Office of Environmental Management (EM)

A federal magistrate judge has ruled a scientist fired by a Honeywell-owned prime contractor for Sandia National Laboratories need not litigate his wrongful termination case in U.S. District Court. U.S. Magistrate Judge Stephan Vidmar ruled Oct. 20 that National Technology and Engineering Solutions of Sandia has not proven the lawsuit brought by Carlsbad, N.M., -based […]

Work crews have completed construction of a protective cocoon around another old plutonium production reactor at the Hanford Site in Washington state, the Department of Energy said last week. The steel structure around the K East Reactor is more than 120 feet tall and 150 feet wide, the DOE Office of Environmental Management said in […]

While most workers surveyed at the Department of Energy Portsmouth Site believe management is looking out for their safety most of the time, many lack confidence in radiation measurements and worry about chemical hazards at the former gaseous diffusion plant. Those are a couple of takeaways from a report done for the United Steelworkers Union […]

Government contractor Leidos started sampling both inside and outside Jana Elementary School in Florissant, Mo., on Monday for signs of radiological contamination, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers said this week. “We are in the process of collecting samples throughout the entire property to ensure the health and safety of the students and staff at […]

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit planned to hear oral arguments at 10 a.m. Eastern Time on Dec. 8 in Washington to consider whether Swift & Staley is  ineligible for a small business contract it won in 2020 for infrastructure support services at the Department of Energy’s Paducah Site in Kentucky. The […]

John Howard, a veteran Department of Energy hand, has been promoted to deputy chief of staff for the agency’s Office of Environmental Management. Howard, who has been acting in that capacity since July, officially became the deputy chief Sunday Oct. 23, according to an “EM Colleagues” email to staff on Friday from Office of Environmental […]

With retirements and resignations depleting key worker ranks, a procurement manager with the Department of Energy’s nuclear cleanup branch said this week the feds should tap parent companies of prime contractors. “Attrition and retention challenges have recently increased the need for the Office of Environmental Management (EM) prime contractors to access corporate support resources to […]

The depleted uranium hexafluoride conversion plants at the Department of Energy’s Portsmouth Site in Ohio and the Paducah Site in Kentucky, both back in service after extended outages, are benefiting from backup sources of hydrogen, the federal agency said Tuesday. The Paducah facility in western Kentucky was the first to restart conversion of depleted uranium […]

As expected, the Department of Energy extended Centerra Group’s paramilitary security contract at the Savannah River Site in South Carolina by two years. That is according to the most recent major contracts summary issued Monday, which says Centerra’s contract now runs through Oct. 7, 2024. A DOE spokesperson confirmed the contract extension in a Wednesday […]

A series of small but troubling safety and health issues triggered a “stop work order” by the legacy cleanup contractor at the Department of Energy’s Los Alamos National Laboratory, federal and company managers said during an online meeting Wednesday. Newport News Nuclear BWXT-Los Alamos (N3B) issued the stop work order Oct. 13, suspending most field […]

The head of the Department of Energy’s Environmental Management field office at the Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico said Wednesday evening the agency could soon pick up its first contract option with the legacy cleanup contractor. “The Department of Energy is getting ready to award our first contract option period under our contract […]

Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.), who chairs the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, pledged last week to seek funds for possible replacement of a middle school closed three years ago after public disclosure of radioactive contamination on the campus near the Department of Energy’s Portsmouth Site in Ohio. Manchin, who also sits on the Senate […]

The Department of Energy’s Waste Isolation Pilot Plant near Carlsbad, N.M., last week emplaced its last shipment of defense-related transuranic waste into Panel 7, the underground work area left contaminated by a radiation leak in February 2014. “Last week, last Thursday to be specific, the last waste was placed in panel 7,” said Sean Dunagan, […]

As expected, the Department of Energy extended Centerra Group’s paramilitary security contract at the Savannah River Site in South Carolina by two years. That is according to the most recent major contracts summary issued Monday, which says Centerra’s contract now runs through Oct. 7, 2024. A DOE spokesperson confirmed the contract extension in a Wednesday […]

A series of small but troubling safety and health issues triggered a “stop work order” by the legacy cleanup contractor at the Department of Energy’s Los Alamos National Laboratory, federal and company managers said during an online meeting Wednesday. Newport News Nuclear BWXT-Los Alamos (N3B) issued the stop work order Oct. 13, suspending most field […]

The head of the Department of Energy’s Environmental Management field office at the Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico said Wednesday evening the agency could soon pick up its first contract option with the legacy cleanup contractor. “The Department of Energy is getting ready to award our first contract option period under our contract […]

The depleted uranium hexafluoride conversion plants at the Department of Energy’s Portsmouth Site in Ohio and the Paducah Site in Kentucky, both back in service after extended outages, are benefiting from backup sources of hydrogen, the federal agency said Tuesday. The Paducah facility in western Kentucky was the first to restart conversion of depleted uranium […]

With retirements and resignations depleting key worker ranks, a procurement manager with the Department of Energy’s nuclear cleanup branch said this week the feds should tap parent companies of prime contractors. “Attrition and retention challenges have recently increased the need for the Office of Environmental Management (EM) prime contractors to access corporate support resources to […]

Government contractor Leidos started sampling both inside and outside Jana Elementary School in Florissant, Mo., on Monday for signs of radiological contamination, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers said in a Tuesday press release. “We are in the process of collecting samples throughout the entire property to ensure the health and safety of the students […]

While most workers surveyed at the Department of Energy Portsmouth Site believe management is looking out for their safety most of the time, many lack confidence in radiation measurements and worry about chemical hazards at the former gaseous diffusion plant. Those are a couple of takeaways from a report done for the United Steelworkers Union […]

The Department of Energy’s Waste Isolation Pilot Plant near Carlsbad, N.M., last week emplaced its last shipment of defense-related transuranic waste into Panel 7, the underground work area left contaminated by a radiation leak in February 2014. “Last week, last Thursday to be specific, the last waste was placed in panel 7,” said Sean Dunagan, […]

The Department of Energy plans to extend by up to a year a contract with a small business based in Arlington, Va.,for cleanup planning at the West Valley Demonstration Project in New York. On Oct. 20 DOE announced its intent to extend its contract with h SC&A through Nov. 17, 2023 if all options are […]

Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.), who chairs the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, pledged last week to seek funds for possible replacement of a middle school closed three years ago after public disclosure of radioactive contamination on the campus near the Department of Energy’s Portsmouth Site in Ohio. Manchin, who also sits on the Senate […]

Two days after a U.S. Senator asked President Joe Biden to intervene, the Army Corps of Engineers announced plans to do more sampling for signs of radioactive contamination “inside and outside” the Jana Elementary School building in Greater St. Louis. The Corps St. Louis Field Office will expand upon its earlier sampling to include soil […]

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit planned to hear oral arguments at 10 a.m. Eastern Time on Dec. 8 in Washington to consider whether Swift & Staley is  ineligible for a small business contract it won in 2020 for infrastructure support services at the Department of Energy’s Paducah Site in Kentucky. The […]

Two research contractors at the Department of Energy’s Savannah River Site in South Carolina pleaded guilty Wednesday in federal district court after being accused of filing false bills with the government.   Greenway Energy and Savannah River Consulting both agreed to accept a plea agreement in proceedings before U.S. District Judge Terry Wooten in Columbia, S.C. […]

The Department of Energy is again sending transuranic waste to the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant near Carlsbad, N.M., from the Idaho National Laboratory after New Mexico regulators lifted a hold on the shipments.   Idaho resumed sending waste canisters to WIPP on Oct. 6, a New Mexico Environment Department (NMED) spokesperson said in a Thursday email […]

The Department of Energy’s nuclear cleanup procurement office last week laid out what type of foreign ownership and control disclosures bidders should be ready to provide when pursuing contracts in the weapons complex. The DOE’s Cincinnati-based Environmental Management Consolidated Business Center in a seven-page document detailed the Foreign Ownership Control or Influence review that contractors […]

The Department of Energy could be prepared to start transferring control of the Savannah River Site to its semiautonomous nuclear-weapons agency in bits and pieces starting around 2023, a spokesperson at Washington headquarters said Monday. DOE’s Office of Environmental Management (EM), which owns the Aiken, S.C., site now, and the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA), […]

The U.S. Department of Justice is opening a U.S. Attorney’s Office branch in Richland, Wash., near the Department of Energy’s Hanford Site, Vanessa Waldref, U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Washington said Oct. 14 in a press release. Federal prosecutors have handled an average of about 70 cases per year from the Tri-Cities area, […]