Office of Environmental Management (EM)

The Department of Energy’s nuclear cleanup branch only expects to issue one solicitation over the next six months, for remediation of the West Valley Demonstration Project in western New York, the agency said in a Wednesday procurement update. The agency expects the final RFP for the Phase 1B Deactivation and Demolition at West Valley will […]

With no stopgap funding plan imminent and a Sept. 30 deadline looming, the Department of Energy and other feds are reacquainting themselves with contingency plans to carry out in case of a government shutdown. At the Exchange Monitor deadline, House Republicans, still arguing amongst themselves over what should go into a continuing budget resolution to […]

The Department of Energy has so far delivered 12 shipments of down blended plutonium to the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant in New Mexico from the Savannah River Site in South Carolina, according to a public waste database. The most recent shipment that DOE has made public arrived at the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) near […]

A citizens group involved with talks that led to a new draft operating permit for the Department of Energy’s Waste Isolation Pilot Plant near Carlsbad, N.M., plans to keep an eye on how the New Mexico Environment Department enforces the deal. Announced in August, the new 10-year hazardous waste permit for the deep geologic repository […]

The Department of Energy and the New Mexico Environment Department could bring in a mediator to help negotiate a plan to control a hexavalent chromium plume at the Los Alamos National Laboratory, an advisory panel heard Wednesday. Managers for DOE’s Office of Environmental Management in Los Alamos and the New Mexico Environment Department told the […]

The Department of Energy’s Waste Isolation Pilot Plant near Carlsbad, N.M., received 58 shipments of defense-related transuranic waste during August, with all but a half-dozen coming from the Idaho National Laboratory, according to the latest figures available on its public website. The data indicate the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) continues to experience its busiest […]

The Department of Energy’s enforcement arm has told two contractors it will investigate a fatal tree clearing accident in August near the Central Training Facility at the Oak Ridge Site in Tennessee. In a pair of Sept. 8 letters, the Office of Enforcement within DOE’s Office of Enterprise Assessments informed East Tennessee Mechanical Contractors and […]

A Hanford contractor is trying to avoid a repeat of a July incident where overdue inspections for equipment resulted in a stop-work order at the site’s fire department, a federal safety board said. Hanford Mission Integration Solutions, the site’s Leidos-led landlord contractor that oversees firefighting and other services at the shuttered DOE nuclear-weapons site, restored […]

The legacy waste cleanup contractor at the Department of Energy’s Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico has resumed excavating corrugated metal pipe after suspending work in August because of missing paperwork, a company official told a federal advisory board Wednesday. “Gaps in paperwork” for training were found and, as a result, a “stop work” […]

After weeks of inspections, it appears Area 25 of the Nevada Nuclear Security Site avoided significant damage due to August’s tropical rains from Hurricane Hilary, a Department of Energy citizens advisory board heard Wednesday. Area 25, which includes Jackass Flats, is a 250-mile chunk of the Nevada Nuclear Security Site, and it largely avoided the […]

After weeks of inspections, it appears Area 25 of the Nevada Nuclear Security Site avoided significant damage due to August’s tropical rains from Hurricane Hilary, a Department of Energy citizens advisory board heard Wednesday. Area 25, which includes Jackass Flats, is a 250-mile chunk of the Nevada Nuclear Security Site, and it largely avoided the […]

A citizens group involved with talks that led to a new draft operating permit for the Department of Energy’s Waste Isolation Pilot Plant near Carlsbad, N.M., plans to keep an eye on how the New Mexico Environment Department enforces the deal. Announced in August, the new 10-year hazardous waste permit for the deep geologic repository […]

The Department of Energy has so far delivered 12 shipments of down blended plutonium to the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant in New Mexico from the Savannah River Site in South Carolina, according to a public waste database. The most recent shipment that DOE has made public arrived at the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) near […]

The Department of Energy has $19 million in grant funding available for disadvantaged communities affected by decades of nuclear work, the agency said in a Tuesday press release. Comments are due within three weeks on the draft funding opportunity announcement for DOE’s Community Capacity Building Grant Program, the agency said in the press release. The […]

The Department of Energy’s enforcement arm has told two contractors it will investigate a fatal tree clearing accident in August near the Central Training Facility at the Oak Ridge Site in Tennessee. In a pair of Sept. 8 letters, the Office of Enforcement within DOE’s Office of Enterprise Assessments informed East Tennessee Mechanical Contractors and […]

Deputy EnergySec among headline speakers for Hanford clean industry day Deputy Secretary of Energy David Turk is among the federal bigwigs on the agenda for Friday’s  ‘Cleanup to Clean Energy’ informational meeting for the Hanford Site in Washington state, according to the Department of Energy. In addition to Turk, DOE’s Office of Environmental Management senior […]

A Hanford contractor is trying to avoid a repeat of a July incident where overdue inspections for equipment resulted in a stop-work order at the site’s fire department, a federal safety board said. Hanford Mission Integration Solutions, the site’s Leidos-led landlord contractor that oversees firefighting and other services at the shuttered DOE nuclear-weapons site, restored […]

Waste Control Specialists has filed a permit renewal application with the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality, company president David Carlson told Exchange Monitor this week at the National Cleanup Workshop in Arlington, Va. The renewal paperwork includes the original application and subsequent amendments, with Texas recently. The current application does not expire until September 2024, […]

ARLINGTON, VA. — While many senior people are contemplating retirement at the Department of Energy’s $8-billion Office of Environmental Management, William “Ike” White apparently is not among them. “No. I do not have a retirement date circled on my calendar at this time,” White told Exchange Monitor on the sidelines of the National Cleanup Workshop […]

ARLINGTON, VA— The Department of Energy’s National Cleanup Workshop, hosted by Energy Communities Alliance here over three days this week, was another packed, post-pandemic nuclear industry gathering. There was just a sprinkling of mask-wearing participants, and, mask or not, most people seemed to eagerly socialize with their counterparts from across the nuclear weapons complex. Like […]

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission plans an Oct. 19 hearing on a proposal by Kairos Power to build a demonstration reactor in Oak Ridge, Tenn., on land once used for a Department of Energy gaseous diffusion plant. The hearing at Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) headquarters in Rockville, Md., marks the final phase of the agency’s review […]

A Department of Energy spokesperson confirmed Monday the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant in New Mexico sent a problematic shipment of transuranic waste back to the Savannah River Site in South Carolina. The shipment, which sat for nearly a year in a Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) parking lot and required special permission by the U.S. […]

ARLINGTON, VA — A planned test to solidify 2,000 gallons of low-level radioactive tank waste from the Hanford Site into a concrete-like grout could pave the way for a second method of treating waste at the former plutonium production complex near Richland, Wash., the Department of Energy’s top nuclear-cleanup official said here Tuesday. During the […]

ARLINGTON, VA —Rep. Chuck Fleischmann (R-Tenn.) Tuesday prodded hundreds of people here for the National Cleanup Workshop to urge their congressional representatives to avoid a federal government shutdown but stopped short of predicting a stopgap agreement before fiscal 2023 ends Sept. 30. “Reach out to your member of congress,” said Fleischmann, who chairs the House […]

ARLINGTON, VA — A facility at the Idaho National Laboratory has solidified more than 68,000 gallons of sodium-bearing, liquid radioactive waste since starting operations in April and it will commence a maintenance outage later this month. That was the word shared with DOE’s National Cleanup Workshop Tuesday on the Integrated Waste Treatment Unit (IWTU) by […]

The Department of Energy’s Waste Isolation Pilot Plant in New Mexico has told transuranic waste generators that it won’t take shipments during February 2024, the head of DOE’s prime contractor said here Wednesday. The Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) has traditionally held a multi-week maintenance outage during the winter and February tends to be hardest […]

ARLINGTON, VA. — This winter the Department of Energy and Waste Control Specialists should start moving remaining containers of transuranic waste, stuck at the company’s Texas facility for nine years, to a new above-ground storage facility to prep the material for shipment to the agency’s Waste Isolation Pilot Plant in New Mexico. The “notional” deadline […]

Washington state will regain access to certain Department of Energy data about the Hanford Site in settlement of a $1-million penalty the state issued against DOE in 2020, the parties announced Thursday. As part of the settlement, DOE will create a system for the Washington state Department of Ecology to access documents that the state […]

ARLINGTON, VA. — This winter the Department of Energy and Waste Control Specialists should start moving remaining containers of transuranic waste, stuck at the company’s Texas facility for nine years, to a new above-ground storage facility to prep the material for shipment to the agency’s Waste Isolation Pilot Plant in New Mexico. The “notional” deadline […]

ARLINGTON, VA — A planned test to solidify 2,000 gallons of low-level radioactive tank waste from the Hanford Site into a concrete-like grout could pave the way for a second method of treating waste at the former plutonium production complex near Richland, Wash., the Department of Energy’s top nuclear-cleanup official said here Tuesday. During the […]