Office of Environmental Management (EM)

The Savannah River Site should be rid of coal ash in early 2019, according to the Department of Energy. The $74 million cleanup project involves burying 1.3 million cubic yards of ash now stored on 90 acres of land at the Department of Energy facility in South Carolina. The ash was generated by coal-fueled facilities used to power […]

The Los Alamos National Laboratory faced a number of challenges early in its treatment of dozens of containers of potentially explosive nitrate-salt waste, according to the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board. Workers treated a second barrel of inappropriately remediated nitrate salt waste during the week of May 26, the DNFSB said in its latest inspection […]

Money for liquid waste processing and tank closures at the Department of Energy’s Savannah River Site would tick up if Congress approves funding levels proposed by President Donald Trump for fiscal 2018. All told, the budget proposal would provide $1.28 billion for the DOE facility in South Carolina, according to the detailed version of the budget request […]

The Department of Energy has racked up hundreds of thousands of dollars in new penalties from the state of Idaho over the failure to begin operation of the Integrated Waste Treatment Unit (IWTU) at the Idaho National Laboratory. The IWTU is intended to process 900,000 gallons of liquid sodium-bearing waste stored in underground tanks at the […]

Trial in the lawsuit over worker protection from vapors at the Department of Energy’s Hanford Site in Washington state has been reset for June 11, 2018, at the request of all parties in the case. This is the third time plaintiffs and defendants have jointly requested a delay in the federal trial to allow for […]

The Savannah River Site is on pace to restart liquid waste operations “toward the end of the year,” according to a SRS Facebook post that also detailed progress in switching out melters at one of the site’s main waste processing facilities. The update Monday says Melter 3 recently arrived at the Defense Waste Processing Facility (DWPF), which […]

Plaintiffs and defendants in the lawsuit over chemical vapors protection for workers at the Hanford Site in Washington state have asked for another delay in the trial as they try to reach a settlement agreement. The trial already has been postponed twice to allow the parties to pursue mediation. Now, the sides have asked U.S. […]

Bechtel National workers have completed assembling the first melter at the Hanford Site’s Waste Treatment Plant, the Department of Energy announced Thursday. Completion of the project earned the contractor $4.275 million in incentive pay. The melter is one of two that will be used at the plant’s Low-Activity Waste Facility, which DOE aims to begin […]

The Department of Energy intends to more than double funding in fiscal 2018 for work on the new permanent ventilation system at the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant in New Mexico, according to the detailed budget justification released this week for DOE’s Office of Environmental Management. Airflow at the transuranic waste storage mine was reduced drastically […]

The liquid waste contractor for the Department of Energy’s Savannah River Site in South Carolina wants a federal judge to throw out a discrimination lawsuit, saying the former employee and plaintiff “has failed to state a claim upon which relief can be granted.” The lawsuit, filed April 24, is one of two open discrimination suits against Savannah […]

The last of the 94 vertically buried pipes filled with radioactive waste have been removed from the Hanford Site’s 618-10 Burial Ground, and other cleanup work there is nearing completion, according to the Department of Energy and cleanup contractor CH2M Hill Plateau Remediation Co. Former river corridor remediation contractor Washington Closure Hanford developed a plan […]

The Department of Energy intends to more than double funding in fiscal 2018 for work on the new permanent ventilation system for the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant in New Mexico, according to the detailed budget justification released this week for DOE’s Office of Environmental Management. Airflow at the transuranic waste storage mine was reduced drastically […]

Albuquerque, N.M.-based STC Environmental Services has secured a five-year contract worth up to $4 million to provide support services for the headquarters of the Department of Energy’s Office of Environmental Management (EM). The indefinite-delivery, indefinite-quantity contract covers technical, regulatory, environmental, and planning support services, according to an EM press release Tuesday. It will encompass firm-fixed-price […]

The Savannah River Site is on pace to restart liquid waste operations “toward the end of the year,” according to a SRS Facebook post that also detailed progress in switching out melters at one of the site’s main waste processing facilities. The update Monday says Melter 3 recently arrived at the Defense Waste Processing Facility (DWPF), which […]

Bruce Covert has officially taken over as president and project manager of Nuclear Waste Partnership (NWP), the prime contractor for the Energy Department’s Waste Isolation Pilot Plant in New Mexico, DOE announced Monday. Covert replaces Philip Breidenbach, who oversaw the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant’s (WIPP) recovery since 2015 and will return to one of NWP’s […]

Plaintiffs and defendants in the lawsuit over chemical vapors protection for workers at the Hanford Site in Washington state have asked for another delay in the trial as they try to reach a settlement agreement. The trial already has been postponed twice to allow the parties to pursue mediation. Now, the sides have asked U.S. […]

Workers who were ordered to take cover June 8 at the Hanford Site’s Plutonium Finishing Plant are being offered bioassay testing for radioactive contamination. “We have seen no preliminary data to suggest potential exposures exceed levels requiring a bioassay,” according to a memo distributed Friday to employees working on the plant cleanup. But rather than […]

The Donald Trump administration’s fiscal 2018 budget request for the Hanford Site’s Richland Operations Office is inadequate, regulators for the Department of Energy facility in Washington state said Wednesday during discussions at a Hanford Advisory Board meeting and a public budget meeting. The proposed $800 million for the office – which includes security and cybersecurity […]

WASHINGTON — In a mostly symbolic milestone that nevertheless carries measurable cost savings, the Energy Department could close out Washington Closure Hanford’s contract by the end of 2017, a senior DOE official said here Wednesday. “I think we may be at the end of this year able to say we have everything done to close […]

When Westinghouse Government Services opened an office just outside Washington, D.C., this week, the resurgent nuclear-cleanup contractor threw itself a little housewarming party. Many of the guests were members of what company President Cathy Hickey calls “the DOE contractors club:” a tight-knit group of sometimes-competitive, sometimes-cooperative outfits that includes heavyweights such as AECOM, Bechtel, BWX […]

The Energy Department this week was to debrief the runners-up for the potentially 10-year, $1.5 billion contract won by a CH2M-led team for continued cleanup of the Paducah Gaseous Diffusion Plant in Kentucky. DOE received four bids for the contract, which the agency announced May 26 went to Four Rivers Nuclear Partnership. The team also includes […]

Workers at the Hanford Site’s Plutonium Finishing Plant were ordered to take cover indoors for more than three hours Thursday morning as a precaution after an air monitor detected low levels of airborne contamination, according to the Department of Energy. A survey subsequently found spots of radioactive contamination had spread outside the demolition zone established […]

Two Savannah River Remediation workers were contaminated with beta and gamma radiation at the Savannah River Site’s Defense Waste Processing Facility this week, according to an official Department of Energy account of the incident. The incident occurred Wednesday when one employee spilled a sample of liquid waste pulled from an oil drum. The sample splattered […]

WASHINGTON — Acting Assistant Energy Secretary for Environmental Management Sue Cange would not comment Wednesday about rumors that she will be replaced as the temporary head of DOE’s Cold War nuclear-cleanup program. Politico Pro first reported Wednesday that DOE will replace Cange, an agency veteran who came to DOE headquarters after managing cleanup at the […]

WASHINGTON — Acting Assistant Secretary of Energy for Environmental Management Sue Cange would not comment Wednesday about rumors that she will be replaced as the temporary head of DOE’s Cold War nuclear-cleanup program. Politico Pro first reported Wednesday that DOE will replace Cange, an agency veteran who used to run the DOE’s Oak Ridge cleanup, as acting head […]

Hanford’s annual cleanup budget priority meeting will be held Wednesday June 7 at the Richland Public Library. To register to watch via webinar go to June 7th on the Hanford event calendar. Public comment on fiscal 2019 needs will be accepted at HanfordPriorities2019@rl.gov from June 7 to July 7. The meeting traditionally covers the next two […]

Three industry groups will sponsor a panel discussion and reception with officials from the Energy Department’s Environmental Management (EM) office Wednesday on Capitol Hill as part of the next meeting of the House Nuclear Clean Up Caucus. The topic of the evening panel discussion, which begins at 5 p.m. Eastern time, is: “EM’s Cost Reduction […]

Fluor Idaho sent an improperly sealed container of transuranic waste to the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant last month, but inspectors at that New Mexico disposal facility caught the mistake, according to a public notice from the Energy Department. The waste, shipped to WIPP May 10 in a TRUPACT-II container that can hold around 1.5 cubic […]

The Department of Energy is making plans to fill the partially collapsed waste tunnel at the Hanford PUREX plant with grout, the agency said in a Wednesday meeting with state regulators and site contractor CH2M Plateau Remediation Company. Personnel at the Hanford Site near Richland, Wash., discovered a 20-foot-long breach in the Purex tunnel May […]

A least one liquid waste-related operation is ongoing at the Savannah River Site, despite the temporary halting of liquid waste processing earlier this year. At a Savannah River Site (SRS) Citizens Advisory Board meeting last week, a DOE official said the site is about halfway through its checklist on the Salt Waste Processing Facility (SWPF): […]