Archive

Savannah River Site

A DOE site in South Carolina supporting nuclear materials management, tritium production, high-level waste treatment, and planned plutonium pit production.

  • SRS Waste Missions Continue Despite Halt on Liquid Waste Processing

    A least one liquid waste-related operation is ongoing at the Savannah River Site, despite the temporary halting of liquid waste processing earlier this year. At a Savannah River Site (SRS) Citizens Advisory Board meeting last week, a DOE official said the site is about halfway through its checklist on the Salt Waste Processing Facility (SWPF): a plant expected […]

  • DOE Remains Intent on Killing MOX Under Trump

    The Donald Trump administration’s fiscal 2018 budget proposal sustains its predecessor’s plan to terminate the Department of Energy’s Mixed Oxide Fuel Fabrication Facility in South Carolina, a decision the head of the National Nuclear Security Administration said is unrelated to carryover in leadership at his agency. The NNSA’s $13.9 billion budget proposal includes $1.8 billion […]

  • SRS in Line to Receive $1.45B for Waste Cleanup, Other EM Missions

    The Department of Energy’s Savannah River Site is in line to receive $1.45 billion in fiscal 2018 for its environmental management (EM) mission, much of which would fund liquid waste cleanup, according to President Donald Trump’s budget proposal this week. The request is $111 million more than the South Carolina site received for EM work […]

  • SRS Security Advised to Take Action if Drones Present a Threat

    Savannah River Site security has been given direction to take appropriate action if a drone flying above the site presents a threat, an official at the South Carolina facility told a local advisory board on Monday. “Protocols are in place for engagement and I don’t really want to say anything else about that,” according to […]

  • Proposed DOE EM Funding Increase Dwarfed by Cost of Taking Over NNSA Facilities

    The $88 million top-line increase the Donald Trump administration proposed Tuesday for the Energy Department’s Office of Environmental Management in fiscal 2018 is two-and-a-half times less than the office would spend next year to start decontaminating disused nuclear-weapon facilities now owned by DOE’s semiautonomous National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA). The administration’s new budget plan, if […]

  • White House Proposes Terminating MOX — Again

    The Donald Trump administration’s fiscal 2018 budget proposal sustains its predecessor’s plan to terminate the Department of Energy’s Mixed Oxide Fuel Fabrication Facility in South Carolina. The National Nuclear Security Administration’s $13.9 billion budget proposal includes $1.8 billion for the defense nuclear nonproliferation account, of which $279 million would go toward nonproliferation construction – a […]

  • Monetary Claim in S.C. MOX Suit Included in Plutonium Removal Talks

    While negotiating the best path forward to remove plutonium from the Savannah River Site in South Carolina, the state is also looking for resolution for the $200 million it is seeking from the federal government. Under a court order, the state and federal governments are in talks to resolve the plutonium dispute. The South Carolina […]

  • SRS Security Advised to Take Action if Drones Present a Threat

    Savannah River Site security has been given direction to take appropriate action if a drone flying above the site presents a threat, an official at the South Carolina facility told a local advisory board on Monday. “Protocols are in place for engagement and I don’t really want to say anything else about that,” according to […]

  • SRS Security Advised to Take Action if Drones Present a Threat

    Savannah River Site security has been given direction to take appropriate action if a drone flying above the site presents a threat, an official at the South Carolina facility told a local advisory board on Monday. “Protocols are in place for engagement and I don’t really want to say anything else about that,” according to […]

  • White House Budget Proposes Terminating MOX

    The Donald Trump administration’s fiscal 2018 budget proposal sustains its predecessor’s plan to terminate the Department of Energy’s Mixed Oxide Fuel Fabrication Facility in South Carolina. The National Nuclear Security Administration’s $13.9 billion budget proposal includes $1.8 billion for the defense nuclear nonproliferation account, of which $279 million would go toward nonproliferation construction – a […]

  • Monetary Claim in S.C. MOX Suit Included in Plutonium Removal Talks

    While negotiating the best path forward to remove plutonium from the Savannah River Site in South Carolina, the state is also looking for resolution for the $200 million it is seeking from the federal government. Under a court order, the state and federal governments are in talks to resolve the plutonium dispute. The South Carolina […]

  • Repair in the Works for Crucial Evaporator Pot at Savannah River

    Savannah River Remediation expects to save about $10 million by repairing, rather than replacing, a piece of equipment essential for chemical separations operations at the Department of Energy’s Savannah River Site in South Carolina, a company executive told a citizens group Monday. The equipment, a nearly 30-foot-high evaporator pot that last year leaked some 3,000 gallons […]

  • Civilian Board Dismisses SRNS Appeal Over Contract Cost Allowability

    The U.S. Civilian Board of Contract Appeals on May 12 dismissed an appeal filed by the management and operations contractor of the Energy Department’s Savannah River Site over a dispute on the allowability of certain contract costs. In 2013, a DOE contracting officer “disallowed” $1.3 million paid to Savannah River Nuclear Solutions (SRNS) under the […]

  • NRC: ‘No Violations’ in MOX Construction

    The Nuclear Regulatory Commission offered another positive assessment of contractor CB&I AREVA MOX Services’ work in building the Mixed Oxide Fuel Fabrication Facility at the Department of Energy’s Savannah River Site in South Carolina. The regulator said in a May 10 letter to contractor President and COO David Del Vecchio that “no violations or deviations were […]

  • HEU From Canada Begins Arriving at SRS

    The Department of Energy’s Savannah River Site (SRS) last month began receiving liquid highly enriched uranium from Canada under a controversial program that will have the material traveling major U.S. highways on its way to South Carolina for the next few years. The Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board (DNFSB) said in an April 21 site report […]

  • Civilian Board Dismisses SRNS Appeal Over Contract Cost Allowability

    The U.S. Civilian Board of Contract Appeals on May 12 dismissed an appeal filed by the management and operations contractor of the Energy Department’s Savannah River Site over a dispute on the allowability of certain contract costs. In 2013, a DOE contracting officer “disallowed” $1.3 million paid to Savannah River Nuclear Solutions (SRNS) under the […]

  • Hearing Set for Suspect in $4.4M MOX Theft Case

    A pretrial hearing is scheduled for May 31 in Columbia, S.C., for one of two men accused of stealing $4.4 million from the federal government while working for the Savannah River Site’s MOX program. Aaron Vennefron, the founder of Ohio-based AV Security, pleaded not guilty to a host of charges in February. If he wants to plead guilty, […]

  • Civilian Board Dismisses SRNS Appeal Over Contract Cost Allowability

    The U.S. Civilian Board of Contract Appeals on Friday dismissed an appeal filed by the management and operations contractor of the Energy Department’s Savannah River Site over a dispute on the allowability of certain contract costs. In 2013 a DOE contracting officer “disallowed” $1.3 million paid to Savannah River Nuclear Solutions (SRNS) under the contract […]

  • HEU From Canada Begins Arriving at SRS

    The Department of Energy’s Savannah River Site (SRS) last month began receiving liquid highly enriched uranium from Canada under a controversial program that will have the material traveling major U.S. highways on its way to South Carolina for the next few years. The Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board (DNFSB) said in an April 21 site report […]

  • NRC: ‘No Violations’ in MOX Construction

    The Nuclear Regulatory Commission offered another positive assessment of contractor CB&I AREVA MOX Services’ work in building the Mixed Oxide Fuel Fabrication Facility at the Department of Energy’s Savannah River Site in South Carolina. The regulator said in a May 10 letter to contractor President and COO David Del Vecchio that “no violations or deviations were […]

  • Sellafield Loss Stings in Second Quarter, but AECOM Earnings Still Strong

    AECOM, a near-ubiquitous presence on the Energy Department’s legacy nuclear cleanup sites, said this week that operating income at its Management Services division sank 55 percent year over year to slightly more than $50 million in the quarter ended March 31. Management Services’ earnings from joint ventures — including some of AECOM’s partnerships for DOE nuclear […]

  • Savannah River Streamlines SRS Spent Fuel Operations

    The Department of Energy’s Savannah River Site in South Carolina has implemented a new initiative aimed at streamlining spent fuel operations and cutting costs in the process. Workers with Savannah River Nuclear Solutions (SRNS), the site’s management and operations provider, are making better use of the transfer bay in L Area, according to the latest […]

  • Savannah River Streamlines SRS Spent Fuel Operations

    The Department of Energy’s Savannah River Site in South Carolina has implemented a new initiative aimed at streamlining spent fuel operations and cutting costs in the process. Workers with Savannah River Nuclear Solutions (SRNS), the site’s management and operations provider, are making better use of the transfer bay in L Area, according to the latest edition of […]

  • MOX Report Months Overdue

    The Department of Energy is months late in providing Congress with a mandatory annual report on the MOX program at the Savannah River Site in South Carolina, according to documents released Thursday. SRS Watch, a local nuclear watchdog, submitted a Freedom of Information Act request on March 15 asking DOE’s semiautonomous National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) to provide […]

  • Jacobs Earnings Down in 2Q

    Earnings at engineering services firm Jacobs, a support contractor at a number of Energy Department sites, fell more than 20 percent year-over-year to about $50 million for the fiscal second quarter ended March 31, the company said Tuesday. Quarterly revenue rose 20 percent to about $2.8 billion, according to the company’s latest earnings press release. […]

  • SRS Streamlines Spent Fuel Operations

    The Department of Energy’s Savannah River Site has newly implemented an initiative aimed at streamlining spent fuel operations and cut costs in the process. Workers with Savannah River Nuclear Solutions (SRNS), the site’s management and operations provider, are making better use of the transfer bay in L Area, according to the latest edition of SRNS Today, a […]

  • SRS Resumes Tritium Extraction Following June 2015 Equipment Failure

    A key project at the Department of Energy’s Savannah River Site that supplies tritium for nuclear weapons is up and running for the first time since 2015. The Tritium Extraction Facility (TEF) removes the material from tritium-producing burnable absorber rods (TPBARs) that have been irradiated in commercial light-water reactors by the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA). The […]

  • BWXT Reports $428.2M in 1Q Revenue, Drop in Nuclear Services Segment

    BWX Technologies on Monday reported $428.2 million in revenue for the first quarter of 2017, up by 17 percent from $364.8 million in the same quarter last year, and generally accepted accounting principles (GAAP) operating income of $83.2 million, spiking 95 percent year over year from $42.6 million. Earnings per share were reported at $0.55 in […]

  • Omnibus Appropriations Signals Ongoing Battle Over MOX

    President Donald Trump is expected today to sign into law an omnibus appropriations bill for fiscal 2017 that largely maintains funding for construction of the Mixed Oxide Fuel Fabrication Facility in South Carolina while leaving room to study former President Barack Obama’s proposed alternative method of plutonium disposition. This means questions about the future of […]

  • SRS Resumes Tritium Extraction Following June 2015 Equipment Failure

    A key project at the Department of Energy’s Savannah River Site that supplies tritium for nuclear weapons is up and running for the first time since 2015. The Tritium Extraction Facility (TEF) removes the material from tritium-producing burnable absorber rods (TPBARs) that have been irradiated in commercial light-water reactors by the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA). The […]