Office of Environmental Management (EM)

Bids for Long-term Management and Storage of elemental mercury are due to the Department of Energy by 4 p.m. Eastern Time Wednesday, while questions on the last week’s solicitations for new contracts at the Portsmouth Site in Ohio and the Paducah Site in Kentucky are due a week later, the agency said. Since DOE’s Office […]

United Cleanup Oak Ridge this week started work under the Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge Reservation Cleanup Contract, potentially worth up to $8.3 billion over 10 years. The Amentum-led United Cleanup Oak Ridge (UROR) includes partners Jacobs Engineering and Honeywell International with teaming subcontractors RSI EnTech, Strata-G, Longnecker & Associates and Environmental Alternatives. The company […]

The Department of Energy on Wednesday opened bidding for a pair of new long-term contracts to manage Cold War uranium-enrichment cleanup in Ohio and Kentucky, one of which includes some work for active nuclear weapons programs. The agency’s Office of Environmental Management, the nuclear-weapons cleanup steward, posted final solicitations online. The scheduled last day for […]

The Department of Energy on Wednesday opened bidding for a pair of new long-term contracts to manage Cold War uranium-enrichment cleanup in Ohio and Kentucky, one of which includes some work for active nuclear weapons programs.  The agency’s Office of Environmental Management, the nuclear-weapons cleanup steward, posted final solicitations online. The scheduled last day for […]

United Cleanup Oak Ridge this week started work under the Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge Reservation Cleanup Contract, potentially worth up to $8.3 billion over 10 years. The Amentum-led United Cleanup Oak Ridge (UROR) includes partners Jacobs Engineering and Honeywell International with teaming subcontractors RSI EnTech, Strata-G, Longnecker & Associates and Environmental Alternatives. The company […]

A long-serving fed, Savannah River Site deputy manager Thomas Johnson Jr., planned to retire at the end of the month after 30 years with the Department of Energy and about 40 as a federal employee. Michael Budney, the DOE Office of Environmental Management’s top boss, announced the pending retirement Monday at a webcast meeting of […]

Washington Gov. Jay Inslee (D) posted a video online over the weekend to mark the 33rd anniversary of the Tri-Party Agreement between Washington, D.C. and Washington state that governs cleanup of the Department of Energy’s Hanford Site. Inslee used the anniversary of the 1989 legal agreement between the Washington Department of Ecology, DOE and the […]

Department of Energy managers at the Savannah River Site in South Carolina expect the Salt Waste Processing Facility to process 4 million gallons of waste this year, they told a DOE-chartered advisory group Monday. The prediction was offered by Michael Budney, Savannah River Site manager for DOE’s Office of Environmental Management, in response to questions […]

Even after a judge stayed his earlier ruling finding incumbent Swift & Staley is too big for the small business set-aside contract awarded by the Department of Energy in late 2020, the parties are still arguing over how long the company should remain the landlord at the Paducah Site in Kentucky. Swift & Staley, the incumbent landlord […]

A top manager from the Department of Energy’s nuclear cleanup and Washington state officials told the Hanford Site’s advisory board they are seeking better communication with tribal governments and other minority populations near the former plutonium production complex. The aim is to find out “what is it they need, what is it that they want […]

A federal judge in Washington state tossed a revised lawsuit brought by 300-plus employees at the Department of Energy’s Hanford Site, many of them security guards, over the COVID-19 vaccination rule, saying the plaintiffs never fixed major legal issues with the case they filed in the fall. “We haven’t decided the next step at this […]

The Cerro Pelado wildfire that started nearly a month ago in northern New Mexico was more than 70% contained, making it safe for employees who had been telecommuting to come back to work, the lab said. Employees who had been working remotely were cleared to return to work inside the fence on Tuesday, according to […]

A federal judge in Washington state tossed a revised lawsuit brought by 300-plus employees at the Department of Energy’s Hanford Site, many of them security guards, over the COVID-19 vaccination rule, saying the plaintiffs never fixed major legal issues with the case they filed in the fall. “We haven’t decided the next step at this […]

Department of Energy managers at the Savannah River Site in South Carolina expect the Salt Waste Processing Facility to process 4 million gallons of waste this year, they told a DOE-chartered advisory group Monday. The prediction was offered by Michael Budney, Savannah River Site manager for DOE’s Office of Environmental Management, in response to questions […]

Washington Gov. Jay Inslee (D) posted a video online over the weekend to mark the 33rd anniversary of the Tri-Party Agreement between Washington, D.C. and Washington state that governs cleanup of the Department of Energy’s Hanford Site. Inslee used the anniversary of the 1989 legal agreement between the Washington Department of Ecology, DOE and the […]

A long-serving fed, Savannah River Site deputy manager Thomas Johnson Jr., planned to retire at the end of the month after 30 years with the Department of Energy and about 40 as a federal employee. Michael Budney, the DOE Office of Environmental Management’s top boss, announced the pending retirement Monday at a webcast meeting of […]

Nearly a year after kicking off the competitive bidding process, the Department of Energy must soon decide whether to extend its current contract for transportation of transuranic waste to the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant near Carlsbad, N.M. The current five-year, $112-million Carlsbad Transportation Services small business contract, held by CAST Specialty Transportation, is scheduled to […]

Earnings dipped at Leidos Holdings, Reston, Va., in the first quarter, which federal contractor attributed to in part to a $26 million benefit received a year earlier by one of its Department of Energy joint ventures. Net earnings for the quarter were $177 million, or $1.25 diluted earnings per share, down from $205 million, or […]

The Department of Energy said in a Tuesday notice it is extending the bid deadline for the Elemental Mercury Long-term Management and Storage contract to June 1, from the prior submission date of May 20. In an amendment to the final request for proposals (RFP), the DOE said proposal packages are now due by 4 […]

The Department of Energy’s nuclear cleanup branch could greenlight hot commissioning of vitrification of low-activity tank waste in August 2023 at the Hanford Site in Washington state, and continues to mull the cost of a critical ventilation project at the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant in New Mexico. Those are among highlights from the Joe Biden […]

On paper at least, the Department of Energy expects 10 of the 15 remaining Cold War and Manhattan Project cleanups overseen by its $7.6-billion Office of Environmental Management to be cleaned up within 25 years. That is according to the annual chart of the Environmental Management’s (EM) office’s project schedule range, included in the 490-page […]

A plaintiff who filed suit against Fluor-led Savannah River Nuclear Solutions in February, claiming the Department of Energy contractor forced him into premature retirement from the site’s fire department, threw in the towel last week, saying in a U.S. District Court filing the chances of victory are too slim without a lawyer. “It is nearly […]

The fiscal 2023 Department of Energy budget request for the Hanford Site in Washington state advances plans for a new $23-million fire station within Area 400, according to justification details posted online last week. The Joe Biden administration proposes $3.1-million toward the new fire station during the fiscal year that begins Oct. 1. The budget […]

Earnings fell at BWX Technologies, Lynchburg, Va., in the first quarter, which the company attributed Monday to pension issues and lower productivity in the naval reactors business. Net earnings for the first quarter were $59 million or $0.64 per share, down from $69.7 million, or $0.73 a share, in the year-ago quarter. Quarterly revenue was […]

The Department of Energy’s fiscal 2023 budget request for nuclear cleanup at the Idaho National Laboratory includes $10 million toward early planning for  treatment and disposal of 1.2 million gallons of high-level radioactive calcine waste. Under the 1995 Idaho Settlement Agreement governing disposal of spent fuel, DOE has until Dec. 31, 2035 to treat the […]

The Department of Energy’s Waste Isolation Pilot Plant in New Mexico received 19 shipments of transuranic waste during April, according to the latest data. Eleven of the shipments to the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) were hauled from Idaho National Laboratory, six from Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico and two from the Savannah […]

The Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board this week added three new resident inspectors to monitor safety at Department of Energy sites in Oak Ridge, Tenn., and Los Alamos, N.M. Clinton Jones is a new resident inspector for DOE’s Y-12 National Security Complex and Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL), the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board (DNFSB) […]

The Department of Energy’s Office of Environmental Management plans to invest $40 million of grant money into poor communities and tribal governments near federal nuclear cleanup sites. William (Ike) White, the senior adviser and top federal boss at the Environmental Management (EM) office cited the Community Capacity Building initiative in his written testimony filed Wednesday […]

The state of Tennessee kicked off a comment period this week about a long-debated low-level radioactive waste landfill at the Oak Ridge Site, which would replace one expected to reach capacity this decade, a citizens’ advisory board heard Wednesday. The comment period on the planned Environmental Management Disposal Facility (EMDF) began Monday and runs through […]

Citing high stakes for Swift & Staley, a Court of Federal Claims judge this week stayed his own order finding the company ineligible for a follow-on landlord services at the Department of Energy’s Paducah Site in Kentucky. In the five-page order made public Wednesday, Court of Federal Claims Judge Thompson Dietz said Swift & Staley […]