Office of Environmental Management (EM)

Amentum-led Southern Ohio Cleanup Co. has unveiled a website laying out its transition to become remediation contractor at the Department of Energy’s Portsmouth Site. DOE’s Office of Environmental Management awarded the contract, potentially worth about $5.9 billion over a decade, in June 2023. But it only greenlighted the start of transition this month following the […]

Waste Control Specialists (WCS) received a lot of radioactive waste by train at its West Texas site during 2024, company president David Carlson told Exchange Monitor’s Radwaste Summit last week in Savannah, Ga. During 2024, WCS received 600 shipments of waste by rail. This included 5,000 canisters and 3 million cubic feet of waste, according […]

Pipe modifications in a tank farm at the Department of Energy’s Savannah River Site in South Carolina are winding down and should be complete in July, according to DOE.  The utility work at the 310-square-mile site near Aiken, S.C., comes  during a planned outage, which began on April 28 and is on track to finish […]

The Alliance for Nuclear Accountability (ANA), an umbrella organization of citizen groups active on nuclear weapons, cleanup and energy issues, wants the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board to have a quorum again. In a recent report, the alliance said Congress should protect the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board (DNFSB), which is down to two members […]

Work crews using heavy equipment have torn down a 1960s era train shed at the Department of Energy’s Nevada National Security Site, DOE announced last week. “We are pleased to get this structure to the ground as part of our long term cleanup mission,” DOE Office of Environmental Management Nevada Program Manager Robert Boehlecke said […]

SAVANNAH, GA. — Triso-X is targeting Dec. 6, 2027, for production of its first “pebble” of fabricated nuclear fuel at its facility located on land formerly owned by the Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge Site in Tennessee, a company executive told a conference here Thursday. The 215,000-square-foot fuel fabrication facility, called TX-1, will employ about […]

SAVANNAH, GA — Here are a few takeaways from this week’s 19th Radwaste Summit held here this week. The mood conveyed by most speakers and many attendees was generally upbeat. There seems to be news of a proposed new small modular reactor or revival of a mothballed nuclear plant, such as Palisades in Michigan, every […]

The legacy waste cleanup contractor at the Department of Energy’s Los Alamos National Laboratory has sent its first shipment of transuranic waste derived from corrugated metal pipes to the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP), DOE said this week. Newport News Nuclear BWXT-Los Alamos (N3B) has completed the first shipment of transuranic waste to WIPP that […]

Secretary of Energy Chris Wright said in testimony at Congress Tuesday that there should be “clarity” soon on the reorganization and workforce shrinking at the Department of Energy. “The Department of Energy is filled with a bunch of tremendous, hardworking, committed men and women trying to better the direction for our country,” Wright said at […]

SAVANNAH, GA – The Supreme Court will probably rule by July 3 on whether the Nuclear Regulatory Commission has authority to license privately-held interim storage facilities, a leading industry lawyer said during the 19th Radwaste Summit. That was the assessment offered Tuesday by Michael McBride, a partner with Van Ness Feldman during the opening day […]

SAVANNAH, GA.—With interest in nuclear energy the highest it has been in years, attaining public trust is vital to development of new reactors and waste disposal projects. That was a recurring theme here during Exchange Monitor’s 19th Radwaste Summit. Only a few years ago, state legislatures across the country would propose a handful of nuclear-related […]

SAVANNAH, GA. — The Department of Energy’s Savannah River National Laboratory in South Carolina should receive a certificate of completion for the offsite Advanced Manufacturing Collaborative this summer, Edwin Deshong said Wednesday. During the Radwaste Summit, Deshong gave a brief update on the status of the new research and meeting facility being built a few […]

The Department of Energy’s prime contractor at the Savannah River Site in South Carolina has turned to a former DOE executive with more than 35 years in nuclear management to succeed its retiring CEO. Flour-led Savannah River Nuclear Solutions (SRNS) Friday June 6 announced Jeff Griffin, a senior vice president, has been picked to succeed […]

The Department of Energy said Tuesday workers at its sprawling nuclear cleanup site in Washington state have installed one last piece of piping needed for the plant that will vitrify liquid radioactive waste into a solid glass form. Crews have finished the final connection between underground tanks storing radioactive waste and the multi-billion-dollar Waste Treatment […]

SAVANNAH, GA. –The Department of Energy’s Portsmouth Paducah Project Office will have three new contractor teams by early October, the deputy manager of the field office said here this week. Reinhard Knerr, who is deputy manager of the field office for the DOE Office of Environmental Management, discussed the contractor transition here on the sidelines […]

SAVANNAH, GA. – Despite its stops and starts, the Salt Waste Processing Facility is central to helping the Department of Energy address liquid radioactive waste at the Savannah River Site before 2024, a DOE executive said Wednesday. Since coming online about five years ago, the plant has treated more than 11 million gallons of salt […]

SAVANNAH, GA. –The Department of Energy’s Portsmouth Paducah Project Office will have three new contractor teams by early October, the deputy manager of the field office said here this week. Reinhard Knerr, who is deputy manager of the field office for the DOE Office of Environmental Management, discussed the contractor transition here on the sidelines […]

The Department of Energy said Tuesday workers at its sprawling nuclear cleanup site in Washington state have installed one last piece of piping needed for the plant that will vitrify liquid radioactive waste into a solid glass form. Crews have finished the final connection between underground tanks storing radioactive waste and the multi-billion-dollar Waste Treatment […]

SAVANNAH, GA.— Exchange Monitor’s 19th annual Radwaste Summit kicks off here Tuesday with discussions on expanding nuclear energy generation, a priority with the White House, while addressing spent fuel issues. This year’s conference starts at 2 p.m. Eastern Time with an introduction by senior nuclear safety consultant Larry Camper followed by a panel discussion on […]

The Department of Energy’s Carlsbad Field Office in New Mexico, which oversees the nation’s disposal site for defense-related transuranic waste, would undergo one of the larger Environmental Management spending cuts in fiscal 2026, according to recent administration data. Carlsbad, in charge of the Office of Environmental Management (EM) Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP), would receive […]

The Department of Energy’s nuclear remediation office announced this week that demolition is complete for the Submarine 1st Generation Westinghouse (S1W) naval reactor prototype plant at the Idaho National Laboratory. In a Tuesday announcement, DOE’s Office of Environmental Management and Jacobs-led contract Idaho Environmental Coalition finished taking down the structure at the Naval Reactors Facility […]

The acting heads of two major Department of Energy nuclear cleanup offices, one in Tennessee and the other in South Carolina, are “acting” managers no longer.  After acting as the DOE’s top remediation boss at the Savannah River Site since February, longtime DOE hand Edwin Deshong, III was promoted June 1 to head of the […]

A joint venture led by an AtkinsRéalis Group company has received notice to proceed from the Department of Energy to start transition to running the uranium hexafluoride (DUF6) conversion plants at the Portsmouth Site in Ohio and the Paducah Site in Kentucky. The Operations & Site Mission Support Contract, potentially worth up to $2.3 billion […]

The Department of Energy’s nuclear remediation office announced this week that demolition is complete for the Submarine 1st Generation Westinghouse (S1W) naval reactor prototype plant at the Idaho National Laboratory. In a Tuesday announcement, DOE’s Office of Environmental Management and Jacobs-led contract Idaho Environmental Coalition finished taking down the structure at the Naval Reactors Facility […]

After acting as the Department of Energy’s top remediation boss at the Savannah River Site since February, longtime DOE hand Edwin Deshong, III was promoted June 1 to head of the Environmental Management field office. DOE’s Office of Environmental Management (EM) announced Tuesday Deshong is getting the Savannah River field office job permanently. Deshong, who […]

The Department of Energy’s Carlsbad Field Office in New Mexico, which oversees the nation’s disposal site for defense-related transuranic waste, would undergo one of the larger Environmental Management spending cuts in fiscal 2026, according to recent administration data. Carlsbad, in charge of the Office of Environmental Management (EM) Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP), would receive […]

In addition to trimming its budget, the Department of Energy’s cleanup program for Cold War and Manhattan Project sites could have roughly a quarter fewer federal employees in fiscal 2026 than it did two years earlier. That is one of the takeaways from the White House Office of Management and Budget’s 1,220-page technical supplement to […]

The Department of Energy earlier this month lifted several long-standing restrictions on recycling certain contaminated metals at DOE nuclear sites, including “volumetrically contaminated metals.” The rescissions were announced in a May 15 Federal Register notice. The changes could have big implications for the Paducah Site in Kentucky, said an industry source. Paducah has more than […]

For the Department of Energy’s Office of Environmental Management to fully remediate 15 Cold War and Manhattan Project sites, it must dispose of over 11 million cubic meters of nuclear waste — and it needs a plan, according to a congressional watchdog. In a report made public Thursday, the Government Accountability Office (GAO) said Environmental […]

The Department of Energy could announce the first site for a data center to support artificial intelligence, which would be located on one of its federal installations, within 90 days, according to one of the nuclear executive orders Friday from President Donald Trump. Nuclear and non-nuclear support structures for such data centers on DOE installations […]