Office of Environmental Management (EM)

A stop work order, issued after a tool basket fell about 2,150 feet down the utility shaft at the Department of Energy’s Waste Isolation Pilot Plant in New Mexico, was lifted last month, according to a recent safety watchdog report. The stop work order triggered by the Nov. 20 accident was partly lifted Dec. 16, […]

A federal judge in East Tennessee granted a request Thursday by the cleanup contractor at the Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge Site to delay more proceedings in a COVID-19 lawsuit until a higher court decides if the contractor is shielded from the suit. U.S. District Judge Charles Atchley ruled that Amentum-led United Cleanup Oak Ridge […]

Workers for United Cleanup Oak Ridge, the environmental prime at the Oak Ridge Site in Tennessee,  are reporting to work at 9:30 a.m. Eastern Time this morning due to lingering icy road conditions, according to a social media post. Also at Oak Ridge, the Y-12 National Security Complex is resuming a normal schedule although the […]

Most workers at the Department of Energy’s Hanford Site in Washington state were told to stay home Friday due to sleet and snow creating challenging driving conditions — one day after most onsite staffers were sent home early. Elsewhere in the DOE weapons complex, it appears the weather is moderating at the Oak Ridge Site […]

A virtual pre-solicitation meeting attracted 52 people representing 23 companies interested in a potential Department of Energy contract for technical services at the Paducah Site in Kentucky and the Portsmouth Site in Ohio. The following companies had individuals who signed up to learn more about draft solicitation for Portsmouth Paducah Project Office Technical Support Services:  […]

Use of the Department of Energy’s Nevada National Security Site for carbon-free energy will not include small modular reactors, a local manager for DOE’s National Nuclear Security Administration, told a federal advisory panel Wednesday. “Small modular reactors are not an option” for the Nevada site, “David Bowman, manager of the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) […]

The Department of Energy’s Waste Isolation Pilot Plant in New Mexico received 48 shipments of transuranic waste during December, finishing 2023 with 489 shipments, the most in a year since the facility reopened in 2017, according to DOE’s public website. The 489 shipments shattered the 2022 mark of 272 shipments to the Waste Isolation Pilot […]

The Department of Energy’s landlord contractor for the Hanford Site in Washington state, earned only 35% of its subjective fee during fiscal 2023 in part because of its failure to keep on top of fire suppression system maintenance, according to a scorecard released Tuesday. That translates to $2.4 million out of a potential $8.4 million, […]

Tom Bailie, a farmer who lived in the shadow of the Department of Energy’s Hanford Site in Washington state and became an advocate for downwinders affected by nuclear radiation, died at age 76, the Spokane Spokesman-Review newspaper reported Sunday. Born in Pasco, Wash. in 1947, Bailie’s family moved soon afterward to a farm across the […]

Laura Wilkerson, the Department of Energy’s deputy manager of the Oak Ridge Site’s nuclear cleanup office, accepted the newly-created chief engineer position at the Eastern-Tennessee site, the department said Thursday. In the same press release, the DOE Office of Environmental Management said another longtime hand Erik Olds, director of communications in Washington, D.C., will succeed […]

The Department of Energy prime for the Savannah River Site in South Carolina is shopping around for subcontractors interested in building a new emergency operations center. The request for information and expressions of interest by Fluor-led Savannah River Nuclear Solutions was published online Wednesday.   Responses are due by 5 p.m. Eastern Time on Feb. 5 […]

Amentum-led United Cleanup Oak Ridge, which remediates the Department of Energy Site in Eastern Tennessee will continue to be closed Wednesday “due to inclement weather,” it said in a social media post. “Workers should not report to locations during this closure,” the contractor said on the social media platform X. “However, workers who can telework […]

The Department of Energy’s Waste Isolation Pilot Plant in New Mexico received 48 shipments of transuranic waste during December, finishing 2023 with 489 shipments, the most in a year since the facility reopened in 2017, according to DOE’s public website. The 489 shipments shattered the 2022 mark of 272 shipments to the Waste Isolation Pilot […]

The Department of Energy’s landlord contractor for the Hanford Site in Washington state, earned only 35% of its subjective fee during fiscal 2023 in part because of its failure to keep on top of fire suppression system maintenance, according to a scorecard released Tuesday. That translates to $2.4 million out of a potential $8.4 million, […]

Congressional leaders on Jan. 7 announced they had reached an agreement in principle to fund the federal government for the nine months that remain in fiscal year 2024. Senate Majority Leader Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) and Speaker of the House Rep. Michael Johnson (R-La.) agreed to limit federal spending in the fiscal year that runs through […]

The Department of Energy plans to extend its contract with CDM Smith for technical support services at the Santa Susana Field Laboratory in Ventura County, Calif., into August, increasing the value of the deal by $3 million. The notice announcing the justification for departure from normal competitive bidding was posted Jan. 3 in the government’s […]

The New Mexico Environment Department and the Department of Energy are getting three more months to work on reaching a new deal for legacy cleanup at the Los Alamos National Laboratory. U.S. Magistrate Judge John Robbenhaar agreed to the extension in an order Tuesday. The magistrate judge had issued the most recent  90-day extension in […]

A joint venture of APTIM and North Wind Group failed to properly train laborers on use of a circular saw prior to a November 2022 accident, which caused a worker to lose a finger at the Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge Site in Tennessee, the agency said last week. “While cutting, a kickback occurred, which […]

In coming weeks, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency will review hundreds more documents in response to a Freedom of Information Act request about a new low-level radioactive waste landfill at the Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge Site in Tennessee, according to a Jan. 5 court filing. In addition, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the […]

The Jacobs-led remediation contractor at the West Valley Demonstration Project in western New York state announced this week Jason Casper is its new president and general manager, succeeding the recently-retired John Rendall. Rendall led CH2M HILL BWXT West Valley since February 2020 and worked with Department of Energy contractor CH2M, now part of Jacobs, since […]

Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board Chair Joyce Connery repeatedly “undermined” the first board’s executive director of operations in ways “inconsistent” with federal law, according to a report from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission’s Office of Inspector General. The 15-page report on “actions inconsistent with the delegation of functions required by the Atomic Energy Act,” and dated […]

Physicians for Social Responsibility and other groups sued the U.S. Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg, Secretary of Interior Deb Haaland and other federal agencies Monday, claiming radioactive contaminants still linger along the former grounds of the Department of Energy’s Rocky Flats Plant in Colorado. “Although this facility is no longer in operation, the radioactive contaminants, […]

This week the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission approved construction of a near-surface disposal facility at the Chalk River Laboratories site in Deep River, Ontario after finding the facility would not cause significant ill effects to a nearby river or traditional land of indigenous peoples. The quasi-judicial tribunal announced the decision in a Jan. 9 press […]

The final solicitation for a new remediation contract at the West Valley Demonstration Project in New York state, potentially worth $3 billion over a decade, was issued Thursday by the Department of Energy. The DOE Office of Environmental Management announced the request for proposals (RFP) for what it calls Phase 1B cleanup in a press […]

Over the winter holidays, the Department of Energy revealed it will raise the value of the $4-billion landlord contract held by Leidos-led Hanford Mission Integration Solutions at the Hanford Site in Washington state to more than $5.3 billion. Without the modification the current contract ceiling “is insufficient to enable the contractor to continue full operations […]

The Jacobs-led remediation contractor at the West Valley Demonstration Project in western New York state announced this week Jason Casper is its new president and general manager, succeeding the recently-retired John Rendall. Rendall led CH2M HILL BWXT West Valley since February 2020 and worked with Department of Energy contractor CH2M, now part of Jacobs, since […]

In coming weeks, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency will review hundreds more documents in response to a Freedom of Information Act request about a new low-level radioactive waste landfill at the Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge Site in Tennessee, according to a Jan. 5 court filing. In addition, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the […]

The Department of Energy is looking for information from small businesses with the ability to provide technical, management and administrative services at the agency’s Environmental Management office at the Oak Ridge Site in Tennessee. The request for information (RFI) notice was posted online Jan. 8 via the System Awards Management website, SAM.GOV. Maryland-based Link Technologies […]

The Department of Energy on Tuesday solicited bids for a contract under which it could acquire up to 145 metric tons of high assay low-enriched uranium to help commercialize nuclear reactors that need the fuel. Under the contract, only U.S.-based companies will be allowed to perform the final step of enriching to the high assay […]

A joint venture of APTIM and North Wind Group failed to properly train laborers on use of a circular saw prior to a November 2022 accident, which caused a worker to lose a finger at the Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge Site in Tennessee, the agency said last week. “While cutting, a kickback occurred, which […]