Office of Environmental Management (EM)

The Department of Energy could hold virtual debrief sessions this week for bidders on the Hanford Site Tank Closure Contract just awarded to a team led by BWX Technologies. The sessions should happen Thursday and Friday, an industry source said Monday. During these briefings, DOE explains the thinking behind a contract award. Those companies then […]

More staff is being recalled for cleanup work at the Energy Department’s Idaho National Laboratory (INL), a Fluor Idaho spokesman said Friday. “We have slowly started to increase staff on an as-needed basis to support limited activities at the Idaho Cleanup Project, and those numbers vary from day to day,” Fluor Idaho spokesman Erik Simpson […]

The Energy Department anticipates the Savannah River National Laboratory in South Carolina will be better able to “engage with the research community” by having a its own operations contract, according to documents recently posted online. The slides used for an April 28 virtual online meeting on the draft request for proposals for the potential 10-year, […]

The North Access Road Bypass at the Energy Department’s Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) in New Mexico opened to traffic on May 8. The $9 million, 3-mile bypass connects north and south access roads for the DOE site and directs other traffic away from the underground disposal facility, particularly the construction area on the surface […]

Hanford Communities Executive Director Pamela Larsen is retiring after a quarter-century of advocating for localities around the Energy Department’s Hanford Site in Washington state. Larsen is the only executive director in the history of the intergovernmental organization established under Washington state law in 1994. Hanford Communities represents two counties, four cities, and a Port District […]

Businessman and former Navy fighter pilot Mike Garcia won a special election Tuesday in California’s 25th Congressional District to reclaim the seat for the Republican Party. Garcia scored a double-digit win, 56% to 44%, over Democrat Christy Smith, a member of the California State Assembly, with roughly 80% of the ballots counted. Smith conceded defeat […]

The environmental liability of the Energy Department’s Office of Legacy Management is sure to increase from its recent $7.35 billion as it assumes responsibility for more remediated properties, according to a report issued Wednesday by the Government Accountability Office. Legacy Management conducts maintenance and surveillance following cleanup of radioactively contaminated sites by DOE’s Office of […]

The ExchangeMonitor’s 2020 Decommissioning Strategy Forum is being pushed back from June to September and relocated to Henderson, Nev. The continuing COVID-19 pandemic made it impossible to stick to the original schedule to hold the conference on June 8-9 in Nashville, according to the ExchangeMonitor’s parent company, Access Intelligence. “Please note that out of concern […]

Fluor on April 30 received a Justice Department subpoena seeking various documents relating to charges reported by the company during the second quarter of 2019, according to a May 8 filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The SEC in February launched an investigation into Fluor’s financial reporting and accounting during 2019. The Justice Department […]

The New Mexico Environment Department (NMED) plans talks this summer with the Department of Energy on potential modifications to a 2016 legal agreement over nuclear cleanup at the Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL). The 2016 consent decree revamped a prior 2005 deal between NMED and the federal agency on cleanup of contamination left from Manhattan […]

Perma-Fix Environmental Services on Tuesday reported a 112.3% increase in revenue for the first quarter of 2020, even as the COVID-19 pandemic began to bite into its business. Sales rose from $11.7 million in the first quarter of 2019 to $24.9 million in the three-month period ending March 31 of this year, according to a […]

An article in the May 8 edition of Weapons Complex Monitor should have said Savannah River Remediation’s tenure as liquid waste manager for the Department of Energy’s Savannah River Site would be extended at least through Sept. 30, 2021, with three additional four-month option periods that could keep the contractor on the job through September 2022.

The Government Accountability Office said Tuesday the Energy Department should use best practices when seeking alternatives to the Pretreatment Facility for the Waste Treatment Plant being built at the Hanford Site in Washington state. The Pretreatment Facility is intended to separate radioactive waste into high-level and low-level streams before processing at the Waste Treatment Plant, […]

The Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee will next week consider Undersecretary of Energy Mark Menezes’ nomination to the No. 2 spot at the Department of Energy. The White House in March nominated Menezes as deputy secretary of energy. He would succeed Dan Brouillette, who became energy secretary in December. After a career on Capitol […]

The Energy Department expects to issue a final request for proposals this month for the Idaho Cleanup Contract, according to a procurement update made public last week. The potential 15-year, $6.4 billion agreement will replace Fluor Idaho’s nearly $2 billion, five-year deal that runs through May 2021. It would also replace Spectra Tech’s roughly five-year, […]

The Government Accountability Office was not convinced by the argument from a Bechtel-led team that it should have received a remediation contract at the Energy Department’s Hanford Site in Washington state because it proposed a cheaper price for performing the first set of tasks than the rival group that won the business. Late Wednesday, the […]

A team led by BWX Technologies is the winner of the Energy Department’s Tank Closure Contract at the Hanford Site in Washington state. The DOE’s Office of Environmental Management announced the $13 billion contract award Thursday to Hanford Works Restoration. Along with Lynchburg, Va.-based BWXT, the other members of the team are Texas-based companies Fluor […]

The Senate Armed Services Committee thinks its version of the annual policy-shaping National Defense Authorization Act (NSAA) could pass the upper chamber before the Fourth of July holiday, a committee aide confirmed Monday afternoon. Politico reported this week that the GOP-controlled panel plans to mark up its version of the bill the week of June […]

A coalition of industry, labor, and community groups are asking Congress to fund a one-time $7.25 billion increase in funding for the Energy Department’s Office of Environmental Management. The COVID-19-related funding request arrived Friday, while officials with the Oak Ridge Site in Tennessee confirmed they will initiate the first phase of an incremental return to […]

Nearly 120 people tuned in to a recent online presolicitation conference to learn more about a planned stand-alone contract for management of the Energy Department’s Savannah River National Laboratory (SRNL) in South Carolina. Representatives for universities, consultants, and DOE contractors ranging from small shops to major corporations participated in the April 28 event on the […]

The ExchangeMonitor’s 2020 Decommissioning Strategy Forum is being pushed back from June to September and relocated to Henderson, Nev. The continuing COVID-19 pandemic made it impossible to stick to the original schedule to hold the conference on June 8-9 in Nashville, according to the ExchangeMonitor’s parent company, Access Intelligence. “Please note that out of concern […]

The Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee will next week consider Undersecretary of Energy Mark Menezes’ nomination to the No. 2 spot at the Department of Energy. The White House in March nominated Menezes as deputy secretary of energy. He would succeed Dan Brouillette, who became energy secretary in December. After a career on Capitol […]

The number of confirmed cases of COVID-19 at the Energy Department’s Hanford Site in Washington state rose to four as of Wednesday, one more than a week ago. Most of the four infected individuals have “not been on site for several weeks,” DOE Hanford Site Manager Brian Vance said in a post on Facebook. No further […]

The environmental liability of the Energy Department’s Office of Legacy Management is sure to increase from its recent $7.35 billion as it assumes responsibility for more remediated properties, according to a report issued Wednesday by the Government Accountability Office. Legacy Management conducts maintenance and surveillance following cleanup of radioactively contaminated sites by DOE’s Office of […]

The New Mexico Environment Department (NMED) plans talks this summer with the Department of Energy on potential modifications to a 2016 legal agreement over nuclear cleanup at the Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL). The 2016 consent decree revamped a prior 2005 deal between NMED and the federal agency on cleanup of contamination left from Manhattan […]

The Government Accountability Office was not convinced by the argument from a Bechtel-led joint venture that it should have been issued a long-term contract for remediation at the Energy Department’s Hanford Site in Washington state because its proposed price tag for performing the first set of tasks was lower than that from the rival group that […]

Hanford Communities Executive Director Pamela Larsen is retiring after a quarter-century of advocating for localities around the Energy Department’s Hanford Site in Washington state. Larsen is the only executive director in the history of the intergovernmental organization established under Washington state law in 1994. Hanford Communities represents two counties, four cities, and a Port District […]

The Government Accountability Office said Tuesday the Energy Department should use best practices when seeking alternatives to the Pretreatment Facility for the Waste Treatment Plant being built at the Hanford Site in Washington state. The Pretreatment Facility is intended to separate radioactive waste into high-level and low-level streams before processing at the Waste Treatment Plant, […]

Top executives for contractors at the Energy Department’s Hanford Site in Washington state don’t know when staffing will return to normal amid the COVID-19 pandemic, but said last week changes are being made to protect employee health. The combined federal and contractor workforce at the nuclear cleanup complex is roughly 11,000, but only 20% to […]

An article in Monday’s Weapons Complex Morning Briefing incorrectly indicated a new Department of Energy procurement on mixed and low-level waste treatment services would replace existing providers of disposal for such material. The contracts are separate.