Cleanup & Remediation

The New Mexico Environment Department recently gave its blessing to a Department of Energy’s plan to commence remediation of radioactive contamination along a public road just outside Los Alamos National Laboratory property. The work plan stipulates that DOE will start its field work on Middle DP Road in April and it should last six months, […]

The Waste Isolation Pilot Plant’s planned revival of an underground ventilation fan that has been idle for years is targeted for late July, officials for the Department of Energy and its prime contractor in Carlsbad, N.M. said Thursday night. The summer target timeframe was shared by Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) operations manager Don McBridge […]

With the conclusion of a 100-day transition on Thursday, Navarro-led Hanford Laboratory Management and Integration has taken over the 222-S Laboratory from two separate contractors, Veolia and Amentum-led Washington River Protection Solutions, at the Department of Energy’s Hanford Site in Washington state. The “transition is complete… effective today,” a DOE spokesperson said in a Thursday […]

The next contractor in charge of moving defense-related transuranic to the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant near Carlsbad, N.M., under a planned five-year contract may handle 500-to-800 shipments annually, the Department Energy said in comments posted online recently. “Over the last 10 years, WIPP carrier miles have varied greatly from roughly 300,000 miles to more than […]

Work crews have finished shoring up three old liquid waste disposal structures in danger of collapse at the Hanford Site in Washington state, the Department of Energy and contractor Central Plateau Cleanup Co. said Thursday. “With this work completed, Hanford has ensured the stability of these structures and reduced risks to workers and the environment,” […]

Within 10 years, the Department of Energy’s Office of Environmental Management hopes to have its vitrification plant humming at the Hanford Site in Washington state, with 40% of the tanks closed at the Savannah River Site in South Carolina and also be about done with legacy cleanup at the Moab Site in Utah as well […]

The Department of Energy’s nuclear cleanup office first rolled out its end state contracting model in 2018 and now wants to flesh out exactly how the program is supposed to work. The DOE Office of Environmental Management (EM) tucked this nugget inside its Strategic Vision for 2021-2031. “In 2021, EM will implement a new End-State […]

Leidos-led Mission Support Alliance, the former landlord services contractor at the Department of Energy’s Hanford Site in Washington state, settled a fraud lawsuit, reportedly for $6-million, in a case brought two years ago by the Department of Justice. “I can confirm that this case has been settled,” Bob Miller, a spokesman for the Leidos-Centerra joint […]

The Department of Energy’s nuclear cleanup office first rolled out its end state contracting model in 2018 and now wants to clearly define exactly how that model is supposed to work. The DOE Office of Environmental Management (EM) tucked this nugget inside its Strategic Vision for 2021-2031. “In 2021, EM will implement a new End-State […]

Managers at the Department of Energy’s Hanford Site in Washington state have confirmed six more positive cases of COVID-19 since Saturday. The latest five were reported Tuesday in a note posted to a DOE website run by a Leidos-led Hanford support contractor. New cases at the former plutonium production complex have run in the low- […]

Within 10 years, the Department of Energy’s Office of Environmental Management hopes to have its vitrification plant humming at the Hanford Site in Washington state, with 40% of the tanks closed at the Savannah River Site in South Carolina and also be about done with legacy cleanup at the Moab Site in Utah as well […]

In its final scorecard, CH2M Hill Plateau Remediation earned 78% of the fee available to it for about four months of work at the Department of Energy’s Hanford Site in Washington state. Altogether, the Jacobs subsidiary pocketed $6.36 million out of an available $8.16 million for the period from Oct. 1, 2020 through Jan. 24, […]

The New Mexico Environment Department last week gave its blessing to a Department of Energy’s plan to commence remediation of radioactive contamination along a public road just outside Los Alamos National Laboratory property. The work plan stipulates that DOE will start its field work on Middle DP Road in April and it should last six […]

The Waste Isolation Pilot Plant’s planned revival of an underground ventilation fan that has been idle for years poses scant radiological risks, according to the Department of Energy and its prime contractor for the facility in New Mexico. Data gleaned from a four-hour test of the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP)’s 700-C ventilation fan on […]

Navarro-led Hanford Laboratory Management and Integration is scheduled to take over the 222-S Laboratory soon from two separate contractors, Veolia and Amentum-led Washington River Protection Solutions, at the Department of Energy’s Hanford Site in Washington state. Hanford Laboratory Management and Integration (HLMI), a joint venture of Oak Ridge, Tenn.,-based Navarro and Gaithersburg, Md., -based Advanced […]

Secretary of Energy Jennifer Granholm said Thursday spent nuclear fuel policy meetings are happening inside the Department of Energy but it is too early to spell out what the administration of President Joe Biden will pursue with Nevada’s stalled Yucca Mountain project off the table. Granholm’s remarks came in response to a reporter’s question at […]

After settlement talks failed to bridge the gap between Department of Energy contractor Leidos and subcontractor Professional Project Services, or Pro2Serve, the parties could be headed toward a federal court trial this summer on the smaller company’s claim it was wrongly cut out of the new landlord services team at the Hanford Site in Washington […]

More than a year after announcing its plans to keep incumbent cleanup contractor Fluor-BWXT on the job at the Portsmouth Site in Ohio, the Department of Energy has executed a potential $690-million extension that could run until late March 2023. The final agreement, announced this week by the two partners, took effect March 29 and […]

It is time for the Department of Energy to focus on ensuring two aging facilities for interim storage of spent nuclear fuel at the Hanford Site in Washington state remain safe beyond the current 40-year design life, according to a recent DOE report. The agency’s Office of Enterprise Assessments, in the report issued last month, […]

U.S. Rep. Dan Newhouse (R-Wash.), whose district includes the Hanford Site, wants Secretary of Energy Jennifer Granholm to continue a controversial policy change from the Donald Trump administration that declared certain radioactive waste now categorized as high-level may not need to go to a deep underground disposal site. In a March 30 letter to Granholm, […]

The lure of getting a piece of the potential $26.5-billion Hanford Integrated Tank Disposition Contract (ITDC) at the former plutonium production complex in Washington state attracted a crowd of nearly 90 tire-kickers to virtual meetings held last week by the Department of Energy. DOE spread out the meetings over three days, Tuesday through Thursday, to […]

James Biggins, who was already serving as acting general manager of the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board, now has the job on a permanent basis, according to a recent press release from the agency. Joel Spangenberg, the executive director of operations for the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board (DNFSB), said in the release Biggins was […]

More than 10 months ago the Department of Energy published its final solicitation for a new $6.4-billion Idaho Cleanup Project contract with a 10-year ordering period and industry sources are keeping watch. Bid proposals for the environmental work around the Idaho National Laboratory were due last July and the contract has not been awarded as […]

For the second year in a row, the Department of Energy plans to dip into an alternate source of revenue to shore up the Uranium Enrichment Decontamination and Decommissioning Fund used to remediate old gaseous diffusion plants. This is one of the highlights of a skinny version of the Joe Biden administration’s fiscal 2022 budget […]

The Department of Energy’s Office of Environmental Management, which as of March 31 has confirmed 4,593 cases of COVID-19 among its federal and contractor workforce since the pandemic began, has no plans to order employees to take the vaccine. An Environmental Management (EM) spokesperson provided the cumulative figure and addressed the office’s approach to vaccinations […]

After settlement talks failed to bridge the gap between Department of Energy contractor Leidos and subcontractor Professional Project Services, or Pro2Serve, the parties could be headed toward a federal court trial this summer on the smaller company’s claim it was wrongly cut out of the new landlord services team at the Hanford Site in Washington […]

The Department of Energy expects to sign a small firm, Strata-G, to perform regulatory work on short notice connected with cleanup at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory in Tennessee. This purchase order is for up to two years and not to exceed $150,000, a DOE spokesperson said Tuesday of the proposed sole source set-aside notice  […]

Appointments to receive Moderna’s COVID-19 vaccine are available from the occupational medicine contractor at the Department of Energy’s Hanford Site in Washington state, where eight workers have since Saturday tested positive for the disease. The latest four positive tests at Hanford were reported Tuesday, according to a DOE website run by Hanford’s Leidos-led landlord contractor. […]

More than 10 months ago the Department of Energy published its final solicitation for a new $6.4-billion Idaho Cleanup Project contract with a 10-year ordering period and industry sources are keeping watch. Bid proposals for the environmental work around the Idaho National Laboratory were due last July. The two incumbents, Fluor Idaho has the five-year, […]

An article in Tuesday’s Weapons Complex Morning Briefing [“Better Guidance Urged for Interim Storage of Spent Fuel at Hanford”] should have reported that an Amentum-led group has managed Central Plateau cleanup since Jan. 25, 2021.