Savannah River Site

After about two years of bid protests, incumbent Centerra Group recently started its 60-day transition into a new 10-year contract to provide security to the Department of Energy’s Savannah River Site near Aiken, S.C., an agency spokesperson said Thursday. The Notice to Proceed was issued on May 15 and Centerra should start its new decade-long, […]

Production of tritium and plutonium pits could prove a significant limiting factor in the introduction of a new nuclear weapons delivery method like a sea-launched cruise missile and other attempts by the U.S. to beef up its nuclear arsenal to counter Russia and China, according to an official at the National Strategic Research Institute.  Christopher […]

Production of tritium and plutonium pits could prove a significant limiting factor in the introduction of a new nuclear weapons delivery method like a sea-launched cruise missile and other attempts by the U.S. to beef up its nuclear arsenal to counter Russia and China, according to an official at the National Strategic Research Institute.  Christopher […]

Another power-generation cycle is underway at the Tennessee Valley Authority’s Watts Bar Nuclear Plant Unit 1, one of two reactors in which rods that help the National Nuclear Security Administration top off the tritium reservoirs of U.S. nuclear weapons are irradiated. The plant returned to operation on May 12 after a scheduled shutdown for maintenance […]

State officials signed off last week on a Department of Energy request to delay installation of what’s known as Next Generation Solvent at the Salt Waste Processing Facility at the Savannah River Site in South Carolina, a federal advisory board heard Monday. The South Carolina Department of Health and Environmental Control on May 8 approved […]

The Department of Energy aims to use an advanced new solvent by the end of fiscal 2025 to improve the numbers at the Salt Waste Processing Facility at the Savannah River Site in South Carolina, a cleanup contractor boss told a federal advisory board Tuesday. Other glitches at the Salt Waste Processing Facility (SWPF) should […]

Savannah River citizen panel updated on NNSA transition, saltstone disposal, security, changes in state regulator Federal officials next month could rough out the plan for handing over the Savannah River Site in South Carolina to the Department of Energy’s nuclear weapons branch from the agency’s cleanup office, a local fed told an advisory board Monday. […]

NAC International’s contract to transport irradiated rods containing tritium from the Tennessee Valley Authority to the Savannah River Site in South Carolina was renewed without competition in September, even though the National Nuclear Security Administration identified four companies that the agency believes could do the work.  The new five-year follow-on contract is being awarded on […]

Another power-generation cycle is underway at the Tennessee Valley Authority’s Watts Bar Nuclear Plant Unit 1, one of two reactors in which rods that help the National Nuclear Security Administration top off the tritium reservoirs of U.S. nuclear weapons are irradiated. The plant returned to operation on May 12 after a scheduled shutdown for maintenance […]

The Department of Energy aims to use an advanced new solvent by the end of fiscal 2025 to improve the numbers at the Salt Waste Processing Facility at the Savannah River Site in South Carolina, a cleanup contractor boss told a federal advisory board Tuesday. Other glitches at the Salt Waste Processing Facility (SWPF) should […]

State officials signed off last week on a Department of Energy request to delay installation of what’s known as Next Generation Solvent at the Salt Waste Processing Facility at the Savannah River Site in South Carolina, a federal advisory board heard Monday. The South Carolina Department of Health and Environmental Control on May 8 approved […]

The Department of Energy’s Office of Environmental Management is looking to beef up its staff devoted to procurement through what it calls the Environmental Management Career Acquisition Program, DOE said Friday. “Given how integral acquisition and contracting is to how we conduct our work, ensuring continuity in the procurement function is essential to the [Environmental […]

The Government Accountability Office this week denied a bid protest challenging the Department of Energy’s award to Centerra of a new security contract at the Savannah River Site in South Carolina. In a redacted version of the decision posted online Thursday, the Government Accountability Office (GAO) dismissed Securitas-led SRS Critical Infrastructure Security’s (SCIS) argument that […]

Earnings rose at BWX Technologies, Lynchburg, Va., in the first quarter, which the nuclear services and manufacturing company attributed largely to its government operations. Net earnings for the first quarter ended March 31 were $61 million or $0.67 per share up from $59.1 million, or $0.64 a share, in the year-ago quarter. Quarterly revenue was […]

The Government Accountability Office Tuesday denied a bid protest challenging the Department of Energy’s award of a new security contract to Centerra at the Savannah River Site in South Carolina. While a redacted version of the Government Accountability Office (GAO) opinion likely won’t be available for several days, the federal watchdog posted a notice on […]

New security access facilities have arrived at the Department of Energy’s Savannah River Site in South Carolina as the complex prepares for increased construction activity in K Area including installation of new Surplus Plutonium Disposition project gloveboxes. A new four-lane facility, with glass panels used across the DOE complex, will replace a much smaller, single-lane […]

The flood of employees leaving National Nuclear Security Administration sites that peaked during the COVID-19 pandemic has ebbed and the workforce needed to modernize the U.S. nuclear weapons complex is short-staffed but holding, the head of the agency said Wednesday.  “The overall attrition is close to normal now at both Los Alamos and Sandia and […]

The flood of employees leaving National Nuclear Security Administration sites that peaked during the COVID-19 pandemic has ebbed and the workforce needed to modernize the U.S. nuclear weapons complex is short-staffed but holding, the head of the agency said Wednesday.  “The overall attrition is close to normal now at both Los Alamos and Sandia and […]

Secretary of Energy Jennifer Granholm, former two-term governor of Michigan, will headline a fundraising event for the South Carolina Democratic Party Friday evening in Columbia, S.C., roughly an hour’s drive from Aiken, where the Department of Energy’s Savannah River Site is located. “She is not on official travel” but personal travel, and the federal government […]

Earnings rose for Honeywell in the 1st quarter of 2023, which the aerospace and defense contractor, leading trans at five Department of Energy nuclear sites attributed mostly to a growth in commercial aviation. The company generated $1.4 billion in net income in the first quarter, about $300 million better than the first quarter of 2022, […]

Secretary of Energy Jennifer Granholm, former two-term governor of Michigan, will headline a fundraising event for the South Carolina Democratic Party Friday evening in Columbia, S.C., roughly an hour’s drive from Aiken, where the Department of Energy’s Savannah River Site is located. “She is not on official travel” but personal travel, and the federal government […]

The Department of Energy’s Enforcement Office is investigating a November 2022 accident at the Oak Ridge Site in Tennessee, which resulted in an amputated finger for a carpenter working on construction of the new Mercury Treatment Facility at the Y-12 National Security Complex. Contractor APTIM – North Wind Construction was informed of the planned investigation […]

During fiscal 2023, the Department of Energy expects to make 15 shipments of transuranic defense waste from down-blended plutonium stocks to the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant in New Mexico from the Savannah River Site in South Carolina, a contractor executive said last week. Look for the level of such transuranic waste shipments, from the Surplus […]

During fiscal 2023, the Department of Energy expects to make 15 shipments of transuranic defense waste from down-blended plutonium stocks to the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant in New Mexico from the Savannah River Site in South Carolina, a contractor executive said last week. Look for the level of such transuranic waste shipments, from the Surplus […]

Robert Bennett has left his post as executive director of the economic development authority for Columbia County, Ga., after being selected as the new CEO for the non-profit promoting economic growth in areas around the Department of Energy’s Savannah River Site in South Carolina.   The Augusta, Ga., Chronicle reported Saturday that Bennett has been chosen […]

Due to vacancies, the Savannah River operations office for DOE nuclear cleanup is not doing safety system oversight assessments as often as specified in agency guidance, according to a report out this month from the DOE Office of Enterprise Assessments. It has become a common refrain across the weapons complex, and now, staffing holes are […]

The top boss for the Department of Energy’s prime contractor at the Savannah River Site in South Carolina said this week he expects to see draft plans soon detailing how the National Nuclear Security Administration will take control of the complex from the DOE Office of Environmental Management. “The transition planning is well underway,” Stuart […]

Due to vacancies, the Savannah River operations office for DOE nuclear cleanup is not doing safety system oversight assessments as often as specified in agency guidance, according to a report out this month from the DOE Office of Enterprise Assessments. It has become a common refrain across the weapons complex, and now, staffing holes are […]

The Department of Energy and a contractor await permission from the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission to return a problem transuranic waste container, now in a parking lot at the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant in New Mexico, back to the Savannah River Site in South Carolina, managers in Carlsbad, N.M., said recently. The issue came up […]

Though the National Nuclear Security Administration plans to dramatically ramp up plutonium pit production around the time a key arms control treaty expires in 2026, there are no plans to test fire any weapons, agency Administrator Jill Hruby said Monday in New Mexico. Hruby sat through two hours of questioning – and occasional haranguing – […]