Cleanup & Remediation

Less than a month after being awarded $1.5 million from a federal jury for discrimination during a rehiring process, a former employee of the Savannah River Site’s liquid waste contractor is seeking an additional $1 million in compensation. That amount represents the pay she would have received from the time she was terminated in 2013 […]

The U.S. Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board (DNFSB) wants information from the Energy Department by mid-November on potentially flammable radioactive waste storage drums at sites other than the Idaho National Laboratory. To date, DOE has only partly provided the federal nuclear health-and-safety watchdog with requested information regarding its review of an April 2018 incident in […]

Two regulatory agencies in California stress the U.S. Department of Energy must receive state approval before it can legally tear down 18 buildings within Area IV of the Santa Susana Field Laboratory cleanup site in Ventura County. The Energy Department last month issued a record of decision formalizing its intention to demolish the remaining structures […]

U.S. Rep. Greg Walden (R-Ore.), a longtime supporter of cleaning up the U.S. Energy Department’s Hanford Site in Washington state, said Monday he would not run for re-election in 2020. “So, I will not seek re-election to the U.S. House of Representatives, nor election to any other office, but instead I will close the public […]

Prospects for timely passage of a full 2020 budget for the Department of Energy and other agencies dimmed a little this week, when most Senate Democrats refused to curtail debate on spending legislation that includes funding for President Donald Trump’s proposed southern border wall. The Senate failed Thursday to invoke cloture on a basket of […]

Bruce Stanski, the Fluor finance chief who stepped down in June as the company prepared to shed its government services business, is still consulting with the foundering construction giant as it seeks to right the ship, according to a regulatory filing. Stanski left the company in June but late last week signed an agreement to […]

U.S. Rep. Katie Hill (D-Calif.), who represents the congressional district that borders the Santa Susana Field Laboratory cleanup site, resigned from Congress on Sunday, only days after the House Ethics Committee launched an investigation into whether she violated congressional rules. The panel announced plans Oct. 23 to investigate allegations that the first-term lawmaker engaged in […]

The planned release of a draft record of decision (ROD) for a new 2.2-million-cubic yard landfill for the Oak Ridge Site in Tennessee has been delayed again, with the new target release date set for Dec. 19, a U.S. Energy Department spokesperson said Monday by email. The document had most recently been scheduled to drop […]

Leidos on Tuesday reported strong increases in its top and bottom lines in the third quarter, driven by growth across its operating segments and receipt of a payment going back to the 2004 Olympics in Greece. The company also reported record bookings and backlog, tallying $5.2 billion in orders that were nearly double sales that drove […]

The U.S. Government Accountability Office said Tuesday the Department of Energy should provide better documentation of how it manages the payments in lieu of taxes (PILT) program for communities around nuclear facilities. The Energy Department handed out $23 million in PILT revenue to communities near a dozen nuclear laboratory and cleanup sites in fiscal 2017. […]

Engineering, construction, and procurement giant Fluor continues to experience rough waters a month after announcing plans to sell its government services branch, which includes its U.S. Department of Energy contracts. For its third quarter ended Sept. 30, Fluor reported a net loss from continuing operations of $782 million, or $5.57 per diluted share, compared to […]

A federal judge did not recognize the Department of Energy’s legal obligation to pay hundreds of millions of dollars in plutonium-related fines to South Carolina, or properly vet the state’s claim that the agency has the money to pay up, according to court papers filed this week. In appealing the ruling in the 2016 lawsuit […]

WASHINGTON — The U.S. Department of Energy might still be pursuing a potentially illegal policy of curtailing Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board (DNFSB) oversight of certain nuclear-weapon sites, a board member said this week. The DNFSB held the meeting to quiz DOE and National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) officials about their reasoning for rejecting a […]

Engineering, construction, and procurement giant Fluor continues to experience rough waters a month after announcing plans to sell its government services branch, which includes its U.S. Department of Energy contracts. For its third quarter ended Sept. 30, Fluor reported a net loss from continuing operations of $782 million, or $5.57 per diluted share, compared to […]

Two regulatory agencies in California stress the U.S. Department of Energy must receive state approval before it can legally tear down 18 buildings within Area IV of the Santa Susana Field Laboratory cleanup site in Ventura County. The Energy Department last month issued a record of decision formalizing its intention to demolish the remaining structures […]

The U.S. Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board (DNFSB) wants information from the Energy Department by mid-November on potentially flammable radioactive waste storage drums at sites other than the Idaho National Laboratory. To date, DOE has only partly provided the federal nuclear health-and-safety watchdog with requested information regarding its review of an April 2018 incident in […]

The U.S. Government Accountability Office said Tuesday the Department of Energy should provide better documentation of how it manages the payments in lieu of taxes (PILT) program for communities around nuclear facilities. The Energy Department handed out $23 million in PILT revenue to communities near a dozen nuclear laboratory and cleanup sites in fiscal 2017. […]

A federal judge did not recognize the Department of Energy’s legal obligation to pay millions of dollars in plutonium-related fines to South Carolina, or properly vet the state’s claim that the agency has the money to pay up, according to newly filed court papers. In appealing the ruling of the 2016 lawsuit in the Court […]

U.S. Rep. Katie Hill (D-Calif.), who represents the congressional district that includes the Santa Susana Field Laboratory cleanup site, resigned from Congress Sunday days after the House Ethics Committee launched an investigation into whether she violated congressional rules. The panel announced plans Oct. 23 to investigate allegations that Hill engaged in a sexual relationship with […]

The planned release of a draft record of decision (ROD) for a new 2.2-million-cubic yard landfill for the Oak Ridge Site in Tennessee has been delayed again, with the new target release date set for Dec. 19, a U.S. Energy Department spokesperson said Monday by email. The document had most recently been scheduled to drop […]

WASHINGTON — The U.S. Department of Energy is still pursuing a potentially illegal policy of curtailing Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board (DNFSB) oversight of certain nuclear-weapon sites, a board member said during a meeting Monday. The Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board held the meeting to quiz DOE and National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) officials about […]

U.S. Rep. Greg Walden (R-Ore.), a longtime supporter of cleaning up the U.S. Energy Department’s Hanford Site in Washington state, said Monday he would not run for re-election in 2020. “So, I will not seek re-election to the U.S. House of Representatives, nor election to any other office, but instead I will close the public […]

Less than a month after being awarded $1.5 million from a federal jury for discrimination during a rehiring process, a former employee of the Savannah River Site’s liquid waste contractor is seeking an additional $1 million in compensation. That amount represents the pay she would have received from the time she was terminated in 2013 […]

Texas-based Fluor will discuss its quarterly financial performance Thursday for the first time since announcing its plans last month to divest its government contracting business. It’s also the engineering and construction company’s first quarterly review since another Energy Department contractor, AECOM, said earlier this month it has agreed to sell its government contracting branch to […]

A National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine panel will hold a day-long data gathering session Thursday in Richland, Wash., on alternatives to vitrifying all low-activity radioactive waste at the Energy Department’s Hanford Site in Washington state. The nearly-complete Waste Treatment Plant (WTP) being built by Bechtel National lacks capacity to convert all 56 million […]

Mechanical and industrial contractor Intermech will build a dry storage area for highly radioactive cesium and strontium now stored underwater at the U.S. Energy Department’s Hanford Site in Washington state. The North Carolina-based company on Oct. 17 received a $5.5 million subcontract from Hanford cleanup contractor CH2M Hill Plateau Remediation Co. Construction of the dry […]

The U.S. National Nuclear Security Administration’s (NNSA) plans to produce intercontinental ballistic missile warhead cores starting in the next decade could delay plans to dilute and dispose of 34 metric tons of surplus weapon-usable plutonium, the Government Accountability Office reported Wednesday. There are two reasons why, according to the 39-page report, “Surplus Plutonium Disposition: NNSA’s Long-Term […]

An independent opinion that could help determine the outcome of a federal lawsuit claiming a Savannah River Site contractor overcharged the federal government by $5 million is still being decided after nearly three years, according to a status report recently filed in the case. The joint status report was submitted by the U.S. Department of Energy and […]

Environmental groups whose lawsuit forced the U.S. Department of Energy to partially redo an environmental review of its Uranium Processing Facility (UPF) on Monday asked the federal judge who ordered the do-over to halt construction of the next-generation weapons-uranium hub. While she ordered the agency on Sept. 24 to incorporate federal earthquake hazard data into […]

Navy Vice Adm. Charles Richard, the Donald Trump administration’s nominee to lead U.S. Strategic Command, on Thursday told the Senate Armed Services Committee that there are “issues” with the National Nuclear Security Administration’s (NNSA) plan to produce 80 new nuclear weapon cores a year by 2030. “That requirement is sound,” Richard said, but “there are […]