Office of Environmental Management (EM)

An entity called Hanford Integrated Infrastructure Services Contractor filed a bid protest Monday with the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) seeking to the Department of Energy’s award last month of a $4 billion contract for support services at the Hanford Site in Washington state. The Energy Department on Dec. 5 issued the potential 10-year contract […]

Jackie Quintyne, a Chicago native with 19 years of conference planning experience, has been named conference manager for the Waste Management Symposia in Phoenix. The annual WM Symposia in March is the largest international conference for the management of radioactive material and related topics. It provides a forum for discussing cost-effective and environmentally responsible solutions […]

U.S. Energy Secretary Dan Brouillette has started off the new year by giving more authority to DOE Undersecretary of Energy Mark Menezes, effectively making him acting second in command until a deputy is in place. Brouillette said in a Friday email to Energy Department staff that to “ensure continued operational effectiveness,” Menezes now has authority […]

The U.S. National Labor Relations Board ruled Thursday that a labor union representing security guards at the Waste Treatment Plant under construction at the Energy Department’s Hanford Site is not entitled to see the contract under which they are employed. The NLRB ruling finds that Waste Treatment Security Guards Union 161 holds no legal right […]

An equipment problem at the U.S. Energy Department’s Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) in New Mexico held up emplacement of transuranic waste in December, according to a regular monthly report filed by the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board (DNFSB). Nuclear Waste Partnership, DOE’s contractor in charge of operating the salt mine disposal site, paused waste […]

The U.S. Energy Depart expects within 15 to 60 days to issue a solicitation for a new Paducah Infrastructure Support Services contract to replace the deal now held by Swift & Staley. The timeline set in the Friday notice would mean the request for proposals should be out by early March. The procurement will be […]

The U.S. Department of Energy Office of Environmental Management posted an updated organization chart last month that lists Thomas Mooney as the new chief of staff. Sources said in December that Mooney, a former U.S. Department of Defense senior manager, was becoming the new chief of staff at the environmental cleanup office although the Energy […]

Bud Albright, who chairs the U.S. Nuclear Industry Council, will step in as interim president and CEO of the organization following the Dec. 29 death of David Blee. The Nuclear Industry Council said Monday that the board of directors selected Albright, an undersecretary of energy for former President George W. Bush, as interim leader pending […]

The Washington state Department of Ecology is making good on last month’s threat to fine the U.S. Department of Energy $1 million for denial of access to certain records for the Hanford Site. The state announced the fine Monday after DOE appealed Ecology’s Dec. 5 ruling finding Hanford officials are wrongly withholding information. The appeal […]

Due to the similarity between two lawsuits filed by local residents near the Energy Department’s Portsmouth Site in Ohio, only one will go forward, a federal court ruled last week. U.S. Magistrate Judge Elizabeth Preston Deavers in the Southern District of Ohio ruled Jan. 3 that a case filed by plaintiffs led by Ray Pritchard […]

The AECOM-Jacobs joint venture in charge of decontamination and decommissioning at the Energy Department’s Oak Ridge Site in Tennessee earned about 97% of its potential fee for its cleanup work in the last half of fiscal 2019. URS/CH2M Hill Oak Ridge (UCOR) won almost $20.4 million out of a potential $21 million for the period […]

Paramilitary security contractor Centerra won 97% or about $3.17 million out of a potential $3.26 million fee for protecting the Energy Department’s Savannah River Site in South Carolina during the second half of fiscal 2019, which ended Sept. 30. That’s according to a scorecard released by DOE over the winter holidays for Centerra-Savannah River Site. […]

The U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) says New Mexico-based Strategic Management Solutions Inc. (SMSI) failed to provide hard evidence Enterprise Technical Assistance Services (E-TAS) should not have won a $137 million technical services contract for Energy Department’s Portsmouth/Paducah Project Office due to a conflict of interest. It is not enough to infer that Oak Ridge, […]

The Energy Department expects to start vitrifying low-activity radioactive waste at the Hanford Site’s Waste Treatment Plant (WTP) as early as fiscal 2022 or as late as fiscal 2024. “We are going to have hiccups. … We are going to have failures along the way,” but they can be overcome, Tom Fletcher, DOE’s assistant manager […]

The Jacobs-led joint venture in charge of remediating the West Valley Demonstration Project Site in New York won $322,000 or 69% of a potential fee of $467,000 during a six-month period in 2019. The U.S. Department of Energy recently issued the scorecard for CH2M Hill BWXT West Valley LLC (CHBWV) for the period from March […]

The Energy Department has extended the current task order for contractor CDM to continue work on environmental reports at the Santa Susana Field Laboratory in Ventura County, California through June 30. The CDM agreement with the DOE Office of Environmental Management would have expired Dec. 31 without the extension, which raises the current $33 million […]

The National Nuclear Security Administration’s plan to produce 80 pits a year would generate more than 1,110 cubic meters of transuranic waste a year, according to an environmental review the semiautonomous Department of Energy weapon steward released this week. Over 50 years — enough time at an 80-a-year throughput to produce two new pits, and […]

Debriefings got underway this week on major Energy Department contracts issued in December for the Hanford Site in Washington state, a source said Thursday. Debriefs were held in Richland, Wash., on the potential 10-year, $4 billion support services contract announced Dec. 5 for Hanford Mission Integration Solutions (HMIS), a joint venture comprised of Leidos, Centerra, […]

Due to the similarity between two lawsuits filed by local residents near the Energy Department’s Portsmouth Site in Ohio, only one will go forward, a federal court ruled last week. U.S. Magistrate Judge Elizabeth Preston Deavers in the Southern District of Ohio ruled Jan. 3 that a case filed by plaintiffs led by Ray Pritchard […]

AECOM’s former executive vice president and chief legal officer, Carla Christofferson, has been named chief risk officer for DXC Technology, a global information systems and cybersecurity company. The Northern Virginia-based DXC Technology announced Christofferson’s hiring in a Tuesday press release. Christofferson will advise DXC President and CEO Mike Salvino on emerging risks. “The management of […]

The Energy Department expects to start vitrifying low-activity radioactive waste at the Hanford Site’s Waste Treatment Plant (WTP) as early as fiscal 2022 or as late as fiscal 2024. “We are going to have hiccups. … We are going to have failures along the way,” but they can be overcome, Tom Fletcher, DOE’s assistant manager […]

Paramilitary security contractor Centerra won 97% or about $3.17 million out of a potential $3.26 million fee for protecting the Energy Department’s Savannah River Site in South Carolina during the second half of fiscal 2019, which ended Sept. 30. That’s according to a scorecard released by DOE over the winter holidays for Centerra-Savannah River Site. […]

The Jacobs-led joint venture in charge of remediating the West Valley Demonstration Project Site in New York won $322,000 or 69% of a potential fee of $467,000 during a six-month period in 2019. The U.S. Department of Energy recently issued the scorecard for CH2M Hill BWXT West Valley LLC (CHBWV) for the period from March […]

The Washington state Department of Ecology is making good on last month’s threat to fine the U.S. Department of Energy $1 million for denial of access to certain records for the Hanford Site. The state announced the fine Monday after DOE appealed Ecology’s Dec. 5 ruling finding Hanford officials are wrongly withholding information. The appeal […]

The Energy Department has extended the current task order for contractor CDM to continue work on environmental reports at the Santa Susana Field Laboratory in Ventura County, California through June 30. The CDM agreement with the DOE Office of Environmental Management would have expired Dec. 31 without the extension, which raises the current $33 million […]

The AECOM-Jacobs joint venture in charge of decontamination and decommissioning at the Energy Department’s Oak Ridge Site in Tennessee earned about 97% of its potential fee for its cleanup work in the last half of fiscal 2019. URS/CH2M Hill Oak Ridge (UCOR) won almost $20.4 million out of a potential $21 million for the period […]

The U.S. Department of Energy Office of Environmental Management posted an updated its  organization chart last month that lists Thomas Mooney as the new chief of staff. Sources said in December that Mooney, a former U.S. Department of Defense senior manager, was becoming the new chief of staff at the environmental cleanup office although the […]

The U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) says New Mexico-based Strategic Management Solutions Inc. (SMSI) failed to provide “hard evidence” that Enterprise Technical Assistance Services (E-TAS) should not have won a $137 million technical services services contract for Energy Department’s Portsmouth/Paducah Project Office because of a conflict of interest. It is not enough to infer that […]

Potential bidders on the management and operations contract for the U.S. Department of Energy’s Savannah River National Laboratory in South Carolina have until noon ET on Jan. 9 to sign up for briefings. The Energy Department is providing new details on its Jan. 16 industry day for the stand-alone lab contract. The DOE Office of Environmental […]

A veteran of 28 years in the commercial nuclear power industry is the new acting manager for the U.S. Department of Energy office that oversees the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) in New Mexico. Greg Sosson was apparently appointed to the temporary detail in December, according to the Carlsbad Field Office website. Sosson joined the […]