Savannah River Site

Rep. Joe Wilson (R-S.C.) said last week he favors increasing funding for the Department of Energy’s Savannah River Site in South Carolina by more than $51 million above the Donald Trump administration’s fiscal 2021 budget request, mostly to finance improvements at the H Canyon complex. Wilson noted that H Canyon is the only hardened nuclear […]

The Energy Department’s Hanford Site in Washington state will continue in Phase 1 of restart operations next week, Manager Brian Vance announced Thursday as the facility moves toward more normal work levels while simultaneously trying to avoid the spread of COVID-19. However, there will be a “marginal increase” in on-site staffing at the Waste Treatment […]

Rep. Joe Wilson (R-S.C.) said last week he favors increasing funding for the Department of Energy’s Savannah River Site in South Carolina by more than $51 million above the Donald Trump administration’s fiscal 2021 budget request, mostly to finance improvements at the H Canyon complex. Wilson noted that H Canyon as the only hardened nuclear […]

The chairman’s mark for the House of Representatives’ fiscal 2021 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) would add about $700 million to the top line for the Trump administration’s $5 billion request for defense environmental cleanup operations managed by the Department of Energy. House Armed Services Committee Chairman Adam Smith (D-Wash.) released his mark over the […]

All 16 nuclear cleanup sites overseen by the Energy Department Office of Environmental Management have at least initiated Phase 1 remobilization operations, after on-site work was drastically scaled back this spring in an effort to reduce the potential spread of COVID-19 among the workforce. In addition, Phase 2 is now underway at the Idaho National […]

The Department of Energy on Friday issued the final request for proposals (RFP) for a stand-alone management contract for the Savannah River National Laboratory in South Carolina. The laboratory contract is expected to be worth $380 million per year, or potentially $3.8 billion over 10 years. The agreement carries a five-year base period and an […]

Centerra Group, the incumbent provider of paramilitary security at the Energy Department’s Savannah River Site in South Carolina, has withdrawn a Government Accountability Office (GAO) protest over procurement of a follow-on contract. Centerra filed the protest May 8, but then withdrew it on June 9, according to a notice posted on the GAO website. The […]

Centerra Group, the incumbent provider of paramilitary security at the Energy Department’s Savannah River Site in South Carolina, has withdrawn a Government Accountability Office (GAO) protest over procurement of a follow-on contract. Centerra filed the protest May 8, but then withdrew it on June 9, according to a notice posted on the GAO website. The […]

The Department of Energy on Friday issued the final request for proposals (RFP) for a stand-alone management contract for the Savannah River National Laboratory in South Carolina. The laboratory contract is expected to be worth $380 million per year, or potentially $3.8 billion over 10 years. The agreement carries a five-year base period and an […]

Centerra Group, the incumbent provider of paramilitary security at the Energy Department’s Savannah River Site in South Carolina, has withdrawn a Government Accountability Office (GAO) protest over procurement of a follow-on contract. Centerra filed the protest May 8, but then withdrew it on June 9, according to a notice posted on the GAO website. The […]

The Energy Department’s Savannah River Site in South Carolina has confirmed six more cases of COVID-19 since Thursday, while the Hanford Site in Washington state on Sunday reported another case among its workforce. The Savannah River Site operations office website now lists a total of 42 cases of COVID-19 among roughly 11,000 personnel. Twenty-eight of […]

The Energy Department’s Hanford Site in Washington state has confirmed two more cases of COVID-19 among its workforce since last Friday, which would bring its total to 15. In addition, DOE’s Savannah River Site (SRS) in South Carolina has confirmed its 36th case as of Thursday. Twenty-three of those workers have recovered and returned to […]

Reinhard Knerr, a director at the Energy Department’s Portsmouth-Paducah Project Office (PPPO), will in mid-July become the new permanent manager for the agency’s Carlsbad Field Office in New Mexico. The appointment is part of a flurry of new assignments unveiled this week by the DOE Office of Environmental Management. Knerr is currently federal project director […]

Department of Energy contractor Strategic Management Solutions Inc. (SMSI) has hired industry veteran Matthew Nuckols for the newly created position of executive vice president. A civil engineer, Nuckols has 25 years of project and program management experience at sites within the Energy Department’s Office of Environmental Management and semiautonomous National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) complexes, […]

In an official report to Congress about tritium-safety oversight, the Department of Energy again sought to avoid a legal fight about whether its workforce is subject to recommendations from the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board (DNFSB). The independent federal agency feared the Energy Department might have rejected a 2019 recommendation to bolster the Savannah River Site’s […]

The Energy Department’s Hanford Site in Washington state has confirmed another case of COVID-19 among its workforce, which would be its 14th and the first reported since Friday. In addition, DOE’s Savannah River Site (SRS) in South Carolina has confirmed its 36th case. Twenty-three of those workers have recovered and returned to work. The notices […]

In an official report to Congress about tritium-safety oversight, the Department of Energy again sought to avoid a legal fight about whether its workforce is subject to recommendations from the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board (DNFSB). The independent federal agency feared DOE might have rejected a 2019 recommendation to bolster the Savannah River Site’s ability […]

The Energy Department’s Savannah River Site in South Carolina is now confirming 35 cases of COVID-19 among its workforce, up by three since Friday. The updated total was posted on the SRS website Monday. Twenty-three of those infected with novel coronavirus 2019 have recovered and been cleared to return to work, according to the notice. […]

The Energy Department’s Waste Isolation Pilot Plant in New Mexico received only 67 shipments of transuranic waste during the first five months of the year, compared to 125 during the same period in 2019. The underground disposal site for defense-related TRU received 20 shipments in May. Thirteen came from the Idaho National Laboratory and seven […]

The Department of Energy’s Savannah River Site in South Carolina had to set aside some N95-style masks last month after testing revealed the face wear could not filter enough particulates to be considered a personal respirator capable of protecting users from COVID-19. The independent Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board (DNFSB) disclosed the issue in its […]

The Department of Energy’s Savannah River Site in South Carolina had to set aside some N95-style masks last month after testing revealed the face wear could not filter enough particulates to be considered a personal respirator capable of protecting users from COVID-19. The independent Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board (DNFSB) disclosed the issue in its […]

The Energy Department’s Office of Environmental Management will cut contractors some slack when it comes to work deadlines missed because of the COVID-19 pandemic, according to a policy that became official last week. The nuclear cleanup office “will continue to evaluate COVID-19 impacts on the ability of contractors to perform required work,” according to the […]

The Energy Facility Contractors Group (EFCOG) has re-elected Huntington Ingalls Industries nuclear and environmental group President Michael Lempke as chairman of its Board of Directors for another year, according to a Friday statement. Sandra Fairchild, project services and support director of Energy Department Savannah River Site cleanup contractor Savannah River Remediation, was elected vice chair […]

The Department of Energy’s Savannah River Site in South Carolina had to discard some N95-style masks last month after testing revealed the face wear could not filter enough particulates to be considered a personal respirator capable of protecting users from COVID-19. The independent Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board (DNFSB) disclosed the issue in its most […]

Some of the Energy Department’s largest nuclear cleanup sites are calling more employees back to the jobsite, but asking them to travel solo to help limit the potential spread of COVID-19. Officials for the Savannah River Site in South Carolina, along with the company building the Waste Treatment Plant at the Hanford Site in Washington […]

A federal judge in South Carolina has dismissed the $3.5 million racial discrimination lawsuit filed by a former employee of the security provider at the Energy Department’s Savannah River Site. U.S. District Judge Sherri Lydon ruled May 28 that plaintiff Marcialena Tremble Brown missed the deadline to file her case against her former employer, Centerra-SRS. […]

The Energy Department’s Savannah River Site (SRS) in South Carolina as of Friday has confirmed 23 cases of COVID-19 among its workforce. That is up from 22 reported at the end of last week. Sixteen of those employees have recovered and returned to work, a spokeswoman for the DOE’s SRS operations said by email. Savannah […]

The fire chief for the Department of Energy’s Hanford Site in Washington state has died, contractor Mission Support Alliance announced this week. Norbert Kuhman died May 29 at age 63, according to an obituary published Wednesday in the Tri-City Herald newspaper. Kuhman had served in the position since February 2014. Management of the 145-person Hanford Fire […]

Starting Monday, more than half of the Energy Department’s nuclear cleanup sites will be in Phase 1 of a gradual return to normal operations that have been effectively suspended since March during the COVID-19 pandemic. Environmental remediation operations at the Portsmouth Site in Ohio, the Paducah Site in Kentucky, and the Los Alamos National Laboratory […]

Cold War nuclear waste will pile up at the Los Alamos National Laboratory under the National Nuclear Security Administration’s plan to make nuclear-weapon cores there, the New Mexico Environment Department told the agency last month. In six pages of comments about the plan, the state agency also challenged the National Nuclear Security Administration’s (NNSA) March […]