Office of Environmental Management (EM)

The Department of Energy’s Savannah River Site is this week sending its eighth shipment of transuranic (TRU) waste in this fiscal year to the reopened Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) near Carlsbad, N.M. The shipment meets the projection managers at the South Carolina facility set forth earlier this year. Two shipments apiece were sent to […]

In a long-awaited development that figures to send ripples throughout the Energy Department’s Cold War nuclear cleanup program, Jacobs Engineering of Dallas will acquire engineering services company CH2M for $2.85 billion in cash and stock. Jacobs will also assume $416 million of CH2M debt under the transaction, which is expected to close in the fourth […]

The Department of Energy is seeking additional time to evaluate options for stabilizing the second waste storage tunnel at the Hanford Site’s PUREX plant. It is proposing convening a “best and brightest” panel of experts to consider the tunnel design, operating history, and waste inventory, which would inform a decision on how to deal with […]

French waste management company Veolia plans to acquire Ohio-based Wastren Advantage in a move that would further boost the Paris-based company’s reach into the Energy Department’s nuclear cleanup market. “I can confirm we are in the process of being acquired by Veolia subject to the necessary approvals from DOE for our mitigated entity,” Wastren Chief […]

The Energy Department will host a pair of meetings about the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant in New Mexico later this month, including an industry day for those interested in bidding on a contract to build parts of the mine’s new ventilation system. The first of the two meetings, scheduled for Aug. 8, involves “strategic planning for […]

The mayor of Piketon, Ohio, bitterly opposed to the Energy Department’s strategy for disposal of nuclear waste from demolition of the Portsmouth Site’s uranium facilities, is angling for few minutes alone with Energy Secretary Rick Perry — whenever the DOE chief actually visits the Buckeye State. “I sent a letter about a month ago asking for a […]

In a letter to the local Carlsbad Current-Argus newspaper Monday, two local New Mexico officials clamored for Congress to bump up the budget for maintenance at the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) in fiscal 2018. “A significant infrastructure failure could put us back where we were in 2014 — facing several years with a complete […]

Department of Energy support services contractor Professional Project Services (Pro2Serve) has announced the selection of Matthew C. “Cody” Lambert as chief technology officer. The addition of Lambert is intended to more fully incorporate information technology into the Oak Ridge, Tenn.-based technical and engineering services specialists’ range of offerings to its government and corporate customers, according to […]

Glyn Trenchard has been named assistant manager of the Hanford Site Tank Farms Project for the Department of Energy Office of River Protection. He will oversee the storage, treatment, and disposal of 56 million gallons of waste stored in underground tanks starting Aug. 6. Trenchard joined the Office of River Protection in 1998 and has […]

Fluor Corp. is scheduled to release its second-quarter earnings numbers after market close on Thursday. A conference call on the latest figures is scheduled for 5:30 p.m. EDT, featuring Chairman and CEO David Seaton and Chief Financial Officer Biggs Porter. In the first quarter, Fluor brought it $61 million in net earnings, $0.43 per diluted share, on total […]

Energy Secretary Rick Perry has postponed his scheduled Monday visit to the Energy Department’s Portsmouth Site in Piketon, Ohio, Sen. Rob Portman (R-Ohio) said Saturday. “While I’m disappointed that Secretary Perry cannot make it to Piketon on Monday I’m pleased he has indicated that he will reschedule the visit soon,” Portman said in a prepared […]

Energy Secretary Rick Perry is scheduled to travel to Ohio on July 31 to view the Portsmouth Gaseous Diffusion Plant and American Centrifuge Project, Sen. Rob Portman (R-Ohio) announced on July 21. “I’m excited to announce that Secretary Perry has accepted my invitation to visit the cleanup site of the Portsmouth Gaseous Diffusion Plant to get […]

At the Energy Department’s request, the congressionally chartered National Academies will study the potential for sending 34 metric tons of processed weapon-grade plutonium — and possibly other waste — to the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) near Carlsbad, N.M. Besides the 34 metric tons of plutonium — which under an arms control pact with Russia […]

Demolition began Wednesday on the Hanford Site’s Z Plant, the main processing building at the Plutonium Finishing Plant. “Starting the work on the main processing facility complex marks the final step in demolition” of the Plutonium Finishing Plant, which was used during the Cold War to shape the material for use in nuclear weapons, said […]

A local advisory board this week voiced its opposition to using the Department of Energy’s Savannah River Site (SRS) in South Carolina for interim storage of nuclear waste, but could not come to agreement on a request for DOE to prohibit shipments to the facility of highly enriched uranium from Germany. The Energy Department should […]

Lockheed Martin and Leidos have allocated liabilities between themselves should the Department of Justice pursue a claim in connection with an ongoing false claims investigation of Mission Support Alliance, the support services contractor at the Hanford Site, according to a quarterly Securities and Exchange Commission filing from Lockheed Martin. In August 2016, Lockheed completed the […]

The Energy Department’s Office of Environmental Management would get $6.4 billion for fiscal 2018, and take on cleanup responsibility for three new facilities, under a DOE budget approved Thursday by the House of Representatives. The House approved the 2018 DOE budget recommendation on a highly-partisan 235-192 vote, with five Democrats voting “aye” and five Republicans […]

The Los Alamos National Laboratory is still waiting on word regarding a new contract for legacy nuclear cleanup at the Department of Energy facility in New Mexico, an official said Tuesday. DOE’s Office of Environmental Management (EM) in September 2016 issued its final request for proposals for the contract, which could be worth up to […]

The Department of Energy would be required to establish a resource center to support ill and injured Hanford Site workers in their efforts to obtain workers’ compensation, under language added to the U.S. Senate appropriations bill covering DOE for the next fiscal year. The language, inserted by Washington state’s two Democratic senators, Patty Murray and […]

The lead liquid waste contractor at the Savannah River Site near Aiken, S.C., on July 18 finished building the Saltstone Disposal Unit- (SDU) 6: the first of seven planned 30-million-plus-gallon tanks that will store radioactive salt waste left over from processing some 35 million gallons of Cold War liquid waste, the Department of Energy said […]

At the Energy Department’s request, the congressionally chartered National Academies will study the potential for sending 34 metric tons of processed weapons-grade plutonium — and possibly other waste — to the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) near Carlsbad, N.M. Besides the 34 metric tons of plutonium — which under an arms control pact with Russia […]

The Energy Department on Wednesday released a request for information on a follow-up paramilitary security services contract at the Savannah River Site near Aiken, S.C. Centerra LLC is the incumbent SRS security contractor. Its roughly $1 billion security services for safeguard of special nuclear material contract, awarded in 2009, expires on Oct. 7, 2019. DOE […]

The House of Representatives on Wednesday began considering a massive appropriations package that includes its recommended fiscal 2018 budget for the Energy Department, but debate had not concluded at press time for Weapons Complex Morning Briefing. The “mini-bus” appropriations bill, which also includes funding recommendations for the Defense Department, Legislative Branch, and Military Construction and Veterans […]

The Los Alamos National Laboratory is still waiting on word regarding a new contract for legacy nuclear cleanup at the Department of Energy facility in New Mexico, an official said Tuesday. DOE’s Office of Environmental Management (EM) in September 2016 issued its final request for proposals for the contract, which could be worth up to […]

The Department of Energy would be required to establish a resource center to support ill and injured Hanford Site workers in their efforts to obtain workers’ compensation, under language added to the U.S. Senate appropriations bill covering DOE for the next fiscal year. The language, inserted by Washington state’s two Democratic senators, Patty Murray and […]

The Department of Energy’s prime contractor at the Savannah River Site near Aiken, S.C., has finished building the Saltstone Disposal Unit- (SDU) 6: the first of seven planned 30-million-plus-gallon tanks that will store radioactive salt waste left over from processing some 35 million gallons of Cold War liquid waste, the agency said in a Friday […]

The University of Arkansas hopes Congress will soon come through with the last $10.1 million needed to complete cleanup of the long-disused Southwest Experimental Fast Oxide Reactor (SEFOR) facility. The university aims in October to begin the third and final phase of the nearly decade-long remediation program, which would involve removing the plant reactor and […]

The Energy Department’s Office of Environmental Management would get some $6.6 billion in fiscal 2018 and take on $55 million worth of new cleanup projects from active nuclear-weapon sites, under a budget bill approved Thursday by the Senate Appropriations Committee. The panel’s recommendation for the Office of Environmental Management (EM) is nearly 3 percent above the […]

The 200-foot-tall ventilation stack at the Hanford Site’s Plutonium Finishing Plant crashed to the ground Saturday in an explosive demolition. It was another step toward bringing the plant down to slab on grade by the end of September as required by the Tri-Party Agreement (TPA) covering cleanup at the former plutonium production complex in Washington […]

The Energy Department and its prime contractor for the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant notified the New Mexico Environment Department last week that they plan to start major upgrades to the site’s ventilation system by next December. The notification was part of a recently published letter to John Kieling, chief of the New Mexico Environment Department’s Hazardous Waste […]