Office of Environmental Management (EM)

WASHINGTON, D.C. – A hyper-partisan political climate, as reflected by the impeachment trial of President Donald Trump and the start of presidential primaries this month, reduces the chances of timely passage of appropriations bills to fund the government for fiscal 2021, issue watchers said last week. The Energy Department and other federal agencies are likely […]

Interactions between processed high-level radioactive waste and stainless-steel containers could undermine long-term safe geologic disposal of the material, researchers at Ohio State University said in a study published this week. “The corrosion that is accelerated by the interface interaction between dissimilar materials could profoundly impact the service life of the nuclear waste packages, which, therefore, […]

The National Nuclear Security Administration has decided to use a cleanup facility in Ohio to help produce high-purity depleted uranium metal for nuclear weapons programs. The semiautonomous Department of Energy weapons agency will do that by installing a fourth process line at the depleted uranium hexafluoride conversion facility at the Portsmouth Site near Piketon, Ohio, […]

Newport News Nuclear BWXT Los Alamos (N3B), the vendor in charge of legacy environmental remediation operations at the U.S. Energy Department’s Los Alamos Nuclear Laboratory in New Mexico, won 84% of its potential fee for work done during fiscal 2019. Altogether, N3B took home more than $8.6 million of a potential amount exceeding $10.2 million, […]

Wide-ranging talks between the U.S. Department of Energy and the Washington state Department of Ecology on radioactive waste issues at the Hanford Site have apparently not progressed beyond the starting line. “The parties are still working through some preliminary arrangements,” Ecology spokesman Randy Bradbury said in a Jan. 23 email. The agencies confirmed in October […]

Demolition of a Cold War-era legacy facility in December still leaves more than 1,100 facilities and buildings to tear down at the Department of Energy’s Savannah River Site in South Carolina. Specifically, 1,127 facilities have been identified for eventual demolition, SRS spokesman Monte Volk said via email. Those facilities encompass offices, power production plants, and […]

An article in the Jan. 24 issue of Weapons Complex Monitor should have stated the Savannah River National Laboratory has an annual budget of roughly $350 million.

The Government Accountability Office should by the end of April rule on challenges to $14 billion worth of Energy Department contract awards at the Hanford Site in Washington state. With the deadline now passed for additional challenges, the GAO has single protests on its docket for each award: the 10-year, $10-billion Hanford Central Plateau cleanup […]

The Nuclear Waste Technical Review Board wants to forge a closer working relationship with the Department of Energy’s Office of Environmental Management. In a Jan. 10 letter to DOE Senior Adviser for Environmental Management William (Ike) White, Nuclear Waste Technical Review Board Chairwoman Jean Bahr urged “a framework for more regular interaction” between the two […]

Fluor-BWXT Portsmouth, the Energy Department’s cleanup contractor at the former gaseous diffusion plant in Pike County, Ohio, pocketed 86% of its potential fee for fiscal 2019, or $19.20 million of the available $22.78 million. The vendor claimed about $3.61 million of a potential $6.68 million in subjective fee for the federal budget year that ended […]

The Washington state Court of Appeals heard arguments Tuesday on a lower court’s $8.1 million award in 2017 to a former employee of Energy Department contractor Mission Support Alliance (MSA) at the Hanford Site. The support services vendor is asking Division III of the appeals court to reverse the award against it and former vice […]

While it does not say much about them publicly, the Energy Department’s Office of Environmental Management watches potential mergers and acquisitions of its major contractors with more than passing interest, DOE’s top nuclear cleanup official said Thursday. As an example, Environmental Management wants to be sure the government contracting branches of heavyweights AECOM and Fluor […]

Los Alamos County, N.M., wants a federal review board to reverse a December decision by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency saying the county’s stormwater discharges contribute to pollution of the Rio Grande River. In a petition filed Jan. 17 with the EPA’s Environmental Appeals Board, Los Alamos County seeks to overturn the Dec. 16 decision […]

Las Vegas-based Longenecker & Associates said in Tuesday it has hired a former Fluor supervisor as its manager for New Mexico projects. Lindsay Wallace started Monday and her role will include serving as Longenecker’s program manager for legacy cleanup at the Los Alamos National Laboratory. Longenecker has a subcontract with Newport News Nuclear BWXT Los […]

International engineering and construction provider AECOM appears poised to complete the $2.4 billion sale of its government contracting division to a joint venture of two New York investment firms, a company official said Tuesday. Eric Knox, AECOM vice president for strategic development for nuclear and environment, cited the impending change during a panel discussion at […]

Las Vegas-based Longenecker & Associates said in Tuesday it has hired a former Fluor supervisor as its manager for New Mexico projects. Lindsay Wallace started Monday and her role will include serving as Longenecker’s program manager for legacy cleanup at the Los Alamos National Laboratory. Longenecker has a subcontract with Newport News Nuclear BWXT Los […]

The Nuclear Waste Technical Review Board wants to forge a closer working relationship with the Department of Energy’s Office of Environmental Management. In a Jan. 10 letter to DOE Senior Adviser for Environmental Management William (Ike) White, Nuclear Waste Technical Review Board Chairwoman Jean Bahr urged “a framework for more regular interaction” between the two […]

The Washington state Court of Appeals heard arguments Tuesday on a lower court’s $8.1 million award in 2017 to a former employee of Energy Department contractor Mission Support Alliance (MSA) at the Hanford Site. The support services vendor is asking Division III of the appeals court to reverse the award against it and former vice […]

Four Rivers Nuclear Partnership, the Jacobs-led deactivation and cleanup contractor at the Energy Department’s Paducah Site in Kentucky, earned 67% of its potential fee for work during fiscal 2019, or $6.97 million of a potential $10.38 million, according to a recent performance scorecard. The vendor pocketed just over $1 million of a possible $2.33 million […]

International engineering and construction provider AECOM could complete the $2.4 billion sale of its government contracting division to a joint venture of two New York investment firms within days, a company official said Tuesday in Alexandria, Va. Eric Knox, an AECOM vice president for strategic development for nuclear and environment, cited the impending change during […]

Mid-America Conversion Services, the contractor in charge of operating depleted uranium hexafluoride (DUF6) conversion facilities at the Energy Department’s Portsmouth Site in Ohio and Paducah Site in Kentucky, won roughly 69% of its potential fee for fiscal 2019. That represents $2.42 million of a potential $3.5 million for the federal budget year that ended Sept. […]

Los Alamos County, N.M., wants a federal review board to reverse a December decision by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency saying the county’s stormwater discharges contribute to pollution of the Rio Grande River. In a petition filed Jan. 17 with the EPA’s Environmental Appeals Board, Los Alamos County seeks to overturn the Dec. 16 decision […]

Fluor-BWXT Portsmouth, the Energy Department cleanup contractor at the former gaseous diffusion plant site in Pike County, Ohio, pocketed 86% of its potential fee for fiscal 2019, or $19.20 million of a potential $22.78 million. The vendor claimed about $3.61 million of a potential $6.68 million in subjective fee. It also took home $15.59 million […]

The Government Accountability Office should by the end of April rule on challenges to $14 billion worth of Energy Department contract awards at the Hanford Site in Washington state. With the deadline now passed for additional challenges, the GAO has single protests on its docket for each award: the 10-year, $10-billion Hanford Central Plateau cleanup […]

The National Nuclear Security Administration has decided to use a cleanup facility in Ohio to help produce high-purity depleted uranium metal for nuclear weapons programs. The semiautonomous Department of Energy weapons agency will do that by installing a fourth process line at the depleted uranium hexafluoride conversion facility at the Portsmouth Site near Piketon, Ohio, […]

Newport News Nuclear BWXT-Los Alamos (N3B), the vendor in charge of legacy environmental remediation operations at the U.S. Energy Department’s Los Alamos Nuclear Laboratory in New Mexico, won 84% of its potential fee for work done during fiscal 2019. Altogether, N3B took home more than $8.6 million of a potential amount exceeding $10.2 million, according […]

Wide-ranging talks between the U.S. Department of Energy and the Washington state Department of Ecology on radioactive waste issues at the Hanford Site have apparently not progressed beyond the starting line. “The parties are still working through some preliminary arrangements,” Ecology spokesman Randy Bradbury said in a Thursday email. The agencies confirmed in October they […]

The U.S. Energy Department still has to work out some murky issues that could result from establishing a stand-alone contract for management of the Savannah River National Laboratory in South Carolina. This includes specifics of how a new laboratory manager would work alongside the Fluor-led operator of the entire Savannah River Site, and how DOE’s […]

The California Department of Toxic Substances Control is “making every effort” to publish this summer the final versions of two long-awaited environmental reports for cleanup of the Santa Susana Field Laboratory, a spokesman said recently. The state agency oversees remediation of the 2,800-acre site in Ventura County, about 30 miles northwest of downtown Los Angeles, […]

A former employee of the liquid waste contractor for the U.S. Energy Department’s Savannah River Site has been awarded $240,107 in front pay she would have earned if the company had not unfairly denied her employment after she was initially laid off. In addition, U.S. District Judge J. Michelle Childs ruled on Jan. 17 that […]