Cleanup & Remediation

Mission Support Alliance (MSA), the support services provider for the Hanford Site in Washington state, has dropped a contract dispute complaint against the Department of Energy. The chair of the U.S. Civilian Board of Contract Appeals on June 19 dismissed MSA’s case against the Energy Department with prejudice, meaning it cannot be refiled at a […]

The prime cleanup contractor for the Central Plateau at the Department of Energy’s Hanford Site in Washington state is accepting expressions of interest from potential manufacturers of an ion-exchange system for treatment of contaminated groundwater. The selected subcontractor would design, produce, and submit the system for extraction of uranium and technetium-99 for the pump-and-treat facility […]

The Department of Energy is requiring over a dozen of its cleanup sites to conduct extensive evaluations of their radioactive waste holdings and safety practices, in hopes of preventing a repeat of the April 2018 sludge release at the Idaho National Laboratory. The facilities overseen by DOE’s Office of Environmental Management (EM) have until Sept. […]

The House of Representatives on Wednesday passed its first fiscal 2020 appropriations bill without any discussion of or changes to its $7.2 billion spending proposal for the Department of Energy’s nuclear cleanup office. After several days of debate, House members voted 226-203 in favor of a “minibus” appropriations bill that would fund the Energy Department, […]

The Department of Energy proposes to pay for five environmental projects valued at just over $1 million to work off some of the penalties assessed by the state of Idaho over the agency’s failure to start treating sodium-bearing waste at the Idaho National Laboratory. The rest of the $2.19 million penalty incurred for the 12 […]

Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio) said this week he has been unable to persuade the White House to take a direct interest in addressing findings of off-site radiological contamination near the Department of Energy’s Portsmouth cleanup project in his state. “I’ve begged the Department of Energy and I tried to get the president of the United […]

The joint venture charged with environmental remediation of the Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge Site received all but about $600,000 of its potential performance fee for the first six months of fiscal 2019. The Oak Ridge Office of Environmental Management (OREM) sent the latest performance evaluation for URS-CH2M Oak Ridge (UCOR) on Monday. The contractor […]

Senator Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio) said this week he has been unable to persuade the White House to take a direct interest in addressing findings of off-site radiological contamination near the Department of Energy’s Portsmouth cleanup project in his state. “I’ve begged the Department of Energy and I tried to get the president of the United […]

The Energy Department proposes to pay for five environmental projects valued at just over $1 million to work off some of the penalties assessed by the state of Idaho over the agency’s failure to start treating sodium-bearing waste at the Idaho National Laboratory. The rest of the $2.19 million penalty incurred for the 12 months […]

The Department of Energy formally published its reinterpretation of the definition of high-level radioactive waste (HLW) in Monday’s Federal Register. As telegraphed for months, and officially announced on June 5, DOE now interprets that the existing HLW definition in the Atomic Energy Act and the Nuclear Waste Policy Act means not all wastes from spent […]

It will take at least three months longer than expected for a new salt waste treatment method at the Department of Energy’s Savannah River Site to complete a demonstration period that began in January. That is because the method, known as tank closure cesium removal (TCCR), has had difficulties dissolving the salt waste, a DOE […]

The Energy Department withdrew its state permit application for the Hanford Site Test Bed Initiative last week after the Washington state Department of Ecology sought federal-state negotiations over tank waste remediation. In a May 29 letter, Ecology Director Maia Bellon told Anne Marie White, the departing DOE assistant secretary for environmental management, it is time […]

An article in the June 7 issue of Weapons Complex Monitor misspelled the name of Mark Senderling, the Energy Department Office of Environmental Management deputy assistant secretary for waste and materials management. The article should also have reported that the agency, under the National Environmental Policy Act, has not decided whether certain high-level radioactive waste at […]

The legacy cleanup vendor at the Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico is seeking a subcontractor to excavate several old concrete slabs and provide related deactivation and decommissioning work at Technical Area 21. Newport News Nuclear BWXT-Los Alamos (N3B) expects to sign a firm-fixed-price contract with the subcontractor that will be chosen based on […]

The Department of Energy acknowledged last week that a “minor miscalculation” by contractor Fluor-BWXT Portsmouth resulted in the under-reporting of doses of some radioactive contaminants for many years around the agency’s Portsmouth Site in Ohio. That said, the radioactive dose rates “remain far below” the point of being a health and safety concern, DOE Undersecretary […]

A federal court on Thursday upheld a Washington state law making it easier for employees of contractors at the Energy Department’s Hanford Site to qualify for workers’ compensation benefits. State Attorney General Bob Ferguson announced the ruling by the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Washington. The U.S. Justice Department challenged the law […]

The House Armed Services Committee on Thursday proposed a nearly $5.6 billion cap on defense environmental remediation spending at the Department of Energy for fiscal 2020, about $400 less than recommended by the lower chamber’s Appropriations Committee. The National Defense Authorization Act sets policy and annual spending limits for the largest funding tranche of legacy […]

William “Ike” White will begin managing the Department of Energy’s Office of Environmental Management (EM) effective Monday. White for now is taking the title of senior adviser at EM, following the resignation of Anne Marie White about 15 months into her tenure as assistant energy secretary for environmental management. Ike White could eventually be named […]

The Energy Department’s Office of Environmental Management (EM) still hopes in coming months to award several major contracts, an agency procurement official said Wednesday. The potential $6 billion Hanford Mission Essential Services contract for the Hanford Site in Washington state could be announced within the next couple months, according to Norbert Doyle, EM deputy assistant […]

The House Armed Services Committee this morning approved its version of the 2020 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) after about 20 hours of debate. The annual defense policy bill, now headed to the House floor, authorizes about 4% less funding than sought for active nuclear weapons programs managed by the Department of Energy’s National Nuclear […]

The Energy Department’s Office of Environmental Management (EM) still hopes in coming months to award several major contracts, an agency procurement official said Wednesday. The potential $6 billion Hanford Mission Essential Services contract for the Hanford Site in Washington state could be announced within the next couple months, according to Norbert Doyle, EM deputy assistant […]

The Energy Facility Contractors Group (EFCOG), which represents companies that do business within the Energy Department nuclear cleanup and weapons complex, picked new officers during its annual meeting last week in Washington, D.C. Michael Lempke, president of the Nuclear and Environmental Group at Huntington Ingalls Industries’ Technical Solutions division, was selected as EFCOG’s new chairman, […]

The Department of Energy on Friday issued a request for quote for a small business to administer the workers’ compensation program for contractor employees at the Hanford Site in Washington state. The agency plans to award a firm-fixed-price contract for up to five years for workers’ compensation support. Washington-based Penser North America holds the current […]

The Department of Energy acknowledged last week that a “minor miscalculation” by contractor Fluor-BWXT Portsmouth resulted in the under-reporting of doses of some radioactive contaminants for many years around the agency’s Portsmouth Site in Ohio. That said, the radioactive dose rates “remain far below” the point of being a health and safety concern, Undersecretary of […]

For the second time in a year, an advisory board to the Department of Energy has rejected a member’s request to urge the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency to reopen its decision on the On-Site Waste Disposal Cell being built at the the Portsmouth Site in Ohio During a meeting Thursday, the Portsmouth Site Specific Advisory Board voted against […]

The Energy Department withdrew its state permit application for the Hanford Site Test Bed Initiative last week after the Washington state Department of Ecology sought federal-state negotiations over tank waste remediation. In a May 29 letter, Ecology Director Maia Bellon told Anne Marie White, the departing DOE assistant secretary for environmental management, that it was […]

The Energy Department in today’s Federal Register formally published its reinterpretation of high-level radioactive waste. As announced last week and months ago, DOE interprets that the existing HLW definition means that not all wastes from spent fuel reprocessing are highly-radioactive. Some material on the less radioactive end of the traditional high-level spectrum could conceivably be […]

The Energy Department’s proposal to reinterpret the definition of high-level radioactive waste and go with a policy that stresses radiological risk over its source, has the support of the directors of a half-dozen DOE national laboratories. “The proposal would shift the definition from a source-based definition to a risk-based interpretation consistent with the radiological characteristics […]

The Energy Department published its justification May 31 for contracting a Centrus Energy subsidiary to demonstrate high-assay low enriched uranium (HALEU) production without competitive bidding. The federal government wants to deploy a 16-machine cascade at the Portsmouth Site in Ohio to demonstrate production of 19.75% enriched uranium fuel by June 2022 using domestic technology. Centrus’ […]

Language in a fiscal 2020 spending package passed by the full House Appropriations Committee May 21 says the Energy Department should comply with prior consent decrees when it comes to remediation its portion of the Santa Susana Field Laboratory (SSFL) in California. A provision of the report accompanying the Energy and Water Development appropriations bill […]