Savannah River Site

An ongoing federal study into alternative liquid-waste cleanup at the Hanford Site in Washington state should focus narrowly on finding the fastest way to get rid of low-level radioactive waste that can’t be solidified by the site’s Waste Treatment and Immobilization Plant, a national academies panel recommended last week. The waste treatment plant, which is […]

Since the confirmed, domestic start of the COVID-19 pandemic in early 2020, the Department of Energy’s Office of Environmental Management has confirmed 7,916 cases of the illness among the agency’s workforce, a spokesperson said Thursday. Likewise, the latest weekly total of confirmed cases is 313, a whopping jump of 242 since the office’s last weekly […]

A nationwide injunction against contractor vaccine mandates should not apply to the management and operations contractor at the Savannah River Site in South Carolina, the Fluor-led team said in Monday court filing. Savannah River Nuclear Solutions (SRNS) is a privately-held employer, the company said in a filing with the U.S. District Court in South Carolina, […]

Ignoring the ex-Sandia National Laboratories employee’s plea for probation, a federal judge in New Mexico sentenced Joshua Cordova to nearly two years in prison for the four counts of fraud to which he admitted earlier this year. Cordova worked at the Albuquerque-based labs network from 2011 to 2019, instructing military and law enforcement personnel how […]

The Department of Energy’s nuclear cleanup office could find out soon if the administration of President Joe Biden will back a second trial run moving certain high-level radioactive waste out of the Savannah River Site in South Carolina and disposing of it in a facility licensed for low-level waste. That was the word Monday from […]

Two years into the pandemic, the Department of Energy could see most of its federal employees return to their pre-COVID-19 work locations by mid-February, according to a Dec. 3 email message from agency leadership. The current “maximum telework” policy for DOE’s federal workforce will be phased out starting Jan. 18, Tarak Shah, chief of staff […]

With virtually all federal employees mandated to be vaccinated against COVID-19, the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board envisions a staff return-to-workplace date of Jan. 24, a spokesperson for the board said this week. “[P]lans may change, but this is our current plan,” Tara Tadlock, the associate director for board operations at the Defense Nuclear Facilities […]

A federal district judge in South Carolina refused late Friday to issue a preliminary injunction blocking the COVID-19 vaccination mandate by the prime contractor at the Department of Energy’s Savannah River Site. U.S. District Judge Michelle Childs ruled the 97 vaccine holdouts suing Savannah River Nuclear Solutions (SRNS) “have not made a clear showing that […]

Profits at Jacobs Engineering, Dallas, fell 3% for the fiscal year ended Oct. 1 as revenue rose by proportionally the same amount, the company said early Nov. 30 in its latest earnings release.  Net earnings for the year were about $477 million, or $3.20 a share, down from more than $490 million, or $3.71 a […]

With COVID-19 cases declining again in the Department of Energy weapons complex and government officials considering how to deal with an emerging variant of the virus, much of this week’s industry focus is on courtroom battles concerning a small number of employees who refuse to comply with a vaccination mandate for federal contractors. On the […]

The new BWX Technologies-led joint venture scheduled to take over nuclear waste work at the Department of Energy’s Savannah River Site in South Carolina announced its top managers on Wednesday.  Savannah River Mission Completion (SRMC) said in a press release that Dave Olson, who has 34 years of experience at the Savannah River Site, will […]

A vaccine mandate by the Department of Energy’s management contractor at the Savannah River Site in South Carolina is tantamount to the contractor practicing medicine without a license, a lawyer for about 95 employees refusing to be inoculated against COVID-19 said in a legal filing Monday in federal court. Last week, on the day before […]

The Department of Energy has given the green light to a group led by Virginia-based BWX Technologies to begin a 90-day transition to take over liquid waste management and other work included under the Integrated Mission Completion Contract at the Savannah River Site in South Carolina, an agency spokesperson said Monday morning. The notice was […]

For the second year in a row, concern over potential spread of COVID-19 has prompted cancellation of the public deer hunt at the Department of Energy’s Savannah River Site in South Carolina. “Due to COVID-19, the 2021 Deer Hunt has been cancelled,” according to a recent “deer control activities”  notice posted on the Savannah River […]

The top federal manager at the Department of Energy’s Savannah River Site in South Carolina said COVID-19 infection rates are falling around the complex near the Georgia line. “The good news is for the first time in some time we have no one in the hospital,” Michael Budney, manager of the DOE Office of Environmental […]

The top federal manager at the Department of Energy’s Savannah River Site in South Carolina said COVID-19 infection rates are falling around the complex near the Georgia line. “The good news is for the first time in some time we have no one in the hospital,” Michael Budney, manager of the DOE Office of Environmental […]

Before it even started, the Department of Energy this week cancelled a competition for a Savannah River Site management and operations contract worth billions, citing an increase of National Nuclear Security Administration nuclear weapons work at the site. “The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) is indefinitely delaying the Final Request for Proposal (RFP) for the […]

Before it even started, the Department of Energy this week cancelled a competition for a Savannah River Site management and operations contract worth billions, citing an increase of National Nuclear Security Administration nuclear weapons work at the site. “The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) is indefinitely delaying the Final Request for Proposal (RFP) for the […]

Ninety people suing the contractor over a COVID-19 vaccine mandate lack valid legal arguments or safety concerns and “simply do not want to do what is being asked,” the manager of the Department of Energy’s Savannah River Site in South Carolina said in a legal filing this week. That is the thrust of Fluor-led Savannah […]

The Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board is still hammering the Department of Energy about a nearly decade-old recommendation to stiffen safety requirements at Savannah River Site’s Building 235-F to avoid a plutonium release from the aging structure. In a Nov. 2 letter to Secretary of Energy Jennifer Granholm, Joyce Connery, the board chair, praised DOE […]

Under current projections, the Department of Energy could process nearly all of the salt waste inventory from 43 high-level radioactive waste tanks at the Savannah River Site by 2033, the top official for the agency’s Office of Environmental Management there said recently. The 2033 date cited by Michael Budney, manager of the Savannah River Operations […]

Under current projections, the Department of Energy could process nearly all of the salt waste inventory from 43 high-level radioactive waste tanks at the Savannah River Site by 2033, the top official for the agency’s Office of Environmental Management there said recently. The 2033 date cited by Michael Budney, manager of the Savannah River Operations […]

The Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board is still hammering the Department of Energy about a nearly decade-old recommendation to stiffen safety requirements at Savannah River Site’s Building 235-F to avoid a plutonium release from the aging structure.  In a Nov. 2 letter to Secretary of Energy Jennifer Granholm, Joyce Connery, the board chair, praised DOE […]

This week, the Department of Energy will brief losing bidders about its rationale for awarding multi-billion-dollar nuclear-cleanup contracts to teams led by Amentum and BWX Technologies, a senior industry official said last week at the Radwaste Summit in Summerlin, Nev. The executive made the comments on the sidelines of the annual summit, sponsored by ExchangeMonitor […]

Though it has posted a loss for the year so far overall, Fluor, Irving, Texas, ratcheted up its earnings guidance for continuing operations in 2021 after boosting the bottom line and booking a big contract extension from DOE, the company reported this week. Also, in an earnings presentation Friday, Fluor — whose team at the […]

Dozens of Savannah River Nuclear Solutions employees suing the Department of Energy contractor over a vaccine mandate got a two-week extension, to Nov. 17, to revise their complaint and respond to the company’s motion to dismiss the suit. The plaintiffs’ response to the motion to dismiss by Savannah River Nuclear Solutions (SRNS), the Fluor-led operations […]

With a major suit filed against a Department of Energy contractor in his backyard, South Carolina Attorney General Alan Wilson (R) said in a Friday press release he is joining a lawsuit brought by the Georgia governor contending the federal government lacks authority to require government contractors to be vaccinated against COVID-19. The lawsuit was […]

There was no word by deadline Friday on the fate of a federal preliminary injunction request that seeks to prevent the Department of Energy contractor running the Oak Ridge National Laboratory in Tennessee from placing a small group of COVID-19 vaccine refusers on unpaid leave. There were no new records on the case posted online […]

A joint venture led by Virginia-based BWX Technologies this week landed a potential $21-billion, long-term contract from the Department of Energy to manage liquid radioactive cleanup and other work at the Savannah River Site in South Carolina, the agency said. DOE’s award of the Integrated Mission Completion Contract to Savannah River Mission Completion, announced in […]

A joint venture led by Virginia-based BWX Technologies has landed a potential $21-billion, long-term contract from the Department of Energy to manage radioactive liquid waste and do other work at the Savannah River Site in South Carolina. DOE’s award of the Integrated Mission Completion Contract to Savannah River Mission Completion, announced in a Wednesday press […]