Office of Environmental Management (EM)

S&K Federal Services, a small tribally owned business based in Montana, has received a potential five-year, $22 million contract to provide technical support services to the Energy Department Office of Environmental Management. The office said in a Wednesday press release the S&K contract supports the Environmental Management Consolidated Business Center (EMCBC) in Cincinnati and small […]

Federal and contractor employees for the Hanford Site in Washington state should be particularly vigilant about cyber threats while they work from home during the COVID-19 pandemic, the Energy Department said this week. An Energy Department spokesperson said last week that 60% of Hanford’s 11,000-person workforce was telecommuting following the March 31 transition to essential […]

A viable program for treating supplemental low-activity waste at the Energy Department’s Hanford Site in Washington state can be developed for any one of three major technologies – vitrification, grouting, and steam reforming, according to an April 1 report from a National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine panel. But grouting and steam reforming would […]

S&K Federal Services, a small tribally owned business based in Montana, has received a potential five-year, $22 million contract to provide technical support services to the Energy Department Office of Environmental Management. The office said in a Wednesday press release the S&K contract supports the Environmental Management Consolidated Business Center (EMCBC) in Cincinnati and small […]

Federal and contractor employees for the Hanford Site in Washington state should be particularly vigilant about cyber threats while they work from home during the COVID-19 pandemic, the Energy Department said this week. An Energy Department spokesperson said last week that 60% of Hanford’s 11,000-person workforce was telecommuting following the March 31 transition to essential […]

The Waste Treatment Plant at the Hanford Site in Washington state is under court order to demonstrate it can convert low-activity tank waste into glass by the end of 2023, and effectively do the same thing for high-level waste by the end of 2033. An article in the Wednesday Weapons Complex Morning Briefing misstated the […]

The current COVID-19 public health emergency, which has laid waste to scheduled events great and small, is delaying plans to sample for potential radiological contamination around a Pike County, Ohio, middle school near the Energy Department’s Portsmouth Site. Officials from the DOE Office of Environmental Management said during a March industry conference in Phoenix they […]

Long-anticipated talks between the Energy Department and Washington state on remediation milestones at the Hanford Site could go forward remotely. “We are moving forward on holistic negotiations, but when they might start depends on the availability of the [federal] mediator, and how successful we are at kicking off the negotiations through remote communications,” Randy Bradbury, […]

The Pike County, Ohio, Board of Commissioners says local residents should have a chance to review waste acceptance criteria for the On-Site Waste Disposal Facility being built at the Energy Department’s Portsmouth Site. The Energy Department and cleanup contractor Fluor-BWXT recently sent a draft of the Waste Acceptance Criteria Implementation Plan, which specifies the types […]

The Moab Uranium Mill Tailings Remediation Action (UMTRA) project in Utah as of Tuesday was the sole Energy Department Office of Environmental Management nuclear cleanup site maintaining normal operations during the COVID-19 crisis. The project’s two work sites are “fully operational” while following Centers for Disease Control and Prevention guidelines to minimize the risk of […]

Two Department of Energy contracts held by subsidiaries of Idaho-based North Wind Group, together valued at over $277 million, are due to expire by the end of this year. North Wind Solutions has a $232 million contract to operate the Transuranic Waste Processing Center at the Oak Ridge Site in Tennessee. The five-year contract, which […]

A couple of smaller vendors to the nuclear industry say they are prepared to help clients withstand the current COVID-19 pandemic. UniTech Services Group, a provider of personal protective equipment for the nuclear industry in North America, last week predicted no “service disruptions” through the second quarter. “We’re going to take the right preventative measures […]

A viable program for treating supplemental low-activity waste at the Energy Department’s Hanford Site in Washington state can be developed for any one of three major technologies – vitrification, grouting, and steam reforming, according to an April 1 report from a National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine panel. But grouting and steam reforming would […]

Half of the 1,800-person workforce for the Idaho National Laboratory’s cleanup contractor was still working as of last week, according to the Department of Energy. Of those 900 Fluor Idaho employees, half were physically on-site and the others teleworking, a DOE spokesperson said by email. The spokesperson did not say if those who cannot telework […]

The Energy Department has again extended the deadline for bids on a potential five-year, $250 million support services contract at the Paducah Site in Kentucky. In a notice published last week, DOE’s Environmental Management Consolidated Business Center said proposals are now due by 4 p.m. EDT on April 16. Originally, proposals were due March 19 […]

One major contractor at the Energy Department’s Savannah River Site in South Carolina settled an age discrimination suit in the past week, while another is the target of newly-filed case, according to court records. Amenetum-led Savannah River Remediation has agreed to settle the age discrimination case against it. Meanwhile, a longtime employee has filed a […]

A subsidiary of Pro2Serve, Enterprise Technical Assistance Services, (E-TAS), on Wednesday started work as the new technical services vendor for the Department of Energy’s Portsmouth/Paducah Project Office cleanup complex, which is comprised of the Portsmouth Site in Ohio, the Paducah Site in Kentucky, and the Lexington, Ky., headquarters. The small-business set-aside has a potential term […]

The Energy Department has said it is not currently looking into the findings of a recent report in the Seattle Times that leaky respirators used by cleanup workers at the Hanford Site in Washington state might have contributed to serious health problems. A DOE spokesperson said by email last week that the alleged respirator problems […]

The Energy Department is temporarily ramping down operations at the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) near Carlsbad, N.M., because of the COVID-19 crisis, a spokesperson said by email Monday. The Energy Department told its Carlsbad Field Office and WIPP contractor Nuclear Waste Partnership (NWP) to start scaling back operations March 27. The disposal site is […]

The Energy Department’s Office of Environmental Management is studying two options for permanent disposition of transuranic waste from the Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico that has been stored for years at a privately held facility in Texas. The Energy Department could either technically confirm the radioactive waste can be safely shipped straight to […]

CH2M Plateau Remediation, the outgoing cleanup contractor for the Central Plateau of the Hanford Site in Washington state, earned $7.8 million of a potential $9.9 million in fees for fiscal 2019, according to a recently released scorecard from the Department of Energy. The fee award of almost 79% for the 12-month period ending Sept. 30, […]

The Defense Nuclear Safety Facilities Board (DNFSB) is urging its inspectors and staff to press their newly bolstered authority to inspect Department of Energy defense-nuclear sites, as codified by Congress last year. Congress, at least in the board’s interpretation, used the National Defense Authorization Act of 2020 to short-circuit DOE Order 140.1, which was written by […]

Energy Department contractors are eager to tap into a portion of the $2.2 trillion COVID-19 relief bill signed into law a week ago to provide paid leave to employees who cannot telecommute. The federal contractor authority provision of the “CARES Act” empowers the energy secretary to ensure that contract employees whose work requires them to […]

Radioactive waste management provider US Ecology said Tuesday it would cut tens of millions of dollars in costs this year to offset the economic uncertainty created by the COVID-19 pandemic. The Boise, Idaho-based company said in a press release that unspecified “cost control initiatives” should save $15 million to $20 million annually. A 30% cut […]

A subsidiary of Pro2Serve, Enterprise Technical Assistance Services, (E-TAS), on Wednesday started work as the new technical services vendor for the Department of Energy’s Portsmouth/Paducah Project Office cleanup complex, which is comprised of the Portsmouth Site in Ohio, the Paducah Site in Kentucky, and the Lexington, Ky., headquarters. The small-business set-aside has a potential term […]

The Energy Department’s Office of Environmental Management is studying two options for removing leftover Los Alamos National Laboratory transuranic waste from a privately held facility in Texas. The Energy Department could either technically confirm the waste can be safely shipped straight to the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) in New Mexico, or send it back […]

The Energy Department’s Savannah River Site in South Carolina on Wednesday said ongoing testing of its workforce for COVID-19 had not turned up any new cases. A total of 24 employees had been tested, with two cases confirmed as of this week for infection by the novel coronavirus 2019. Of the remaining workers, 14 have […]

An employee who alleged age discrimination by the Energy Department’s liquid waste contractor at the Savannah River Site in South Carolina has settled his federal lawsuit. In an order dated March 27, U.S. District Judge Mary Geiger Lewis said she has learned from the attorneys that Jeffrey Risher’s litigation against Savannah River Remediation has been […]

A subcontractor for the legacy environmental remediation vendor at the Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico has tested positive for COVID-19. The subcontractor for Newport News Nuclear BWXT Los Alamos (N3B) is self-isolating at home and will not return to work until cleared by a medical provider, laboratory Director Thom Mason said in a […]

Department of Energy contractors and subcontractors, including those in the National Nuclear Security Administration, can be indemnified from damages arising because of testing for COVID-19, under a determination published Tuesday by Secretary of Energy Dan Brouillette.  The order also indemnifies contractors that plan to offer DOE computing facilities to scientists who want to model the […]