Office of Environmental Management (EM)

Amentum, leading contractor for the Department of Energy and other government agencies, last week outlined management roles for a new National Security business group that the Maryland-based company is putting together under a corporate reshuffling by the new CEO.   “Today, I am announcing the leaders of each of these three businesses [within National Security], as […]

SUMMERLIN, NEV. — With the National Nuclear Security Administration hoping to see the Department of Energy’s Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico producing 30 plutonium pits by 2026, the organization is working closely with the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant on plans for the increased transuranic waste levels, speakers told Radwaste Summit Wednesday. With the […]

SUMMERLIN, NEV. — The Department of Energy’s Office of Environmental Management is faced with cleaning up nuclear hazards dating to the 1940s era Manhattan Project and its leadership structure should also be designed for the long run, a Government Accountability Office representative said Wednesday. Nathan Anderson, director of the energy and natural resources team for […]

SUMMERLIN, NEV. —Jacobs-led Four Rivers Nuclear Partnership will stay on beyond the five-year base period of its Deactivation and Remediation contract at the Paducah Site in Kentucky, the contractor’s chief operating officer said here Thursday. “I’m very happy to say that we got the option period to continue to work” for at least another three […]

SUMMERLIN, NEV. — The existing low-level hazardous waste landfill at the Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge Site in Tennessee is likely to hit capacity before its replacement is ready in 2029, a manager with prime contractor United Cleanup Oak Ridge said here Thursday. There are probably about five more years left on the existing Environmental […]

SUMMERLIN, NEV. — Started during the Manhattan Project days of the 1940s, nuclear technology continues to figure into plans for re-industrialization of the Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge Site in Tennessee, attendees at the Radwaste Summit heard here Wednesday. Laura Wilkerson, DOE’s acting manager for the Oak Ridge Office of Environmental Management and Kevin Ironside, […]

This budget season, the Hanford Site got a bigger budget before Congress even published any appropriations bills, with the Joe Biden administration amending its 2023 spending request to provide over $90 million more for the biggest ongoing U.S. nuclear-weapons cleanup. The new Hanford figure is the result of a recent budget amendment from White House’s […]

SUMMERLIN, NEV. — The Department of Energy’s Office of Environmental Management is faced with cleaning up nuclear hazards dating to the 1940s era Manhattan Project and its leadership structure should also be designed for the long run, a Government Accountability Office representative said Wednesday. Nathan Anderson, director of the energy and natural resources team for […]

SUMMERLIN, Nev. — The Department of Energy’s Office of Environmental Management is just starting to get rolling on environmental remediation at the Paducah Site in Kentucky, an agency official charged with overseeing cleanup at the gaseous diffusion plants there and in Portsmouth, Ohio, said Wednesday. “We are just dipping our toe into that,” Joel Bradburne, […]

SUMMERLIN, NEV. — With the National Nuclear Security Administration hoping to see the Department of Energy’s Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico producing 30 plutonium pits by 2026, the organization is working closely with the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant on plans for the increased transuranic waste levels, speakers told Radwaste Summit Wednesday. With the […]

SUMMERLIN, Nev. — The Department of Energy’s $7.6 billion Office of Environmental Management is cleaning up nuclear hazards from Washington state to New York state while dealing with a “silver tsunami,” Jay Mullis, a top executive at the remediation branch, said here Wednesday at the Radwaste Summit. Mullis, currently the acting associate principal deputy assistant […]

A House Armed Services Committee panel wants the Government Accountability Office to scrutinize quality assurance steps taken by the Depart of Energy’s $7.6-billion nuclear cleanup office, according to a House subcommittee draft  of the National Defense Authorization Act for fiscal 2023. The House Armed Services’ strategic forces , subcommittee chaired by Rep. Jim Cooper, (D-Tenn.) […]

U.S. Court of Federal Claims Judge Thompson Dietz appears unlikely to set an end date for Swift & Staley’s tenure as landlord of the Department of Energy’s Paducah Site in Kentucky, based on an online court filing last week. The June 2 decision, filed under seal but described in the online docket for the Court […]

Jacobs-led Four Rivers Nuclear Partnership is less than two weeks away from the end of its five-year base period of its potential 10-year, $1.4-billion Deactivation and Remediation contract at the Paducah Site in Kentucky. The five-year base, which began in June 2017, is set to expire June 19, according to the latest DOE Office of […]

A National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine committee is neutral on whether the Department of Energy should lead any revived federal research effort on potential health impacts of low-dose radiation, the head of the panel, said Friday. Tribal communities and atomic workers “generally do not support” a DOE-run low-dose radiation program, Joe Gray, professor […]

A Federal Claims Court judge has issued a sealed order in the ongoing litigation between Department of Energy contractor Swift & Staley and the government over whether the company should effectively be stripped of a site services contract awarded less than two years ago at the Paducah Site in Kentucky. The ruling was issued under […]

The annual Radwaste Summit kicks off Wednesday morning in Summerlin, Nev., with presentations from top managers at the Department of Energy’s Office of Environmental Management as well as the National Nuclear Security Administration. Jay Mullis II, acting associate principal deputy assistant secretary for regulatory and policy affairs for the $7.6-billion cleanup office, is one of […]

The Department of Energy’s cleanup contractor at the Portsmouth Site has nearly completed structural demolition of the X-326 Process Building, an agency official at the Ohio site said Thursday. The major demolition is 91% complete “as of today,” Jeremy Davis, acting site lead at the Piketon, Ohio uranium enrichment cleanup site since January, told the […]

After working out various kinks since late December, the Department of Energy has resumed its demonstration run of the Integrated Waste Treatment Unit at the Idaho National Laboratory, a spokesperson said Wednesday. Following a successful heat-up, waste simulant processing resumed on May 23, a DOE spokesperson said in an email. The Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety […]

Following the solicitation of new long-term contracts for its Portsmouth and Paducah sites, the Department of Energy plans to extend the incumbents at both sites for up to six months, according to procurement notes published recently.  In a procurement notice May 27, the DOE’s Office of Environmental Management announced its intent to extend decontamination and […]

Rep. Dan Newhouse (R-Wash), whose 4th Congressional district in Washington state includes the Department of Energy’s Hanford Site, is facing multiple fellow Republicans, one of them a former NASCAR driver and another backed by former President Donald Trump, in an August primary, according to Ballotpedia.org. Jerrod Sessler is the best-funded of the four Republican challengers […]

The Department of Energy and the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board this week wrapped up key details of a memorandum of understanding they inked in February pledging full cooperation on safety at federal nuclear-weapons installations. The 19-page supplement announced by the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board (DNFSB) in a Wednesday press release fleshes out specifics […]

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission says continued storage of potentially-combustible transuranic waste at Waste Control Specialists in Andrews County, Texas until Dec, 31, 2024, should not result in a significant environmental impact, but Texas wants to see the drums gone pronto.  In a May 10 letter to Assistant Secretary of Energy David Turk, Texas Commission on […]

After working out various kinks since late December, the Department of Energy has resumed its demonstration run of the Integrated Waste Treatment Unit at the Idaho National Laboratory, a spokesperson said Wednesday. Following a successful heat-up, waste simulant processing resumed on May 23, a DOE spokesperson said in an email. The Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety […]

Washington Gov. Jay Inslee (D) planned to visit the Department of Energy’s Hanford Site Thursday and will be joined by officials from the Washington state Department of Ecology, according to an advisory issued through the governor’s office Wednesday. Ecology Director Laura Watson and the state’s agency’s nuclear waste program manager David Bowen will join Inslee […]

Rep. Dan Newhouse (R-Wash), whose 4th Congressional district in Washington state includes the Department of Energy’s Hanford Site, is facing multiple fellow Republicans, one of them a former NASCAR driver and another backed by former President Donald Trump, in an August primary, according to Ballotpedia.org. Jerrod Sessler is the best-funded of the four Republican challengers […]

Following the solicitation of new long-term contracts for its Portsmouth and Paducah sites, the Department of Energy plans to extend the incumbents at both sites for up to six months, according to procurement notes published recently.  In a procurement notice Friday, the DOE’s Office of Environmental Management announced its intent to extend decontamination and decommissioning […]

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission says continued storage of potentially-combustible transuranic waste at Waste Control Specialists in Andrews County, Texas until Dec, 31, 2024, should not result in a significant environmental impact. The Friday finding of no significant impact in the Federal Register clears the way for continued stopgap storage of up to 74 remaining containers […]

The Defense Waste Processing Facility at the Department of Energy’s Savannah River Site in South Carolina has entered an outage this month as it prepares to switch over from formic acid to glycolic acid by October. Going with glycolic acid at the Defense Waste Processing Facility (DWPF) should lead to more efficient conversion of radioactive […]

The on-again, off-again demonstration run of the Department of Energy’s Integrated Waste Treatment Unit at the Idaho National Laboratory should be on again in June, according to a federal nuclear-safety overseer. After an outage during March and April, the Integrated Waste Treatment Unit (IWTU) was to begin heating up in early May, according to a […]