Office of Environmental Management (EM)

Contractors from CTI and Associates Inc. are finishing the final paperwork on a demolished switchyard at the old Oak Ridge Gaseous Diffusion Plant in Tennessee. Last week, CTI hauled the last pieces of the switchyard away from the site, now called the East Tennessee Technology Park. Constructed in 1944, the 4-acre K-732 switchyard was one […]

The Department of Energy is evaluating multiple options for stabilizing the second radioactive waste storage tunnel for the PUREX facility at the Hanford Site, as an Aug. 1 deadline nears. The Washington state Department of Ecology set the deadline for DOE to present a draft plan for stabilizing the second tunnel after the other PUREX […]

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 […]

A major waste treatment facility at the Department of Energy’s Savannah River Site in South Carolina was placed in deliberate operations last month following multiple safety-related incidents in recent months. The Defense Waste Processing Facility (DWPF) entered into deliberate operations – a reduced work phase in which personnel pay extra attention to detail and planning when conducting […]

Fluor Corp. said Tuesday it has promoted Bruce Stanski, president of Fluor’s Government Group since 2009, to chief financial officer of the parent company. Stanski on Aug. 4 will officially replace Biggs Porter, who is retiring. Porter joined Fluor as chief financial officer in May 2012 after six years as CEO of Tenet Healthcare. At Fluor he […]

A Senate Appropriations panel advanced a fiscal 2018 spending bill that would focus DOE’s near-term nuclear-waste management efforts on consent-based interim storage and cancel the Mixed Oxide Fuel Fabrication Facility under construction in South Carolina. The $38.4-billion bill from the Senate Appropriations energy and water development subcommittee would also provide a smaller-than-requested funding increase for DOE’s […]

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 […]

The Senate Appropriations energy and water development subcommittee will mark up its recommended Energy Department budget for fiscal 2018 on Tuesday, with an eye toward moving the measure to the full Appropriations Committee for consideration Thursday. The subcommittee, which had not released the text of its energy and water bill at deadline Sunday for Weapons Complex […]

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 a Tri-Party Agreement (TPA) milestone. Demolition work at the plant had shifted in recent […]

The House of Representatives’ fiscal 2018 energy funding bill directs the National Nuclear Security Administration to address various legal and diplomatic hurdles in its proposed alternative plutonium disposition method before Congress considers funding the new approach and abandoning the MOX Fuel Fabrication Facility under construction in South Carolina. The House version of the energy and […]

The public meeting promised by the Department of Energy on the structural integrity of the Hanford Site’s PUREX Tunnel No. 2 has been set for 6 p.m. July 20., at the Courtyard by Marriott, 480 Columbia Point Drive in Richland, Wash. The workshop will be webcast. Registration information can be found here. DOE and the Washington […]

CH2M Hill Plateau Remediation Co. and the Washington state Department of Ecology have reached a settlement agreement over waste storage that waives a $50,000 penalty against the Hanford Site cleanup contractor. The state had accused CH2M in August 2016 of breaching requirements for the storage of five containers of waste at Hanford’s T Plant, including identifying […]

The White House is considering Alan Parker, who now leads one of the Energy Department’s nuclear-cleanup contractors, to head the agency’s entire remediation of its Cold War legacy as assistant secretary of energy for environmental management (EM), a source said Thursday. Parker is currently president and project manager for Mid-America Conversion Services: a new Atkins-led contracting […]

Mark Gilbertson has replaced Frank Marcinowski as the top policy and regulatory affairs official in the Department of Energy’s Office of Environmental Management (EM), according to official agency correspondence reviewed by Weapons Complex Monitor. A DOE spokesperson in Washington confirmed Wednesday that Gilbertson is EM’s current acting associate principal deputy assistant secretary for regulatory and […]

The remaining portions of the site that once housed the old Oak Ridge Gaseous Diffusion Plant in Tennessee will be fully remediated within three years, well ahead of the original schedule, according to Ken Rueter, president of Energy Department site cleanup contractor URS-CH2M Oak Ridge (UCOR). The last Manhattan Project-era uranium enrichment building, K-27, came […]

House lawmakers this week approved a fiscal 2018 energy and water budget that would give the the Department of Energy about $30 billion and add three new cleanup projects to DOE’s Office of Environmental Management. The House Appropriations Committee agreed by voice vote Wednesday, with a few Democrat dissenters, to send the nearly $38 billion 2018 […]

After a federal judge blocked Dallas-based Waste Control Specialists’ takeover by EnergySolutions of Salt Lake City, the Texas company is still trying to figure out what to do with more than 100 potentially flammable containers of transuranic waste it is storing for the Energy Department. Asked what the canceled merger means for the company’s contract […]

CH2M Hill Plateau Remediation Co. and the Washington state Department of Ecology have reached a settlement agreement over waste storage includes the waiver of a $50,000 penalty against the Hanford Site cleanup contractor. The state had accused CH2M in August 2016 of breaching requirements for the storage of five containers of waste at Hanford’s T Plant, […]

The Waste Isolation Pilot Plant in New Mexico remains compliant with U.S. environmental law essential to the transuranic waste facility’s ongoing operations, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency said Thursday. Every five years, under the federal law that created the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP), EPA must recertify that the Department of Energy is complying with the […]

House lawmakers on Wednesday approved a fiscal 2018 energy and water budget that would give the the Department of Energy about $30 billion, including new cleanup work for the agency’s Office of Environmental Management. The House Appropriations Committee voted by a voice vote, with a few Democrat dissenters, to send the nearly $38 billion 2018 Energy and Water Development […]

Mark Gilbertson has replaced Frank Marcinowski as the top policy and regulatory affairs official in the Department of Energy’s Office of Environmental Management (EM), according to an official agency correspondence reviewed by Weapons Complex Morning Briefing. A DOE spokesperson in Washington confirmed Wednesday that Gilbertson is EM’s current acting associate principal deputy assistant secretary for regulatory and […]

The public meeting promised by the Department of Energy on the structural integrity of the Hanford Site’s PUREX Tunnel No. 2 has been set for 6 p.m. July 20., at the Courtyard by Marriott, 480 Columbia Point Drive in Richland, Wash. The workshop will be webcast. Registration information can be found here. DOE and the […]

The Energy Department’s Office of Environmental Management (EM) would start cleaning up three facilities no longer needed for nuclear research or weapons work under a fiscal 2018 spending bill the House Appropriations Committee plans to mark up today. The House Appropriations energy and water development subcommittee’s bill would provide $75 million for EM to start […]

After a federal judge blocked Dallas-based Waste Control Specialists’ takeover by EnergySolutions of Salt Lake City, the Texas company is still trying to figure out what to do with more than 100 potentially flammable containers of transuranic waste it is storing for the Energy Department. Asked what the canceled merger means for the company’s contract […]

The full House Appropriations Committee on Wednesday is scheduled to mark up a fiscal 2018 spending bill that would give the Energy Department about $30 billion, including a big boost for nuclear weapons funding, and provide $120 million for the agency to license Yucca Mountain in Nye County, Nev., as a permanent disposal site for nuclear […]

CH2M Hill Plateau Remediation Co. and the Washington state Department of Ecology have reached a settlement agreement over waste storage includes the waiver of a $50,000 penalty against the Hanford Site cleanup contractor. The state had accused CH2M in August 2016 of breaching requirements for the storage of five containers of waste at Hanford’s T […]

Betsy Connell was still employed as chief of staff for the Energy Department’s Office of Environmental Management as of July 3, a government source said. An article in the June 30 issue of Weapons Complex Monitor (“Cange Leads EM Personnel Exodus” Vol. 28, No. 6) cited informed sources saying she was one of three senior DOE officials […]

A large wildfire spread across the security perimeter of the Hanford Site onto the main portion of the facility late Sunday night, burning 1,644 acres. The overall fire was contained to 30,984 acres by Thursday, but the Hanford Fire Department had the blaze on the main portion of the Department of Energy site contained at […]

Days after the transition was set to start, the Energy Department has yet to announce who will take over the next decade of legacy nuclear cleanup at the Los Alamos National Laboratory under a contract that went out to bid in September. In its final request for proposals, DOE’s Office of Environmental Management (EM) advised […]

The Department of Energy’s Office of Environmental Management (EM) on Monday issued a request for proposals for a technical services support contract for its Portsmouth/Paducah Project Office. The indefinite-delivery, indefinite-quantity contract line item number is a small-business set aside with a maximum value of services of $40 million. It covers cybersecurity, information-technology support services, quality […]