Office of Environmental Management (EM)

The Department of Energy’s landlord contractor at the Hanford Site in Washington state said Friday its recent proposal to unionized guards, locked out since Thanksgiving, is not likely to get much different. The proposal voted down by Hanford Guards Union Local 21 earlier this month represented “our best and final offer,” a spokesperson for Leidos-led […]

Before government types and contractors around the Department of Energy complex clear out for the winter holidays, many still have items to check off their 2024 to-do lists. Here are a few: Dec. 19: Is the deadline for responses to an Office of Environmental Management request for information on Deactivation and Remediation work at the […]

Members of Hanford Guards Union Local 21 voted down the latest contract proposal Dec. 6 from the landlord contractor at the Department of Energy’s Hanford Site in Washington state, as the labor dispute entered a third week. As of Thursday, neither the Hanford Guards Union nor Hanford Mission Integration Solutions (HMIS) reported much headway in […]

Businesses interested in leasing warehouse space for the Department of Energy’s Hanford Site in Washington state now have until Dec. 30 to formally express interest in a deal with the Leidos-led landlord contractor at the nuclear cleanup site. Hanford Mission Integration Solutions (HMIS) initially published an online procurement notice Nov. 23 seeking a lease on […]

As of Dec. 8, the New Mexico Environment Department has 37 pages of emails with comments on the Department of Energy’s plan to define legacy transuranic waste for disposal at DOE’s deep underground disposal site near Carlsbad, N.M. Dec. 8 is roughly mid-way in the public comment period that runs through Jan. 3, on DOE’s […]

With time expiring soon on this congressional session, a longtime federal manager is still awaiting Senate confirmation to the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board. The nomination of William “Ike” White to the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board (DNFSB) was unanimously endorsed by the Senate Armed Services Committee in September. The full Senate has yet to […]

Mission Operations Alliance, a limited liability corporation, has filed a second bid protest with the Government Accountability Office over the Department of Energy’s $2.3-billion award to an Atkins-led group at former uranium enrichment sites in Ohio and Kentucky. The latest bid protest by the Bechtel-led Mission Operations Alliance was filed Dec. 6 with the Government […]

Concern over farmland damage by elk around the Department of Energy’s Idaho National Laboratory has federal and state authorities considering a plan to widen the hunting boundary around the DOE complex. DOE, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), and the Idaho Department of Environmental Quality are in the midst of a 30-day comment period on […]

Defense Environmental Cleanup, the largest pot of funding for DOE’s Office of Environmental Management, would be authorized for a little more than $7 billion under the defense policy bill. That’s roughly the amount requested by the Biden administration. The bill gives DOE authority to accelerate nuclear cleanup in instances when doing so would benefit modernization […]

The Department of Energy’s legacy cleanup contractor at the Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico is having its final two-year option picked up by DOE’s Office of Environmental Management, the Huntington Ingalls Industries-led venture said Thursday. Newport News Nuclear BWXT-Los Alamos (N3B) said in a press release DOE is picking up its second and […]

The Department of Energy’s landlord contractor at the Portsmouth Site in Ohio last week signed a new contract with United Steelworkers members at the former gaseous diffusion plant, a union representative said Tuesday. A group of about 65 United Steelworkers (USW) Local 689 members ratified a new contract with North Wind Dynamics on Wednesday, Dec. […]

With field work done, a groundwater monitoring study is underway for a new low-level radioactive waste landfill being built at the Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge Site in Tennessee, DOE said Tuesday. Earlier this year, 30 acres were cleared and roads rerouted so subcontractor CTI and Associates can study groundwater at the site of the […]

Mission Operations Alliance, a limited liability corporation, has filed a second bid protest with the Government Accountability Office over the Department of Energy’s $2.3-billion award to an Atkins-led group at former uranium enrichment sites in Ohio and Kentucky. The latest bid protest by the Bechtel-led Mission Operations Alliance was filed Dec. 6 with the Government […]

The Department of Energy’s landlord contractor at the Portsmouth Site in Ohio last week signed a new contract with United Steelworkers members at the former gaseous diffusion plant, a union representative said Tuesday. A group of about 65 United Steelworkers (USW) Local 689 members ratified a new contract with North Wind Dynamics on Wednesday, Dec. […]

EnergySolutions, Salt Lake City, will consider putting nuclear reactors under development at Terrestrial Energy, a Charlotte, N.C., on some of the Utah-based company’s sites, the companies said Wednesday. In a joint press release, the companies said they signed a memorandum of understanding “to collaborate on the siting and deployment of Integral Molten Salt Reactor (IMSR) […]

A lake effect snow warning continues in effect into Saturday morning for the area around the West Valley Demonstration Project nuclear cleanup site in Western New York. New snow accumulations on Friday and into Saturday morning could range from 7 to  15 inches,, according to the forecast for West Valley, N.Y., about 35 miles south […]

The BWX Technologies-led joint venture assuming responsibility for managing liquid waste at the Department of Energy’s Hanford Site in Washington state has scheduled a couple of employee transition meetings for January. The sessions, announced in a Nov. 20 post on the Hanford Tank Waste Operations & Closure (H2C) website, will be set for Jan. 15 […]

A federal judge in Washington, D.C., has refused a request by Physicians for Social Responsibility and other groups to fix what they deem a mistake in an earlier ruling concerning a public hiking trail near where the Rocky Flats nuclear weapons plant in Colorado once stood. Physicians for Social Responsibility (PSR) and other plaintiffs asked […]

The Department of Energy’s nuclear weapons complex has entered fiscal 2025 facing more than a half-trillion dollars in environmental liability, the rising threat of cyber-attack and the need to revive plutonium pit production. Those are a few takeaways in a DOE Office of Inspector General (OIG) management challenges report about the department’s Office of Environmental […]

Locked out for more than a week, Hanford Guards Union Local 21 members were to vote Friday on a new contract with the Department of Energy’s landlord for the Hanford Site in Washington state, a union official said Thursday.. Local 21 President Chris Hall told Exchange Monitor via email the union will vote on a […]

Department of Energy management at the Savannah River Site told a federal safety watchdog last month steps are underway to strengthen oversight by departmental facility representatives at the nuclear complex in South Carolina. The DOE Office of Environmental Management is employing “trending analysis” and improving collaboration and training for its facility representatives at the Savannah […]

Department of Energy management at the Savannah River Site told a federal safety watchdog last month steps are underway to strengthen oversight by departmental facility representatives at the nuclear complex in South Carolina. The DOE Office of Environmental Management is employing “trending analysis” and improving collaboration and training for its facility representatives at the Savannah […]

Like their beloved Buffalo Bills, workers for the Department of Energy and its cleanup contractor at the West Valley Demonstration Project in Western New York are not easily derailed by possible lake effect snow. “The snow was cleared last night and this morning; and we are operating under normal work hours,” a site spokesperson said […]

When it comes to overseeing billions of dollars’ worth of federal contracts, the Department of Energy, and its two nuclear weapons complex offices, still has work to do, a congressional watchdog agency said in a Thursday report. The Government Accountability Office (GAO) report said DOE, its National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) and its Office of […]

The Government Accountability Office plans to rule by Feb. 27 on a bid protest of a potentially $2.3-billion contract for the Department of Energy’s Portsmouth/Paducah Project Office. The deadline shown in the online notice reflects the Government Accountability Office (GAO) 100-day time period for deciding contract protests. Elsewhere, there had been as of deadline for […]

A local union leader is optimistic that plans for a nickel recovery facility at the Department of Energy’s Portsmouth Site in Piketon, Ohio will go ahead, even though a chief congressional backer lost his reelection bid. Last month, Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio) announced the Department of Energy was entering a partnership with contractor Leidos and […]

More than half of the transuranic waste shipments hauled away from the Department of Energy’s Savannah River Site in fiscal 2024 came from plutonium downblending, a DOE spokesperson said last week. In response to an inquiry from Exchange Monitor, the spokesperson said via email that 35 of the 59 transuranic waste shipments sent to DOE’s  […]

News outlets in Washington state reported Tuesday members of Hanford Guards Union Local 21, which provides an armed protective force for the Department of Energy’s Hanford Site, would stop work Wednesday before Thanksgiving due to expiration of their labor contract extension. The Tri-City Herald reported the guards’ union members were “locked out” due to expiration […]

The Waste Treatment and Immobilization Plant at the Hanford site will begin processing non-radioactive simulant waste in ‘a few weeks,’ a site spokesperson said Monday. The non-radioactive simulant, which is still chemically hazardous, is a stand-in for the liquid radioactive waste the facility was built to solidify, according to the site. Processing the non-radioactive liquid […]

On the Monday before Thanksgiving, the Department of Energy kicked off its market research into the next environmental cleanup contract at the Paducah Site in Kentucky. DOE’s Office of Environmental Management published online a request for information/sources sought notice at the Paducah Gaseous Diffusion Plant complex in Western Kentucky. Responses to the Paducah Deactivation and […]