Savannah River Site

Department of Energy contractor Parsons recently completed construction of a $13 million facility that will expedite treatment of liquid salt waste at the Savannah River Site in South Carolina. Parsons announced Monday it has finished building the Next Generation Solvent (NGS) facility and has it in operational standby, awaiting startup of the site’s Salt Waste […]

A motorist who died in an automobile crash inside the Savannah River Site in South Carolina on Thursday was not an employee of the Department of Energy or its contractors. “It wasn’t connected to our work,” a DOE spokesperson said by email. “It does appear that it was just a tragic accident — one of […]

In a paperwork milestone that marks another coffin nail for the canceled project, the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission on Friday terminated MOX Services’ license to build the Mixed Oxide Fuel Fabrication Facility (MFFF) at the Savannah River Site in Aiken, S.C. A 1998 federal law gave the industry regulator responsibility for authorizing construction of the MFFF, […]

AECOM-led Savannah River Remediation hired 378 new workers in 2018, and expects to bring on a similar number of employees this year under its liquid waste contract at the Energy Department’s Savannah River Site in South Carolina. Energy Department cleanup sites such as Savannah River have been pushing hiring programs in recent years to offset […]

Updated safety documents for a ventilation tunnel at the Savannah River Site’s H Canyon facility are expected to be approved this summer and implemented in the fall, according to the Department of Energy. The documents should reflect a different approach to how the 310-square-mile site will handle incidents at the facility during an earthquake or […]

The waiting game for re-award of a multibillion-dollar contract for liquid waste management at the Department of Energy’s Savannah River Site in South Carolina might be over soon, an AECOM executive said Tuesday. “We expect the Savannah River Site to be awarded any day now,” Chief Operating Officer Randall Wotring said during the company’s quarterly […]

MOX Services, the prime contractor for the canceled Mixed Oxide Fuel Fabrication Facility (MFFF) at the Savannah River Site in Aiken, S.C., will lay off roughly another 400 people on April 1, according to South Carolina’s quasi-official unemployment services. MOX Services announced the impending layoffs Monday, the same day almost 450 workers were hit by […]

With half a metric ton of plutonium already shipped there over the state’s objections, Nevada on Thursday asked a federal judge to block the Department of Energy from sending any more of the fissile material. In a request for a preliminary injunction filed Thursday, the state asked U.S. District Judge Miranda Du to stop DOE […]

The federal government is holding on to more than $600,000 it seized over three years ago from a Savannah River Site subcontractor who is now serving prison time for committing fraud while working at the Mixed Oxide Fuel Fabrication Facility (MFFF). In a Jan. 30 filing in the fraud case, Carrie Fisher Sherard, an attorney with […]

The waiting game for re-award of a multibillion-dollar contract for liquid waste management at the Department of Energy’s Savannah River Site in South Carolina might be over soon, an AECOM executive said Tuesday. “We expect the Savannah River Site to be awarded any day now,” Chief Operating Officer Randall Wotring said during the company’s quarterly […]

Nevada on Monday appealed a federal judge’s refusal to block a shipment of plutonium into the state, even though the Department of Energy material in question reached its destination late last year. The state filed notice of its appeal in the U.S. District Court for Nevada, which last week denied Nevada a preliminary injunction it […]

MOX Services, the prime contractor for the canceled Mixed Oxide Fuel Fabrication Facility (MFFF) at the Savannah River Site in Aiken, S.C., will lay off another 369 people on April 1, according to South Carolina’s quasi-official unemployment services. MOX Services announced the impending layoffs Monday, the same day almost 450 workers left the project for […]

Nevada’s Senate delegation wants unclassified and classified briefings from the Department of Energy about the clandestine shipment last year of half a metric ton of plutonium to the Nevada National Security Site. Sens. Catherine Cortez Masto (D-Nev.) and Jacky Rosen (D-Nev.) made the request in a Feb. 1 letter to Energy Secretary Rick Perry. Last week, […]

Roughly another 440 people were scheduled to be laid off today from the Mixed Oxide Fuel Fabrication at the Savannah River Site in Aiken, S.C., in the second wave of job cuts at the cancelled plutonium-disposal plant. Combined with the first swing of the axe in January, the Mixed Oxide Fuel Fabrication Facility (MFFF) was […]

The Energy Department’s Waste Isolation Pilot Plant near Carlsbad, N.M., is expected to receive 330 shipments of transuranic waste over the next 12 months, with some coming from sites that have not shipped material in years. The Energy Department and its WIPP contractor, Nuclear Waste Partnership, held a breakfast presentation Monday for New Mexico lawmakers, […]

Roofing repairs at the Savannah River Site’s (SRS) H Canyon processing facility will begin this summer after rainwater dripped through a crack in the roof to the ground floor of the facility. The water became contaminated as it passed through the nuclear materials processing area on its way to the first level of the canyon, Monte […]

With the partial shutdown of the federal government resolved, at least until mid-February, a lawsuit between the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) and the prime contractor for the canceled Mixed Oxide Fuel Fabrication Facility (MFFF) has resumed, according to a court filing this week. The $200-million lawsuit ground to a halt during the 35-day shutdown, […]

The National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) “before November 2018” moved roughly half a ton of weapon-usable plutonium to the Nevada National Security Site from the Savannah River Site, in Aiken, S.C., the agency said Wednesday in a bombshell court filing. The announcement caught Nevada's governor and congressional delegation by surprise, prompting an outpouring of online […]

The Savannah River Site’s Defense Waste Processing Facility (DWPF) should produce 300 canisters of treated sludge waste per year once the Salt Waste Processing Facility (SWPF) comes online later in 2019. That would be significantly higher than the 136 canisters produced in fiscal 2016, the 52 in fiscal 2017, and 18 in the last fiscal […]

The incumbent management and operations contractor and the vendor in charge of liquid waste at the Energy Department’s Savannah River Site in South Carolina both received at least 90 percent of their potential fee in new performance evaluations. Fluor-led site prime Savannah River Nuclear Solutions (SRNS) and AECOM-led Savannah River Remediation both received “excellent” overall […]

Roofing repairs at the Savannah River Site’s (SRS) H Canyon processing facility will begin this summer after rainwater dripped through a crack in the roof to the ground floor of the facility. The water became contaminated as it passed through the nuclear materials processing area on its way to the first level of the canyon, Monte […]

Cleaning up the contamination left by Cold War nuclear weapons operations could cost the Energy Department’s Office of Environmental Management (EM) another $377 billion, or $109 billion more than last year’s estimate, the Government Accountability Office said in a report Tuesday. Agency cleanup officials interviewed by GAO are aware of the increase, but have not […]

The Department of Energy has initiated a major addition to the liquid waste mission at the Department of Savannah River Site in South Carolina, starting with a nine-month trial run. Officials at the 310-square-mile facility near Aiken, S.C., said the tank closure cesium removal (TCCR) mission should process hundreds of thousands of gallons of salt […]

The Energy Department’s Waste Isolation Pilot Plant near Carlsbad, N.M., expects to receive 330 shipments of transuranic waste over the next 12 months, with some coming from sites that have not shipped material in years. The Energy Department and its WIPP contractor, Nuclear Waste Partnership, held a legislative breakfast presentation Monday for New Mexico lawmakers, […]

With the partial shutdown of the federal government resolved, at least until mid-February, a lawsuit between the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) and the prime contractor for the canceled Mixed Oxide Fuel Fabrication Facility (MFFF) has resumed, according to a Monday court filing. The $200-million lawsuit ground to a halt during the 35-day shutdown, during […]

The Department of Energy has initiated a major addition to the liquid waste mission at the Department of Savannah River Site in South Carolina, starting with a nine-month trial run. Officials at the 310-square-mile facility near Aiken, S.C., said the tank closure cesium removal (TCCR) mission should process hundreds of thousands of gallons of salt waste […]

The incumbent management and operations contractor and the vendor in charge of liquid waste at the Energy Department’s Savannah River Site in South Carolina both received at least 90 percent of their potential fee in new performance evaluations. Fluor-led site prime Savannah River Nuclear Solutions (SRNS) and AECOM-led Savannah River Remediation both received “excellent” overall […]

Despite delays in startup, the Savannah River Site’s $2.3 billion Salt Waste Processing Facility (SWPF) is meeting all of its safety and functionality requirements, with no suggested areas of improvement, according to a new review from the U.S. Department of Energy. The DOE Office of Enterprise Assessments (EA) on Tuesday released five reports on safety […]

Despite delays in startup, the Savannah River Site’s $2.3 billion Salt Waste Processing Facility (SWPF) is meeting all of its safety and functionality requirements, with no suggested areas of improvement, according to a new review from the U.S. Department of Energy. The DOE Office of Enterprise Assessments (EA) on Tuesday released five reports on safety […]

The Energy Facility Contractors Group (EFCOG) has thrown its weight behind the Department of Energy’s case for reinterpreting the definition of high-level radioactive waste based primarily on its risk characteristics and not its source of origin. The organization, representing about 100 DOE contractors, filed its formal comments endorsing the reinterpretation shortly after the department proposed […]