Office of Environmental Management (EM)

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 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 […]

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 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 […]

Former Miamisburg, Ohio mayor and a founding member of the Energy Communities Alliance, Dick Church, has died at age 81, the advocacy group for Department of Energy localities said Friday. Church “was a founding member that led the organization through transition and helped it grow from an idea into an organization that works for and […]

Washington River Protection Solutions, tank prime at the Department of Energy’s Hanford Site in Washington state, has extended its bid deadline until Thursday for subcontractors to assist with quality assurance on the Tank Side Cesium Removal project.  Responses to the request for proposals were originally due on Monday, Dec. 12. But in a Dec. 8 […]

The Department of Energy’s nuclear cleanup branch is urging businesses interested in providing worker healthcare services at the Hanford Site in Washington state, to provide feedback on portions of a draft solicitation by Jan. 4. The information will be used by DOE’s Environmental Management Consolidated Business Center in Cincinnati as it prepares a final request […]

In draft permit materials rolled out Thursday, the state of New Mexico said it could potentially seek closure of the Department of Energy’s Waste Isolation Pilot Plant near Carlsbad a half-century before the feds might like. The New Mexico Environment Department wants to ensure in-state transuranic waste shipments from DOE’s Los Alamos National Laboratory are […]

The Department of Energy’s nuclear cleanup branch should not see a significant near-term decrease in its budget for the Savannah River Site in South Carolina because control of the federal complex is being transferred to the National Nuclear Security Administration, a budget and planning official said last week. “Most of our funding is for liquid […]

Long-idled design work resumed this summer on the high-level waste portion of the Waste Treatment and Immobilization Plant at the Department of Energy’s Hanford Site in Washington state, according to the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board. After August workshops, prime contractor Bechtel National and DOE created what they call the “HLW [High Level Waste] Firm […]

The text of the proposed National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) released Tuesday approves spending up to $359 million on the High-Level Waste Vitrification Facility portion of the Waste Treatment and Immobilization Plant being built by Bechtel National. The administration of President Joe Biden proposed spending $316 million on the facility — a vital cog in […]

The Department of Energy’s nuclear cleanup branch should not see a significant near-term decrease in its budget for the Savannah River Site in South Carolina because control of the federal complex is being transferred to the National Nuclear Security Administration, a budget and planning official said last week. “Most of our funding is for liquid […]

The Department of Energy’s nuclear cleanup branch could increase the value of a North Wind Group environmental remediation contract at a naval reactor laboratory site in New York state to $47 million from $22 million, according to a procurement notice published last week. The DOE’s Cincinnati-based Environmental Management Consolidated Business Center published a justification for […]

During fiscal 2022, the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board worked on staffing needs and finalized a deal with the Department of Energy spelling out the watchdog’s authority to access people, records and facilities around the weapons complex. Those are a couple of highlights from the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board (DNFSB) fiscal 2022 Agency Financial […]

A two-year legal fight comes to a head Thursday with a federal appeals court in Washington, D.C., set to consider if incumbent Swift & Staley was too large to qualify for a $160-million small business contract it won in December 2020 at the Department of Energy’s Paducah Site in Kentucky. Sometime after 10 a.m. Eastern […]

Long-idled design work resumed this summer on the high-level waste portion of the Waste Treatment and Immobilization Plant at the Department of Energy’s Hanford Site in Washington state, according to the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board. After August workshops, prime contractor Bechtel National and DOE created what they call the “HLW [High Level Waste] Firm […]

During fiscal 2022, the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board worked on staffing needs and finalized a deal with the Department of Energy spelling out the watchdog’s authority to access people, records and facilities around the weapons complex. Those are a couple of highlights from the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board (DNFSB) fiscal 2022 Agency Financial […]

The Department of Energy’s nuclear cleanup branch should not see a significant near-term decrease in its budget for the Savannah River Site in South Carolina because control of the federal complex is being transferred to the National Nuclear Security Administration, a budget and planning official said last week. “Most of our funding is for liquid […]

The Department of Energy’s nuclear cleanup branch could increase the value of a North Wind Group environmental remediation contract at a naval reactor laboratory site in New York state to $47 million from $22 million, according to a procurement notice published last week. The DOE’s Cincinnati-based Environmental Management Consolidated Business Center published a justification for […]

The Department of Energy will apply a little extra scrutiny to a worker’s heat exhaustion during legacy nuclear waste cleanup at the Los Alamos National Laboratory, the agency’s Office of Enterprise Assessments said recently. The worker “experienced heat exhaustion while supporting corrugated metal pipe retrieval operations at the Los Alamos National Laboratory on September 8, […]

The administration of President Joe Biden has yet to submit its legal response to a brief filed in November in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit over legality of a COVID-19 vaccination requirement for most workers at the Department of Energy’s Hanford Site. The current deadline for the government’s answering briefing in […]

Small businesses on the hunt for a share of assorted nationwide nuclear cleanup work at government sites are encouraged to team up by the Department of Energy’s Office of Environmental Management. “DOE is issuing this notification to encourage offerors to consider the establishment of contractor teaming arrangements,” in pursuit of small business set-aside awards for […]

Amentum-led Washington River Protection Solutions is seeking a subcontractor to help ensure the quality of its cesium-removal system for low-level radioactive tank waste at the Department of Energy’s Hanford Site in Washington state. Washington River Protection Solutions (WRPS) is looking for a subcontractor to help with the “procurement, fabrication, and testing of replacement ion exchange […]

Jeff Avery, a longtime manager with the Office of Naval Reactors, has been selected as the new second-in-command at the Department of Energy’s $7.8-billion Office of Environmental Management. Avery, current director of regulatory and security affairs with the Office of Naval Reactors, officially becomes principal deputy assistant secretary for Environmental Management, or EM-2, effective in […]

The acting head of the Department of Energy’s $7.8-billion nuclear cleanup program says flexibility is key to solving tough-to-eradicate problems such as radioactive liquid waste disposal and groundwater contamination at Cold War and Manhattan Project sites. “At this point in time we are about 80 years removed from the Manhattan Project,” William (Ike) White told […]

The Hanford Site in Washington may not be able to make its first canister of glass from low-level radioactive tank waste until 2024, a year later than the Department of Energy hoped, an agency official said Thursday at a public meeting in New Orleans. “We originally had hoped to have hot commission by December” of […]

Amentum-led Washington River Protection Solutions started procurement this week for a subcontractor to help with the next liquid radioactive waste pretreatment system at the Department of Energy’s Hanford Site in Washington state. The planned Advanced Modular Pretreatment System will be a successor to the Tank Side Cesium Removal (TSCR) project that the Amentum-led Washington River […]

The long-delayed Integrated Waste Treatment Unit at the Department of Energy’s Idaho National Laboratory should start heating up before New Year’s and begin its cleanup mission in January, state and federal agencies said Wednesday. The Integrated Waste Treatment Unit (IWTU), designed to convert 900,000 gallons of high-level sodium bearing radioactive waste into a granular form, […]

The long-delayed Integrated Waste Treatment Unit at the Department of Energy’s Idaho National Laboratory should start heating up before New Year’s and begin its cleanup mission in January, state and federal agencies said Wednesday. The Integrated Waste Treatment Unit (IWTU), designed to convert 900,000 gallons of high-level sodium bearing radioactive waste into a granular form, […]