Office of Environmental Management (EM)

The Department of Energy’s Savannah River Site in South Carolina earlier this month sent its first shipment of transuranic (TRU) waste for 2018 to the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) in New Mexico, ending a yearlong layoff in waste exports. The DOE facility said in a press release it shipped “five standard waste boxes” to […]

The Energy Department’s Carlsbad, N.M., Field Office is accepting public comments through Aug. 29 on the potential environmental impact of building a 3-mile-long bypass road near the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP). The public comment period began July 31 for the draft environmental assessment, according to a recent notice from DOE. The subcontract for the […]

The Energy Department wants to hear from businesses and universities that could test air ventilation systems for nuclear facilities. The department’s Office of Environmental Management issued a request for information (RFI)/sources sought notice Thursday seeking input from vendors that can evaluate high-efficiency particulate air filters for use in high-hazard DOE facilities. These filters help protect […]

Effective today, longtime James Owendoff has left his job as the No. 2 official in the Energy Department’s Office of Environmental Management (EM) to become a special adviser on nuclear cleanup issues at the Savannah River Site in South Carolina. Mark Gilbertson, associate principal deputy assistant secretary for EM’s Office of Regulatory and Policy Affairs, […]

The Department of Energy is extending the public comment period for an evaluation that would allow remaining radioactive waste in the Hanford Site’s 16 C Farm single-shell tanks to be grouted in place after waste retrieval last fall was completed to regulatory standards. The grouting could allow the underground waste tanks in Eastern Washington state […]

One or more workers called a halt to work at the Hanford Site’s SX Tank Farm on Friday out of concern that an unexplained hole could indicate a problem with the integrity of an underground radioactive waste storage tank about 6 feet away. Personnel at the Department of Energy cleanup site in Washington state can […]

Workers at the Hanford Site in Washington state met the Department of Energy’s fiscal 2018 goal of treating 2.2 billion gallons of contaminated groundwater early, despite some downtime or limited operations at treatment plants to make improvements. Contractor CH2M Hill Plateau Remediation Co. hit the goal nearly two months before the Sept. 30 end of […]

A new report out of New Mexico raises further questions about the Regional Coalition of LANL Communities (RCLC) has handled reimbursement of expenses for travel, meals, alcoholic beverages, and entertainment. The report, critical of the RCLC Board of Directors and former Executive Director Andrea Romero, was issued Aug. 8 by the Adams+Crow Law Firm of […]

A major infrastructure replacement at the Savannah River Site’s Salt Waste Processing Facility (SWPF) is inching toward completion, though the Department of Energy is hesitant to state when that might occur. The agency first reported in April that Parsons, the contractor that constructed the facility and is preparing it for operations, would need to replace […]

The Department of Energy will not be allowed to start filling the second Hanford Site PUREX Plant tunnel storing radioactive waste until after the end of a public comment period mandated by Washington state. In the wake of the partial collapse of the first PUREX storage tunnel in May 2017, DOE wants to use a […]

The 222-S Laboratory at the Department of Energy’s Hanford Site in Washington state was evacuated and two workers taken to a hospital on Thursday after a small fire. A piece of analytical equipment caught fire shortly before noon, according to Washington River Protection Solutions (WRPS), which operates the lab where Wastren Advantage analyzes samples of […]

President Donald Trump on Monday signed the $717 billion National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) for fiscal 2019, officially setting budget limits for the Energy Department’s nuclear weapons and cleanup operations. Trump did not mention either program during a signing ceremony before several hundred people at the U.S. Army’s Fort Drum in New York state. Congress […]

A truck carrying equipment contaminated at the Hanford Site’s Plutonium Finishing Plant traveled to two other sites on the Energy Department property and then off-site before the problem was discovered. Employees at the cleanup site in eastern Washington state received a DOE message about the incident last week. The incident occurred amid preparations to resume […]

The Energy Department is doing early planning on a potential solicitation for teardown and removal of facilities at sites including Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in California and Brookhaven National Laboratory in New York state. The department’s Office of Environmental Management on Aug. 9 issued a request for information (RFI)/sources sought notice for deactivation, decommissioning, and […]

A $50 million project intended to reduce the cost and time of nuclear cleanup at the Department of Energy’s Savannah River Site is at a standstill due to funding disagreements between the federal government and local stakeholders in South Carolina. The Aiken Advanced Manufacturing Partnership, a group spearheaded by a local economic development group, is […]

Perma-Fix Environmental Services’ net income for the second quarter of 2018 outstripped the number for both the preceding earnings period and the same quarter of last year. The Atlanta-based waste management company on Wednesday reported $610,000 ($0.05 per share) in net income attributable to common stockholders for the period ended June 30. It was the […]

BWX Technologies still hopes its team can win the multibillion-dollar liquid waste management contract for the Energy Department’s Savannah River Site in South Carolina, executives said Tuesday. The Lynchburg, Va., company partnered with Bechtel and Honeywell in Savannah River EcoManagement, which last fall initially won a 10-year, $4.7 billion contract to take over the work. […]

A new report from the New Mexico State Auditor’s Office faults both the board of the Regional Coalition of LANL Communities (RCLC) and the organization’s former executive director for not complying with state standards on reimbursement of mileage and other expenses for public officials. This is the latest twist in a controversy that arose after […]

Department of Energy contractor AECOM reported a 13-percent rise in revenue in its latest quarter, to $5.1 billion from $4.6 billion a year ago, setting a new quarterly record for the company. Net income for AECOM’s fiscal third quarter came in at $61 million, or $0.37 per diluted share, down from the year-ago figures of […]

The Energy Department is taking public comment until Oct. 9 on a proposal to revise certain regulations for nuclear safety management across its facilities, according to a notice of proposed rulemaking published Wednesday in the Federal Register. “The proposed revisions reflect the experience gained in the implementations of the regulations over the past seventeen years,” […]

The U.S. Department of Energy might reclassify some treated liquid waste from the Savannah River Site, along with equipment used to process the waste, and send the materials to a permanent repository in New Mexico, according to a July 30 letter that accepts a recommendation from the Citizens Advisory Board (CAB) for the South Carolina […]

The Energy Department could issue a draft request for proposals this month for a paramilitary security services contract at the Savannah River Site in South Carolina, according to a recently updated list of major procurements from DOE’s Office of Environmental Management (EM). The final RFP for the contract, forecast to be worth $1 billion to […]

A vice president for Hanford support services contractor Mission Support Alliance has reached an agreement with the Department of Justice to pay $124,440 to settle allegations of illegal kickbacks. Richard A. Olsen, the vice president of finance, was accused of taking at least $41,480 from Lockheed Martin between March 1, 2010, and Feb. 21, 2012. […]

Jacobs Engineering subsidiary CH2M boosted the parent company’s bottom line in its latest quarter thanks to enhancements in ongoing nuclear cleanup projects for the Department of Energy, Jacobs Chairman and CEO Steve Demetriou said Monday. Jacobs reported net earnings of $150 million ($1.05 per share) for the quarter ended June 30, the third quarter of […]

BWX Technologies on Monday reported revenue of $439 million for the second quarter of 2018, a 7.1 percent improvement over the $410 million it brought in a year ago. Net income at the Lynchburg, Va., government contractor came in at $60.7 million ($0.60 per share). That was down slightly from $61.3 million ($0.61 per share) […]

The Department of Energy said it has addressed the problem of transuranic waste drums with higher levels of exterior radioactive contamination going from the Oak Ridge Site in Tennessee to the Energy Department’s Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) in New Mexico. A July 6 report from the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board, posted later in […]

Tennessee-based RSI EnTech said Monday it would not follow a competitor’s lead in protesting the Energy Department’s recent $137 million consolidated contract award for technical support services at the Portsmouth/Paducah Project Office complex. “Yes, we received a debrief [on the contract award]; no, we did not/are not filing a protest,” RSI EnTech President Paul Clay […]

The Energy Department has issued a draft request for proposals (RFP) for a contract potentially worth up to $904 million over seven years for analysis services at the 222-S Laboratory at the Hanford Site in Washington state. The current contract, held by Veolia subsidiary Wastren Advantage, ends on Sept. 20, 2020, DOE said in a […]

Hiring has begun for the workers at the Hanford Site Waste Treatment Plant’s Analytical Laboratory who will support the plant’s commissioning prior to the start of operations by a 2023 federal court deadline. A 3,300-square-foot laboratory has been established at Columbia Basin College (CBC) near Hanford in Pasco, Wash., to help prepare for work at […]

The Energy Department’s Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) near Carlsbad, N.M., expects in 2019 to receive the first shipments from 6 metric tons of weapon-usable plutonium being downblended at the Savannah River Site in South Carolina. That was the word Thursday from DOE Carlsbad Field Office Manager Todd Shrader during a “WIPP Town Hall” public […]