Office of Environmental Management (EM)

Another federal lawsuit has been filed against current and former contractors that have performed either uranium enrichment or environmental operations at the Energy Department’s Portsmouth Site in Pike County Ohio. The class action complaint filed Thursday in U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Ohio seeks almost $10 million in damages for an alleged […]

To settle a lawsuit filed in 2016, the federal government will pay $600 million to South Carolina in recognition of the Department of Energy’s inability to remove several metric tons of plutonium from the state by a legal deadline of 2022, the parties said Monday. The money is expected by the end of September from […]

Analysis of soil samples taken along the route of a planned toll road around the former Rocky Flats nuclear weapons plant show radioactivity levels well within regulatory limits, according to a report from the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment (CDPHE). The agency shared major findings of its 28-page study last month with entities […]

Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board (DNFSB) Chairman Bruce Hamilton is resigning from the panel, effective next week, the agency said Monday. Hamilton submitted his resignation to President Donald Trump, according to a one-paragraph announcement from the agency. The DNFSB said Hamilton will depart on Sept. 12 – just over two months after he was confirmed […]

The superintendent for the Scioto Valley Local School District in Pike County, Ohio, is asking the U.S. Department of Energy to help underwrite the cost of a new building to replace a middle school adjacent to the Portsmouth Site. Zahn’s Corner Middle School has been closed since May 2019, after Northern Arizona University researchers concluded […]

The Energy Department on Monday issued its final request for proposals (RFP) for nationwide low-level and mixed low-level waste treatment services. The agency could award more than one basic ordering agreement (BOAs) for the work, according to the document. The agreements will have a five-year ordering period, and task orders must be completed within six […]

The Amentum-led prime that manages the Energy Department’s Waste Isolation Pilot Plant in New Mexico has terminated a $135 million subcontract for construction of a new ventilation system. Nuclear Waste Partnership (NWP) on Monday announced the dismissal of Critical Applications Alliance (CCA) from the Safety Significant Confinement Ventilation System (SSCVS) project. The contractor said it […]

There are 88 active cases of novel coronavirus 2019 infection within the Energy Department’s Office of Environmental Management complex, an agency official said via email Thursday. That is down significantly from the 149 active COVID-19 cases reported one week earlier, although multiple infections were reported this week at facilities in New Mexico, South, Carolina, and […]

The Energy Department Office of Environmental Management has scheduled a webinar for next week to offer details on its plan to ship some material currently classified as high-level radioactive waste from the Savannah River Site in South Carolina to a facility in West Texas licensed for low-level waste. The online session is set for 11 […]

Stakeholders must finally accept that the long-planned, still-unrealized nuclear waste repository under Yucca Mountain, Nev., is dead and needs to be replaced with a new approach, according to a former senior official with the Department of Energy. “The sooner everyone agrees to pull the plug on Yucca Mountain, the sooner the United States can move […]

The superintendent for the Scioto Valley Local School District in Pike County, Ohio, is asking the U.S. Department of Energy to help underwrite the cost of a new building to replace a middle school adjacent to the Portsmouth Site. Zahn’s Corner Middle School has been closed since May 2019, after Northern Arizona University researchers concluded […]

The Amentum-led prime that manages the Energy Department’s Waste Isolation Pilot Plant in New Mexico has terminated a $135 million subcontract for construction of a new ventilation system. Nuclear Waste Partnership (NWP) on Monday announced the dismissal of Critical Applications Alliance (CCA) from the Safety Significant Confinement Ventilation System (SSCVS) project. The contractor said it […]

The prime contractor for the Energy Department’s Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) in New Mexico has now confirmed a total of 23 COVID-19 cases among its employees, bringing the site-wide count to 28 to date during the pandemic. In a memo sent to employees Monday, President and Project Manager Sean Dunagan said Nuclear Waste Partnership […]

Analysis of soil samples taken along the route of a planned toll road around the former Rocky Flats nuclear weapons plant show radioactivity levels well within regulatory limits, according to a report from the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment (CDPHE). The agency shared major findings of its 28-page study last month with entities […]

The Energy Department on Monday issued its final request for proposals (RFP) for nationwide low-level and mixed low-level waste treatment services. The agency could award more than one basic ordering agreement (BOAs) for the work, according to the document. The agreements will have a five-year ordering period, and task orders must be completed within six […]

The draft solicitation for continuing environmental cleanup of the uranium mill tailings in Utah should be issued by early October, the Energy Department Office of Environmental Management said Aug. 24. The draft request for proposals for the Moab Uranium Mill Tailings Remedial Action (UMTRA) project should hit the streets within 45 days, which translates to […]

Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board (DNFSB) Chairman Bruce Hamilton is resigning from the panel, effective early this month, the agency said in a press release late Monday. Hamilton has submitted his resignation to President Donald Trump, according to a one-paragraph announcement. The panel’s vice chairman and newest member, Thomas Summers, will step in as acting chairman. […]

The Department of Energy is scheduled on Sept. 30 to end an emergency program to reimburse contractors for paid leave provided certain employees who cannot work on-site during the COVID-19 pandemic. A provision included in the $2.2 trillion CARES Act signed into law in March provided for reimbursement to key government contractors, such as those […]

The Energy Department Office of Environmental Management has scheduled a webinar next week to offer details on its plan to ship some material currently classified as high-level radioactive waste from the Savannah River Site in South Carolina to a facility in West Texas licensed for low-level waste. The online session is set for 11 a.m. […]

Weapons Complex Monitor took its annual summer recess in mid-August, but we kept track of the nuke news during the publishing holiday and have compiled it here for you. Ninth Court Upholds State Law on Hanford Worker Compensation A Washington state law that makes it easier for workers at the Energy Department’s Hanford Site to […]

Two recent management appointments at the Energy Department’s $7-billion nuclear cleanup office should help keep the focus on key projects, a spokesperson said this week. The Office of Environmental Management earlier this month announced Nicole Nelson-Jean, who heads the National Nuclear Security Administration field office for the Savannah River Site in South Carolina, would become […]

The Energy Department Office of Environmental Management is beginning market research for a new cleanup contract for its portion of the Santa Susana Field Laboratory in California. The nuclear environmental office on Aug. 20 issued its request for information/sources sought notice for remediation of the Energy Technology Engineering Center. The current ETEC contract, held by […]

The Energy Department has given its blessing for operations to start at the long-awaited Salt Waste Processing Facility (SPFF) at the Savannah River Site in South Carolina. In a press release Aug. 18, the DOE Office of Environmental Management announced issuance of critical decision 4 (CD-4) and authorization to operate. The CD-4 basically means a […]

A report from the University of New Mexico concludes the Energy Department’s Los Alamos National Laboratory in recent years was worth more than $3.1 billion to the state, although the economic benefit is concentrated in a few counties. A summary of the report was presented Aug. 21 to the Regional Coalition of LANL Communities (RCLC) […]

A coalition of local communities surrounding the Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico is back in the good financial graces of the Energy Department after repaying nearly $16,000 in grant money. Earlier this year, the Regional Coalition of LANL Communities (RCLC) repaid the agency $15,767 for expenditures questioned  in a September 2019 report by […]

Employees for the Energy Department’s remediation contractor at the Portsmouth Site in Ohio were advised recently that they would face a 14-day self-quarantine following travel to a handful of states hit particularly hard by the COVID-19 pandemic. In a July 29 memo to employees, Fluor-BWXT Portsmouth said anyone who visits states listed in Ohio’s travel […]

The COVID-19 pandemic has not stopped state-federal “holistic” negotiations over major environmental remediation issues at the Energy Department’s Hanford Site in Washington state. The talks between DOE, the state, and the Environmental Protection Agency are occurring remotely, Washington state Department of Ecology spokesman Randy Bradbury said in an Aug. 11 email. The talks began in […]

The Energy Department said Thursday it is extending the CH2M HILL Plateau Remediation Co. contract at the Hanford Site in Washington state for up to six months through March 2021. The $7.16-billion contract held by the Jacobs subsidiary would otherwise expire on Sept. 30, and the DOE Office of Environmental Management is not ready to […]

Comments are due Sept. 17 on the draft request for proposals (RFP) for a new remediation contract potentially worth $8.3 billion at the Energy Department’s Oak Ridge Site in Tennessee. The DOE Office of Environmental Management on Aug. 18 issued the draft RFP for an indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity (IDIQ) contract with a 10-year ordering period. The agency […]

It is becoming increasingly obvious that Congress will need to pass a continuing resolution (CR) to keep the Department of Energy and all other federal agencies open beyond the end of the fiscal year on Sept. 30, a panel of Washington, D.C., insiders said Thursday. “It’s almost guaranteed we are going to end up in […]