Office of Environmental Management (EM)

After a legal battle concluded the December 2020 winner of the Infrastructure Support Services business for the Department of Energy’s Paducah Site in Kentucky too large for the small business set-aside award, the agency is doing fresh market research for a new landlord contractor. The DOE Office of Environmental Management on Friday June 30 published […]

The Department of Energy says it, not Washington state, can decide whether to install “decontamination showers” for a radioactive waste disposal facility at the Hanford Site, the feds said in a recent appeal to a state administrative panel. The Washington state Department of Ecology “does not have the authority to require Energy to install decontamination […]

Although a fight over a $45-billion contract to manage liquid waste at the Hanford Site in Washington state was remanded to the Department of Energy, it could end up back before the U.S. Court of Federal Claims, according to a recently-released judge’s order. Judge Marian Blank Horn last month set aside the Hanford Integrated Tank […]

The Department of Energy is awarding a National Governors Association group a grant worth $2.6 million spread over five years to work on waste management and nuclear cleanup at federal sites, the agency said Wednesday. The grant to the National Governors Association Center for Best Practices is provided through DOE’s fiscal 2023 budget, the agency […]

The No. 2 Department of Energy manager at the West Valley Demonstration Project in western New York, Craig Rieman, has left to take another job within the agency, members of a local task force heard last Wednesday. Bryan Bower, DOE’s manager of the West Valley cleanup, announced the move last Wednesday, June 28, during a […]

The Department of Energy and its Amentum-led contractor have suspended work stabilizing the 324 Building within the Hanford Site in Washington state after discovering far more radiologically-contaminated soil underneath than previously thought. Scientists from the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory have confirmed that “a much larger volume of highly contaminated soil will need to be remediated […]

After a legal battle concluded the December 2020 winner of the Infrastructure Support Services business for the Department of Energy’s Paducah Site in Kentucky too large for the small business set-aside award, the agency is doing fresh market research for a new landlord contractor. The DOE Office of Environmental Management on Friday June 30 published […]

United Steelworkers Local 1-689 President Herman Potter fears the Department of Energy’s Portsmouth Site in Ohio could have a tough time filling vacancies in the near future due to a combination of factors. With the existing workforce at or approaching retirement age, looming brownfield projects driving a need to hire fresh hands and an impending […]

Randall Hendrickson, a former senior executive with the U.S. federal government, is now a vice president for Atkins Nuclear Secured in Canada, an Atkins spokesperson confirmed by email. Hendrickson joined Atkins in late April and is at the Chalk River location of Canadian Nuclear Laboratories as a vice president for business management, the Atkins spokesperson […]

Effective this month, William (Ike) White has been the acting chief of the Department of Energy’s multibillion-dollar nuclear cleanup branch for four years, placing him among the longest-serving leaders of the office. In mid-June 2019, White became a senior adviser and highest- ranking executive at DOE’s Office of Environmental Management. A career fed who has […]

The Department of Energy resumed heating the first melter at the Waste Treatment and Immobilization Plant at the Hanford Site in Washington state, a process on hold since fall, the agency said this week. Resumption of the heatup was signaled last month by the acting head of the DOE Office of Environmental Management, William (Ike) […]

Stakeholders have agreed to a deal for a new 10-year draft permit for the Department of Energy’s underground disposal site for defense-related transuranic waste near Carlsbad, N.M., the New Mexico Environment Department said late Tuesday  Various stakeholders had requested a hearing on the new Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) permit, but the deal announced Tuesday […]

Despite occasional glitches, a $1.4-billion plant to solidify liquid sodium-bearing radioactive waste at the Idaho National Laboratory has processed 21,000 gallons during its first two-and-a-half months of regular operations, the Department of Energy said June 23. Since starting radiological operations April 11, the Integrated Waste Treatment Unit (IWTU) has had “intermittent pauses to perform various […]

Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.), a member of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, wants an oversight hearing on “misleading” statements Secretary of Energy Jennifer Granholm made to the panel in April about her stock ownership. “During the hearing, Secretary Granholm claimed she did not own any personal financial stocks, when in fact, she held […]

The Department of Energy’s solicitation for completion of deactivation and demolition work at the West Valley Demonstration Project in New York state should hit the streets by the end of December, the agency said Tuesday. But the West Valley Demonstration Project Phase 1B cleanup is the only major request for proposals expected from the DOE […]

The Department of Energy has extended the deadline until Oct. 9 for companies interested in recycling about 6,400 tons of radiologically surface-contaminated nickel from the gaseous diffusion plant at the Portsmouth Site in Ohio. The DOE Office of Environmental Management announced the new deadline in a June 22 notice on a federal procurement website. DOE […]

Summer is here and it has been a hot and in some cases smoky weather week for some facilities connected with the Department of Energy’s weapons complex.  Workers at a commercially-owned waste disposal facility in West Texas and DOE’s Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) near Carlsbad, N.M., coped with dangerous heat warnings issued by the […]

After seven months working for a member of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, longtime federal hand Candice Robertson is returning to the Department of Energy’s Office of Environmental Management as a senior adviser. Robertson’s first day back with the nuclear cleanup office will be Monday, July 3, Jeff Avery, DOE’s principal deputy assistant secretary for environmental […]

United Steelworkers Local 1-689 President Herman Potter fears the Department of Energy’s Portsmouth Site in Ohio could have a tough time filling vacancies in the near future due to a combination of factors. With the existing workforce at or approaching retirement age, looming brownfield projects driving a need to hire fresh hands and an impending […]

The Department of Energy has extended the deadline until Oct. 9 for companies interested in recycling about 6,400 tons of radiologically surface-contaminated nickel from the gaseous diffusion plant at the Portsmouth Site in Ohio. The DOE Office of Environmental Management announced the new deadline in a June 22 notice on a federal procurement website. DOE […]

The Department of Energy’s solicitation for completion of deactivation and demolition work at the West Valley Demonstration Project in New York state should hit the streets by the end of December, the agency said Tuesday. But the West Valley Demonstration Project Phase 1B cleanup is the only major request for proposals expected from the DOE […]

The Department of Energy intends to award a sole-source contract to a firm with experience working with both college swim teams as well as businesses, to provide “coaching” services to managers at the agency’s Carlsbad, N.M., field office. The DOE’s Cincinnati-based Environmental Management Consolidated Business Center said in an online procurement notice, it intends to […]

The Department of Energy resumed heating the first melter at the Waste Treatment and Immobilization Plant at the Hanford Site in Washington state, a process on hold since fall, the agency said Monday. Resumption of the heatup was signaled last month by the acting head of the DOE Office of Environmental Management, William (Ike) White […]

Effective this month, William (Ike) White has been the acting chief of the Department of Energy’s multibillion-dollar nuclear cleanup branch for four years, placing him among the longest-serving leaders of the office. In mid-June 2019, White became a senior adviser and highest- ranking executive at DOE’s Office of Environmental Management. A career fed who has […]

Despite occasional glitches, a $1.4-billion plant to solidify liquid sodium-bearing radioactive waste at the Idaho National Laboratory has processed 21,000 gallons during its first two-and-a-half months of regular operations, the Department of Energy said Friday. Since starting radiological operations April 11, the Integrated Waste Treatment Unit (IWTU) has had “intermittent pauses to perform various pre-planned […]

The acting head of the Department of Energy’s nuclear cleanup office is still awaiting a report from federal field managers at the Savannah River Site in South Carolina on turning over landlord responsibilities to the National Nuclear Security Administration by 2025.  After his presentation Thursday to the Energy Facilities Contractors Group in Washington, William (Ike) […]

While it is hardly a secret that Department of Energy weapons complex sites are badly in need of fresh blood to compensate for a wave of retirements, a recent analysis by a contractor group quantifies the scope of the situation. The Energy Facility Contractors Group (EFCOG), which holds its annual meeting in Washington, D.C., later […]

The GOP-controlled House Appropriations Committee on Thursday approved a fiscal 2024 energy and water development spending bill that would keep funds for the Department of Energy’s Cold War and Manhattan Project cleanup at roughly $8.3 billion. The final committee vote was 34-to-24. The full House had not scheduled the bill for a vote at deadline […]

The Department of Energy favors continued reliance on Mother Nature, with monitoring and other steps, to clean up groundwater within large chunks of the former uranium enrichment property at the Oak Ridge Site in Tennessee, a federal advisory committee heard last Wednesday. Largely leaving the contamination alone and checking it regularly to “attenuate” or reduce […]

The Department of Energy’s Waste Isolation Pilot Plant near Carlsbad, N.M., received 28 shipments of transuranic waste during May, according to its website. Twenty shipments during the month came from the Idaho National Laboratory, four from the Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico, three from the Savannah River Site in South Carolina and one […]