Office of Environmental Management (EM)

Centrus Energy reaped far more revenue in the first quarter of 2018 than it did during the same period of 2017, but still reported a net loss during for its latest earnings period. The Rockville, Md.-based uranium fuel provider reported $35.7 million in revenue for the first three months of 2018 compared to $7.2 million […]

The Department of Energy on June 4 will start taking comments on a draft evaluation on the strategy for closing the 16 tanks in the C Farm radioactive waste storage area. The announcement of the draft evaluation indicates DOE is interested in landfill closure of the single-shell tanks, likely by filling them with grout and […]

Washington River Protection Solutions (WRPS), the tank management contractor for the Energy Department’s Hanford Site in Washington state, has issued a request for information (RFI) for subcontractors interested in doing construction work inside the tank farm. WRPS expects to issue a formal request for proposals (RFP) during the final quarter of fiscal 2018, which ends […]

A new project baseline for the Savannah River Site’s Salt Waste Processing Facility (SWPF) is expected in the next few months, according to the Department of Energy and contractor Parsons. The new baseline, which DOE requested in a March 7 notice of concern to Parsons SWPF Project Manager Frank Sheppard, should include a new projected date for […]

A year after the partial collapse of a tunnel used to store highly radioactively contaminated equipment at the Hanford Site in Washington state, the Department of Energy is examining risks at the facility and across its cleanup complex. Work also continues to stabilize a second and larger tunnel at Hanford, which a structural analysis also […]

The New Mexico Environment Department (NMED) plans to rule by June 1 on a proposal from the U.S. Energy Department to modify the method used to calculate the volume of transuranic waste being disposed of at the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP). The Energy Department and site contractor Nuclear Waste Partnership filed the application Jan. […]

Top executives at AECOM and BWX Technologies this week made clear their companies still aim to come out on top in the extended contest for a multibillion-dollar contract at the Department of Energy’s Savannah River Site in South Carolina. David Black, senior vice president and chief financial officer at Virginia-based BWXT, addressed the situation in […]

An Energy Department contractor at the Savannah River Site (SRS) in South Carolina is seeking expressions of interest from subcontractors potentially interested in conducting concrete testing at Saltstone Disposal Unit (SDU) 7. Savannah River Remediation said in a May 8 post on a federal contracting website it is seeking responses by June 15. The AECOM-led […]

The House Appropriations energy and water development subcommittee on Monday approved a roughly $36-billion fiscal 2019 Department of Energy budget bill, which heads to the full committee for a markup Wednesday. The Energy Department would receive a 5-percent budget raise from 2018, if the bill the House Appropriations energy and water development subcommittee marked up […]

The New Mexico Environment Department (NMED) plans to rule by June 1 on a proposal from the U.S. Energy Department to modify the method used to calculate the volume of transuranic waste being disposed of at the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP). The Energy Department and site contractor Nuclear Waste Partnership filed the application Jan. […]

The Department of Energy on June 4 will start taking comments on a draft evaluation on the strategy for closing the 16 tanks in the C Farm radioactive waste storage area. The announcement of the draft evaluation indicates DOE is interested in landfill closure of the single-shell tanks, likely by filling them with grout and […]

An Energy Department contractor at the Savannah River Site (SRS) in South Carolina is seeking expressions of interest from subcontractors potentially interested in conducting concrete testing at Saltstone Disposal Unit (SDU) 7. Savannah River Remediation said in a May 8 post on a federal contracting website it is seeking responses by June 15. The AECOM-led […]

The House’s version of the 2019 National Defense Authorization Act would require the Department of Energy’s Environmental Management office to notify Congress within two days if more workers are contaminated by radioactive material at the Hanford site in Washington state. The bill also would require the Environmental Management (EM) office to provide a report to […]

The Energy Department indicated May 7 it has made another revision to the request for proposals (RFP) package for the Outfall 200 Mercury Treatment Facility at the Y-12 National Security Complex in Oak Ridge, Tenn. This latest amendment concerns the level of experience needed for the contractor installing micropiles” at the site for the mercury […]

The House Appropriations energy and water development subcommittee approved a roughly $36-billion Department of Energy budget bill Monday, which heads to the full committee for a markup that had not been scheduled at deadline for Weapons Complex Morning Briefing. The Department of Energy (DOE) would receive a 5-percent budget raise over all from 2018, if […]

It will probably be late September before there is resolution of the dispute over the final liquid-waste management contract for the Energy Department’s Savannah River Site in South Carolina, a BWX Technologies official said Monday. The situation has dragged on longer than expected, David Black, senior vice president and chief financial officer, said during the […]

The Department of Energy’s Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) near Carlsbad, N.M., has received 93 shipments of transuranic waste so far in 2018. The shipment total works out to an average of 5.8 shipments per week to the underground disposal site in the 16 weeks between Jan. 1 and April 20 — the latest date […]

Congressional panels will mark up Department of Energy budget legislation this week, beginning with the House’s first draft of the agency’s 2019 budget Monday evening. The House Appropriations Energy and Water development subcommittee is scheduled to mark up its version of the agency’s 2019 budget Monday at 5:30 p.m. in Washington. Then, on Wednesday, the […]

Two major Energy Department contractors, Dallas-based Jacobs and Los Angeles-based AECOM, will report quarterly earnings and brief financial analysts on Tuesday. Jacobs executives will discuss earnings, for the quarter ended March 31, during a conference call with financial analysts on Tuesday at 10 a.m. Eastern time. AECOM will hold its conference call at 12 noon […]

Lynchburg, Va.-based BWX Technologies saw its first quarter 2018 revenue rise 6.8 percent, to $457 million, from $428 million in the first three months of 2017. BWXT issued its quarterly earnings after the markets closed on Friday. Company officials will discuss the results today at 9 a.m. Eastern time during its regular earnings call with […]

Washington River Protection Solutions (WRPS), the tank management contractor for the Energy Department’s Hanford Site in Washington state, has issued a request for information (RFI) for subcontractors interested in doing construction work inside the tank farm. WRPS expects to issue a formal request for proposals (RFP) during the final quarter of fiscal 2018, which ends […]

A new class action lawsuit was filed Monday on behalf of Hanford Site workers whose pension benefits were reduced when they were transferred from contractors and subcontractors at the Department of Energy facility to six “enterprise companies” in 1996. Attorney Douglas McKinley, of Kennewick, Wash., filed the lawsuit in the U.S. Court of Federal Claims […]

A National Academies committee studying technology development needed across the Department of Energy environmental management complex should focus on technologies that can provide final and lasting reductions in long-term risk, according to the Oregon Department of Energy. The fiscal 2017 DOE appropriations bill directed the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine to study technologies […]

Centrus Energy is asking the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) to amend its nuclear material license at the Energy Department’s Portsmouth Site in Ohio. The application was filed as the company is closing out decommissioning of its American Centrifuge uranium enrichment demonstration project. In a May 1 Federal Register notice, the NRC is seeking comments on […]

The new Hanford Workforce Engagement Center could serve as a model across the Department of Energy nuclear cleanup complex, said Anne White, the new DOE assistant secretary for environmental management. Sworn in little more than a month ago, she made her second visit to the Hanford Site in Eastern Washington this week and spoke at […]

The Energy Department needs to address some shortcomings in fire protection at the Solid Waste Management Facility (SWMF) at the Savannah River Site in South Carolina, the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board (DNFSB) said recently. There is no comprehensive fire-detection system covering the entirety of the facility, which is staffed only four days per week […]

The Washington state Department of Ecology has postponed, for now, a second public meeting to seek input on management of waste storage tunnels at the PUREX Plant at the Hanford Site in Washington state, after the older of the two tunnels was found to be partially collapsed last May. Since then work crews had by […]

The Energy Department and cleanup contractor Fluor Idaho are still in the early stages of the investigation of an April 11 breach of four drums of radioactive waste at the Idaho Site, a state official said this week. “They have made several re-entries and are in the process of collecting samples but it will likely […]

At least one member of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform said last week he supports giving the Hanford Site in Washington state the ability to pursue lower-cost options for disposal of millions of tons of radioactive waste. Rep. Steve Russell (R-Okla.) said he favors giving the Energy Department extra flexibility at Hanford […]

Parsons has asked Energy Department officials to retract a notice of concern that claimed significant mismanagement in the company’s work to start up the multibillion-dollar Salt Waste Processing Facility (SWPF) at the Savannah River Site in South Carolina. In an April 6 letter obtained by Weapons Complex Monitor, Parsons SWPF project manager Frank Sheppard said the March […]