Office of Environmental Management (EM)

A senior industry source said Tuesday he is hearing an increasing amount of “chatter” that the Trump administration might early next year nominate someone to lead the Department of Energy’s nuclear cleanup office. The source said the talk is circulating among a trusted circle of industry representatives who often share such rumors. Assuming approval by […]

Washington Closure Hanford has asked a federal judge for summary judgment in the Department of Justice lawsuit accusing the former Energy Department cleanup contractor of falsely claiming credit for awarding three subcontracts to women-owned small businesses. A hearing on the motion filed in U.S. District Court for Eastern Washington is scheduled for Jan. 12 at […]

The Energy Department’s Waste Isolation Pilot Plant in New Mexico has received 118 shipments of transuranic waste since reopening to shipments in April, officials said Wednesday night at the WIPP Town Hall in Carlsbad. WIPP is now averaging between five and six shipments per week from other DOE sites, according to Bruce Covert, president and […]

An advisory committee that monitors nuclear waste issues at the Savannah River Site (SRS) in South Carolina wants the Department of Energy to consider reclassifying retired waste-treatment equipment and waste containers so they are eligible for permanent disposal off-site. On Tuesday, the SRS Citizens Advisory Board’s (CAB) Waste Management Committee voted 10-1 to approve a […]

The Energy Department intends to temporarily extend the current contract for liquid waste management at the Savannah River Site in South Carolina while the Government Accountability Office reviews protests to the newly awarded successor deal. The current contract held by Savannah River Remediation (SRR) – a partnership comprised of AECOM, Bechtel National, CH2M, and BWXT […]

Construction of a new permanent ventilation system for the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant near Carlsbad, N.M., should not trigger any major environmental impacts, the Energy Department said in a recent supplemental analysis. “Because of the way the underground ventilation system is segregated and operated, construction and operation of the upgraded ventilation system would not contribute […]

Los Alamos National Security (LANS), the prime contractor for Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico, won 84 percent of its potential $10.1 million environmental management award fee in the latest contract scorecard from the Department of Energy. That was good for almost $8.46 million in available fees, DOE said Tuesday. The award fee covers […]

The Department of Energy kept mum this week on how many responses it received to a request for information (RFI) from vendors potentially interested in landing a long-term environmental cleanup contract at the Oak Ridge Reservation in Tennessee. Responses were due Nov. 30 for the RFI issued Nov. 13. The Energy Department is looking at […]

The Energy Department and its Office of Environmental Management will remain open for business on Monday thanks to a continuing resolution (CR) passed by Congress late Thursday to keep the government running through Dec. 22. The House of Representatives passed the stopgap spending plan 235-193 while the Senate passed it 81-14. The measure is largely […]

A senior industry source said Tuesday he is hearing an increasing amount of “chatter” that the Trump administration might early next year nominate someone to lead the Department of Energy’s nuclear cleanup office. The source said the talk is circulating among a trusted circle of industry representatives who often share such rumors. Assuming approval by […]

Construction of a new permanent ventilation system for the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant near Carlsbad, N.M., should not trigger any major environmental impacts, the Energy Department said in a recent supplemental analysis. “Because of the way the underground ventilation system is segregated and operated, construction and operation of the upgraded ventilation system would not contribute […]

The Energy Department’s Waste Isolation Pilot Plant in New Mexico has received 118 shipments of transuranic waste since reopening to shipments in April, officials said Wednesday night at the WIPP Town Hall in Carlsbad. WIPP is now averaging between five and six shipments per week from other DOE sites, according to Bruce Covert, president and […]

Savannah River Remediation won 96 percent, or $14.5 million of $15.1 million, of the fee available for its liquid waste management at the Energy Department’s Savannah River Site in South Carolina between Oct. 1, 2016, and June 30, 2017, according to a recently disclosed DOE scorecard. “Overall, SRR’s performance during the evaluation period was excellent,” […]

The Department of Energy plans to grout the second PUREX Plant waste tunnel at the Hanford Site in Washington state, just as it did the first tunnel after it was discovered partially collapsed May 9. The Washington state Department of Ecology had ordered DOE to by Dec. 8 propose a stabilization plan for the second […]

The Department of Energy kept mum Tuesday on how many responses it received to a request for information (RFI) from vendors potentially interested in landing a long-term environmental cleanup contract at the Oak Ridge Reservation in Tennessee. Responses were due Nov. 30 for the RFI issued Nov. 13. The Energy Department is looking at potential […]

Details on resumption of salt mining at the Energy Department’s Waste Isolation Pilot Plant in New Mexico should emerge during Wednesday’s WIPP Town Hall, headlined by DOE Carlsbad Field Office Manager Todd Shrader and Nuclear Waste Partnership President and Project Manager Bruce Covert. WIPP expects to remove about 112,000 tons of salt from Panel 8 […]

Washington Closure Hanford has asked a federal judge for summary judgment in the Department of Justice case accusing the former Energy Department cleanup contractor of falsely claiming credit for awarding three subcontracts to women-owned small businesses. A hearing on the motion filed in U.S. District Court for Eastern Washington is set for Jan. 12 at […]

Westinghouse Electric said last week that it has selected Ken Canavan as its chief technology officer. The 53-year-old Canavan, who will start on Jan. 2, was previously director of engineering for the Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI). “We are excited to have Ken join us, especially during this strategic transition point in Westinghouse’s history,” Westinghouse […]

Department of Energy nuclear budgets will stay at fiscal 2017 levels through Dec. 22, under a short-term spending bill the head of the House Appropriations Committee introduced Saturday. The Department of Energy (DOE), like the rest of the federal government, has been held at last-budget spending levels since early September, when Congress signed a continuing […]

The two losing bidding teams have filed supplements to their protests with the Government Accountability Office over the Energy Department’s award on Oct. 12 of a new $4.7 billion liquid waste management contract at the Savannah River Site (SRS) in South Carolina. Savannah River EcoManagement, a joint venture comprised of BWXT Technical Services Group, Bechtel […]

The U.S. Energy Department on Thursday released a draft request for proposals and announced plans for a pre-solicitation conference for the latest contract connected with mercury cleanup at the Y-12 National Security Complex in Oak Ridge, Tenn. The DOE Office of Environmental Management expects to issue a four-year, fixed-price contract for construction of the Outfall […]

The Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board plans to consider at least one nuclear safety recommendation to the Department of Energy during closed-door meetings in early December, according to notices published Monday. The specific topics to be discussed by the five-member Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board (DNFSB) on Dec. 6 and Dec. 18 are unknown. In notices posted online, the […]

Congress has received the Department of Energy’s report on options for disposal of Greater-Than-Class C and Class-C-Like Waste, setting the stage for legislative approval of the department’s preferred alternative to potentially divide the material between commercial sites and DOE’s Waste Isolation Pilot Plant in New Mexico. The Energy Department projects the United States will hold […]

Funding for federal agencies runs out Dec. 8, but Congress is working on another short-term fix to keep the government running for a little while longer, House Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) said Thursday. The new budget year, fiscal 2018, began on Oct. 1, but the federal government for now remains funded at prior-year levels. “We’re […]

An executive with Stoller Newport News Nuclear said Wednesday she had not heard of her rumored consideration for nomination as the Department of Energy’s assistant secretary for environmental management. An official in the defense cleanup industry told Weapons Complex Monitor recently that Stoller Vice President Barbara Mazurowski could be under consideration for the EM-1 post […]

Assuming CH2M shareholders approve that company’s acquisition by Jacobs Engineering in a few weeks, Jacobs Chairman and CEO Steve Demetriou sees the combined company getting off to “a running start.” During a conference call with Wall Street analysts on Nov. 21 following release of Jacobs’ quarterly earnings, Demetriou said he has already visited many CH2M […]

Controlling the costs of multibillion-dollar Cold War cleanup projects remains a struggle for the Energy Department and its Office of Environmental Management, the DOE Office of inspector General said in a Nov. 27 special report. In the report, the Inspector General’s Office analyzed management challenges facing the department and its semiautonomous National Nuclear Security Administration […]

The Washington state Department of Ecology has slated a Dec. 7 public meeting on changes to the dangerous waste permit sought by contractor Bechtel National for the Waste Treatment and Immobilization Plant (WTP) being built at the Department of Energy’s Hanford Site. Bechtel is seeking a Class 2 modification to its existing permit from the […]

Cleanup has been completed on one of the most contaminated spots within the sprawling Hanford Site in southeast Washington state, the Energy Department announced Thursday. Hanford contractor CH2M Hill Plateau Remediation has finished the eight-year remediation project at the 618-10 Burial Ground and two nearby waste sites. In all, work crews extracted more than 512,000 […]

There doesn’t seem to be much chatter now on a concern that contractors raised vocally in September about the manner in which the Energy Department doles out payments for work being performed within its nuclear cleanup complex. The problem of DOE contract payments being distributed in small monthly increments, and sometimes creating cash flow problems, […]