Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP)

The New Mexico Senate on Monday unanimously confirmed former U.S. Environmental Protection Agency manager James Kenney as secretary of the state Environment Department. New Mexico Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham (D) named Kenney as secretary-designate to NMED on Jan. 7. Along with enforcing environmental laws, the department oversees hazardous waste and radioactive sources at U.S. Department […]

The Energy Department’s Carlsbad Field Office has approved a plan by contractor Nuclear Waste Partnership (NWP) to gradually improve underground air quality at the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant in New Mexico. The contractor must take small steps because it won’t be ready to meet much tougher underground air quality standards, by the Jan. 17 compliance […]

The New Mexico Senate on Monday unanimously confirmed former U.S. Environmental Protection Agency manager James Kenney as secretary of the state Environment Department. New Mexico Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham (D) named Kenney as secretary-designate to NMED on Jan. 7. Along with enforcing environmental laws, the department oversees hazardous waste and radioactive sources at U.S. Department […]

The Energy Department and its contractor for the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) are seeking to preserve their recently won change to the way in which transuranic waste volume is recorded at the New Mexico disposal facility. Both DOE and AECOM-led Nuclear Waste Partnership have been authorized to intervene in the legal challenge brought last […]

The Energy Department and its contractor for the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) are seeking to preserve their recently won change to the way in which transuranic waste volume is recorded at the New Mexico disposal facility. Both DOE and AECOM-led Nuclear Waste Partnership have been authorized to intervene in the legal challenge brought last […]

The need to develop and win regulatory approval for new “oversized boxes” to move radioactive waste to the Idaho National Laboratory was central to the Energy Department’s decision against keeping the Advanced Mixed Waste Treatment Project (AMWTP) open past this year. After considering sustaining operations at the facility open after it finishes its mission to process […]

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 […]

AECOM on Tuesday reported $5 billion in revenue Tuesday for the quarter ended Dec, 31, about 3 percent more than the $4.9 billion reported in the same period one year earlier. Net income attributable to AECOM came in at $52 million, down 54 percent from $111 million reported in the same quarter a year ago.  […]

The Energy Department has picked up a two-year option to keep North Wind Solutions in charge of the Transuranic Waste Processing Center at the Oak Ridge Site in Tennessee through October 2020. An Energy Department spokesperson confirmed Monday the department in October exercised its option to the original three-year base period. The entire five-year agreement […]

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, […]

The contractor that manages the Transuranic Waste Processing Center at the Energy Department’s Oak Ridge Site in Tennessee earned 97 percent of its potential award fee for a 12-month period ending in late October 2018. The Energy Department released the fee scorecard for North Wind Solutions this week. The company took home $382,749 of a […]

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, […]

Nuclear Waste Partnership, the Energy Department’s prime contractor for the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) near Carlsbad, N.M., is ready to start measuring underground waste volume through a new method recently approved by the state. Effective Jan. 20, the contractor will no longer calculate waste, under the 1992 WIPP Land Disposal Act, based on the […]

The Department of Energy has issued Waste Control Specialists (WCS) a “request for task proposal” for long-term storage and management of elemental mercury. In a Jan. 17 notice, DOE’s Environmental Management Consolidated Business Center said the Dallas-based operator of a waste disposal complex in West Texas is the only vendor capable of providing the required, […]

Two advocacy groups in New Mexico filed a legal appeal Thursday seeking to undo a New Mexico Environment Department order that allows the Energy Department to change the way it records underground transuranic waste volume at its Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) near Carlsbad. The Southwest Research and Information Center (SRIC) and Nuclear Watch New […]

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 […]

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 […]

The Energy Department’s Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) near Carlsbad, N.M., received 311 shipments of defense transuranic waste during 2018. May was the busiest month of the year, with 37 shipments. January, with two federal holidays and a two-week maintenance outage, was the slowest month in 2018 with only 14 shipments, according to a monthly […]

In strongly worded comments, the Natural Resources Defense Council and other advocacy groups said the Department of Energy’s proposed plan to reinterpret the definition of high-level radioactive waste would violate the law and should be withdrawn. The Energy Department “has issued this HLW Reinterpretation Proposal in hopes of providing for itself the authority to define […]

Sen. Tom Udall (D-N.M.) hopes the new administration of New Mexico Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham (D) will review a decision made in late December by the state environmental agency on waste-disposal accounting at the Energy Department’s Waste Isolation Pilot Plant, the Albuquerque Journal reported Sunday. Udall urged New Mexico Environment Department Secretary-Designate James Kenney to […]

Newport News Nuclear BWXT-Los Alamos (N3B) garnered 83 percent of its potential fee for its first five months on the job as legacy cleanup contractor at the Energy Department’s Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico. After taking over from Los Alamos National Security, N3B earned roughly $2.4 million of a potential $2.9 million from […]

New Mexico Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham (D) said Monday she has selected a former U.S. Environmental Protection Agency official as secretary of the New Mexico Environment Department (NMED). James Kenney until recently was a senior policy adviser for oil and natural gas at EPA headquarters in Washington, D.C. He started work this week as secretary-designate, […]

New Mexico Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham (D) said Monday she has selected a former U.S. Environmental Protection Agency official as secretary of the New Mexico Environment Department (NMED). James Kenney until recently was a senior policy adviser for oil and natural gas at EPA headquarters in Washington, D.C. He will have an official start date, […]

There is no indication yet whether the administration of New Mexico’s newly inaugurated Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham (D) might take a fresh look at a state policy, signed days before she took office, on the Energy Department’s Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) near Carlsbad. Before retiring from state service, New Mexico Environment Department (NMED) Secretary […]

Prior to exiting his job, New Mexico Environment Department (NMED) Secretary Butch Tongate authorized the U.S. Energy Department to change the way it counts material volume at the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) near Carlsbad so vacant spaces between container drums are no longer recorded as waste. The longtime NMED manager was appointed to lead […]

Los Angeles-based AECOM has promoted longtime manager Ron Hahn to the newly created job of executive vice president of business development for the company’s Management Services group. Hahn, who most recently served as executive vice president for critical infrastructure protection strategies, is now responsible for generating growth in AECOM’s federal government business line, including the […]

New Mexico Environment Department Secretary Butch Tongate has allowed the U.S. Energy Department to change the way it counts material volume at the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) near Carlsbad so vacant spaces between container drums are no longer recorded as waste. Tongate took the position favored by DOE and its prime contractor for WIPP, […]

A New Mexico hearing officer has endorsed the Energy Department’s request to revise how transuranic waste “volume” is calculated at the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) under the 1992 WIPP Land Withdrawal Act. The Dec. 10 report by state Hearing Officer Max Shepherd is now before New Mexico Environment Department (NMED) Secretary Butch Tongate, who […]

The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission has approved leaving problem waste from the Energy Department’s Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) at the Waste Control Specialists (WCS) disposal facility in Texas for up to two more years, and Texas regulators are expected to follow suit. The head of NRC’s Office of Nuclear Material Safety and Safeguards, Marc […]

A New Mexico hearing officer has endorsed the Energy Department’s request to revise how transuranic waste “volume” is calculated at the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) under the 1992 WIPP Land Withdrawal Act. The Dec. 10 report by state Hearing Officer Max Shepherd is now before New Mexico Environment Department (NMED) Secretary Butch Tongate, who […]