Archive

Office of Environmental Management (EM)

DOE’s Office of Environmental Management runs the cleanup of Cold War nuclear weapons production sites, the largest environmental remediation program in the world. Coverage tracks EM budgets, contract awards, tank waste treatment, and site closure milestones across Hanford, Savannah River, Oak Ridge, Idaho, Portsmouth, and Paducah.

  • Wrap Up: Retired AECOM Exec Honored by S.C. Governor

    Todd Wright, who retired last August as vice president and general manager of AECOM’s Aiken, S.C.-based nuclear and environment business, has received South Carolina’s highest civilian award. South Carolina Gov. Henry McMaster (R) formally inducted Wright into the Order of the Palmetto during a ceremony in the governor’s office last week. The award is given […]

  • DOE Audit: Quicker Decision Needed on Savannah River Waste Storage Space

    The U.S. Department of Energy will likely need an updated strategy sooner than anticipated for temporary storage of treated radioactive liquid waste at the Savannah River Site in South Carolina, according to the DOE Inspector General’s Office. The department’s Office of Environmental Management (EM) did not properly assess the reliability of its strategy to store […]

  • ECA Presses High-Level Waste Issue With Congress

    While the Energy Communities Alliance (ECA) hopes the Department of Energy will readjust its classification of high-level radioactive waste, it has not forgotten the federal agency still owes Congress a report on the issue. The ECA asked the House and Senate Armed Services committees on Tuesday to “attempt to require” compliance with a provision of the […]

  • BWXT Earnings Up 50 Percent in 2018 on Federal Work

    BWX Technologies, of Lynchburg, Va., said Monday it capped 2018 with better than 50-percent earnings growth after clinching more nuclear naval, environmental cleanup, and uranium downblending work from the Department of Energy. Company-wide net earnings came in at over $225 million in 2018, up more than 50 percent from just under $150 million in 2017. […]

  • Jury Picked in Employee Case Against SRNS

    The management and operations contractor for the Department of Energy’s Savannah River Site could be headed to trial near the end of the year over a federal negligence lawsuit filed in November by a site employee. A scheduling order filed Monday in U.S. District Court for South Carolina outlines tasks that must be completed by […]

  • GAO Finds Energy Department Contractor Reviews Need More Cost Data

    The U.S. Department of Energy could do a better job of monitoring how its contractors spend billions of dollars in federal money, the Government Accountability Office said Tuesday. A new GAO report recommends DOE entities, including the Office of Environmental Management and the semiautonomous National Nuclear Security Administration, put more emphasis on how management and […]

  • Savannah River Liquid Waste Manager to Get Contract Extension

    The current liquid waste management contractor for the Savannah River Site in South Carolina will be kept on past the expiration of its current contract extension on March 31, the Department of Energy said Wednesday, a day after announcing it had canceled the procurement for a follow-on contract. AECOM-led Savannah River Remediation is working under […]

  • West Valley Contractor Has Hauled Away All Vitrification Material

    Department of Energy contractor CH2M HILL BWXT West Valley (CHBWV) has removed virtually all the waste generated from demolition of the vitrification plant at the West Valley Demonstration Project in New York state. About 460 containers of debris have been sent from the site at the town of Ashford to off-site facilities, the Energy Department […]

  • Energy Department Pulls the Plug on SRS Liquid Waste Solicitation

    The Department of Energy will not reissue a 10-year, multibillion-dollar contract for liquid waste management at the Savannah River Site in South Carolina initially awarded in October 2017. The department said Tuesday afternoon it was canceling the solicitation and that current contractor Savannah River Remediation will remain on the job. The AECOM-team is currently operating […]

  • Energy Department Contractor Reviews Lack Cost Data, GAO Says

    The U.S. Department of Energy could do a better job of monitoring how its contractors spend billions of dollars in federal money, the Government Accountability Office said Tuesday. The new GAO report recommends DOE entities, including the Office of Environmental Management and the semiautonomous National Nuclear Security Administration, put more emphasis on how management and […]

  • ECA Pursues High-Level Waste Issue With Congress

    While the Energy Communities Alliance (ECA) hopes the Department of Energy will change what it considers high-level radioactive waste, it has not forgotten the federal agency still owes Congress a report on the issue. The ECA asked the House and Senate Armed Services committees on Tuesday to “attempt to require” compliance with a provision of […]

  • Full Appeals Court Hearing Sought in Hanford Pension Lawsuit

    Retirees of former Hanford Site contractor Lockheed Martin Services Inc. have petitioned the full U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit to hear their appeal of a U.S. Court of Federal Claims decision in a class action lawsuit against the Department of Energy. In early February, a three-judge panel of the appeals court upheld […]

  • Idaho Missed Deadline for Moving TRU Waste to WIPP

    A Department of Energy official acknowledged Thursday the Idaho National Laboratory missed its Dec. 31, 2018, deadline to move defense-related transuranic waste to the federal disposal facility in New Mexico. Under a 1995 settlement between DOE, Idaho, and the U.S. Navy over in-state nuclear waste storage, the Energy Department was supposed to ship 65,000 cubic […]

  • DOE Audit: Earlier Decision Needed on Savannah River Waste Storage Space

    The U.S. Department of Energy will likely need an updated strategy sooner than anticipated for temporary storage of treated radioactive liquid waste at the Savannah River Site in South Carolina, according to the DOE Inspector General’s Office. The department’s Office of Environmental Management (EM) did not properly assess the reliability of its strategy to store […]

  • Retired AECOM Executive Honored by South Carolina Governor

    Todd Wright, who retired last August as vice president and general manager of AECOM’s Aiken, S.C.-based nuclear and environment business, has received South Carolina’s highest civilian award. South Carolina Gov. Henry McMaster (R) formally inducted Wright into the Order of the Palmetto during a ceremony in the governor’s office last week. The award is given […]

  • BWXT Prepares 4Q Earnings Report

    Lynchburg, Va.-based BWX Technologies will file its fourth-quarter 2018 earnings report after the market closes today, and will discuss the results with financial analysts in an 8:30 a.m. Tuesday conference call. The earnings call, for the quarter ended Dec. 31, will be webcast. During the third quarter of 2018, BWXT reported revenue of $426 million, […]

  • Savannah River Liquid Waste Award Slips Off Procurement Schedule

    The Energy Department’s Office of Environmental Management issued its latest procurement schedule on Wednesday, but it lists no timeline for awarding the long-awaited liquid waste management contract for the Savannah River Site in South Carolina. The multibillion-dollar re-award is now listed as “TBD,” or to be determined. When the procurement schedule was updated in November, […]

  • DOE Site Managers Say They Won’t Shut Out DNFSB

    Three Department of Energy field managers in New Mexico said Thursday that an agency order issued last year will bring little change in a good relationship with an independent federal watchdog, the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board (DNFSB). The officials offered the commitment at a DNFSB public hearing in Albuquerque, N.M. The four board members […]

  • Feds, Wash. State Aim to Resolve Hanford Workers’ Comp Lawsuit Without Trial

    The U.S. Department of Justice and Washington state have agreed that a federal lawsuit over a new state law easing workers’ compensation requirements for ill Hanford Site workers likely can be resolved without a trial. Both have told the court they plan to file motions for summary judgment in the case. Judge Stanley Bastian, of […]

  • Infrastructure Support RFI Issued for Portsmouth-Paducah Operations

    The Energy Department’s Office of Environmental Management wants vendor feedback on a potential new contract to provide infrastructure support services at the Portsmouth Site in Ohio and the Paducah Site in Kentucky. The request for information/sources sought notice was issued Tuesday by DOE’s Cincinnati-based Environmental Management Consolidated Business Center. The Energy Department is in the […]

  • DOE Extending Contract for Santa Susana Reports

    The Energy Department plans to extend a sole-source task order so contractor CDM can generate additional reports on the cleanup of the Energy Technology Engineering Center (ETEC) at the Santa Susana Field Laboratory in California. The agency announced its intention to keep CDM on the job through the end of the year in a Wednesday […]

  • DNFSB Considers Hiring Executive Director

    As part of its efforts to put its house in order, the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board (DNFSB) intends hire a high-level staff management position, Chairman Bruce Hamilton said Feb. 14 during a meeting in Washington, D.C. “We need to hire this executive secretary, or chief of staff, or whatever you want to call it,” […]

  • Energy Dept. Opens Probe Into WIPP Contractor’s Industrial Health Problems

    The enforcement arm of the Energy Department’s Office of Enterprise Assessments (EA) has opened an investigation into potential shortcomings in the industrial hygiene program at the agency’s Waste Isolation Pilot Plant near Carlsbad, N.M. The EA Office of Enforcement is studying “potential deficiencies” in implementation of DOE industrial hygiene requirements by WIPP contractor Nuclear Waste […]

  • New York Congressman Again Files West Valley Bill

    U.S. Rep. Tom Reed (R-N.Y.) last week again introduced legislation to reauthorize the Department of Energy’s West Valley Demonstration Project in New York. The measure, co-sponsored by Rep. Brian Higgins (D-N.Y.), was filed Feb. 11 and assigned to the House Energy and Commerce Committee. As of Thursday, the text has not been received for the […]

  • Fluor Earnings Rise, Revenue Drops in 2018

    Fluor, a major Energy Department contractor, on Thursday reported a drop in revenue but higher earnings for 2018. The Dallas-area company took in $225 million in earnings attributable to Fluor, $1.59 per diluted share, for the 12 months ended Dec. 31. That was up from roughly $191 million, or $1.36 per diluted share, for 2017, […]

  • Leidos Sees Higher Sales, Earnings in Fourth Quarter

    By Calvin Biesecker Leidos on Tuesday posted higher sales and earnings due to top-line growth across its business segments and higher operating income in its Health and Civil segments. Net income increased 65 percent to $188 million, $1.25 earnings per share (EPS), from $114 million (74 cents EPS) a year ago. The strong earnings were […]

  • DNFSB Chair Won’t Endorse Legal Opinion Endorsing Board Oversight of DOE Workers

    Three of four members of the Defense Nuclear Facility Safety Board (DNFSB) concurred with a recently published in-house legal opinion that the small, independent federal nuclear watchdog has the right to make safety recommendations for Department of Energy workers. The sole holdout was board Chairman Bruce Hamilton. The two agencies have disagreed on the point for nearly […]

  • WIPP Contractor Working to Curb Underground Air Emissions

    The Energy Department’s Carlsbad Field Office has approved a plan by contractor Nuclear Waste Partnership (NWP) to gradually improve underground air quality at the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant in New Mexico. The contractor must take small steps because it won’t be ready to meet much tougher underground air quality standards, by the Jan. 17 compliance […]

  • Fluor, Veolia, US Ecology to Report Earnings

    A trio of companies involved in nuclear waste management or remediation are set to discuss their latest earnings results this week. Fluor, based near Dallas, has scheduled its quarterly and annual earnings conference call with financial analysts at 5:30 p.m. ET Thursday. The company, a major player in the Energy Department weapons complex, will release […]

  • DOE Issues Infrastructure Support RFI for Portsmouth-Paducah Operations

    The Energy Department’s Office of Environmental Management is seeking vendor feedback on a potential new contract to provide infrastructure support services at the Portsmouth Site in Ohio and the Paducah Site in Kentucky. The request for information/sources sought notice was issued Tuesday by DOE’s Cincinnati-based Environmental Management Consolidated Business Center. The Energy Department is in […]