Savannah River Site

The Energy Department’s Office of Environmental Management expects to award a trio of big contracts, two of them re-awards following protests by losing bidders, by the end of the year. The department hopes this month to reissue both the liquid waste management contract at the Savannah River Site in South Carolina and a consolidated technical […]

A metric ton of plutonium once slated to be de-weaponized forever would instead be used to help the Department of Energy manufacture new nuclear-weapon cores some time in the next decade, the agency confirmed Monday. The fissile material is part of a large tranche declared surplus to defense needs by the Bill Clinton administration in […]

A federal judge has scheduled a hearing for Oct. 17 to addressing scheduling and other matters in a former employee’s discrimination lawsuit against the liquid waste manager at the Department of Energy’s Savannah River Site in South Carolina. The hope is to expedite progress in the case filed more than two years ago, according to […]

The Department of Energy has denied a local advisory group’s request to make treated liquid waste at the Savannah River Site in South Carolina eligible for disposal at the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) in New Mexico. The request, submitted in July by the SRS Citizens Advisory Board (CAB), asked the Energy Department to recharacterize […]

When President Donald Trump signed a multiagency appropriations package Sept. 21, it assured the Energy Department’s Office of Environmental Management about $7.2 billion in funding for the 2019 fiscal year starting Oct. 1. The DOE-funding “minibus,” approved by Congress earlier this month, provides the largest budget for the department’s nuclear cleanup office since it received […]

Less than two months after stepping aside as the No. 2 official in the Energy Department’s nuclear cleanup office, James Owendoff is taking a new job within the agency. Starting next week, Owendoff will be DOE-wide chief risk officer, a senior executive position within the office of the Chief Financial Officer John Vonglis. He formally […]

Parsons could end up sacrificing a significant amount of its fee for delays in startup of the Salt Waste Processing Facility (SWPF) at the Energy Department’s Savannah River Site in South Carolina, a DOE official said Monday. Parsons was expected this week to submit a new cost and schedule update for the facility, SWPF Federal […]

The Department of Energy and South Carolina are set today to deliver oral arguments in a pair of appeals cases over the future of plutonium and plutonium operations in the state. Arguments in both cases ― separate lawsuits the state brought against the federal agency in 2016 and 2018 ― are set for 9:30 a.m. […]

Less than two months after stepping aside as the No. 2 official in the Energy Department’s nuclear cleanup office, James Owendoff is taking a new job within the agency. Starting next week, Owendoff will be DOE-wide chief risk officer, a senior executive position within the office of the Chief Financial Officer John Vonglis. He formally […]

The Department of Energy has denied a local advisory group’s request to make treated liquid waste at the Savannah River Site in South Carolina eligible for disposal at the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) in New Mexico. The request, submitted in July by the SRS Citizens Advisory Board (CAB), asked the Energy Department to recharacterize […]

It could be days or possibly weeks before the Energy Department takes a second stab at issuing a decade-long liquid contract for management of liquid radioactive waste in storage at the Savannah River Site in South Carolina. “It’s always soon,” a source in South Carolina quipped Wednesday to Weapons Complex Morning Briefing. Energy Department officials […]

The Department of Energy has again waived a requirement to continue building a planned plutonium disposal facility at the Savannah River Site in Aiken, S.C., papers filed with a federal appeals court Monday show. The waiver came in the form of a Sept. 18 letter from Lisa Gordon-Hagerty, administrator of DOE’s semiautonomous National Nuclear Security […]

Bechtel National will have a new project manager in place next month for the next-generation Uranium Processing Facility the company is building at the Y-12 National Security Complex in Oak Ridge, Tenn. However, it is not ready yet to identify the project chief. Bechtel is moving current UPF project manager Valerie McCain across the country to […]

Parsons could end up sacrificing a significant amount of its fee for delays in startup of the Salt Waste Processing Facility (SWPF) at the Energy Department’s Savannah River Site in South Carolina, a DOE official said Monday. Parsons was expected Monday to submit a new cost and schedule update for the facility, SWPF Federal Project […]

When President Trump signed a multiagency appropriations package Friday afternoon, it assured the Energy Department’s Office of Environmental Management about $7.2 billion in funding for the 2019 fiscal year starting Oct. 1. The DOE-funding “minibus,” approved by Congress earlier this month, provides the largest budget for the department’s nuclear cleanup office since it received almost […]

Despite threats of severe weather that required the Savannah River Site to brace for impact, the facility emerged unscathed after Hurricane Florence slammed into South Carolina last week. The storm, which has been linked to dozens of deaths in several coastal states, had no impact on missions or facilities at the 310-square-mile Department of Energy […]

A judge recently spiked the Department of Energy’s motion to dismiss a complaint lodged by CB&I AREVA MOX Services in the U.S. Court of Federal Claims, potentially allowing the government contractor to collect what it alleges are almost $6.5 million in improperly denied fees. The complaint is one of eight now consolidated under a $200-million-plus […]

The liquid waste contractor for the Department of Energy’s Savannah River Site in South Carolina is asking a federal judge to dismiss a discrimination lawsuit filed by a former employee. In a Sept. 14 motion for summary judgment, Savannah River Remediation (SRR) said Adrienne Saulsberry was terminated for legitimate reasons. The contractor said its fact […]

After a pause this summer, the contractor for the Energy Department’s Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) near Carlsbad, N.M., expects during the first week of October to resume salt mining to dig out more disposal space. This will be the first mining in storage Panel 8 since July 22, according to Nuclear Waste Partnership spokesman […]

Despite threats of severe weather that required the Savannah River Site to brace for impact, the facility emerged unscathed after Hurricane Florence slammed into South Carolina last week. The storm, which has been linked to dozens of deaths in several coastal states, had no impact on missions or facilities at the 310-square-mile Department of Energy […]

An article in the Sept. 14 Weapons Complex Monitor mischaracterized the nature of the Government Accountability Office’s ruling upholding a contract protest against a liquid waste management contract award at the Department of Energy’s Savannah River Site in South Carolina. The GAO ruled the Energy Department failed to evaluate the viability of the winning bidder’s […]

The Energy Department apparently still hasn’t submitted a report to Congress due on Feb. 1 on classifying certain defense nuclear waste. The National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) for fiscal 2018, signed last December, said the “Secretary of Energy shall conduct an evaluation of the feasibility, costs, and cost savings of classifying covered defense nuclear waste […]

The liquid waste contractor for the Department of Energy’s Savannah River Site in South Carolina is asking a federal judge to dismiss a discrimination lawsuit filed by a former employee. In a Sept. 14 motion for summary judgment, Savannah River Remediation (SRR) said Adrienne Saulsberry was terminated for legitimate reasons. “SRR is entitled to judgment […]

An article in the Sept. 13 Weapons Complex Morning Briefing mischaracterized the nature of the Government Accountability Office’s ruling upholding a contract protest against a liquid waste management contract award at the Department of Energy’s Savannah River Site in South Carolina. The GAO ruled the Energy Department failed to evaluate the viability of the winning […]

The Department of Energy’s Savannah River Site in South Carolina said it will keep only essential safety and security staff on duty if Hurricane Florence threatens the nearby region inland. The essential staff number fluctuates depending on what is needed at the time, but in recent memory it has been roughly 340 members of the […]

The Department of Energy’s Savannah River Site in South Carolina said it will keep only essential safety and security staff on duty if Hurricane Florence threatens the nearby region inland. The essential staff number fluctuates depending on what is needed at the time, but in recent memory it has been roughly 340 members of the […]

The Energy Department could reissue a multibillion-dollar liquid waste management contract for the Savannah River Site in South Carolina any day now – or it could be weeks away. Two industry sources recently indicated the contract announcement could arrive as soon as today, but a third industry source was more skeptical, saying he had heard […]

President Donald Trump’s signature is the only thing standing between the Energy Department’s nuclear cleanup office and nearly $7.2 billion in funding for fiscal 2019. That would be the highest spending level for DOE’s Office of Environmental Management since fiscal 2005, when it received nearly $7.3 billion. The House of Representatives on Thursday voted 377-20 […]

The Energy Department could reissue a multibillion-dollar liquid waste management contract for the Savannah River Site in South Carolina early as Friday, two industry sources said. One source said the new award could land this week or it could arrive as late as October. The Energy Department for its part has said in public presentations […]

Safety precautions are already being implemented at the Savannah River Site, a Department of Energy facility near the Georgia-South Carolina border, as Hurricane Florence moves up the coast of Florida toward the Carolinas. For now, operations are running in a normal fashion, since Florence is expected to miss the 310-mile federal property near Aiken, S.C. […]