Cleanup & Remediation

Energy Secretary Rick Perry on Tuesday defended his agency’s proposed $400 million-plus budget reduction at the Hanford Site in Washington state, even while the cost of cleanup is on the rise. “On one hand the department is telling us the mission is going to become exponentially more expensive,” even as it cuts the remediation budget […]

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers on Monday said it should within a couple weeks issue a formal procurement notice for environmental remediation at multiple locations in its St. Louis, Mo., District under the Formerly Utilized Sites Remedial Action Program (FUSRAP). The Army Corps intends to issue a cost-plus-fixed-fee award for cleanup of hazardous, toxic, […]

The Energy Department’s Office of Environmental Management has awarded a potential five-year, $4.5 million contract to a firm to assist with its Transportation Emergency Preparedness Program. The Environmental Management office on Monday announced the award to Technical Resources Group to help prepare a response to a transportation accident involving radioactive materials being shipped to or […]

The Department of Energy plans in fiscal 2020 to cut funding for cleanup at the Hanford Site in Washington sate in part because of progress made and projects completed, according to detailed budget documents released Monday. In total, funding for the two DOE offices at Hanford would drop by more than $400 million from current […]

The Donald Trump administration on Monday rolled out its full fiscal 2020 budget request for the Energy Department’s Office of Environmental Management, which faces a roughly $700 million funding decrease from the current level. Overall, funding for the cleanup office would drop from almost $7.2 billion in fiscal 2019 to about $6.5 billion proposed for […]

A federal judge should declare a new Washington state workers compensation law constitutional and block a jury trial in a lawsuit brought by the Department of Justice, the state wrote in a Friday court filing. The Justice Department has sued the state in the U.S. District Court for Eastern Washington, arguing that the law, enacted […]

The legacy cleanup contractor for the Energy Department’s Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico has scheduled an industry day for prospective subcontractors April 10-11 in Santa Fe. Current and future subcontracting opportunities will be the focus of the event planned by Newport News Nuclear BWXT-Los Alamos (N3B). On the slate are mandatory pre-bid meetings […]

The Department of Energy plans to extend the contract for Mission Support Alliance (MSA) to provide site-wide services at the Hanford Site in Eastern Washington by up to six months. Hanford DOE Manager Brian Vance said in a memo to site employees Tuesday that Richland Operations Office Deputy Manager Joe Franco was notifying MSA that […]

The legacy cleanup vendor for the Energy Department’s Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico has awarded a subcontract for a company to tear down an old processing building for radioactive liquid waste and do certain other work at Technical Area 21. Newport News Nuclear BWXT-Los Alamos (N3B) said Thursday the contract went to Albuquerque-based […]

The Trump administration is proposing to shift management of cleanup of more than 20 radioactively contaminated former nuclear sites from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers back to the Department of Energy. The Formerly Utilized Sites Remedial Action Program (FUSRAP) would be placed into the portfolio of DOE’s Office of Legacy Management, accounting for nearly all […]

The Trump administration is proposing to shift management of the Formerly Utilized Sites Remedial Action Program (FUSRAP) from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers back to the Department of Energy. The program would be placed into the portfolio of DOE’s Office of Legacy Management, accounting for nearly all of its $144 million funding increase for the […]

The Department of Energy plans to extend the contract for Mission Support Alliance (MSA) to provide site-wide services at the Hanford Site in eastern Washington state by up to six months. Hanford DOE Manager Brian Vance said in a memo to site employees Tuesday that Richland Operations Office Deputy Manager Joe Franco was notifying MSA […]

Prospective vendors looking at a potential seven-year, $900 million contract to manage the 222-S Laboratory Contract at the Hanford Site in Washington state have filed 70 questions on the solicitation. The final request for proposals was issued Feb. 7. Bid proposals are due by 4 p.m. ET April 9, and the anticipated award date is […]

The Department of Energy is proposing a $417 million cut to funding for environmental remediation at the Hanford Site in Washington state, while boosting spending for liquid waste management at the Savannah River Site in South Carolina by $91 million. On March 11, the agency rolled out the broad outlines of its fiscal 2020 budget […]

The U.S. Department of Energy said last week it is ahead of schedule in removing 1 metric ton of plutonium from the Savannah River Site in South Carolina, and should finish the court-mandated process by the end of the year. The Energy Department update was seemingly prompted by a March 1 letter that South Carolina […]

The Donald Trump administration has proposed a $6.5 billion budget for the Energy Department’s Office of Environmental Management in fiscal 2020, slightly less than the $6.6 billion requested last year but 11 percent below the $7.2 billion eventually enacted by Congress. The office’s funding for the budget year that began Oct. 1 is its largest […]

Prospective contractors have peppered the Energy Department with questions about two requests for proposals issued in February for the Hanford Site in Washington state. The DOE Office of Environmental Management recently posted 75 questions raised by the contractor community about the potential 10-year, $13 billion Tank Closure Contract. The cleanup office posted another 28 questions […]

Local community leaders are urging the Washington state Department of Ecology to expedite completing an environmental impact statement (EIS) and a revised permit for Perma-Fix Northwest in Richland, Wash., near the Hanford Site. The Department of Ecology said at a public meeting Wednesday in Richland on the scope of the EIS that the permit application […]

Local community leaders are urging the Washington state Department of Ecology to expedite completing an environmental impact statement (EIS) and a revised permit for Perma-Fix Northwest in Richland, Wash., near the Hanford Site. The Department of Ecology said at a public meeting Wednesday in Richland on the scope of the EIS that the permit application […]

Prospective contractors have peppered the Energy Department with questions about two requests for proposals issued in February for the Hanford Site in Washington state. The DOE Office of Environmental Management recently posted 75 questions raised by the contractor community about the potential 10-year, $13 billion Tank Closure Contract. The cleanup office posted another 28 questions […]

The Washington state Department of Ecology has scheduled a meeting for Wednesday as part of its preparation of a supplemental environmental impact statement for Perma-Fix Northwest in the city of Richland, near the Department of Energy’s the Hanford Site. Richland in 1998 conducted the last environmental impact statement (EIS) prepared for the plant, which treats […]

The U.S. Department of Energy said last week it is ahead of schedule in removing 1 metric ton of plutonium from the Savannah River Site in South Carolina, and should finish the court-mandated process by the end of the year. The Energy Department update was seemingly prompted by a March 1 letter that South Carolina […]

The Donald Trump administration has proposed a $6.5 billion budget for the Energy Department’s Office of Environmental Management in fiscal 2020, slightly less than the $6.6 billion requested last year but 11 percent below the $7.2 billion eventually enacted by Congress. In a top-line budget plan issued Monday, senior DOE officials said the request fulfills […]

For the second year in a row, the House of Representatives has approved legislation to reauthorize the West Valley Demonstration Project in New York. The bill, introduced by Rep. Tom Reed (R-N.Y.) and passed by voice vote March 5, is identical to the measure passed in September before Democrats retook control of the House The […]

The U.S. Department of Justice has detailed its complaints about a new Washington state law that makes it easier for Hanford Site personnel to have their workers’ compensation claims approved. The Justice Department filed a motion for summary judgment late on March 1 in U.S. District Court for Eastern Washington state, asking that the court […]

PHOENIX, Ariz. – While the Department of Energy and its nuclear cleanup contractors acknowledge they are learning on the job, both sides Wednesday stressed the urgency of meeting deadlines for the first set of solicitations issued under the agency’s overhauled approach to procurement. Requests for proposals are due March 18 for two potential 10-year, multibillion-dollar […]

The Energy Department Office of Environmental Management should focus more on “breakthrough technologies” in nuclear cleanup operations of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine said this week. Such technologies could cut the time needed for environmental remediation jobs, the National Academies said in a report Monday. The DOE Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy (ARPA-E) […]

Registration opens at 9 a.m. March 19 for all of the Department of Energy’s 2019 environmental cleanup tours of the Hanford Site in Washington state. Twenty tours will be offered this year, with all bus seats expected to be claimed in a matter of hours. Registration is only available via the Hanford.gov website. However, a […]

The Department of Energy’s nuclear cleanup office should reconsider what work is deemed “operations” as opposed to “capital asset projects,” the Government Accountability Office said Tuesday. Some operations, such as treatment and storage of radioactive liquid tank waste, should be subject to the higher degree of scrutiny applied to capital projects, the government watchdog said. […]

Department of Energy contractor Fluor Idaho intends in April to resume sludge repackaging at an Idaho National Laboratory fabric filter building where four drums of radioactive waste overheated and ejected their lids about one year earlier. The company informed the Idaho Department of Environmental Quality of its plans on Feb. 28 in a monthly report […]