Savannah River Site

A roughly $1-trillion infrastructure bill negotiated by a bipartisan group of senators could provide Superfund sites with more than $3 billion for cleanup over the next five years. The Bipartisan Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act would increase federal investment in projects including roads, bridges and broadband —and quicken cleanup of environmental contamination through $3.5 billion […]

The Savannah River Site Citizens Advisory Board heard Monday the proposed fiscal 2022 budget proposal for the Department of Energy site in South Carolina includes $9 million toward development of a new emergency operations center. The minibus appropriations package scheduled for debate Tuesday afternoon on the House floor also includes the $9 million for the […]

Like a spending bill passed earlier this month by the House Appropriation Committee, the National Defense Authorization Act that cleared Senate Armed Services last week,restores $5.7 million in community funds the Joe Biden White House left out of its fiscal 2022 budget request for the Department of Energy’s Savannah River Site in South Carolina. That […]

The Department of Energy’s Office of Environmental Management appointed Michael Mikolanis to lead its Los Alamos National Laboratory field office in New Mexico, a DOE advisory board learned Wednesday. The Mikolanis appointment was announced to the Northern New Mexico Citizens’ Advisory Board by Lee Bishop, DOE’s deputy designated federal officer, during a virtual meeting. Mikolanis, […]

Wednesday’s deadline for members of the House of Representatives to submit amendments to a six-bill spending package that includes the House Appropriations Committee’s 2022 spending proposal for the Department of Energy, appears to have passed without effortrs to dramatically alter the chamber’s nearly $7.8-billion budget for the Office of Environmental Management. A deadline scan of […]

The Department of Energy’s Office of Environmental Management appointed Michael Mikolanis to lead its Los Alamos National Laboratory field office in New Mexico, a DOE advisory board learned Wednesday. The Mikolanis appointment was announced to the Northern New Mexico Citizens’ Advisory Board by Lee Bishop, DOE’s deputy designated federal officer, during a virtual meeting. Mikolanis, […]

The House Appropriations Committee proposed a marginal increase for the Department of Energy’s Office of Environmental Management, to $7.8 billion from the $7.6 in 2021, as part of a 2022 spending bill sent to the House floor Friday. The full committee advanced the energy and water spending package on a 33-to-24 vote party line vote, […]

Two protests filed with the Government Accountability Office over long-term Department of Energy contracts awards, each worth more than a billion dollars, were withdrawn this week. Bechtel-led Idaho Remediation on Tuesday withdrew its challenge of a $6.4-billion nuclear contract at the Idaho National Laboratory awarded in May to a Jacobs-led team, Idaho Environmental Coalition.  “The […]

There has been no big retirement spike among federal employees at the Department of Energy’s nuclear cleanup office during the COVID-19 pandemic but officials who spoke at a virtual hearing this week fear that could change.  The assessment was offered by William “Ike” White, acting assistant secretary for environmental management, in response to a question […]

The legacy cleanup contractor for the Department of Energy’s Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico has shipped off a bottle of unidentified liquid found around a pothole along a contaminated stretch of a public road for analysis. On July 8, Newport News Nuclear-BWXT Los Alamos (N3B) discovered an intact 500-milliliter amber glass bottle containing […]

Since starting up in October, the Salt Waste Processing Facility at the Department of Energy’s Savannah River Site in South Carolina has processed 1 million gallons of radioactive tank waste, plant builder Parson wrote this week in press release. The 140,000-square-foot Salt Waste Processing Facility (SWPF) is the center of DOE plans to empty 36 […]

Since starting up in October, the Salt Waste Processing Facility at the Department of Energy’s Savannah River Site in South Carolina has processed 1 million gallons of radioactive tank waste, plant builder Parson wrote this week in press release. The 140,000-square-foot Salt Waste Processing Facility (SWPF) is the center of DOE plans to empty 36 […]

There has been no big retirement spike among federal employees at the Department of Energy’s nuclear cleanup office during the COVID-19 pandemic but officials who spoke at a virtual hearing Tuesday fear that could change.  The assessment was offered by William “Ike” White, acting assistant secretary for environmental management, in response to a question from […]

The Savannah River Site has been running a four-shift glove box operation at its main plutonium-disposal program in the site’s K-Area for a little more than a month now, a site spokesperson said Tuesday. The Aiken, S.C., site ratcheted up to four shifts from two on June 1, the spokesperson wrote in an email to […]

The Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board is holding a long-anticipated virtual public hearing today on ongoing safety issues for tritium production and other work at the Department of Energy’s Savannah River Site in South Carolina. Witnesses listed on the agenda include the acting assistant secretary for the DOE Office of Environmental Management, William “Ike” White […]

The Department of Energy now expects to restart an underground fan at the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant in New Mexico by early fall as a means to bolster airflow until a new permanent ventilation system is operational in a few years.  Restarting the 700-C underground fan should add about 90,000 cubic feet per minute, bringing […]

Environmentalists this week sued to stop the National Nuclear Security Administration from building a plutonium pit plant at the Savannah River Site in Aiken, S.C., alleging violation of environmental law. The National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) should have to reopen the environmental record for the planned Savannah River Plutonium Pit Production Facility (SRPPF) and a […]

After two presidential administrations allowed the Department of Energy’s Savannah River Site Citizens Advisory Board to dwindle to only seven out of a potential 25 members, the panel voted this week to adopt a policy to avoid such staffing shortages in the future. The Citizens Advisory Board voted during an online meeting carried Monday via […]

SOC, a Day & Zimmermann company, filed a bid protest June 28 over the Department of Energy’s decision to stand by a February award of a security services contract to Securitas-led SRS Critical Infrastructure Security. It is the second challenge filed by a losing bidder with the Government Accountability Office (GAO) over the  $1-billion contract […]

SOC, a Day & Zimmermann company, filed a bid protest June 28 over the Department of Energy’s decision to stand by a February award of a security services contract to Securitas-led SRS Critical Infrastructure Security. It is the second challenge filed by a losing bidder with the Government Accountability Office (GAO) over the  $1-billion contract awarded at […]

A U.S. District Court judge in South Carolina agreed last week to grant a Department of Justice motion to dismiss a False Claims Act lawsuit filed in 2016 against Fluor and the Fluor-led management contractor for the Department of Energy’s Savannah River Site over millions of dollars in reimbursement for home office expenses. The one-page […]

A U.S. District Court judge in South Carolina agreed Thursday to grant a Department of Justice motion to dismiss a False Claims Act lawsuit filed in 2016 against Fluor and the Fluor-led management contractor for the Department of Energy’s Savannah River Site over millions of dollars in reimbursement for home office expenses. The one-page order […]

SOC, a Day & Zimmermann company, filed a bid protest June 28 over the Department of Energy’s decision to stand by a February award of a security services contract to Securitas-led SRS Critical Infrastructure Security. It is the second challenge filed by a losing bidder with the Government Accountability Office (GAO) over the  $1-billion contract […]

After two presidential administrations allowed the Department of Energy’s Savannah River Site Citizens Advisory Board to dwindle to only seven out of a potential 25 members, the panel voted Monday to adopt a policy to avoid such staffing shortages in the future. The Citizens Advisory Board voted during an online meeting carried via Youtube to […]

A U.S. District Court judge in South Carolina agreed Thursday to grant a Department of Justice motion to dismiss a False Claims Act lawsuit filed in 2016 against Fluor and the Fluor-led management contractor for the Department of Energy’s Savannah River Site over millions of dollars in reimbursement for home office expenses. The one-page order […]

Contractors serving the Department of Energy’s weapons complex are watching eagerly to see what contract awards are made for a trio of solicitations, including one for a new prime at the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant in New Mexico and multibillion-dollar awards elsewhere in the complex. Questions were due over the weekend, and proposals are due […]

Later this year and sometime next year, the Savannah River Site will install a crucial pair of upgrades at the H-Canyon chemical separations facility to help site personnel prepare plutonium from a Japanese reactor for on-site solidification and, eventually, deep-geologic disposal elsewhere. H-Canyon will get a new tank later this year and a new electrolytic […]

The acting head of DOE nuclear weapons programs on Thursday passed on a chance to say that a planned plutonium pit factory in South Carolina will cost as much per unit as a cheaper pit factory planned for New Mexico. The National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) plans a larger pit factory, the Savannah River Plutonium […]

A group composed of Battelle and a quintet of universities from two states is now operating the Department of Energy’s Savannah River National Laboratory in South Carolina. The Battelle Savannah River Alliance (BSRA) took over management of the lab Monday, officially announcing the news via Twitter: “Proud to be @Battelle’s newest national laboratory! Our team […]

Secretary of Energy Jennifer Granholm told the Senate Armed Services Committee Thursday morning her agency’s Office of Environmental Management remains on track to commence treatment of low-activity tank waste by the end of 2023 at the Hanford Site in Washington state. The startup of direct feed low activity waste (DFLAW) operations would mark the beginning […]