Savannah River Site

The Department of Energy’s Savannah River Site in South Carolina already has about 65% of staff back working inside the fence, the top manager there said Friday. Mike Budney, manager of DOE Office of Environmental Management (EM) operations at Savannah River made the comments during his presentation to the South Carolina Nuclear Advisory Council. “That’s […]

Tank waste operations, particularly a project at the Idaho National Laboratory, are hard hit by workplace restrictions brought about by the COVID-19 pandemic, the No. 2 official at the Department of Energy cleanup office said Monday. A year ago, the DOE Office of Environmental Management (EM) expected the Integrated Waste Treatment Unit (IWTU) at Idaho […]

The Department of Energy Office of Environmental Management announced Thursday it has resumed operation of the Tank-Closure Cesium Removal module following an extended maintenance outage that started in summer 2019 after when an aging transfer pump stopped working.  The pump, used to prepare salt waste inside Tank 10 for cesium removal, was replaced this past […]

South Carolina State University President James Clark said Friday his institution is part of a team of colleges vying to run the Energy Department’s Savannah River National Laboratory. The historically black public university in Orangeburg, S.C., is a member of a team with Clemson, the University of South Carolina, Georgia Tech and the University of […]

Bill Moore, a geologist with more than 25 years of experience in the environmental cleanup business, is the new executive director for the Tennessee-based Energy Technology and Environmental Business Association. Bob Eby, the organization’s board president, announced Moore’s appointment this week during the trade group’s first virtual 2020 Business Opportunities and Technical Conference. Moore has […]

Two members of the security detail for Energy Secretary Dan Brouillette tested positive for the coronavirus Thursday, a spokeswoman for the agency chief said. “Although Secretary Brouillette tested negative and is not exhibiting symptoms, out of an abundance of caution, the Secretary and traveling staff will be returning by vehicle to Washing and following” guidance […]

While some work at the Department of Energy’s Office of Environmental Management is being delayed by the COVID-19 pandemic, contract procurement has hardly missed a beat, officials told an online industry conference this week. Thus far in 2020 there have been “almost no drop offs [and] ironically enough, almost some acceleration” in contract solicitations and […]

Nuclear cleanup contractors for the Department of Energy’s Office of Environmental Management received $426-million during fiscal 2020 to help cushion the financial impact of the COVID-19 pandemic for employees not able to report to work. That’s according to a spokesperson for the agency’s Office of Environmental Management (EM). The figure represents reimbursements EM paid to […]

Comments are due Thursday on a request for information notice issued by the Department of Energy on plans to build the Advanced Manufacturing Collaborative facility near the Savannah River National Laboratory site in South Carolina. The estimated $45-million facility will be built on about five acres within the campus of the University of South Carolina-Aiken […]

As of mid-week, there had been a total of 175 confirmed cases of COVID-19 at the Department of Energy’s Hanford Site in Washington state, Hanford Site Manager Brian Vance said Wednesday during a webcast advisory board meeting. Vance, the Hanford site manager, provided the number in response to a question from a member of the […]

The liquid waste contractor at the Department of Energy’s Savannah River Site in South Carolina hired 151 new employees with an average age of 37 during fiscal 2020. As a result, the average age of the 2,600-person workforce at Amentum-led Savannah River Remediation (SRR) is 48-years old, Phil Breidenbach, president & project manager of the […]

Hot commissioning of the Salt Waste Processing Facility at the Department of Energy’s Savannah River Site in South Carolina is underway, the agency said this week in a press release. On Monday afternoon, Amentum-led Savannah River Remediation, the Savannah River Site (SRS) liquid waste contractor, transferred 4,000 gallons of waste from the H Tank Farm […]

The liquid waste contractor at the Department of Energy’s Savannah River Site in South Carolina hired 151 new employees with an average age of 37 during fiscal 2020. As a result, the average age of the 2,600-person workforce at Amentum-led Savannah River Remediation (SRR) is 48-years old, Phil Breidenbach, president & project manager of the […]

Hot commissioning of the Salt Waste Processing Facility at the Department of Energy’s Savannah River Site in South Carolina is underway, the agency said in a Tuesday press release. On Monday afternoon, Amentum-led Savannah River Remediation, the Savannah River Site (SRS) liquid waste contractor, transferred 4,000 gallons of waste from the H Tank Farm to […]

A Department of Energy advisory board is drafting a report to help the Office of Environmental Management develop a complex-wide priorities list for nuclear cleanup complex. The DOE Environmental Management Advisory Board could vote later this fall on a subcommittee report into how to make remediation of 16 Cold War and Manhattan Project sites more […]

Idaho-based North Wind Group got a three-year, $4.5-million task order for cleanup work at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in California. The Department of Energy’s Office of Environmental Management announced the small-business set-aside award to North Wind this week in a press release. The new task order was issued under an existing indefinite-delivery, indefinite-quantity contract […]

For the first time in 15 years, the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in California is making shipments of transuranic waste to the Department of Energy’s Waste Isolation Pilot Plant in New Mexico, a lab spokesman said this week. Three shipments left Lawrence Livermore for WIPP during the week of Sept. 21, one week after a […]

There are 74 active cases of COVID-19 currently within the Department of Energy’s Office of Environmental Management’s nuclear cleanup sites, an agency spokesperson said late Thursday. That is slightly up from the 70 active cases the prior week across the 16 former Cold War and Manhattan Project sites overseen by the office, but still less […]

The potential $21-billion Department of Energy solicitation for liquid waste management and related environmental work at the Savannah River Site in South Carolina is on the street. In a notice posted Thursday on a procurement website, the DOE Office of Environmental Management issued the final request for proposals (RFP) for what it calls the Savannah […]

A COVID-19 outbreak hit the Salt Waste Processing Facility roughly a month before its scheduled opening at the Department of Energy’s Savannah River Site in South Carolina, but the outbreak is under control now, the facility’s prime contractor said Wednesday. More than 40 members of the operations or maintenance staff for Parsons were unavailable during […]

The Department of Energy’s Savannah River Site in South Carolina has completed its 8-gallon pilot shipment of wastewater to a private disposal site in West Texas under the agency’s new interpretation of high-level waste. The shipment from the Savannah River Defense Waste Processing Facility to Waste Control Specialists (WCS) in Andrew County, Texas, concluded Tuesday, […]

Most Americans don’t like the way 2020 is playing out, at least if social media posts are any guide, and the first eight months of the year have not gone well for productivity at the Department of Energy’s Waste Isolation Pilot Plant in New Mexico. There have been 121 shipments from Jan. 1 through Aug. […]

Expect the Department of Energy to issue the long-anticipated paramilitary security contract for the Savannah River Site in South Carolina within the next few months, a federal official said Monday. Michael Budney, the head of the department’s Savannah River Site’s (SRS) operations office, made the assessment during Monday’s online meeting of the Savannah River Site’s […]

The National Nuclear Security Administration finished an environmental review that will could the civilian nuclear-weapons agency to formalize a decision to make plutonium pits in South Carolina within about a month. The semiautonomous Department of Energy agency approved the final site-specific environmental impact statement this week and published it Friday. A formal record of decision […]

More than half of the Department of Energy’s 11,000-member workforce at the Hanford Site are back inside the fence, a Department of Energy official said Wednesday. Hanford is bringing 190 additional workers back onsite this week, DOE’s Erik Olds, told the Hanford Advisory Board during an online meeting. That brings the current number of federal […]

Paul Dabbar, the Department of Energy’s undersecretary for science, joined lawmakers and other officials at the Savannah River Site in South Carolina Thursday to dedicate the long-anticipated Salt Waste Processing Facility. The plant “is the final piece to what is an impressive and highly successful liquid waste program here,” Dabbar said in a DOE press […]

Expect the Department of Energy to issue the long-anticipated paramilitary security contract for the Savannah River Site in South Carolina within the next few months, a federal official said Monday. Michael Budney, the head of the department’s Savannah River Site’s (SRS) operations office, made the assessment during Monday’s online meeting of the Savannah River Site’s […]

The National Nuclear Security Administration will soon finish an environmental review that will allow the civilian nuclear-weapons agency to formalize a decision to make plutonium pits in South Carolina, a source said Wednesday. The semiautonomous Department of Energy agency had approved the final site-specific environmental impact statement this week and could publish it any day, […]

The level of coronavirus infections in South Carolina is still high enough to keep the Department of Energy from moving any closer to pre-COVID-19 operations at the Savannah River Site, a senior site official said Monday. The DOE complex next to the Georgia line will probably stay in Phase 1 of the agency’s COVID-19 remobilization […]

The Energy Department’s Office of Environmental Management says 8 gallons of recycled wastewater from the Savannah River Site in South Carolina can be hauled to a Texas disposal facility with minimal risk. Shipping the waste from the SRS Defense Waste Processing Facility to the Waste Control Specialists disposal site in West Texas will be the […]