Cleanup & Remediation

Nuclear cleanup contractors, including those planning to participate in a major waste conference next week, are trying to conduct business as usual while simultaneously grappling with the risk posed by the global coronavirus outbreak. On Thursday afternoon, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission announced it would cancel its annual Regulatory Information Conference, scheduled for March 10-12 just […]

Jury selection and trial are slated for late June in a $75,000 negligence lawsuit against the management and operations contractor for the Department of Energy’s Savannah River Site in South Carolina. According to a scheduling order filed Friday, Henry Bradley’s case against Savannah River Nuclear Solutions (SRNS) will head to trial on or after June […]

The Energy Department’s top nuclear cleanup official at the Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) in New Mexico has called it a career. Doug Hintze’s last day as manager of DOE’s Environmental Management Los Alamos Field Office was Friday, an agency spokesman confirmed Monday. Hintze spent more than 12 years in supervisory positions for the Office […]

Roughly 90 representatives from some of the Energy Department’s major contractors registered for an industry day last week on the potential 15-year, $6.4 billion cleanup contract for the Idaho National Laboratory. The Energy Department issued the draft request for proposals for the award last month. It followed that up with a tour, informational program, and […]

WASHINGTON — Sen. Patty Murray (D) on Wednesday became the latest lawmaker from Washington state to chastise Energy Secretary Dan Brouillette for the deep budget cuts proposed for the Hanford Site in fiscal 2021. Funding for the two Energy Department offices at Hanford, considered the nation’s most complex and expensive nuclear cleanup, would be slashed […]

WASHINGTON — At Congress’ direction, the Department of Energy is revising a controversial order that curtailed the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board’s (DNFSB) access to nuclear sites and personnel, Secretary of Energy Dan Brouillette said Thursday. “We’re in the process of revising the order and I will be meeting with the DNFSB and we’ll have […]

The $470 million Salt Waste Processing Facility (SWPF) at the Department of Energy’s Savannah River Site in South Carolina is on track to begin operations this month, following completion in February of a readiness assessment, according to builder Parsons. Both the Energy Department and Parsons said via email this week that the agency’s readiness assessment […]

WASHINGTON —Secretary of Energy Dan Brouillette on Tuesday would not commit to supporting a congressional rewrite of the 1982 Nuclear Waste Policy Act to exclude mandatory construction of a permanent nuclear waste repository at Yucca Mountain in Nevada. “If we were to consider a repeal of the 1987 amendment that designated Yucca Mountain as the […]

Sen. Patty Murray (D-Wash.) on Thursday chastised Energy Secretary Dan Brouillette for the deep budget cuts in fiscal 2021 proposed by the White House for the Hanford Site in Washington state. The former plutonium-producing site, considered the nation’s most complex nuclear cleanup, would see its total spending slashed from $2.6 billion enacted by Congress in […]

Soil samples taken since last summer along a right-of-way for a stretch of highway near the former Rocky Flats nuclear weapons plant have not detected any high levels of radiative contamination, a Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment (CDPHE) said this week. The Jefferson Parkway Public Highway Authority conducted more sampling along the route […]

The $470 million Salt Waste Processing Facility (SWPF) at the Department of Energy’s Savannah River Site in South Carolina is on track to begin operations this month, following completion in February of a readiness assessment, according to builder Parsons. Both the Energy Department and Parsons said via email this week that the agency’s readiness assessment […]

Roughly 90 representatives from some of the Energy Department’s major contractors registered for an industry day last week on the potential 15-year, $6.4 billion cleanup contract for the Idaho National Laboratory. The Energy Department issued the draft request for proposals for the award last month. It followed that up with a tour, informational program, and […]

California Assemblywoman Christy Smith, a Democrat, and Republican Mike Garcia, a former Navy fighter pilot, are expected to face each other in a May 12 runoff to decide who will represent California’s 25th congressional district until January 2021. A couple of hours after the polls closed in California, they are the top two vote-getters in […]

WASHINGTON — The annual tradition of legislative outrage over proposed reductions to nuclear cleanup spending continued in a blunt and unvarnished way here Tuesday, when Sen. Martin Heinrich (D-N.M.) told Secretary of Energy Dan Brouillette that the agency’s 2021 budget proposal “frankly sucks.” Heinrich was one of several vocally dissatisified legislators as Brouillette appeared before […]

WASHINGTON —Secretary of Energy Dan Brouillette on Tuesday would not commit to supporting a congressional rewrite of the 1982 Nuclear Waste Policy Act to exclude construction of a permanent nuclear waste repository at Yucca Mountain in Nevada. “If we were to consider a repeal of the 1987 amendment that designated Yucca Montain as the nation’s sole nuclear […]

The Energy Department, together with the Environmental Protection Agency, and the Idaho Department of Environmental Quality, have launched a site-wide five-year review of cleanup at the Idaho National Laboratory. Five-year reviews gauge the effectiveness of remediation efforts as required by the Superfund law, the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act (CERCLA), Fluor Idaho said […]

Organizers of the Waste Management Symposia in Phoenix are still holding the annual gathering next week despite public concerns over coronavirus (COVID-19), a spokeswoman said this morning. After a Monday meeting of the WMS executive management team, the decision was made to go ahead with the event – with added precautions to safeguard the health […]

The Energy Department’s top nuclear cleanup official at the Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) in New Mexico has called it a career. Doug Hintze’s last day as manager of DOE’s Environmental Management Los Alamos Field Office was Friday, an agency spokesman confirmed Monday. Hintze spent more than 12 years in supervisory positions for the Office […]

Jury selection and trial are slated for late June in a $75,000 negligence lawsuit against the management and operations contractor for the Department of Energy’s Savannah River Site in South Carolina. According to a scheduling order filed Friday, Henry Bradley’s case against Savannah River Nuclear Solutions (SRNS) will head to trial on or after June […]

Voters in California’s 25th Congressional District will begin to determine Tuesday who might succeed former U.S. Rep. Katie Hill (D) and represent an area adjacent to a major nuclear cleanup site. The district, which includes parts of Los Angeles and Ventura counties, has been without a congressional representative since Hill resigned Nov. 1 rather than […]

An Energy Department working group is still grappling with recommended changes on management of the payments in lieu of taxes (PILT) program for communities around nuclear facilities, Energy Secretary Dan Brouillette said Thursday. During a hearing of the House Appropriations energy and water subcommittee, the secretary promised to personally brief Rep. Mike Simpson (R-Idaho) on […]

As the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) seeks a larger-than-expected budget increase for 2021, another branch of the Department of Energy is seeking much less funding for cleanup of excess nuclear-weapon production sites The Office of Environmental Management (EM) is requesting about $200 million for remediation at NNSA-owned facilities in the budget year beginning Oct. 1, […]

As the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) seeks a larger-than-expected budget increase for 2021, another branch of the Department of Energy is seeking much less funding for cleanup of excess nuclear-weapon production sites The Office of Environmental Management (EM) is requesting about $200 million for remediation at NNSA-owned facilities in the budget year beginning Oct. 1, […]

The Department of Energy’s Savannah River Site in South Carolina enacted an emergency response early this week when a vehicle attempting to enter a secure area activated explosive detection systems. Site barricades remained open through the duration of the emergency response Tuesday morning and there was “no indication of a consequence beyond the Savannah River […]

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers anticipates in late April issuing a formal request for proposals for environmental cleanup of the radioactively contaminated Luckey Site in Ohio under its Formerly Utilized Sites Remedial Action Program (FUSRAP). A draft solicitation went out on Feb. 20 for comments through March 5. The Army Corps this week did […]

While remediation is nearly complete at a couple of the 16 sites overseen by the Energy Department’s Office of Environmental Management, other cleanup efforts could last late into this century, according a roundup included in the Donald Trump administration’s budget request for fiscal 2021. The Energy Department announced in June 2019 that demolition of facilities […]

Liquid waste management at the Department of Energy’s Savannah River Site in South Carolina is in line to receive $1.05 billion in fiscal 2021, including a significant spike in spending on treatment activities that would cover the soon-to-be-operational Salt Waste Processing Facility (SWPF). The $1.05 billion, if approved by Congress, would be a $144.7 million […]

Amentum, the Maryland-based successor to AECOM’s Management Services branch, announced a pair of executive promotions this week. Tom Foster, president and project manager at the Savannah River Remediation joint venture in South Carolina, on Wednesday was named chief operating officer for Amentum’s Nuclear & Environment business unit. On Thursday, the company said it is promoting […]

Operations at the Moab Uranium Mill Tailings Remedial Action (UMTRA) project in Utah resumed within just a few days earlier this month after a truck overturned while carrying a load of waste, an Energy Department spokesperson confirmed Tuesday. A truck carrying a container of uranium mill tailings rolled onto its side while rounding a corner […]

The Energy Department Office of Environmental Management is taking resumes for the permanent job of managing the Hanford Site in Washington state, a post currently held by Brian Vance. In addition, Environmental Management soon seek applicants to replace Jeff Griffin, the associate principal deputy assistant secretary for field operations, who is leaving DOE to join […]