Savannah River Site

The National Nuclear Security Administration did not consider certain cost and radioactive waste analyses when it decided to make plutonium pits in New Mexico and South Carolina, the agency said in a court filing this week.  It is the latest turn in a two-year-old lawsuit filed in the federal district court for South Carolina in […]

KNOXVILLE — Design of the Savannah River Plutonium Pit Processing Facility is half finished and the facility could be built by 2032, though the date is not set in stone, a senior contractor executive said here Tuesday at an industry gathering. “You’ve got to put a stake in the sand at some point,” Dennis Carr, […]

The Department of Energy’s Carlsbad Field Office in New Mexico is not planning to add any treatment capabilities for problem shipments of transuranic waste arriving at the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant, a federal manager said Tuesday. “We don’t have any measures in our permit, we are not a treatment facility,” said Ken Princen, assistant manager […]

The Department of Energy’s Savannah River Site in South Carolina is cutting its greenhouse gas emissions by curtailing coal-burning, buying more electric vehicles and curbing business travel, according to a recent environmental report. Ameresco Federal Solutions operates an on-site cogeneration power plant that uses biomass such as wood chips to supply steam and eliminate the […]

KNOXVILLE — Design of the Savannah River Plutonium Pit Processing Facility is half finished and the facility could be built by 2032, though the date is not set in stone, a senior contractor executive said here Tuesday at an industry gathering. “You’ve got to put a stake in the sand at some point,” Dennis Carr, […]

The Department of Energy’s nuclear remediation office should draft clearer guidance to differentiate contractor work that directly advances cleanup from other chores, the Government Accountability Office said in a report published Monday. Until it does, DOE’s Office of Environmental Management (EM) lacks a clear understanding of how much of its multi-billion-dollar budget directly hastens cleanup, […]

The Department of Energy’s Savannah River Site in South Carolina is cutting its greenhouse gas emissions by curtailing coal-burning, buying more electric vehicles and curbing business travel, according to a recent environmental report. Ameresco Federal Solutions operates an on-site cogeneration power plant that uses biomass such as wood chips to supply steam and eliminate the […]

Owing to a renewed emphasis on producing plutonium pits for use in refurbished nuclear weapons, management of the Savannah River Site in South Carolina will revert to the National Nuclear Security Administration in October 2024. The now-310-square-mile facility near Aiken, South Carolina, was the locus of plutonium and tritium production for the primary stages of […]

States agencies and other entities will receive a combined $54 million worth of funding for programs supporting the Department of Energy’s nuclear cleanup work, the federal agency said Thursday. For starters, Pittsburgh-based NuVision Engineering will receive $3.5 million for an independent comparison of the DOE nuclear cleanup program with governmental counterparts for the United Kingdom, […]

Crews at the Department of Energy’s Savannah River Site plan next week to open up a contaminated waste box recently returned to South Carolina from the agency’s underground disposal site in New Mexico, a federal advisory board heard Tuesday. These specific drums initially contained debris waste sent to the Savannah River Site from the shuttered […]

The BWX Technologies-led nuclear remediation contractor for the Savannah River Site in South Carolina and the Department of Energy’s Office of Environmental Management have inked an eight-year task order for the next stages of cleanup, the site’s Citizens Advisory Board heard Tuesday. Michael Budney, DOE’s operations manager for the Savannah River nuclear cleanup, said the […]

There will be no slowdown in nuclear cleanup next autumn when the Department of Energy’s Office of Environmental Management gives up its landlord role at the Savannah River Site, a citizens group heard Tuesday. “What we are not transferring are any of the EM [environmental management] missions,” Michael Budney, operations manager for DOE’s Office of […]

Crews at the Department of Energy’s Savannah River Site plan next week to open up a contaminated waste box recently returned to South Carolina from the agency’s underground disposal site in New Mexico, a federal advisory board heard Tuesday. “We are spending a lot of time planning it out to make sure we get it […]

No one will lose their jobs when the National Nuclear Security Administration assumes management of the Savannah River Site in South Carolina from the Department of Energy’s Office of Environmental Management next year, according to a recently published transition plan.  “All incumbent employees will be retained,” the plan states. That pertains at least to employees […]

The BWX Technologies-led nuclear remediation contractor for the Savannah River Site in South Carolina and the Department of Energy’s Office of Environmental Management have inked an eight-year task order for the next stages of cleanup, the site’s Citizens Advisory Board heard Tuesday. Michael Budney, DOE’s operations manager for the Savannah River nuclear cleanup, said the […]

There will be no slowdown in nuclear cleanup next autumn when the Department of Energy’s Office of Environmental Management gives up its landlord role at the Savannah River Site, a citizens group heard Tuesday. “What we are not transferring are any of the EM [environmental management] missions,” Michael Budney, operations manager for DOE’s Office of […]

To ensure transfer of landlord responsibility for the Savannah River Site in South Carolina goes smoothly, the Department of Energy is already planning to request a funding deviation from a continuing budget resolution — a  year from now. That is one of the nuggets included in a transition plan, cleared for public release Sept. 13, […]

The Department of Energy has so far delivered 12 shipments of down blended plutonium to the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant in New Mexico from the Savannah River Site in South Carolina, according to a public waste database. The most recent shipment that DOE has made public arrived at the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) near […]

The Department of Energy has so far delivered 12 shipments of down blended plutonium to the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant in New Mexico from the Savannah River Site in South Carolina, according to a public waste database. The most recent shipment that DOE has made public arrived at the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) near […]

ARLINGTON, VA. — While many senior people are contemplating retirement at the Department of Energy’s $8-billion Office of Environmental Management, William “Ike” White apparently is not among them. “No. I do not have a retirement date circled on my calendar at this time,” White told Exchange Monitor on the sidelines of the National Cleanup Workshop […]

A Department of Energy spokesperson confirmed Monday the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant in New Mexico sent a problematic shipment of transuranic waste back to the Savannah River Site in South Carolina. The shipment, which sat for nearly a year in a Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) parking lot and required special permission by the U.S. […]

The three members of the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board recently visited the Savannah River National Security Site to examine personnel safety controls for a planned facility expected to churn out at least 50 nuclear warhead cores annually next decade. The Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board (DNFSB) “has been reviewing the design of the Savannah […]

Linda Bauer, former Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory deputy director, will lead a new effort to write a “blueprint” for the National Nuclear Security Administration’s production and science & technology infrastructure.  NNSA Administrator Jill Hruby announced the campaign to “keep pace with the dynamic global environment” in an internal email seen by the Exchange Monitor on […]

News of a Department of Energy plan to use weapons complex land to host carbon-free electricity projects is being met with a mix of excitement, skepticism and curiosity about how the process might work. A smattering of stakeholders contacted by Exchange Monitor Tuesday said they have many questions about the initiative announced last Friday in […]

The Fluor-led operations contractor at the Department of Energy’s Savannah River Site in South Carolina promoted Dennis Carr to CEO following Stuart MacVean’s retirement on Thursday July 27, a company spokesperson said via email. Carr becomes president and CEO of Savannah River Nuclear Solutions after serving as an executive vice president and chief operating officer […]

The Fluor-led operations contractor at the Department of Energy’s Savannah River Site in South Carolina promoted Dennis Carr to CEO following Stuart MacVean’s retirement on Thursday, a company spokesperson said via email Friday. Carr becomes president and CEO of Savannah River Nuclear Solutions after serving as an executive vice president and chief operating officer for […]

Aptim Federal Services of Baton Rouge, La., has been awarded a $68-million Department of Energy task order to take down the former Ion Beam Facility at the Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) in New Mexico, DOE said in a Thursday press release. The task order, announced by the DOE Office of Environmental Management, is to […]

WASHINGTON —Department of Energy properties used for nuclear weapons work could soon be tapped for development of new carbon-free energy under an effort unveiled Friday in Washington by Secretary of Energy Jennifer Granholm. The program, dubbed DOE’s Cleanup to Clean Energy initiative, would repurpose parcels around the weapons complex for non-carbon-emitting electricity, potentially creating enough […]

Bechtel National’s $14.9-billion contract to build the Waste Treatment and Immobilization Plant at the Department of Energy’s Hanford Site in Washington state was updated last month to keep the company on the job into September 2024, which is still before before the plant is expected to start solidifying low-level radioactive waste. An Aug. 31 contract […]

On Oct. 1, 2024, the National Nuclear Security Administration will become the landlord, rather than a tenant, at the Department of Energy’s Savannah River Site in South Carolina and shoulder responsibility for operation and security of the site, a federal advisory panel heard Tuesday. When the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) takes over from DOE’s […]