Cleanup & Remediation

The U.S. Energy Department on Tuesday issued its final request for proposals (RFP) for the Nationwide Deactivation, Decommissioning, and Removal contract, which could be worth up to $3 billion over 10 years. The first of what is expected to be many task orders under the multiple-award, indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity (IDIQ) contract would cover removal for an excess […]

Washington Department of Ecology Deputy Director Polly Zehm is retiring from state service at the end of January, just a month after her boss, agency spokesman Randy Bradbury said Monday. Zehm served more than 22 years with the agency, about eight of them as deputy director, according to an online biography. She sent an internal […]

The Energy Department’s Office of Environmental Management would receive almost $7.5 billion under a compromise fiscal 2020 appropriations bill released by House and Senate lawmakers on Monday. That’s equal with the Senate Appropriation Committee’s energy and water development bill, approved in September, and well above the $7.2 billion in last year’s appropriation: an amount roughly […]

As the Department of Energy prepares to reshape the state of business at the Hanford’s Site by switching its industry affiliations at the former plutonium-production campus, Major League Baseball has proposed abandoning its affiliation with a hometown fixture that arrived before the current slate of cleanup contractors: the Tri-City Dust Devils Minor League Baseball club. […]

A draft request for proposals for a new cleanup contract at the U.S. Energy Department’s Idaho National Laboratory (INL) could be released by late December, according to a new procurement notice. The Energy Department’s Office of Environmental Management said in a Dec. 11 notice on a federal procurement website that the draft document should be […]

While the clock ticks down on 2019, the U.S. Energy Department Office of Environmental Management has yet to issue a draft request for proposals for a new remediation contract for the Oak Ridge Site in Tennessee. The agency said in a July procurement notice it planned to issue a draft RFP within 60 days, which […]

The compromise National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) for fiscal 2020 would allow almost $2.1 billion for defense environmental cleanup operations the Department of Energy’s Hanford Site in Washington state. Defense environmental cleanup is the largest tranche of funding for Hanford and other properties managed by DOE’s Office of Environmental Management. In total, the office would […]

A defense policy bill on the verge of passage would require the U.S. Energy Department to provide Congress with anticipated costs of complying with court-enforced consent decrees at nuclear cleanup sites. The final version of the fiscal 2020 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) passed easily out of the House of Representatives Wednesday on a vote […]

Two companies are working together to extract rare isotopes for cancer treatment research from nuclear waste at the U.S. Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) in Tennessee. The project was unveiled in late November by Isotek Systems, a DOE contractor that oversees management of uranium-233 stored at ORNL, and TerraPower, a company co-founded […]

AECOM has named Bruce Covert as deputy general manager at the Waste Treatment Completion Co., based at the Energy Department’s Hanford Site in Washington state. Waste Treatment Completion Co. is a joint venture formed by Bechtel and AECOM in January 2017 that acts as a subcontractor to Bechtel National for startup of low-activity waste vitrification […]

The Washington state Department of Ecology is threatening to fine the U.S. Energy Department for withholding important data about operations at the Hanford Site. For its part, DOE’s Office of Environmental Management claims the state misunderstands the level of access allowed under the 1989 Tri-Party Agreement that governs cleanup at the former plutonium production complex. […]

Interim containment measures are underway on the eastern boundary of the chromium plume at the Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico, U.S. Department of Energy Environmental Management Los Alamos Field Office (EM-LA) Manager Doug Hintze recently told the Regional Coalition of LANL Communities board. In his Nov. 15 briefing to the board, Hintze highlighted […]

U.S. Department of Defense senior executive Tom Mooney is apparently becoming the new chief of staff at the Energy Department’s Office of Environmental Management. Mooney is the current chief of staff for the Pentagon’s Office of the Chief Management Officer, according to a source who said the federal manager stopped by DOE headquarters in Washington, […]

The U.S. Energy Department plans by early 2020 to issue a final request for proposals for deactivation, decommissioning, and removal of excess facilities across the nuclear weapons complex. The agency posted a notice Dec. 5 saying the final RFP on the contract, potentially worth $3 billion over 10 years, should be released within 30 days. […]

The U.S. Energy Department said Thursday it has awarded a potential 10-year, $10 billion contract for ongoing remediation of the Hanford Site Central Plateau in Washington state to a joint venture of AECOM, Fluor, and Atkins. The proposal by Central Plateau Cleanup Co., as the partnership is known, provides the best value to the federal […]

Cost and schedule issues at the Waste Treatment Plant at the Hanford Site in Washington state have prompted the U.S. Energy Department to downgrade the performance of facility construction and operations contractor Bechtel National. That’s one of the observations in a semiannual report from the DOE’s Office of Inspector General regarding its work. This report […]

The Washington state Department of Ecology is threatening to fine the U.S. Energy Department for withholding important data about operations at the Hanford Site. For its part, DOE’s Office of Environmental Management claims the state misunderstands the level of access allowed under the 1989 Tri-Party Agreement that governs cleanup at the former plutonium production complex. […]

U.S. Department of Defense senior executive Tom Mooney is expected this week to become the new chief of staff at the Energy Department’s Office of Environmental Management. Mooney is the current chief of staff for the Pentagon’s Office of the Chief Management Officer, according to a source who said the federal manager stopped by DOE […]

AECOM has named Bruce Covert as deputy general manager at the Waste Treatment Completion Co., based at the Energy Department’s Hanford Site in Washington state. Waste Treatment Completion Co. is a joint venture formed by Bechtel and AECOM in January 2017 that acts as a subcontractor to Bechtel National for startup of low-activity waste vitrification […]

The U.S. Department of Energy on Tuesday released a draft environmental assessment for its proposal to treat and dispose of up to 10,000 gallons of recycled wastewater from the Savannah River Siteat a commercial low-level radioactive waste site somewhere outside South Carolina. This would be the first test run of the DOE’s reinterpretation from June […]

The U.S. Energy Department plans by early 2020 to issue a final request for proposals for deactivation, decommissioning, and removal of excess facilities across the nuclear weapons complex. The agency posted a notice Thursday saying the final RFP on the contract, potentially worth $3 billion over 10 years, should be released within 30 days. The […]

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Despite one soil sample that showed an elevated level of radioactive contamination, the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment (CDPHE) thinks land near the former Rocky Flats nuclear weapons plant poses no significant threat to people. “Our state experts and toxicologists do not believe there is any immediate threat to public […]

Washington state Department of Ecology Director Maia Bellon said Monday she would retire at the end of this month. Ecology is the state regulator for the U.S. Department of Energy’s sprawling Hanford Site through a variety of permits including the dangerous waste, or site-wide, permit. Bellon announced her pending retirement after 25 years as a […]

The U.S. Energy Department’s Office of Environmental Management on Thursday awarded a potential 10-year, $4 billion contract for support services at the Hanford Site in Washington state to a slightly updated version of the incumbent vendor. Hanford Mission Integration Solutions (HMIS) is comprised of Leidos Integrated Technology, Centerra Group, and Parsons Government Services. Leidos also […]

Oversight of contractors and environmental remediation remains at the forefront of the U.S. Department of Energy’s management challenges for fiscal 2020, according to a Nov. 15 special report from DOE’s Office of Inspector General. Other major concerns include nuclear waste management, cybersecurity, safeguards and security of DOE installations, civilian stewardship of the U.S. nuclear arsenal, […]

A federal mediator will assist the U.S. Energy Department and the Washington state Ecology Department in their talks over cleanup milestones at the Hanford Site. The parties have agreed to use the services of a federal mediator to assist in the “holistic talks” on Hanford remediation issues, according to a slide presentation from Suzanne Dahl, […]

Based on conversations with the U.S. Department of Energy, the state of Idaho expects the long-awaited Integrated Waste Treatment Unit (IWTU) will start operating in late 2020 at the Idaho National Laboratory. However, the state for now will continue to assess financial penalties over DOE’s failure to meet the deadline for beginning operations at the […]

Rick Perry ended his tenure as U.S. secretary of energy on Sunday, but not before issuing a press release highlighting the progress of cleanup at the Santa Susana Field Laboratory (SSFL) in Ventura County, Calif. “I am proud of the work the Department of Energy (DOE) has done to advance the final cleanup of the […]

Perma-Fix Northwest accepted a $23,275 fine for its failure in 2013-2014 to ensure it had sufficient third-party liability coverage for its Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA) radioactive waste facility in Richland, Wash., the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency said Tuesday. Representatives for the federal agency and the company signed a consent agreement on Aug. 12. […]

The U.S. Department of Energy spent $8.6 million during the last fiscal year on remediation of a cesium-137 spill at a hospital research facility in Seattle. Remediation is ongoing at the Research and Training Building for the University of Washington’s Harborview Medical Center, according to Al Stotts, a spokesman for DOE’s semiautonomous National Nuclear Security […]