Savannah River Site

Amid a profitable quarter, Fluor, Irving, Texas, said Friday the Department of Energy plans to extend a Fluor-led joint venture’s tenure as prime contractor at the Savannah River Site in South Carolina for up to five years. During an earnings call, Fluor CEO David Constable also expressed optimism about the company’s chances of landing individual […]

A top federal manager for the Department of Energy’s Savannah River Site in South Carolina said Monday the agency is continuing to investigate the cause of a July 4 spill of low-level radioactively contaminated water near H Canyon. “We are taking a very hard look at exactly what occurred,” Michael Budney, the DOE Office of […]

The Salt Waste Processing Facility at the Savannah River Site in South Carolina has treated over 991,000 gallons of waste so far in fiscal 2022, a Department of Energy official told the Citizens Advisory Board for the site Monday.   “We just recently completed a planned outage,” July 12 at the Salt Waste Processing Facility (SWPF), […]

U.S. District Judge Julianna Michelle Childs, who presided over a number of Department of Energy nuclear cases in South Carolina, and who was publicly discussed as a contender for a U.S. Supreme vacancy, has won confirmation to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit. Childs was confirmed to the D.C. Circuit […]

The Salt Waste Processing Facility at the Savannah River Site in South Carolina has treated over 991,000 gallons of waste so far in fiscal 2022, a Department of Energy official told the Citizens Advisory Board for the site Monday.   “We just recently completed a planned outage,” July 12 at the Salt Waste Processing Facility (SWPF), […]

A top federal manager for the Department of Energy’s Savannah River Site in South Carolina said Monday the agency is continuing to investigate the cause of a July 4 spill of low-level radioactively contaminated water near H Canyon. “We are taking a very hard look at exactly what occurred,” Michael Budney, the DOE Office of […]

Here are some events related to defense and civilian nuclear matters that Exchange Monitor staff are tracking this week: 24-28 – Institute for Nuclear Materials Management, Virtual Annual Meeting. No in-person participation. Registration required and to be available here. 25: The Savannah River Site Citizens Advisory Board in South Carolina starts a two-day meeting at […]

The Department of Energy intends to extend its existing paramilitary security contract with a Centerra company at the Savannah River Site in South Carolina for up to two years, according to a recent notice. The Savannah River Operations Office plans to keep on longtime security provider Centerra Group, up to 24 months, which translates to […]

Amentum-led Savannah River Remediation took home about $16 million of a potential $16.8 million for its final review period as the Department of Energy’s cleanup contractor at the Savannah River Site in South Carolina, according to a fee scorecard, issued Thursday. Savannah River Remediation (SRR) earned $1.5 million out of a potential $1.7 million in […]

The Department of Energy’s Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico has lifted the indoor mask order it reinstituted earlier this month, a DOE spokesperson said Tuesday. That is thanks to the fact the COVID-19 community rate for Los Alamos County returned to “medium” on Friday July 15, after being “high” days earlier, the DOE […]

The Department of Energy intends to extend its existing paramilitary security contract with a Centerra company at the Savannah River Site in South Carolina for up to two years, according to a recent notice. The Savannah River Operations Office plans to keep on longtime security provider Centerra Group, up to 24 months, which translates to […]

The Department of Energy has approved its plan to speed up spent fuel removal from the L-Basin storage area at the Savannah River Site in South Carolina. In a Monday press release, DOE announced approval of what it calls accelerated basin de-inventory ABD, which would use H Canyon to dissolve spent nuclear fuel without processing […]

The Department of Energy and South Carolina are investigating a July 4 spill of contaminated water around H Canyon at the Savannah River Site, officials confirmed this week. There was a spill of low-level radiologically-contaminated water from a temporary above-ground tank system used to take liquid from the pumping of a sump, which happens periodically […]

The Department of Energy’s special adviser for Environmental Management, William (Ike) White, told a Congressional panel Wednesday the agency’s cleanup branch is addressing research and development problems raised in an October 2021 Government Accountability Office report. The Office of Environmental Management has issued a definition for research and development (R&D) and is in the early […]

The Department of Energy and South Carolina are investigating a July 4 spill of contaminated water around H Canyon at the Savannah River Site, officials confirmed this week. There was a spill of low-level radiologically-contaminated water from a temporary above-ground tank system used to take liquid from the pumping of a sump, which happens periodically […]

The Department of Energy has approved its plan to speed up spent fuel removal from the L-Basin storage area at the Savannah River Site in South Carolina. In a Monday press release, DOE announced approval of what it calls accelerated basin de-inventory ABD, which would use H Canyon to dissolve spent nuclear fuel without processing […]

In keeping with federal guidance on COVID-19, many Department of Energy nuclear weapons complex sites are again requiring masks indoors. These include the Portsmouth Site in Ohio, the Paducah Site in Kentucky, their joint headquarters office in Lexington, Ky. All three have “high” community rates,  according to county-by-country transmission data from the Centers for Disease […]

Workers employed by the Department of Energy’s prime contractor for the Savannah River Site in South Carolina withdrew a legal challenge to the site’s COVID-19 vaccine mandate from a federal appeals court. “The dismissal of this interlocutory appeal from the denial of a preliminary injunction does not affect either party’s right to appeal any final […]

A contract solicitation for Technical Support Services at the Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge Site in Tennessee could hit the street in September, the Cincinnati-based Environmental Management Consolidated Business Center announced this week. The request for proposals (RFP) will be out no sooner than September, the contracting office said in a Thursday June 29 quarterly […]

State lawmakers in South Carolina this week to approved distribution of $525 million from a federal settlement the state won in 2020 after the Department of Energy failed to meet deadlines for removing plutonium from the Savannah River Site. The bicameral state legislature’s House and Senate ratified a budget bill apportioning the money from the […]

The National Nuclear Security Administration has not won Rep. Adam Smith’s (D-Wash.) unconditional trust, but it has convinced him to authorize the agency’s plan to produce plutonium pits in two states, the House Armed Services chair told reporters Wednesday. “Yes, I believe we are going to move forward with what the NNSA [National Nuclear Security […]

House authorizers want to kill a megaton-capable gravity bomb and a nuclear-tipped, sea-launched cruise missile, but their counterparts in the Senate do not. The split on the Hill over the two weapons, which the Joe Biden administration wants to kill, was revealed Thursday in dueling National Defense Authorization Acts (NDAA) for fiscal year 2023.  Democrats […]

State lawmakers in South Carolina were set this week to approve distribution of $525 million from a federal settlement the state won in 2020 after the Department of Energy failed to meet deadlines for removing plutonium from the Savannah River Site. The bicameral state legislature’s House and Senate each were set to convene at 12 […]

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 […]

A Georgia congressman released a written request that House appropriators accept the White House’s funding request for the Savannah River Site’s proposed plutonium pit factory and reject a proposed cut for the site’s H-Canyon chemical separations plant. Rep. Rick Allen (R-Ga.) made the requests ahead of Wednesday’s scheduled Member’s Day hearing, an annual exercise in […]

Andrew Kline joined the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board on Monday as an on-site inspector for the Department of Energy’s Savannah River Site near Aiken, S.C., the board announced Monday. Kline was previously a design engineer, operations process manager and project manager at the Savannah River Site, a former Cold War plutonium production complex with […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]