soil on its portion of the Santa Susana Field Laboratory in Ventura County, Calif. Like Boeing, and the Department of Energy, NASA is one of three parties responsible for cleanup of the sprawling research site in the Simi Valley. […]

Joe Franco, the Department of Energy’s deputy manager at the Hanford Site’s Richland Operations Office in Washington state, is leaving the agency to become a special adviser to the prime contractor for the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant. Amentum-led Nuclear Waste Partnership said in a Thursday press release that Franco will become special adviser to the […]

Nuclear Waste Partnership’s current eight-year, $2.4-billion contract for management and operation of the Department of Energy’s Waste Isolation Pilot Plant in New Mexico is being extended for at least one more year, potentially two. The DOE and Amentum-led Nuclear Waste Partnership agreed Sept. 15 to a one-year option through Sept. 30, 2021, contractor spokesman Donavan […]

Joe Franco, the Department of Energy’s deputy manager at the Hanford Site’s Richland Operations Office in Washington state, is leaving the agency to take another job. Tuesday was the “farewell” day at Richland for Franco, Hanford Site Manager Brian Vance said during his update Wednesday to the Hanford Advisory Committee. Franco has been a DOE […]

As of this week there have been a total of 175 confirmed cases of COVID-19 at the Department of Energy’s Hanford Site in Washington state, Hanford Site Manager Brian Vance said Wednesday during a webcast advisory board meeting. Vance, the Hanford site manager, provided the number in response to a question from a member of […]

The liquid waste contractor at the Department of Energy’s Savannah River Site in South Carolina hired 151 new employees with an average age of 37 during fiscal 2020. As a result, the average age of the 2,600-person workforce at Amentum-led Savannah River Remediation (SRR) is 48-years old, Phil Breidenbach, president & project manager of the […]

Hot commissioning of the Salt Waste Processing Facility at the Department of Energy’s Savannah River Site in South Carolina is underway, the agency said in a Tuesday press release. On Monday afternoon, Amentum-led Savannah River Remediation, the Savannah River Site (SRS) liquid waste contractor, transferred 4,000 gallons of waste from the H Tank Farm to […]

Unhappy with the proposals it has seen to date from the Department of Energy, the New Mexico Environment Department is moving toward dispute resolution to bridge differences over cleanup milestones at the Los Alamos National Laboratory. The state is invoking dispute resolution over remediation milestones for 2021 under the parties’ 2016 compliance order on consent. […]

Two more people at the Department of Energy’s Hanford Site in Washington state tested positive for the novel coronavirus, according to late-Monday post on an official Hanford website. In addition, 12 more workers at the Hanford Site are undergoing testing for COVID-19, according to a notice posted on a Hanford website that provides daily updates […]

Nuclear Waste Partnership’s current eight-year, $2.4-billion contract for management and operation of the Department of Energy’s Waste Isolation Pilot Plant in New Mexico is being extended for at least one more year, potentially two. The DOE and Amentum-led Nuclear Waste Partnership agreed Sept. 15 to a one-year option through Sept. 30, 2021, contractor spokesman Donavan […]