Office of Environmental Management (EM)

New Mexico-based Strategic Management Solutions filed a protest with the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) on Monday over a contract worth up to $137 million to provide technical support services for the Energy Department’s Portsmouth/Paducah Project Office. The DOE Office of Environmental Management issued the award on Aug. 22 to Oak Ridge, Tenn.-based Enterprise Technical […]

Fluor Idaho, the U.S. Energy Department’s cleanup contractor at the Idaho National Laboratory, expects within weeks to largely conclude its work at the Advanced Mixed Waste Treatment Project (AMWTP). As of late August, 140 cubic meters of transuranic waste debris remained to be treated at the AMWTP, company spokesman Erik Simpson said by email Tuesday. […]

Site preparation recently began for the next large-scale Saltstone Disposal Unit (SDU) at the U.S. Department of Energy’s Savannah River Site in South Carolina, according to a post Monday on the site’s Facebook page. Liquid waste contractor Savannah River Remediation (SRR) has completed excavation of the location for SDU 8, a 32-million-gallon megavolume concrete structure that will permanently […]

HENDERSON, Nev. – Nuclear cleanup vendors hope the U.S. Energy Department’s new approach to procurement succeeds in quickening the pace of contract awards, one executive said here last week. That was the assessment of the end-state contracting model offered Sept. 3 at the ExchangeMonitor’s RadWaste Summit by Cathy Hickey, executive vice president for Navarro Research […]

The latest soil samples from around the Rocky Flats Natural Wildlife Refuge show residual radiological contamination at the one-time nuclear weapons site in Colorado poses no health threat for employees, hikers, or nearby communities, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service said in a report Friday. The samples taken in June around the former location of […]

The U.S. Energy Department has not accounted for all costs associated with fixing the Integrated Waste Treatment Unit (IWTU) at the Idaho National Laboratory, according to a report released Monday by the Government Accountability Office. In the report, GAO said the Energy Department has not followed best practices in that it failed to include both […]

HENDERSON, Nev. — There is roughly three decades of environmental work left at the U.S. Energy Department’s Oak Ridge Site in Tennessee, mostly at Y-12 National Security Complex and the Oak Ridge National Laboratory, according to one official. “We’ve got about 30 years of cleanup to do, we think, based on a relatively flat funding […]

U.S. Energy Secretary Rick Perry on Friday visited the Energy Technology Engineering Center (ETEC) at the Santa Susana Field Laboratory to assess challenges associated with cleanup of the site. The Energy Department said in a Friday press release that Perry was keeping a promise he made in June to visit the facility. The Energy Department […]

With just a handful of business days until the fiscal 2020 budget year begins, the Senate Appropriations Committee is rushing to approve its spending bills. The full panel has scheduled markups for 10 a.m. Thursday of its defense; energy and water; state, foreign operations, and related programs; and labor, health and human services, education, and […]

By John Pfeffer Once again, the Town of Ashford and the West Valley Demonstration Project (WVDP) in New York state are on the outside looking in as far the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) is concerned. A recent DOE proposal for interpreting the definition of high-level waste might have cleared the way for relocation of […]

HENDERSON, Nev. — Communities along the Georgia-South Carolina line, as well as U.S. Energy Department cleanup vendors, are closely tracking federal consideration of disposal options for 10,000 gallons of vitrified wastewater from the Savannah River Site. When the Energy Department published its proposed reinterpretation of the definition of radioactive high-level waste (HLW) in June, it […]

The U.S. Energy Department expects the number of transuranic waste shipments to its Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) near Carlsbad, N.M., to increase by more than 50% between fiscal 2020 and fiscal 2023. The agency anticipates it will receive about 400 shipments of defense-related TRU waste at the underground disposal site in fiscal 2020, which […]

The U.S. Department of Energy now plans to issue its draft record of decision for a proposed 2.2-million-cubic yard landfill for the Oak Ridge Site in Tennessee on Sept. 30. Officials with DOE’s Office of Environmental Management, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, and the state of Tennessee agreed to delay publication of the ROD from […]

HENDERSON, Nev. — The U.S. Energy Department’s Office of Environmental Management and the vendors that provide it with nuclear remediation services are reasonably satisfied with the “end state” approach to contracting — although some lingering issues remain. That was the message shared Tuesday by the No. 2 official at the nuclear cleanup office, Todd Shrader, […]

Removal of radioactive waste from a major single-shell tank, AX-102, is getting underway at the U.S. Energy Department’s Hanford Site in Washington state. AECOM-led tank farm contractor Washington River Protection Solutions announced via social media Aug. 29 its workers would start waste retrieval over the weekend. It is the latest effort to relocate waste from […]

The city of Broomfield, Colo., said this week no contractor will likely be selected to build a new stretch of bypass near the old Rocky Flats nuclear weapons plant until questions are addressed over a soil sample showing the presence of plutonium in the right of way for the road. The Broomfield City Council posted […]

After three days of bracing for impact from Hurricane Dorian, officials at the U.S. Department of Energy’s Savannah River Site determined Friday that the storm was no longer a local threat as it moved up the North Carolina coast. According to the emergency status page for the 310-square-mile site near Aiken, S.C., “there are currently no Operational Emergencies or scheduled delays for […]

As a discrimination case filed against Savannah River Site’s liquid waste contractor approaches trial next month, the company is petitioning a federal judge to bar evidence from being presented regarding four white employees on the basis that their jobs are irrelevant to the case. Adrienne Saulsberry, an African-American woman who was terminated by Savannah River […]

Key components of the $17 billion Waste Treatment Plant at the Hanford Site in Washington state might miss the current deadline to begin operation, the U.S. Energy Department acknowledged this week. The Energy Department “cannot project with certainty” when the High-Level Waste Vitrification Facility and the Pretreatment Facility will be completed, Brian Vance, manager for […]

The U.S. Energy Department’s Environmental Management Consolidated Business Center on Thursday posted a draft request for proposals (RFP) for a contract potentially worth $3 billion for nationwide deactivation, decommissioning, and removal services. The Energy Department is issuing a multiple-award indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity (IDIQ) contract, using firm-fixed-price or cost-reimbursement task orders over a 10-year period. Comments are due […]

HENDERSON, Nev. — Communities along the Georgia-South Carolina line, as well as U.S. Energy Department cleanup vendors, will be closely tracking federal consideration of disposal options for 10,000 gallons of vitrified wastewater from the Savannah River Site. When the Energy Department published its proposed reinterpretation of the definition of radioactive high-level waste (HLW) in June, […]

The U.S. Department of Energy now plans to issue its draft record of decision for a proposed 2.2-million-cubic yard landfill for the Oak Ridge Site in Tennessee on Sept. 30. Officials with DOE’s Office of Environmental Management, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, and the state of Tennessee agreed to delay publication of the ROD from […]

The city of Broomfield, Colo., said this week no contractor will likely be selected to build a new stretch of bypass near the old Rocky Flats nuclear weapons plant until questions are addressed over a soil sample showing the presence of plutonium in the right of way for the road. The Broomfield City Council posted […]

HENDERSON, Nev. — The Energy Department’s Office of Environmental Management and the vendors that provide it with nuclear remediation services are reasonably satisfied with the “end state” approach to contracting — although some lingering issues remain. That was the message shared Tuesday by the No. 2 official at the nuclear cleanup office, Todd Shrader, along […]

Removal of radioactive waste from a major single-shell tank, AX-102, is getting underway at the U.S. Energy Department’s Hanford Site in Washington state. AECOM-led tank farm contractor Washington River Protection Solutions announced via social media Thursday its workers would start waste retrieval over the weekend. It is the latest effort to relocate waste from leak-prone […]

The U.S. Energy Department expects the number of transuranic waste shipments to its Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) near Carlsbad, N.M., to grow by more than 50% between fiscal 2020 and fiscal 2023. The agency anticipates it will receive about 400 shipments of defense-related TRU waste at the underground disposal site in fiscal 2020, which […]

Nine containers of transuranic waste stored at Area G of the Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico did not, as of late July, meet the acceptance criteria for disposal further south at the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP). The situation was cited in a nonconformance report from the U.S. Energy Department’s Carlsbad Field Office, […]

The Civilian Board of Contract Appeals (CBCA) is again telling the U.S. Energy Department to pay a former cleanup contractor at the Idaho National Laboratory more than $33 million in fees. In an Aug. 8 ruling, a three-judge panel for the CBCA said the federal agency’s reasoning for failing to pay CH2M-WG Idaho (CWI) the […]

The contractor that operates the U.S. Department of Energy’s Savannah River Site in South Carolina has mismanaged security incident reports over the past two years, with problems ranging from late submission of documents to the federal agency to providing incomplete information when they are delivered. In one instance, Savannah River Nuclear Solutions (SRNS) was supposed […]

A U.S. Department of Energy nuclear cleanup manager at the Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico has been placed on administration leave, though the cause has not been made clear. The Los Alamos Reporter reported Wednesday that DOE Office of Environmental Management employee David Rhodes is on leave pending an unspecified investigation. “The New […]