Savannah River Site

All Savannah River National Laboratory (SRNL) operations resumed at the end of June, following a two-month pause on all missions considered not essential to maintaining safety.  Lab management initiated the pause due to growing concerns over the facility’s safety culture. The Department of Energy lab in South Carolina has been in management-controlled operations since June […]

The Energy Department’s Savannah River Site in South Carolina would look for ways to accelerate shipments of transuranic waste to the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant in New Mexico under a proposal being studied by a local advisory board. The Savannah River Site Citizens Advisory Board is expected to vote on making the recommendation to DOE […]

The National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) is considering a radical restructuring of its nuclear weapons mission at the Savannah River Site in South Carolina, including moving some work to another location. Lisa Gordon-Hagerty, administrator of the semiautonomous Department of Energy agency, said she must at least consider winding down certain operations at the Aiken, S.C., […]

In what should be the final chapter of a federal discrimination lawsuit, a former employee of the Savannah River Site’s management and operations contractor has been ordered to pay the company $908.45 for the cost of documents printed documents over the course of the two-year case. U.S. District Judge J. Michelle Childs issued her decision […]

The Savannah River Site is on pace to double-stack 358 canisters of treated radioactive liquid waste in this fiscal year, nearly double the 200 canisters stacked in fiscal 2017. All told, the Department of Energy facility near Aiken, S.C., has to date double-stacked 457 canisters of waste in one of its Glass Waste Storage Buildings […]

A Centerra Group subsidiary contracted to protect the Energy Department’s Savannah River Site in South Carolina took home almost $3 million of an available award fee of $3.16 million, roughly 95 percent, for the six-month period from October 2017 through March 2018. The Energy Department praised Centerra-Savannah River Site for its work providing physical protection […]

Washington River Protection Solutions (WRPS), the Energy Department’s waste tank farm contractor at the Hanford Site in Washington state, has awarded a subcontract to AVANTech to design and build a pretreatment facility for tank wastes at the Waste Treatment and Immobilization Plant (WTP). The tank-side cesium removal demonstration project is meant to remove both cesium […]

The Department of Energy is inviting potential bidders on a yet-to-be-solicited management and operations contract for the Savannah River Site to Augusta, Ga., on August 1 for what the agency calls a “technical workshop.” At the all-day workshop, DOE “will be presenting information on technical challenges associated with Management and Operation of the Savannah River […]

The Department of Energy is inviting potential bidders on a yet-to-be-solicited management and operations contract for the Savannah River Site to Augusta, Ga., on August 1 for what the agency calls a “technical workshop.” At the all-day workshop, DOE “will be presenting information on technical challenges associated with Management and Operation of the Savannah River […]

A Centerra Group subsidiary contracted to protect the Energy Department’s Savannah River Site in South Carolina took home almost $3 million of an available award fee of $3.16 million, roughly 95 percent, for the six-month period from October 2017 through March 2018. The Energy Department praised Centerra-Savannah River Site for its work providing physical protection […]

The Department of Energy is inviting potential bidders on a yet-to-be-solicited management and operations contract for the Savannah River Site to Augusta, Ga., on Aug. 12 for what is being called a “technical workshop.” At the all-day workshop, DOE “will be presenting information on technical challenges associated with Management and Operation of the Savannah River […]

The Department of Energy’s Mixed Oxide Fuel Fabrication Facility (MFFF) will enjoy judicial protection from the federal ax for essentially the rest of the government’s 2018 fiscal year after an appeals court on Friday decided not to immediately lift a lower court’s ban on closing the plant. South Carolina sued in May to prevent DOE […]

With both chambers of Congress having now given their blessing to fiscal 2019 spending packages that provide in the neighborhood of $7 billion for Department of Energy nuclear cleanup operations, it is now up to a House-Senate conference committee to decide the exact amount. The conference committee had not been scheduled to start its work […]

Energy Department Carlsbad Field Office Manager Todd Shrader said Tuesday it could take an additional year to secure New Mexico approval to change the way the volume of transuranic waste is counted for underground disposal at the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP). The New Mexico Environment Department said June 1 it plans a more extensive […]

One of the two men who pleaded guilty to $4.58 million worth of fraud while working at the Savannah River Site’s MOX project was sentenced Monday to 23 months in prison, according to the U.S. Department of Justice. U.S. District Judge J. Michelle Childs also sentenced 66-year-old Phillip Thompson to three years of supervised release after prison […]

Safety procedures that would prevent radiological injuries and fatalities must be implemented at the Savannah River Site’s tritium facilities, the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board (DNFSB) said in a recent letter addressing unfinished revisions to SRS safety documents. The safety watchdog laid out its concerns in a June 4 letter to Energy Secretary Rick Perry, […]

Energy Department Carlsbad Field Office Manager Todd Shrader said Tuesday it could take an additional year to secure New Mexico approval to change the way the volume of transuranic waste is counted for underground disposal at the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP). The New Mexico Environment Department said June 1 it plans a more extensive […]

A federal judge this week refused to lift a preliminary injunction preventing the Department of Energy from canceling the unfinished Mixed Oxide Fuel Fabrication Facility (MFFF) at the Savannah River Site in Aiken, S.C. The Tuesday ruling means project prime contractor CB&I AREVA MOX Services will continue building the plutonium-conversion plant — which is by […]

One of the two men who pleaded guilty to $4.58 million worth of fraud while working at the Savannah River Site’s MOX project was sentenced Monday to 23 months in prison, according to the U.S. Department of Justice. U.S. District Judge J. Michelle Childs also sentenced 66-year-old Phillip Thompson to three years of supervised release after prison […]

Energy Department Carlsbad Field Office Manager Todd Shrader said Tuesday it could take an additional year to get New Mexico approval to change the way the volume of transuranic waste is counted for underground disposal at the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP). The New Mexico Environment Department said June 1 it plans a more extensive […]

Huntington Ingalls Industries said Tuesday it on June 4 formally made Sharon Brady the new chief operating officer for subsidiary Stoller Newport News Nuclear (SN3), a significant player in the Energy Department complex. Brady has worked in a variety of corporate and government contract posts at SN3 predecessor Stoller since 2001, the company said in […]

The Energy Department’s Office of Environmental Management would continue to enjoy a hefty budget under the “minibus” appropriation package for fiscal 2019 passed by the Senate on Monday evening. Voting senators approved the proposal 86-5. The Senate bill, which covers funding for energy and water development programs, among others, would provide $7.2 billion in total […]

In an introductory letter to new Assistant Energy Secretary for Environmental Management Anne Marie White, the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board (DNFSB) highlighted a number of safety concerns across the Energy Department’s nuclear cleanup complex. The independent safety watchdog is tracking several issues at the Savannah River Site in South Carolina and the Hanford Site […]

Invoking the threat of countermeasures he did not specifically explain, the head of security at the Los Alamos National Laboratory has warned drone pilots they might lose their aircraft if they fly too close to the storied New Mexico nuclear weapons lab. “The laboratory is authorized by federal law to track, intercept, disrupt, control, and […]

In an introductory letter to new Assistant Energy Secretary for Environmental Management Anne Marie White, the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board (DNFSB) highlighted a number of safety concerns across the Energy Department’s nuclear cleanup complex. The independent safety watchdog is tracking several issues at the Savannah River Site in South Carolina and the Hanford Site […]

Liquid waste operations at the Savannah River Site restarted this week following a 15-month layup that included multiple delays to resumption due to maintenance issues at the Defense Waste Processing Facility (DWPF). The DWPF is responsible for converting millions of gallons of radioactive liquid waste at the Energy Department facility in South Carolina into a […]

Three technologies are sufficiently developed for consideration to treat some of the low-activity radioactive waste stored at the Energy Department’s Hanford Site in Washington state, according to a new report from a National Academies panel. The panel plans to issue four reports on supplemental treatment of Hanford low-activity waste. Congress ordered the study, which is […]

A final hearing to help determine if the Savannah River Site’s management and operations contractor overcharged the federal government by $5 million will likely be held in October, according to a status report filed Monday in the lawsuit. The joint report was submitted by legal teams for Savannah River Nuclear Solutions (SRNS) and the U.S. […]

Bechtel, a major contractor for the Energy Department’s nuclear complex, announced June 7 it will move its corporate headquarters to one of Washington, D.C.’s Northern Virginia suburbs. The international engineering, procurement, and construction company said it will move corporate operations from Houston and San Francisco to Reston, Va., by the end of 2018. Bechtel already […]

The U.S. Senate on Thursday voted to close debate on its version of the National Defense Authorization Act for fiscal 2019, setting up a floor vote Monday on the measure that sets spending caps on defense environmental cleanup at the Department of Energy. Senators voted 81-15 in favor of cloture. The defense policy bill, passed […]