Office of Environmental Management (EM)

Jeffrey Baran, who lost his job at the Nuclear Regulatory Commission in 2023, will join the Department of Energy’s Office of Environmental Management on Sept. 8, according to an internal email. When he arrives at DOE headquarters in Washington, Baran will be deputy assistant secretary for waste and materials management, or EM-4.2, in the Office […]

Patricia Lee, former manager of Savannah River National Laboratory, was sworn in Wednesday as the newest member of the federal Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board, the agency said. The Senate confirmed Lee July 9 in a 54-41 vote, mostly on party lines. Her term runs through Oct. 18, 2027. Lee has over 30 years of […]

By the numbers, House and Senate appropriators are within 2% of agreeing on a budget for nuclear-weapons cleanup for fiscal year 2025, but election-year politics could stand in the way of a resolution when Congress returns to Washington next week. Overall for the Department of Energy’s Office of Environmental Management (EM), the House Appropriations Committee […]

Jeffrey Baran, who lost his job at the Nuclear Regulatory Commission in 2023, will join the Department of Energy’s Office of Environmental Management on Sept. 8, according to an internal email. When he arrives at DOE headquarters in Washington, Baran will be deputy assistant secretary for waste and materials management, or EM-4.2, in the Office […]

Patricia Lee, former manager of Savannah River National Laboratory, was sworn in Wednesday as the newest member of the federal Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board, the agency said. The Senate confirmed Lee July 9 in a 54-41 vote, mostly on party lines. Her term runs through Oct. 18, 2027. Lee has over 30 years of […]

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit this month ruled against the environmental prime at the Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge Site, saying it lacks sovereign immunity from a lawsuit filed by a radiation technician who was fired after refusing a COVID-19 vaccination. Amentum-led United Cleanup Oak Ridge (UCOR) argued it is shielded […]

During a time of much political division in the United States, Democrats and Republicans both support nuclear energy, but lack concensus on nuclear weapons, according to their 2024 party platforms. Now that the Democrats and GOP have concluded their respective national conventions in Chicago and Milwaukee, Exchange Monitor scanned their policy platforms with an eye […]

A weekend wildland fire that threatened thousands of acres at the Department of Energy’s Nevada National Security Site is 100% contained, site management said in a social media post Sunday. Fire and rescue teams for the Nevada National Security Site (NNSS) “have achieved 100% containment of the Ribbon Fire,” according to a Sunday post on […]

Adding Panels 11 and 12 at the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant in New Mexico should not heighten radiological risk at the underground disposal site, the Department of Energy said during a U.S. Environmental Protection Agency public meeting Wednesday in Santa Fe. The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is considering a request by DOE’s Office of Environmental […]

The Department of Energy cannot pass the buck to localities when accidents happen at old nuclear weapons sites post-cleanup, an advocacy group for municipalities bordering DOE installations said. In a letter to Deputy Secretary of Energy David Turk, the Energy Communities Alliance (ECA) said DOE’s response to a request for clearer protocols “for site emergencies […]

A federal claims court judge held a closed- door hearing in Washington, D.C., on Wednesday Aug. 28 with litigants in a dispute over a $45-billion liquid waste contract at the Department of Energy’s Hanford Site in Washington state. U.S. Court of Federal Claims Judge Marian Blank Horn set the hearing for 11 a.m. Eastern Time […]

The Department of Energy cannot pass the buck to localities when accidents happen at old nuclear weapons sites post-cleanup, an advocacy group for municipalities bordering DOE installations said. In a letter to Deputy Secretary of Energy David Turk, the Energy Communities Alliance (ECA) said DOE’s response to a request for clearer protocols “for site emergencies […]

The Environmental Protection Agency planned meetings Wednesday about plans for more disposal panels for defense-related transuranic waste at the Department of Energy’s Waste Isolation Pilot Plant in New Mexico. The agency has two hybrid public meetings set Wednesday Aug. 28 in Santa Fe, N.M., to discuss DOE’s planned change request for the Waste Isolation Pilot […]

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit this month ruled against the environmental prime at the Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge Site, saying it lacks sovereign immunity from a lawsuit filed by a radiation technician who was fired after refusing a COVID-19 vaccination. Amentum-led United Cleanup Oak Ridge (UCOR) argued it is shielded […]

The Department of Energy’s Office of Environmental Management has awarded a $4.5-million small business contract to BluePath Labs for administrative support services, according to an online notice. The set-aside indefinite delivery/indefinite quantity contract award was announced in a Thursday Aug. 22 notice in the System for Award Management. BluePath is a disabled veteran-owned small business […]

From Paducah, Ky., to a section of the Chihuahuan Desert in New Mexico, Department of Energy weapons complex workers are coping with daytime high temperatures this week exceeding 90 degrees Fahrenheit, or in the case of Paducah, 100 degrees.  The DOE’s Paducah Site is expected to see daytime highs Tuesday through Thursday ranging from 100 […]

The Department of Energy’s Office of Environmental Management has entered into a new business deal, worth up to $19.7 million over three years, with an existing provider of technology support. DOE said in an Aug. 21 press release the department’s business support office for the chief information officer has signed a blanket purchasing agreement with […]

Carrie Meyer, acting director of communications for the Department of Energy’s $8-billion Office of Environmental Management, has been promoted to be permanent head of communications and stakeholder engagement, DOE said Tuesday. Meyer has been with Environmental Management for 17 years, much of it at the largest cleanup property, the Hanford Site in Washington state, DOE […]

The Department of Energy expects a batch of specially engineered replacement parts should help curb maintenance downtime at the Salt Waste Processing Facility at the Savannah River Site in South Carolina, according to a press release. The shipment of 16 replacement centrifugal contactors by Office of Environmental Management cleanup prime Savannah River Mission Completion should […]

The Department of Energy’s Waste Isolation Pilot Plant near Carlsbad, N.M., received 45 shipments of transuranic waste during July, according to DOE’s public website. As usual, the Idaho National Laboratory accounted for the majority of shipments, sending 33. Los Alamos National Laboratory sent four, and the Savannah River Site accounts for the remaining eight shipments […]

The Department of Energy has issued a final solicitation for a new landlord contract at the Paducah Site in Kentucky, business currently held by Swift & Staley. On Aug. 13, DOE’s Office of Environmental Management published the final request for proposals (RFP) for the new Infrastructure Support Services contract at the former gaseous diffusion plant […]

The Department of Energy confirmed Thursday that “more likely than not” another underground tank at the Hanford Site in Washington state is leaking radioactive waste. “Based on conservative estimates, it has been determined that T-101 is more likely than not leaking a small amount of contamination to the soil beneath the tank,” DOE managers at […]

Collecting more reliable information on the condition of decades-old facilities around the nuclear weapons complex and sharing the data with Congress could improve the Department of Energy’s management of its aging infrastructure, a federal panel heard Wednesday. Government auditors and executives from the American Nuclear Society, NASA, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission and U.S. Army Corps […]

The Department of Energy and its contractor in charge of the Hanford’s Site’s 222-S Laboratory in Washington state have not determined the source of a mysterious odor that prompted workers to take cover Monday, according to a DOE spokesperson. Around 11 a.m. Pacific Time Monday, workers at the laboratory and its support facilities, were told […]

The Department of Energy’s environmental prime at the Oak Ridge Site in Tennessee has removed the lower reactor vessel from Oak Ridge National Laboratory’s Building 3042, the department said Tuesday. The facility is also known as the Oak Ridge Research Reactor, which was built in the mid-1950s and used for isotope production before Oak Ridge […]

The Department of Energy’s tank waste contractor at the Hanford Site in Washington state is installing gear for the planned Test Bed Initiative where about 2,000 gallons of liquid radioactive waste will be shipped out of state for disposal in a concrete-like grout form. DOE contractor Washington River Protection Solutions  is installing in-tank pretreatment equipment, […]

Here are some events related to defense nuclear matters that Exchange Monitor staff are tracking this week. 13: Conference: The U.S. Strategic Command Deterrence Symposium kicks off its two-day event at 8 a.m. Central Time at the CHI Health Center in Omaha, NE. 14: Hybrid meeting: The Oak Ridge Environmental Management Site-Specific Advisory Board holds […]

The Senate Appropriations Committee wants the Department of Energy to help New Mexico pay for improving roads to the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant, and also keep eye on contamination under a decaying building at the Hanford Site in Washington state. These are a couple of recommendations the Senate panel made in its report about the […]

The legacy cleanup contractor at the Department of Energy’s Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico has excavated most of the corrugated metal pipes buried at a material disposal area and sliced up more than half of the pipes, a federal advisory board heard last week. As of early last week, Newport News Nuclear BWXT […]

Earnings rose at AtkinsRéalis, Montreal, Canada, in the second quarter, which the nuclear services and infrastructure company partially attributed to a brisk business in life extensions for power reactors, according to a Friday press release. Net earnings for the second quarter ended June 30 were C$82.2 million [US $59.9 million], or C$0.47  [U.S. $0.34] a […]