Savannah River Site

The Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board (DNFSB) posted an open hearing that was scheduled for next week in Aiken, S.C., about the future of the Savannah River Site. The independent federal nuclear health and safety watchdog temporarily called off the event because of witness availability, and has not rescheduled it yet, a board spokesperson said […]

A facility planned for the Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico could produce more nuclear-warhead cores while generating less transuranic waste than the plutonium pit factory planned at the Savannah River Site in South Carolina, according to environmental documents published this year by the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA). The agency aims to manufacture […]

PHOENIX — The Energy Department’s Office of Environmental Management (EM) is no longer producing a public roundup of solicitation timelines for cleanup jobs within the nuclear weapons complex, a procurement official said here Tuesday. “We no longer have a procurement schedule on the website,” Norbert Doyle, EM deputy assistant secretary for acquisition and program management, […]

Confirming what appeared intuitively obvious, the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) said Tuesday the Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico will have to manufacture 80 nuclear-weapon cores a year by itself in 2030, if a planned facility at the Savannah River Site in South Carolina is not ready by then. Planned upgrades for Los […]

The Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board (DNFSB) on Tuesday canceled a planned March 19 open hearing in Aiken, S.C., about the future of the Savannah River Site. The independent federal nuclear health and safety watchdog called off the event because of witness availability, a board spokesperson said.  The DNFSB had proposed witnesses including: William (Ike) […]

A federal judge last week dismissed a discrimination lawsuit filed by a former employee of the security contractor at the Department of Energy’s Savannah River Site in South Carolina, ruling there was no proof race played a role in the worker’s termination. In the March 6 order, U.S. District Judge Terry Wooten ruled in favor […]

PHOENIX – The Department of Energy manager for the Savannah River Site said Tuesday he would not be surprised if the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) one day assumes ownership of the operations contract for the South Carolina complex. The semiautonomous DOE nuclear-weapon steward is already funding more of the work at Savannah River, SRS […]

PHOENIX — By the end of 2020, the Energy Department’s Office of Environmental Management expects to start operation of facilities in Idaho and South Carolina that will convert radioactive tank waste into stable forms for eventual disposal, agency officials said here Monday. The Salt Waste Processing Facility (SWPF) at the Savannah River Site in South […]

The liquid waste management contractor at the Department of Energy’s Savannah River Site in South Carolina will pay more than $267,000 to a former employee in attorney’s fees, after already paying nearly $1.8 million in her discrimination lawsuit. Savannah River Remediation (SRR) did not file any objections or responses to Adrienne Saulsberry’s Feb. 6 motion […]

An Energy Department working group is still grappling with recommended changes on management of the payments in lieu of taxes (PILT) program for communities around nuclear facilities, Energy Secretary Dan Brouillette said Feb. 27. During a hearing of the House Appropriations energy and water subcommittee, the secretary promised to personally brief Rep. Mike Simpson (R-Idaho) […]

Jury selection and trial are slated for late June in a $75,000 negligence lawsuit against the management and operations contractor for the Department of Energy’s Savannah River Site in South Carolina. According to a scheduling order filed Friday, Henry Bradley’s case against Savannah River Nuclear Solutions (SRNS) will head to trial on or after June […]

Jury selection and trial are slated for late June in a $75,000 negligence lawsuit against the management and operations contractor for the Department of Energy’s Savannah River Site in South Carolina. According to a scheduling order filed Friday, Henry Bradley’s case against Savannah River Nuclear Solutions (SRNS) will head to trial on or after June […]

The Energy Department’s top nuclear cleanup official at the Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) in New Mexico has called it a career. Doug Hintze’s last day as manager of DOE’s Environmental Management Los Alamos Field Office was Friday, an agency spokesman confirmed Monday. Hintze spent more than 12 years in supervisory positions for the Office […]

The $470 million Salt Waste Processing Facility (SWPF) at the Department of Energy’s Savannah River Site in South Carolina is on track to begin operations this month, following completion in February of a readiness assessment, according to builder Parsons. Both the Energy Department and Parsons said via email this week that the agency’s readiness assessment […]

The $470 million Salt Waste Processing Facility (SWPF) at the Department of Energy’s Savannah River Site in South Carolina is on track to begin operations this month, following completion in February of a readiness assessment, according to builder Parsons. Both the Energy Department and Parsons said via email this week that the agency’s readiness assessment […]

Jury selection and trial are slated for late June in a $75,000 negligence lawsuit against the management and operations contractor for the Department of Energy’s Savannah River Site in South Carolina. According to a scheduling order filed Friday, Henry Bradley’s case against Savannah River Nuclear Solutions (SRNS) will head to trial on or after June […]

An Energy Department working group is still grappling with recommended changes on management of the payments in lieu of taxes (PILT) program for communities around nuclear facilities, Energy Secretary Dan Brouillette said Thursday. During a hearing of the House Appropriations energy and water subcommittee, the secretary promised to personally brief Rep. Mike Simpson (R-Idaho) on […]

As the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) seeks a larger-than-expected budget increase for 2021, another branch of the Department of Energy is seeking much less funding for cleanup of excess nuclear-weapon production sites The Office of Environmental Management (EM) is requesting about $200 million for remediation at NNSA-owned facilities in the budget year beginning Oct. 1, […]

In a housecleaning move to continue wrapping up legal issues surrounding the terminated plutonium recycling plant at the Savannah River Site, a federal judge in South Carolina last week officially dismissed a 2018 state lawsuit against the Department of Energy. In the two-page decision filed on Feb. 20, District Judge J. Michelle Childs wrote that […]

The Department of Energy’s Savannah River Site in South Carolina enacted an emergency response early this week when a vehicle attempting to enter a secure area activated explosive detection systems. Site barricades remained open through the duration of the emergency response Tuesday morning and there was “no indication of a consequence beyond the Savannah River […]

The National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) and the Pentagon plan deploy W87-0 warheads, without new plutonium pit cores, on some Ground-Based Strategic Deterrent intercontinental ballistic missiles missiles. The plan, confirmed Thursday through an NNSA spokesperson, could give the semiautonomous Department of Energy nuclear-weapon agency more time to get a pair of planned pit factories up […]

While remediation is nearly complete at a couple of the 16 sites overseen by the Energy Department’s Office of Environmental Management, other cleanup efforts could last late into this century, according a roundup included in the Donald Trump administration’s budget request for fiscal 2021. The Energy Department announced in June 2019 that demolition of facilities […]

Liquid waste management at the Department of Energy’s Savannah River Site in South Carolina is in line to receive $1.05 billion in fiscal 2021, including a significant spike in spending on treatment activities that would cover the soon-to-be-operational Salt Waste Processing Facility (SWPF). The $1.05 billion, if approved by Congress, would be a $144.7 million […]

Amentum, the Maryland-based successor to AECOM’s Management Services branch, announced a pair of executive promotions this week. Tom Foster, president and project manager at the Savannah River Remediation joint venture in South Carolina, on Wednesday was named chief operating officer for Amentum’s Nuclear & Environment business unit. On Thursday, the company said it is promoting […]

Operations at the Moab Uranium Mill Tailings Remedial Action (UMTRA) project in Utah resumed within just a few days earlier this month after a truck overturned while carrying a load of waste, an Energy Department spokesperson confirmed Tuesday. A truck carrying a container of uranium mill tailings rolled onto its side while rounding a corner […]

The Energy Department Office of Environmental Management is taking resumes for the permanent job of managing the Hanford Site in Washington state, a post currently held by Brian Vance. In addition, Environmental Management soon seek applicants to replace Jeff Griffin, the associate principal deputy assistant secretary for field operations, who is leaving DOE to join […]

Nuclear remediation sites overseen by the Energy Department’s Office of Environmental Management would receive another small bump in funding for safeguards and security in fiscal 2021, according to budget tables released by the Donald Trump administration early Monday. The proposal for $321 million in the budget year beginning Oct. 1 is a step up from […]

While BWX Technologies lost out on a multibillion-dollar remediation contract at the Hanford Site in Washington state, President and CEO Rex Geveden said Tuesday he is optimistic about a “robust” pipeline of potential Energy Department projects. “Unfortunately, we were not awarded the Hanford Central Plateau Cleanup contract,” Geveden said during the Lynchburg, Va.-based company’s quarterly […]

Amentum, the Maryland-based successor to AECOM’s Management Services branch, announced a pair of executive promotions this week. Tom Foster, president and project manager at the Savannah River Remediation joint venture in South Carolina, on Wednesday was named chief operating officer for Amentum’s Nuclear & Environment business unit. On Thursday, the company said it is promoting […]

A former head of the prime contractor for the Energy Department’s Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) in New Mexico, Philip Breidenbach, will lead the vendor team in charge of managing liquid waste at the Savannah River Site in South Carolina. Amentum, the successor to AECOM’s government contracting branch, announced Thursday that Breidenbach will replace Tom […]