Office of Environmental Management (EM)

Assistant Energy Secretary for Environmental Management Anne Marie White has resigned effective June 14. In an email obtained by Weapons Complex Monitor, Energy Secretary Rick Perry and Deputy Secretary Dan Brouillette confirmed widespread industry chatter that White is leaving the agency after less than two years. The same email, distributed to a DOE mailing list, confirmed longtime […]

The Energy Department Thursday issued a “sources sought” notice seeking market input on a revamped liquid waste procurement at the Savannah River Site in South Carolina. The agency is seeking responses by 5 p.m. ET on June 13 to its market research inquiry on what it now calls the Integrated Mission Completion Contract. The Energy […]

The U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) plans in September to release a report on the Energy Department’s payment in lieu of taxes (PILT) to communities surrounding its national laboratories and nuclear cleanup sites. The report will analyze how PILT payments are calculated across sites and how have they varied over time, according to the GAO. […]

The Savannah River Site’s liquid waste contractor is expected to argue next month that race did not factor into its unwillingness to rehire a laid-off employee who sued the company over her termination. A court hearing for Adrienne Saulsberry’s lawsuit against her former employer, Savannah River Remediation (SRR), is scheduled for June 25 in Aiken, […]

It should take anywhere from two to four weeks to fully analyze the Energy Department’s new sampling for radioactive contaminants at a middle school near the Portsmouth Site in Ohio. The results should be publicly provided as soon as they are available, Pike County Health Commissioner Matt Brewster said in a Wednesday email. A team […]

The Department of Energy as of Thursday had neither officially confirmed nor denied widespread chatter regarding the resignation of Assistant Secretary for Environmental Management Anne Marie White. A number of sources first said last week that White had been asked to step down after 14 months leading the office charged with cleanup of 16 radioactively […]

It should take anywhere from two to four weeks to fully analyze the Energy Department’s new sampling for radioactive contaminants at a middle school near the Portsmouth Site in Ohio. The results should be publicly provided as soon as they are available, Pike County Health Commissioner Matt Brewster said in a Wednesday email. A team […]

Fluor is bringing back a retired chief financial officer, Michael Steuert, to permanently fill the role again as current CFO Bruce Stanski assists the Dallas-area company’s new chief executive with a strategic review. The international engineering, procurement, and construction company also announced Monday that Mark Fields will become the new president of its energy and […]

A team of certified health physicists from the Energy Department spent the Memorial Day weekend in Piketon, Ohio, collecting air samples that will be analyzed for signs of radioactive contamination at a local middle school. Forty-four air samples were collected both inside and outside of Zahn’s Corner Middle School, about 2 miles from DOE’s Portsmouth […]

The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission is requesting more information about the Energy Department’s plan for closure of a radioactive waste storage tank farm at the Hanford Site in Washington state. The nuclear regulator will present the request at a DOE public meeting, scheduled for 6 to 8 p.m. May 30 in Richland. The information request […]

A federal judge says he plans by the first week of June to rule on a Department of Justice lawsuit against the state of Washington over eased workers’ compensation requirements for workers at the Hanford Site. Judge Stanley Bastian, of U.S. District Court for Eastern Washington, heard arguments May 22 from the parties. He reminded […]

The U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) plans in September to release a report on the Energy Department’s payment in lieu of taxes (PILT) to communities surrounding its national laboratories and cleanup sites. The report will analyze the differences in PILT payments across sites and how have they varied over time, according to the GAO. The […]

The U.S. Energy Department is conducting additional sampling to detect any radioactive contamination at a school near its Portsmouth Site in Pike County, Ohio, while local officials seek to be kept in the loop. Energy Secretary Rick Perry dispatched a technical team to do an assessment of the school, the Cincinnati Enquirer reported Saturday. Energy […]

Former Kennewick, Wash., mayor and Hanford Site executive Steve Young died Thursday at the age of 69 from complications from cancer. Young was a four-term mayor of the city near Hanford. He was serving as a city councilman and had filed for re-election. He was also vice chairman of the Energy Communities Alliance, a Washington, […]

After 11 years with Westinghouse, José Emeterio Gutiérrez will resign as president and CEO effective July 31 and will be succeeded Aug. 19 by Patrick Fragman, group senior vice president at ABB Limited, an international technology company involved with electrification, industrial automation, and other fields. An executive committee of senior managers will run Westinghouse daily […]

Bechtel National last week and early this week conducted sweeping drug and alcohol testing of workers at the Waste Treatment Plant (WTP) the company is building at the Hanford Site in Washington state. The testing targeted all of the approximately 2,000 workers who have unescorted access to the plant’s job site. Four other major Hanford […]

The U.S. House Appropriations Committee on Wednesday approved legislation that would increase the fiscal 2020 funding for cleanup at the Hanford Site in Washington state by about $380 million from the Trump administration’s request. However, the funding is still about $37 million below current spending levels, according to initial figures, which do not include security […]

Face-to-face mediation is expected in June between public interest groups and the New Mexico Environment Department over changes to the way waste volume is calculated underground at the Energy Department’s Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP). The New Mexico Court of Appeals often encourages mediation in cases involving state agencies in hopes parties can bridge their […]

The fiscal 2020 energy and water funding bill approved Tuesday by the House Appropriations Committee would slash funding for a $50 million facility intended to reduce the cost and time of cleaning up nuclear waste at the Department of Energy’s Savannah River Site in South Carolina. The Energy Department requested all $50 million for the […]

The House of Representatives Appropriations Committee on Tuesday passed federal funding legislation that would prohibit the Trump administration from transferring the Formerly Utilized Sites Remedial Action Program (FUSRAP) from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to the Department of Energy. Appropriators did not discuss the White House proposal before voting 31-21 to send the fiscal […]

The House Appropriations Committee on Tuesday ruled out bartering of excess government uranium to help fund remediation of the Energy Department’s Portsmouth Site in Ohio in fiscal 2020. To make up for funds the government would have reaped through uranium barter,  the energy and water development bill for the next budget year would provide Portsmouth […]

The House Appropriations Committee on Tuesday affirmed a plan to keep Energy Department Office of Environmental Management funding at about $7.2 billion for fiscal 2020. The funding is included in the energy and water development appropriations legislation for the budget year starting Oct. 1, which the committee reported to the full House. The measure would […]

Officials in southern Ohio met Thursday to narrow the list of potential third-party contractors to sample for potential radioactive contamination at a middle school near the Energy Department’s Portsmouth Site. The Pike County General Health District said Tuesday it is working with DOE, along with local and state agencies, to establish a procedure outlining “when […]

Anne Marie White is stepping down as head of the Department of Energy’s Office of Environmental Management, multiple industry sources said Thursday afternoon. They linked her departure to friction with her immediate superior, Undersecretary of Energy for Science Paul Dabbar, exacerbated by concerns about radioactive contamination near a DOE facility in Ohio. White became assistant […]

The House Appropriations Committee wants the Government Accountability Office (GAO) to study what impact an Energy Department order on oversight by the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board (DNFSB) has on public and worker safety at nuclear weapons sites. The panel is concerned that DOE Order 140.1, enacted in May 2018, effectively restricts the DNFSB’s ability […]

Face-to-face mediation is expected in June between public interest groups and the New Mexico Environment Department over changes to the way waste volume is calculated underground at the Energy Department’s Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP). The New Mexico Court of Appeals often encourages mediation in cases involving state agencies in hopes parties can bridge their […]

The Donald Trump administration this week lashed out at House appropriators for proposing to spend money the White House wanted for active Department of Energy nuclear weapons programs on cleanup of legacy nuclear-weapon sites. The House Appropriations Committee on Tuesday approved an energy and water funding bill that would provide $7.2 billion for remediation of shuttered […]

Officials in southern Ohio are scheduled to meet today to narrow the list of potential third-party contractors to sample for potential radioactive contamination at a middle school near the Energy Department’s Portsmouth Site. The Pike County General Health District said Tuesday it is working with DOE, along with local and state agencies, to establish a […]

The House Appropriations Committee wants the Government Accountability Office (GAO) to study what impact an Energy Department order on oversight by the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board (DNFSB) has on public and worker safety at nuclear weapons sites. The panel is concerned that DOE Order 140.1, enacted in May  2018, effectively restricts the DNFSB’s ability […]

The House Appropriations Committee on Tuesday affirmed a plan to keep Energy Department Office of Environmental Management funding at about $7.2 billion for fiscal 2020. The funding is included in the energy and water development appropriations legislation for the budget year starting Oct. 1, which the committee reported to the full House. The measure keeps […]