Office of Environmental Management (EM)

Amentum-led Washington River Protection Solutions claimed 82% of its subjective fee and 87% of its total potential fee for its tank management work at the Department of Energy’s Hanford Site in Washington state for the 2022 fiscal year, the agency reported Tuesday. Also on Tuesday, DOE officials at Hanford issued the latest fee performance documents […]

Savannah River Mission Completion, the BWX Technologies-led liquid waste contractor, received high marks for its opening months on the job at the Department of Energy’s Savannah River Site in South Carolina. Also this week, DOE issued fee scorecards for three other contractors at the federal complex adjacent to the Georgia state line. The liquid-waste contractor […]

The Department of Energy’s nuclear cleanup branch would see its annual budget increase to nearly $8.3 billion, or $359 million than the $7.9 billion it received during fiscal 2022, under an omnibus 2023 spending bill released Tuesday and passed by the Senate Thursday. It’s the same figure the Senate Appropriations Committee recommended this summer and […]

The Department of Energy last week issued a task order for Jacobs-led Four Rivers Nuclear Partnership to continue with shipment and destruction of legacy R-114 refrigerant, better known under the brand name Freon, from the Paducah Site in Kentucky. Four Rivers, which also has Fluor and BWX Technologies on its team, received its $16 million […]

The outgoing prime contractor for the Department of Energy’s Waste Isolation Pilot Plant near Carlsbad, N.M., earned 66% of its subjective fee and about 72% of its total potential fee for its work during fiscal 2022, according to a fee scorecard released Tuesday. In a Dec. 20 letter to Nuclear Waste Partnership’s president and project […]

A Veolia affiliate has started operating its new GeoMelt vitrification facility in Andrews County, Texas that will be used to convert certain low-level radioactive wastes into a solid glass form, according to a Tuesday press release. In June, Veolia Nuclear Solutions Federal Service formally dedicated the GeoMelt facility at the Waste Control Specialists site in […]

The New Mexico Environment Department on Tuesday kicked off a 60-day comment period on a 10-year permit renewal for the Department of Energy’s Waste Isolation Pilot Plant, with the state fighting the federal government’s attempt to keep the mine’s closure date open-ended. The DOE has said it needs the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) to […]

Washington Gov. Jay Inslee (D) took to Twitter Tuesday to praise an increase in cleanup funding for the Department of Energy’s Hanford Site in the fiscal 2023 omnibus bill, and remind President Joe Biden’s White House more is expected in the future. “The federal funding bill includes a $141 million funding INCREASE for the Hanford […]

The New Mexico Environment Department on Tuesday kicked off a 60-day comment period on a 10-year permit renewal for the Department of Energy’s Waste Isolation Pilot Plant, with the state fighting the federal government’s attempt to keep the mine’s closure date open-ended. The DOE has said it needs the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) to […]

A Veolia affiliate has started operating its new GeoMelt vitrification facility in Andrews County, Texas that will be used to convert certain low-level radioactive wastes into a solid glass form, according to a Tuesday press release. In June, Veolia Nuclear Solutions Federal Service formally dedicated the GeoMelt facility at the Waste Control Specialists site in […]

The long-running, closed-door talks between Washington state and federal agencies over future cleanup of the Department of Energy’s Hanford Site are continuing, a Washington state Department of Ecology spokesman said Tuesday. “Holistic negotiations are still ongoing,” Ryan Miller, communications manager for Ecology said in a Tuesday email response to an Exchange Monitor inquiry. “The parties […]

The outgoing prime contractor for the Department of Energy’s Waste Isolation Pilot Plant near Carlsbad, N.M., earned 66% of its subjective fee and about 72% of its total potential fee for its work during fiscal 2022, according to a fee scorecard released Tuesday. In a Dec. 20 letter to Nuclear Waste Partnership’s president and project […]

Amentum-led Washington River Protection Solutions claimed 82% of its subjective fee and 87% of its total potential fee for its tank management work at the Department of Energy’s Hanford Site in Washington state for the 2022 fiscal year, the agency reported Tuesday. Also on Tuesday, DOE officials at Hanford issued the latest fee performance documents […]

The Department of Energy’s nuclear cleanup branch would see its annual budget swell to nearly $8.3 billion, or $359 million than the $7.9 billion it received during fiscal 2022, under an omnibus 2023 spending bill released Tuesday. It’s the same figure the Senate Appropriations Committee recommended this summer after the House approves the $7.9 billion […]

The Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board could be left without a quorum within 10 months if President Joe Biden fails to nominate and win Senate approval of at least one individual before the term ends for a long-serving member. It increasingly appears 2022 will draw to a close without the White House nominating anyone to […]

Although a drone used to probe the innards of a highly-radioactive calcine storage facility at the Department of Energy’s Idaho National Laboratory got stuck inside last month, it poses no threat to successful removal of the calcine, federal officials said recently. “On the third flight, in which the drone attempted to collect radiological data, a […]

The Department of Energy last week issued a task order for Jacobs-led Four Rivers Nuclear Partnership to continue with shipment and destruction of legacy R-114 refrigerant, better known under the brand name Freon, from the Paducah Site in Kentucky. Four Rivers, which also has Fluor and BWX Technologies on its team, received its $16 million […]

On Thursday, Congress passed the $858-billion 2023 National Defense Authorization Act and a bill to keep the Department of Energy and the rest of the U.S. government running at fiscal 2022 spending levels for another week. The defense authorization bill awaited the signature of President Joe Biden at deadline friday. The stopgap budget, signed Friday […]

Sam Brinton, hired over the summer to lead the Department of Energy’s efforts to find a disposal solution for the nation’s spent nuclear fuel, was fired from the agency following multiple accusations of felony theft, according to reports. Brinton was removed from their post as DOE’s deputy assistant secretary for spent fuel and waste disposition, […]

The incoming Bechtel National prime for the Departments of Energy’s Waste Isolation Pilot Plant in New Mexico expects to get most of its hiring done by mid-January, according to the new contractor website. “We are working diligently to complete the majority of the hiring activities by mid-January and declare readiness to perform operations by late […]

A contractor readiness review at the Department of Energy’s Hanford Site in Washington state has concluded the Liquid Effluent Retention Facility is about ready to start operations as a hazard category 3 nuclear facility, according to a Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board report. The readiness review that occurred in Novemebr is designed to check to […]

The Department of Energy reiterated this week that solicitations for a new occupational healthcare contract at the Hanford Site in Washington state as well as a national small business contract for nuclear cleanup could both drop as early as February. The DOE’s Environmental Management Consolidated Business Center provided its latest procurement update on Wednesday.   The […]

Department of Energy contractor Swift & Staley is ineligible for the $160-million landlord contract awarded at the Paducah Site in Kentucky two years ago, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit said Monday, only days after oral arguments in the protracted case.  The “per curiam” or unanimous decision, was issued in a one-page […]

The newly-appointed second-in-command at the Department of Energy’s Office of Environmental Management, Jeffrey Avery, will formally assume his new job next month, a spokesperson said Monday. Avery, most recently director of regulatory and security affairs with the Office of Naval Reactors, is already listed as principal deputy assistant secretary or EM-2, in the latest org […]

The Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board last week appointed Nichole Huntington a new resident inspector at the Department of Energy’s Hanford Site in Washington state. Huntington’s first day on the job was Dec. 5, according to a press release from the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board (DNFSB) acting executive director of operations Christopher Roscetti. Huntington […]

The Department of Energy’s Waste Isolation Pilot Plant received 16 shipments of defense-related transuranic waste during November, according to DOE. There were 14 shipments recorded on the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) public website as of Tuesday Dec. 13. The website runs about two weeks behind active shipments and a site spokesperson said two more […]

The United States Nuclear Industry Council has selected Todd Abrajano, founder of Turning Point Public Affairs, as its new president and chief executive officer effective Jan. 2, the industry advocacy organization announced Wednesday. Abrajano will succeed Clarence (Bud) Albright who has led the U.S. Nuclear Industry Council (USNIC) since December 2019 and previously served as […]

The Senate could vote this week on a short-term federal funding extension and soon after that on the 2023 National Defense Authorization Act, leaving a long-term 2023 spending bill as the last domino to fall before the 118th Congress begins in January. In the Department of Energy, both the National Nuclear Security Administration’s (NNSA) active […]

A contractor readiness review at the Department of Energy’s Hanford Site in Washington state has concluded the Liquid Effluent Retention Facility is about ready to start operations as a hazard category 3 nuclear facility, according to a Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board report. The readiness review that occurred in Novemebr is designed to check to […]

The United States Nuclear Industry Council has selected Todd Abrajano, founder of Turning Point Public Affairs, as its new president and chief executive officer effective Jan. 2, the industry advocacy organization announced Wednesday. Abrajano will succeed Clarence (Bud) Albright who has led the U.S. Nuclear Industry Council (USNIC) since December 2019 and previously served as […]