Office of Environmental Management (EM)

A wildfire Sunday evening burned across 2,800 acres of the Hanford Site in Eastern Washington but reached no radiologically contaminated areas or structures before it was contained. The fire, believed to have been ignited by a lightning strike, was discovered at about 6:45 p.m. after it had burned 5 acres. But windy weather caused it […]

A significant amount of material was ejected when four 55-gallon drums of radioactive waste blew their lids off during an April 11 incident at the Idaho National Laboratory, Fluor Idaho said in a recent report. “A significant portion” of the potential 220 gallons of repackaged waste sludge were found afterward scattered on the floor and […]

Longtime Energy Department nuclear cleanup hand Ken Picha has been named to a top post at DOE’s Office of Environmental Management (EM) on an acting basis. Assistant Secretary of Energy for Environmental Management Anne Marie White said in a widely distributed email on May 25 that Picha was replacing Dae Chung as acting EM associate […]

Just as the clock was about to run out on its existing agreement, the Energy Department said Thursday it had awarded a contract extension to the current radioactive liquid waste manager at the Savannah River Site in South Carolina. The contract extension will keep Savannah River Remediation on the job for “up to” 10 months, […]

The cleanup contractor for the West Valley Demonstration Project in upstate New York picked up 80 percent, or $365,000, of the potential fee available in the latest Energy Department review period. CH2M Hill BWXT West Valley (CHBWV) could have earned nearly $456,000 for the period between Aug. 30, 2017, through Feb. 28, 2018. That was […]

The Department of Energy would continue to have an Office of River Protection at the Hanford Site until 2024 under an approved amendment in the House version of the National Defense Authorization Act for fiscal 2019. Since 1998, DOE has divided its cleanup work at the former plutonium production complex in Washington state between two […]

The head of a local branch of the United Steelworkers (USW) at the Energy Department’s Portsmouth Site cleanup project in Ohio claims contractor Fluor-BWXT Portsmouth is unfairly pushing workers to accept a shutdown during the week of July 4. For its part, Fluor-BWXT said implementation of a holiday week shutdown complies with the company’s collective […]

The Department of Energy has approved the documented safety analysis required for hot commissioning of the Low-Activity Waste Facility at the Hanford Site’s Waste Treatment Plant. Completion of the 7,000-page document is a required milestone for plant contractor Bechtel National, worth up to $6.65 million in fees. Bechtel National nuclear safety engineers spent three years […]

The Energy Department’s Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) near Carlsbad, N.M., is nearing resumption of underground disposal operations following discovery of a misaligned drum inside a waste canister last week. The agency temporarily suspended transuranic waste disposal after the May 24 event within Room 5 of Panel 7 at the underground salt mine. Normal operations […]

It could take several more weeks to complete cleanup of an Idaho National Laboratory facility where four drums of solidified radioactive waste were found to have breached on April 11, the president of site cleanup contractor Fluor Idaho wrote in a May 25 column for local newspapers. The investigation has entered a forensic phase, and […]

The Senate Appropriations Committee wants the Energy Department’s Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) in New Mexico to start planning for accommodating 34 metric tons of processed plutonium that was supposed to be converted into nuclear reactor fuel at the Mixed Oxide Fuel Fabrication Facility (MFFF) in South Carolina. Energy Secretary Perry officially canceled the MOX […]

Hanford Site services contractor Mission Support Alliance (MSA) said Wednesday it has named a new vice president and a leader for the HAMMER federal training center. Karen McGinnis, who has led the development and then operation of HAMMER for 27 years, will retire in June. Paul Vandervert will become director of the facility effective June […]

Bechtel National, the construction and commissioning contractor for the Hanford Site’s Waste Treatment Plant, did not contest a preliminary notice of violation for a 2016 worker injury by the deadline at the end of last week. The Office of Enforcement within the Energy Department Office of Enterprise Assessments had given the company 30 days to […]

The cleanup contractor for the West Valley Demonstration Project in upstate New York picked up 80 percent, or $365,000, of the potential fee available in the latest Energy Department review period. CH2M Hill BWXT West Valley (CHBWV) could have earned nearly $456,000 for the period between Aug. 30, 2017, through Feb. 28, 2018. That was […]

The head of a local branch of the United Steelworkers (USW) at the Energy Department’s Portsmouth Site cleanup project in Ohio claims contractor Fluor-BWXT Portsmouth is unfairly pushing workers to accept a shutdown during the week of July 4. For its part, Fluor-BWXT said implementation of a holiday week shutdown complies with the company’s collective […]

Hanford Site services contractor Mission Support Alliance (MSA) said Wednesday it has named a new vice president and a leader for the HAMMER federal training center. Karen McGinnis, who has led the development and then operation of HAMMER for 27 years, will retire in June. Paul Vandervert will become director of the facility effective June […]

It could take several more weeks to complete cleanup of an Idaho National Laboratory facility where four drums of solidified radioactive waste were found to have breached on April 11, the president of site cleanup contractor Fluor Idaho wrote in a Friday column for local newspapers. The investigation has entered a forensic phase, and waste […]

The Senate Appropriations Committee wants the Energy Department’s Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) in New Mexico to start planning for accommodating 34 metric tons of processed plutonium that was supposed to be converted into nuclear reactor fuel at the Mixed Oxide Fuel Fabrication Facility (MFFF) in South Carolina. Energy Secretary Perry officially canceled the MOX […]

Longtime Energy Department nuclear cleanup hand Ken Picha has been named to a top post at DOE’s Office of Environmental Management (EM) on an acting basis. Assistant Secretary of Energy for Environmental Management Anne Marie White said in a widely distributed email Friday that Picha is replacing Dae Chung as acting EM associate principal deputy […]

The Energy Department’s Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) near Carlsbad, N.M., has temporarily suspended disposal operations after the underground mine was evacuated following discovery of a misaligned drum inside a waste  canister on Thursday. Workers noticed the odd alignment of the drum at about 7:30 p.m. local time and stopped waste disposal work. One of […]

Washington, D.C.-based BluePath Labs has won a five-year contract to provide administrative and business support services for the Energy Department Office of Environmental Management. In a Monday press release, DOE’s Environmental Management Consolidated Business Center said the BluePath agreement is an indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity contract covering firm-fixed-price and time-and-materials task orders. The deal has a maximum value […]

While it has been looking since the fourth quarter of 2017, the prime contractor for the Energy Department’s Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) has not yet hired a director of mining. Nuclear Waste Partnership still hopes to find the right candidate in the near future, spokesman Donavan Mager said by telephone last week. Making the […]

The parties to the Tri-Party Agreement on cleanup at the Hanford Site this week proposed new milestones for dealing with cesium and strontium capsules and bulk sodium at the Department of Energy facility in Washington state. A new proposed milestone would require any facilities needed to prepare the waste be available by the end of […]

CH2M Hill Plateau Remediation Co. lost fee money for fiscal 2017 over a spread of radioactive contamination at the Hanford Site, but still brought in $9.9 million from the Department of Energy. That is 89 percent of the nearly $11.1 million available for the budget year ended Sept. 30, 2017, according to a fee summary […]

The Senate’s version of the fiscal 2019 Energy Department spending bill would set the budget for cleanup at the Hanford Site at $2.4 billion, rejecting proposed cuts from the Trump administration. The Senate budget proposal, which does not include the safety and security money Hanford will receive, is $315 million above the administration’s request for […]

Written testimony from a New York State Energy Research and Development Authority (NYSERDA) official last week, before the House Energy and Commerce environment subcommittee, adds more details to the state’s argument for classifying much of the West Valley Demonstration Project’s remaining waste as defense-related transuranic waste and shipping it to the Energy Department’s Waste Isolation […]

The full Senate Appropriations Committee on Thursday approved a $43.8 billion energy and water development bill for fiscal 2019, which includes almost $7.2 billion for the Energy Department’s Office of Environmental Management. The panel’s provision for the Cold War cleanup program exceeds the $6.9 billion passed last week by the House Appropriations Committee. The bill […]

BWX Technologies-led Savannah River EcoManagement answered additional Energy Department questions this week about its revised proposal to become the next liquid waste manager at the Savannah River Site in South Carolina, an industry source said. Personnel from the partnership, which also includes Bechtel National and Honeywell International, were scheduled to make a brief presentation and […]

The Energy Department’s Waste Isolation Pilot Plant in New Mexico briefly activated its emergency operations center Thursday evening, and had workers leave the underground disposal area, after discovery of a “misaligned” drum within a waste container, WIPP’s prime contractor said in a release posted on its Facebook page. Workers noticed the awkward alignment of the […]

The U.S. Energy Department this week has proposed doing additional supplemental environmental projects (SEPs) in Idaho to offset state fines for the agency’s failure to successfully start the long-delayed Integrated Waste Treatment Unit (IWTU) at the Idaho National Laboratory. The Idaho Department of Environmental Quality on Tuesday received DOE’s written proposal for three more environmental […]