Cleanup & Remediation

The Senate Appropriations Committee wants additional cost information before Congress provides any more funding for the Department of Energy’s planned new landfill at the Oak Ridge Site in Tennessee. “The Committee is disappointed in the lack of progress in issuing the Record of Decision for the new landfill and recommends no funding to continue the […]

ALEXANDRIA, Va. – The U.S. Energy Department’s top official at the Hanford Site in Washington state has a full plate these days. That includes preparing for potential turnover of four top contractors and gearing up for operation of the $17 billion Waste Treatment and Immobilization Plant (WTP) by 2023, Brian Vance, who manages both the […]

The legacy cleanup contractor for the U.S. Energy Department’s Los Alamos Nuclear Laboratory in New Mexico is seeking a firm to monitor vapor levels around certain disposal areas. Newport News Nuclear BWXT-Los Alamos (N3B) on Monday issued an updated request for proposals at www.fbo.gov for a subcontractor to collect and report on material disposal area […]

A new federal lawsuit against the U.S. Environmental Protecting Agency (EPA) claims runoff from the Energy Department’s Los Alamos National Laboratory is hurting water quality in Los Alamos County, N.M. The lawsuit was filed Monday in U.S. District Court in New Mexico against the EPA, agency Administrator Andrew Wheeler, and EPA Region 6 Administrator Ken […]

The U.S. Energy Department plans to continue to pay Boeing for access to a federal facility being prepared for remediation within the aerospace giant’s property at the Santa Susana Field Laboratory in Ventura County, Calif. The access agreement with Boeing would otherwise expire Sept. 30. Energy Department Contracting Officer John Blecher on Monday signed off on […]

The Department of Energy’s Savannah River Site is delaying roofing repairs at its H Canyon nuclear materials processing facility, after stating at the start of the year that construction would begin around midsummer. That is because the repairs are not urgent or required by a specific deadline, said Barbara Smoak, spokeswoman for site management contractor […]

The U.S. Energy Department plans to continue to pay Boeing for access to a federal facility being prepared for remediation within the aerospace giant’s property at the Santa Susana Field Laboratory in Ventura County, Calif. The access agreement with Boeing would otherwise expire Sept. 30. Energy Department Contracting Officer John Blecher on Monday signed off on […]

A new federal lawsuit against the U.S. Environmental Protecting Agency (EPA) claims runoff from the Energy Department’s Los Alamos National Laboratory is hurting water quality in Los Alamos County, N.M. The lawsuit was filed Monday in U.S. District Court in New Mexico against the EPA, agency Administrator Andrew Wheeler, and EPA Region 6 Administrator Ken […]

The legacy cleanup contractor for the U.S. Energy Department’s Los Alamos Nuclear Laboratory in New Mexico is seeking a firm to monitor vapor levels around certain disposal areas. Newport News Nuclear BWXT-Los Alamos (N3B) on Monday issued an updated request for proposals at www.fbo.gov for a subcontractor to collect and report on material disposal area […]

The Colorado Department of Health and Environment expects the organization building a toll road near Denver to continue soil sampling around the site of the former Rocky Flats nuclear weapons facility and to submit its results by the end of the year. A soil sample taken by the Jefferson Parkway Public Highway Authority in May […]

The Department of Energy’s Savannah River Site is delaying roofing repairs at its H Canyon nuclear materials processing facility, after stating at the start of the year construction would begin around midsummer. Repairs on the leaky roof are scheduled to begin “later this year,” Monte Volk, a DOE spokesman at the 310-square-mile facility near Aiken, […]

ALEXANDRIA, Va. – The U.S. Energy Department’s top official at the Hanford Site in Washington state has a full plate these days. That includes preparing for potential turnover of four top contractors and gearing up for operation of the $17 billion Waste Treatment and Immobilization Plant (WTP) by 2023, Brian Vance, who manages both the Hanford Office […]

Site preparation is continuing for the next large-scale Saltstone Disposal Unit (SDU) at the U.S. Department of Energy’s Savannah River Site in South Carolina, with plans to begin construction in May 2020. According to a post Monday on the site’s Facebook page, liquid waste contractor Savannah River Remediation (SRR) has completed excavation of the location […]

The U.S. Energy Department does not have a clear strategy to combat rising costs and delays for the Integrated Waste Treatment Unit (IWTU) at the Idaho National Laboratory, the Government Accountability Office (GAO) said Monday. In the report, GAO says the Energy Department has not followed best practices that dictate cost estimates be “comprehensive, accurate, […]

Fluor Idaho, the U.S. Energy Department’s cleanup contractor at the Idaho National Laboratory, expects within weeks to largely conclude its work at the Advanced Mixed Waste Treatment Project (AMWTP). As of late August, 140 cubic meters of transuranic waste debris remained to be treated at the AMWTP, company spokesman Erik Simpson said by email Tuesday. […]

ALEXANDRIA, Va. — While the U.S. Energy Department has moved slower than anticipated in awarding several multibillion-dollar nuclear cleanup contracts, it is important to get the process correct, DOE Undersecretary for Science Paul Dabbar said Wednesday. “We want to make sure we are doing it the right way,” Dabbar said during his speech at the […]

Washington state and federal officials are ready for negotiations on “a holistic and realistic path forward” on the schedule for disposal of radioactive tank waste stored at the U.S. Energy Department’s Hanford Site, the top official at the facility said in a letter this week. Brian Vance, DOE manager for both the Richland Operations Office and […]

HENDERSON, Nev. – Nuclear cleanup vendors hope the U.S. Energy Department’s new approach to procurement succeeds in quickening the pace of contract awards, one executive said here last week. That was the assessment of the end-state contracting model offered Sept. 3 at the ExchangeMonitor’s RadWaste Summit by Cathy Hickey, executive vice president for Navarro Research […]

HENDERSON, Nev. — There is roughly three decades of environmental work left at the U.S. Energy Department’s Oak Ridge Site in Tennessee, mostly at Y-12 National Security Complex and the Oak Ridge National Laboratory, according to one official. “We’ve got about 30 years of cleanup to do, we think, based on a relatively flat funding […]

The latest soil samples from around the Rocky Flats Natural Wildlife Refuge show residual radiological contamination at the one-time nuclear weapons site in Colorado poses no health threat for employees, hikers, or nearby communities, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service said in a report Sept. 6. The samples taken in June around the former location […]

New Mexico-based Strategic Management Solutions filed a protest with the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) on Monday over a contract worth up to $137 million to provide technical support services for the Energy Department’s Portsmouth/Paducah Project Office. The DOE Office of Environmental Management issued the award on Aug. 22 to Oak Ridge, Tenn.-based Enterprise Technical […]

The Senate Appropriations Committee on Thursday approved legislation that would provide $7.45 billion in fiscal 2020 for the Energy Department’s Office of Environmental Management. The nuclear cleanup funding in the Senate energy and water appropriations bill outstrips the roughly $7.2 billion approved by the House of Representatives in a “minibus” spending package in June, along […]

U.S. Energy Secretary Rick Perry on Sept. 6 visited the Energy Technology Engineering Center (ETEC) at the Santa Susana Field Laboratory to assess challenges associated with cleanup of the site. The Energy Department said in a Friday press release that Perry was keeping a promise he made in June to visit the facility. The Energy […]

Senate appropriators on Thursday joined their House counterparts in nixing a request from the Trump administration to transfer the Formerly Utilized Sites Remedial Action Program (FUSRAP) from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers back to its former home at the Department of Energy. The Senate Appropriations Committee voted 31-0 in favor of the $48.9 billion […]

ALEXANDRIA, Va. — While the U.S. Energy Department has moved slower than anticipated in awarding several multibillion-dollar nuclear cleanup contracts, it is important to get the process correct, DOE Undersecretary for Science Paul Dabbar said Wednesday. “We want to make sure we are doing it the right way,” Dabbar said during his speech at the […]

New Mexico-based Strategic Management Solutions filed a protest with the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) on Monday over a contract worth up to $137 million to provide technical support services for the Energy Department’s Portsmouth/Paducah Project Office. The DOE Office of Environmental Management issued the award on Aug. 22 to Oak Ridge, Tenn.-based Enterprise Technical […]

Site preparation recently began for the next large-scale Saltstone Disposal Unit (SDU) at the U.S. Department of Energy’s Savannah River Site in South Carolina, according to a post Monday on the site’s Facebook page. Liquid waste contractor Savannah River Remediation (SRR) has completed excavation of the location for SDU 8, a 32-million-gallon megavolume concrete structure that will permanently […]

HENDERSON, Nev. – Nuclear cleanup vendors hope the U.S. Energy Department’s new approach to procurement succeeds in quickening the pace of contract awards, one executive said here last week. That was the assessment of the end-state contracting model offered Sept. 3 at the ExchangeMonitor’s RadWaste Summit by Cathy Hickey, executive vice president for Navarro Research […]

The latest soil samples from around the Rocky Flats Natural Wildlife Refuge show residual radiological contamination at the one-time nuclear weapons site in Colorado poses no health threat for employees, hikers, or nearby communities, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service said in a report Friday. The samples taken in June around the former location of […]

HENDERSON, Nev. — There is roughly three decades of environmental work left at the U.S. Energy Department’s Oak Ridge Site in Tennessee, mostly at Y-12 National Security Complex and the Oak Ridge National Laboratory, according to one official. “We’ve got about 30 years of cleanup to do, we think, based on a relatively flat funding […]