Office of Environmental Management (EM)

The Department of Energy has decided not to have a potential member of the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board (DNFSB) lead its discussions about communications between the agency and the safety watchdog. In a Sept. 15, letter to the now former DNFSB Chairman Bruce Hamilton, Deputy Secretary of Energy Mark Menezes said Todd Lapointe, DOE’s […]

Paul Dabbar, the Department of Energy’s undersecretary for science, joined lawmakers and other officials at the Savannah River Site in South Carolina Thursday to dedicate the long-anticipated Salt Waste Processing Facility. The plant “is the final piece to what is an impressive and highly successful liquid waste program here,” Dabbar said in a DOE press […]

The Department of Energy is extending its contract with the current tank manager at the Hanford Site in Washington state, Washington River Protection Solutions, through Sept. 30, 2021. The one-year extension was announced in a Thursday press release by the DOE Office of Environmental Management. The Amentum-Atkins partnership’s current $7.8-billion agreement that began in October […]

The Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board (DNFSB) has endorsed a “Pandemic Response and Recovery Plan” that spells out a strategy for a gradual return to on-site work at its Washington, D.C., headquarters and elsewhere. Since mid-March the DNFSB and its roughly 100-member staff have worked in a “maximum telework posture” due to the COVID-19 pandemic, […]

Expect the Department of Energy to issue the long-anticipated paramilitary security contract for the Savannah River Site in South Carolina within the next few months, a federal official said Monday. Michael Budney, the head of the department’s Savannah River Site’s (SRS) operations office, made the assessment during Monday’s online meeting of the Savannah River Site’s […]

The Department of Energy wants to delay some tank-related nuclear weapons cleanup work at the Hanford Site because of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, attendees said this week during an online meeting of the Hanford Advisory Board. Dealing with the novel coronavirus delayed some projects at the former plutonium production site, the Department of Justice said […]

Texas-based Fluor on Friday released its financial results for 2019, which shows a net loss from continuing operations of $1.7 billion, or $11.97 per diluted share, compared with earnings from continuing operations of $9 million, or $0.07 per share for 2018. Fluor loss includes impairment, restructuring and other exit costs of $533 million, expenses of […]

More than half of the Department of Energy’s 11,000-member workforce at the Hanford Site are back inside the fence, a Department of Energy official said Wednesday. Hanford is bringing 190 additional workers back onsite this week, Erik Olds, DOE’s deputy integration manager for direct-feed low-activity waste, told the Hanford Advisory Board during an online meeting. […]

The Department of Energy wants to delay some tank-related nuclear weapons cleanup work at the Hanford Site because of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, attendees said this week during an online meeting of the Hanford Advisory Board. Dealing with the novel coronavirus delayed some projects at the former plutonium production site, the Department of Justice said […]

The business dismissed recently for slow progress in building a new underground ventilation system for the Department of Energy’s Waste Isolation Pilot Plant expects to leave the New Mexico project by the end of the month. The parties are working out a financial settlement, said Mark Christensen, owner and president of Christensen Building Group, and […]

Two Department of Energy contractors, Bechtel and Amentum predecessor AECOM, will pay $57.75-million to resolve claims that a joint venture overbilled the government for work at the Hanford Site in Washington, the Department of Justice said late Tuesday. Bechtel and Amentum, the former AECOM Energy & Construction, admit no wrongdoing by their subsidiary Waste Treatment […]

Expect the Department of Energy to issue the long-anticipated paramilitary security contract for the Savannah River Site in South Carolina within the next few months, a federal official said Monday. Michael Budney, the head of the department’s Savannah River Site’s (SRS) operations office, made the assessment during Monday’s online meeting of the Savannah River Site’s […]

The Department of Energy’s Office of Inspector General says two major contractors at the Hanford Site in Washington State don’t always maintain respirators in accordance with government requirements. The report said more attention to respiratory equipment is needed by Jacobs subsidiary, CH2M HILL Plateau Remediation Co., and Amentum-led Washington River Protection Solutions. CH2M is responsible […]

The level of coronavirus infections in South Carolina is still high enough to keep the Department of Energy from moving any closer to pre-COVID-19 operations at the Savannah River Site, a senior site official said Monday. The DOE complex next to the Georgia line will probably stay in Phase 1 of the agency’s COVID-19 remobilization […]

The top brass at the Energy Department has decided not to have a potential member of the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board (DNFSB) lead its discussions about communications between the agency and the safety watchdog. In a Sept. 15, letter to the now former DNFSB Chairman Bruce Hamilton, Deputy Secretary of Energy Mark Menezes said […]

The Energy Department’s Office of Environmental Management is looking for a group of qualified vendors to compete for orders for nationwide waste treatment services. In a recently published batch of questions and answers, the Environmental Management Consolidated Business Center, said it is not issuing an indefinite-delivery indefinite-quantity contract for nationwide treatment services for mixed and […]

The Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board (DNFSB) has endorsed a “Pandemic Response and Recovery Plan” that spells out a strategy for a gradual return to on-site work at its Washington, D.C., headquarters and elsewhere. Since mid-March the DNFSB and its roughly 100-member staff have worked in a “maximum telework posture” due to the COVID-19 pandemic, […]

The Oregon Department of Energy has promoted Maxwell Woods to the post of administrator for nuclear safety and emergency preparedness division, succeeding Ken Niles who recently retired. Woods has been with the Oregon DOE for six years, most recently serving as the senior policy advisor and team leader in the Energy Facility Siting Division. He […]

The Energy Department’s Office of Environmental Management says 8 gallons of recycled wastewater from the Savannah River Site in South Carolina can be hauled to a Texas disposal facility with minimal risk. Shipping the waste from the SRS Defense Waste Processing Facility to the Waste Control Specialists disposal site in West Texas will be the […]

There will be no emergency management drills at the Energy Department’s Savannah River Site in South Carolina until early 2021, according to a recently posted weekly report on the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board’s website. An Aug. 21 report from board inspectors to Christopher Roscetti, the board’s technical director, indicated that leaders of the respective […]

With Bruce Hamilton’s Sept. 12 resignation as chairman, the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board is back down to three members, two of them Democrats. The chairman unexpectedly resigned Aug. 31, apparently for family reasons, a source said, only weeks after he and the three other DNFSB members were confirmed for new terms by the U.S. […]

The Government Accountability Office is tracking DOE’s progress on returning the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant in New Mexico to a pre-accident operations clip and plans a full report this year, an official with Congress’ investigative arm said recently. The report will be among the first comprehensive external looks at DOE’s efforts to transition its unique, […]

A congressional appropriator predicted this week there will be a short-term continuing resolution passed to keep the Energy Department and other federal agencies running from Oct. 1 into December. “We will not have a budget shutdown,” Rep. Chuck Fleischmann said during the virtual National Cleanup Workshop hosted by the Energy Communities Alliance (ECA) in cooperation […]

The Energy Department’s nuclear cleanup office has now taken down nine of the 10 contaminated structures covered by an agreement reached earlier this year on facilities at the Santa Susana Field Laboratory in California, officials said Wednesday. Demolition of the ninth of the buildings in the current tranche at the Energy Technology Engineering Center (ETEC) […]

As if figuring out how to safely resume operations during a pandemic isn’t tough enough, the Energy Department’s Hanford Site in Washington state instructed many workers to stay home this week because of smoky air. Smoke from regional fires prompted management at the Energy Department’s Hanford Site in Washington state to tell some workers to […]

There are currently 83 active cases of coronavirus infections within the nuclear cleanup complex overseen by the Energy Department’s Office of Environmental Management, an agency source said Thursday. That is one up from the 82 active cases of COVID-19 the prior week. The DOE nuclear cleanup office does not release the number of total cases […]

The Texas Commission on Environmental Quality has still received no definitive timetable from the Energy Department’s Office of Environmental Management for removing stranded drums of potentially-combustible transuranic waste from temporary commercial storage in Andrews County, a commission spokesperson said this week. The state regulator expected to receive a technical analysis from the Environmental Management office […]

While the coronavirus has delayed some Energy Department nuclear remediation by a few months, completion of key projects is imminent, agency officials said during an online conference Wednesday. “The last time I saw most of you in person was probably in Phoenix” during March for the Waste Management Symposia, DOE Senior Adviser for Environmental Management […]

Documents published this week show more than 150 individuals and 60 organizations registered to take part in online briefings on the planned megabuck remediation deal at the Energy Department’s Oak Ridge Site in Tennessee. The list of firms posted Monday that turned out to kick the tires and learn more about the potentially 10-year, $8.3 […]

Starting Oct. 5, a new Amentum-led team will begin a 60-day transition to take over as prime contractor for the mostly solid-waste cleanup of the Hanford Site’s central plateau, the Department of Energy said Tuesday. Central Plateau Cleanup Co., comprising Amentum, Fluor, and Atkins, won the potentially 10-year, $10 billion contract in December. A competing […]