Cleanup & Remediation

The Department of Energy announced Wednesday that the Savannah River Site in South Carolina is starting a “safe and deliberate process to resume operations” scaled back two months ago to curb the spread of COVID-19 among its workforce. In the same news release, the department said a 19th case of COVID-19 had been confirmed at […]

The Energy Department intends to keep security contractor Centerra Group on the job at the Savannah River Site in South Carolina into 2021, according to a Tuesday procurement notice. The current deal with Centerra ends Oct. 7, but now will be extended through Feb. 7, 2021. The Energy Department can also exercise two additional four-month […]

The Department of Energy indicated in a draft report issued Tuesday that vitrified low-activity waste at the Hanford Site in Washington state can be disposed of at the facility, rather than requiring transfer to another location. The agency will accept public comment through Sept. 26 on its draft Waste Incidental to Reprocessing Evaluation. The agency […]

The United Kingdom’s Sellafield nuclear site is resuming some cleanup operations and ramping up the number of on-site personnel, after two months of COVID-19 precautions. Site operator Sellafield Ltd. in late March reducing staffing inside the fence from over 8,000 to roughly 1,500 “key workers,” according to a May 22 update. It hopes by the […]

Bare-bones staffing for nuclear cleanup at the Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) in New Mexico won’t be lifted before May 31, a Department of Energy official said last week. The stay-at-home order from New Mexico Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham (D) remains in effect until that date, Thomas Johnson Jr., the DOE Office of Environmental Management’s […]

The Energy Department late Friday confirmed the 18th case of novel coronavirus 2019 infection among the workforce at the Savannah River Site in South Carolina, adding that 13 employees have recovered and returned to work. The facility, located along the border with Georgia, accounts for more than half of the 28 confirmed cases of COVID-19 […]

A worker at the Savannah River Site this month settled his federal personal injury lawsuit against the Energy Department’s operations contractor for the South Carolina facility. Henry Bradley, employed by another contractor at Savannah River, in November 2018 filed the $75,000 suit in U.S. District Court in South Carolina against site manager Savannah River Nuclear […]

Tim Griffin, executive director of the Oak Ridge, Tenn.-based Energy, Technology, and Environmental Business Association for nearly five years, has left to take another job. Griffin’s last day was May 8 at the trade group that represents about 170 firms and individuals doing business with the Energy Department or its semiautonomous National Nuclear Security Administration […]

After weeks of speculation, three Department of Energy nuclear sites are entering the first phase of the full resumption of remediation amid the COVID-19 pandemic, the agency’s Office of Environmental Management confirmed Friday. The Hanford Site in Washington state, the Idaho National Laboratory, and the Oak Ridge Site in Tennessee are the first to take […]

The Energy Department has yet to issue a notice to proceed to the new services contractor selected late last year for the Hanford Site in Washington state, Leidos-led Hanford Mission Integration Solutions (HMIS). Typically, most new vendors receive the notice to start transition shortly after either winning the award or prevailing in any protest against […]

The Energy Department has reached a deal with the state of California to tear down and remove 10 contaminated buildings at the Santa Susana Field Laboratory (SSFL) in Ventura County. Eliminating decaying buildings within the Radioactive Materials Handling Facility Complex should avoid a release of hazardous substances and minimize risk to the public in the […]

Tim Griffin, executive director of the Oak Ridge, Tenn.-based Energy, Technology, and Environmental Business Association for nearly five years, has left to take another job. Griffin’s last day was May 8 at the trade group that represents about 170 firms and individuals doing business with the Energy Department or its semiautonomous National Nuclear Security Administration […]

The Energy Department has reached a deal with the state of California to tear down and remove 10 contaminated buildings at the Santa Susana Field Laboratory (SSFL) in Ventura County. Eliminating decaying buildings within the Radioactive Materials Handling Facility Complex should avoid a release of hazardous substances and minimize risk to the public in the […]

Precautions are being taken to protect returning employees at Department of Energy nuclear cleanup sites from COVID-19, Undersecretary of Energy Mark Menezes said Wednesday. “We are moving to reopen some of the facilities” overseen by DOE’s Office of Environmental Management, Menezes told the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee during his nomination hearing to become […]

The Energy Department has yet to issue a notice to proceed to the new services contractor selected late last year for the Hanford Site in Washington state, Leidos-led Hanford Mission Integration Solutions (HMIS). Typically, most new vendors receive the notice to start transition shortly after either winning the award or prevailing in any protest against […]

Stakeholders now have until June 29 to comment on Energy Department plans to use grout to stabilize three underground waste structures at the Hanford Site in Washington state. The original deadline for comments was April 24, which was later extended until May 22, then pushed back again, according to a recent notice from DOE. The […]

There is one new confirmed positive case of COVID-19 at the Savannah River Site, bringing the total to 14, the Department of Energy facility in Aiken, S.C., announced Monday. The 13 people who were previously confirmed to have caught the disease caused by the novel coronavirus 2019 have recovered and gone back to work, according […]

More staff is being recalled for cleanup work at the Energy Department’s Idaho National Laboratory (INL), a Fluor Idaho spokesman said Friday. “We have slowly started to increase staff on an as-needed basis to support limited activities at the Idaho Cleanup Project, and those numbers vary from day to day,” Fluor Idaho spokesman Erik Simpson […]

Hanford Communities Executive Director Pamela Larsen is retiring after a quarter-century of advocating for localities around the Energy Department’s Hanford Site in Washington state. Larsen is the only executive director in the history of the intergovernmental organization established under Washington state law in 1994. Hanford Communities represents two counties, four cities, and a Port District […]

The environmental liability of the Energy Department’s Office of Legacy Management is sure to increase from its recent $7.35 billion as it assumes responsibility for more remediated properties, according to a report issued Wednesday by the Government Accountability Office. Legacy Management conducts maintenance and surveillance following cleanup of radioactively contaminated sites by DOE’s Office of […]

The ExchangeMonitor’s 2020 Decommissioning Strategy Forum is being pushed back from June to September and relocated to Henderson, Nev. The continuing COVID-19 pandemic made it impossible to stick to the original schedule to hold the conference on June 8-9 in Nashville, according to the ExchangeMonitor’s parent company, Access Intelligence. “Please note that out of concern […]

Fluor on April 30 received a Justice Department subpoena seeking various documents relating to charges reported by the company during the second quarter of 2019, according to a May 8 filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The SEC in February launched an investigation into Fluor’s financial reporting and accounting during 2019. The Justice Department […]

The New Mexico Environment Department (NMED) plans talks this summer with the Department of Energy on potential modifications to a 2016 legal agreement over nuclear cleanup at the Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL). The 2016 consent decree revamped a prior 2005 deal between NMED and the federal agency on cleanup of contamination left from Manhattan […]

Perma-Fix Environmental Services on Tuesday reported a 112.3% increase in revenue for the first quarter of 2020, even as the COVID-19 pandemic began to bite into its business. Sales rose from $11.7 million in the first quarter of 2019 to $24.9 million in the three-month period ending March 31 of this year, according to a […]

It would be a waste of taxpayer dollars to brief a group representing nuclear-site host communities about the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board’s (DNFSB) latest safety recommendation to the Department of Energy, according to the board chairman. “[U]sing staff resources, even though marginal in this instance, to educate a public interest group on complex technical […]

The Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee will next week consider Undersecretary of Energy Mark Menezes’ nomination to the No. 2 spot at the Department of Energy. The White House in March nominated Menezes as deputy secretary of energy. He would succeed Dan Brouillette, who became energy secretary in December. After a career on Capitol […]

The Government Accountability Office was not convinced by the argument from a Bechtel-led team that it should have received a remediation contract at the Energy Department’s Hanford Site in Washington state because it proposed a cheaper price for performing the first set of tasks than the rival group that won the business. Late Wednesday, the […]

A team led by BWX Technologies is the winner of the Energy Department’s Tank Closure Contract at the Hanford Site in Washington state. The DOE’s Office of Environmental Management announced the $13 billion contract award Thursday to Hanford Works Restoration. Along with Lynchburg, Va.-based BWXT, the other members of the team are Texas-based companies Fluor […]

The Senate Armed Services Committee thinks its version of the annual policy-shaping National Defense Authorization Act (NSAA) could pass the upper chamber before the Fourth of July holiday, a committee aide confirmed Monday afternoon. Politico reported this week that the GOP-controlled panel plans to mark up its version of the bill the week of June […]

A coalition of industry, labor, and community groups are asking Congress to fund a one-time $7.25 billion increase in funding for the Energy Department’s Office of Environmental Management. The COVID-19-related funding request arrived Friday, while officials with the Oak Ridge Site in Tennessee confirmed they will initiate the first phase of an incremental return to […]