Cleanup & Remediation

The Energy Department contractor at the West Valley Demonstration Project near Buffalo, N.Y., recently finished shipping the last of the site’s legacy low-level radioactive waste for disposal. Contractor CH2M HILL BWXT West Valley (CHBWV) finished the shipments on Sept. 6, a spokesman said by email. Legacy waste in this context means material predating the 2011 […]

Contractors and other observers are still waiting to see who will be selected as permanent second in command for the U.S. Energy Department’s Office of Environmental Management (EM). “We are all waiting on an EM-2” to be named, one industry source said Monday, using the common term for the principal deputy assistant secretary to the […]

The Energy Department must address concerns about potential water contamination before the Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation (TDEC) is ready to sign off on a new waste disposal landfill at the Oak Ridge Reservation. “To gain the state’s support, DOE may need to revise the landfill design, because groundwater near the land surface could […]

The Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board has invited the head of the Department of Energy’s Environmental Management office to a Nov. 28 public hearing about a controversial order the board fears will limit its access to defense-nuclear sites across the country. And, the independent federal safety watchdog said, Assistant Secretary for Environmental Management (EM) Anne […]

Comments are due to the Energy Department by 5 p.m. Eastern time Thursday on the request for information (RFI)/sources sought notice for the West Valley Demonstration Project in New York state. The agency issued the RFI on Oct. 10 as part of its market research for a future draft request for proposals for the cleanup […]

More than 6,000 cubic yards of radioactively contaminated soil has been excavated from the Luckey Site in Ohio and shipped for disposal in Michigan, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers said Monday. North Wind-Portage in April began excavation of an anticipated 129,000 cubic yards of soil under a $100 million contract through the Army Corps’ […]

The Energy Department on Thursday posted 13 pages of additional questions and answers from prospective bidders on the potential $6 billion, decade-long Hanford Site Mission Essential Services Contract. For the most part, the agency declined to elaborate on the final request for proposals, issued Sept. 20, for the “landlord” contract at the former plutonium production […]

No airborne radioactive particles were detected after steam was spotted Friday morning coming from a small building linked to the second PUREX Plant waste storage tunnel at the Hanford Site in Washington state. The steam was not expected in that location, and more than 500 workers in the 200 East Area at the center of […]

Fluor, the Dallas-based engineering, procurement, and construction company, has scheduled its next quarterly earnings conference call for 5:30 p.m. Thursday. The company’s third-quarter earnings report will be released shortly after the stock market closes at 4 p.m. The Department of Energy contractor held a preliminary earnings call Oct. 10 in which it discussed its ongoing woes […]

Cleanup contractor Fluor Idaho should have taken greater precautions in repackaging sludge prior to an April 11 incident in which four drums of the radioactive waste overheated and blew off their lids at a building inside the Energy Department’s Idaho National Laboratory. That is the crux of a report Thursday from the company, and overseen […]

The contractor that manages the Department of Energy’s Savannah River Site in South Carolina performed well during its emergency response drills earlier this year, but needs to improve its response in several areas, according to a new agency report. In a detailed assessment of the SRS Emergency Management Exercise Program, DOE’s Office of Enterprise Assessments […]

Six workers reported smelling a suspicious odor Wednesday outside the U waste storage tank farm at the Hanford Site in Washington state, bringing the number of workers reporting possible chemical vapors so far this year to 20. However, just five have requested medical evaluations. That number is down significantly from the more than 50 workers […]

Bechtel National expects in the next few months to fill up to 300 jobs at the Waste Treatment Plant it is building at the Department of Energy’s Hanford Site in Washington state. The hiring comes as the contractor continues to shift from primarily construction to preparations for waste processing by a federal court-enforced deadline of […]

Department of Energy Office of Project Management Director Paul Bosco joins the Office of Environmental Management on Monday as its associate principal deputy assistant secretary for corporate affairs. “In this new role, Paul will lead all business services for EM including contract and project management, resource management, and internal and external communications,” according to a […]

The Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board has concerns about the Department of Energy’s proposed change to nuclear safety management rules governing the agency and its contractors. The proposed rule, published in the Aug. 8 Federal Register, does not spell out certain bedrock nuclear safety principles such as “defense in depth” and the “hierarchy of controls,” […]

The Department of Energy and its regulators for the Hanford Site in Washington state have scheduled what amounts to the first in-person State of the Site meeting since 2014 after being prodded by a local advisory group. The meeting, called the Hanford Regional Dialogue, is scheduled for 6 p.m. Nov. 1 at the Best Western […]

The largest corporate names in Energy Department environmental remediation were among more than 40 companies registered to attend briefings last week on the Central Plateau Cleanup Contract for the Hanford Site in Washington state. AECOM, Bechtel, BWX Technologies, Fluor, Holtec, Jacobs, Navarro, North Wind, Orano, Perma-Fix, SNC-Lavalin, and Veolia were all registered with multiple representatives […]

A “take cover” alert was issued at the 200 East Area of the Hanford Site in Washington state at about 6 a.m. local time Friday after a worker saw steam rising from an unexpected area above PUREX Plant waste storage Tunnel 2, the Department of Energy confirmed. The agency and contractor CH2M Plateau Remediation were […]

The Department of Energy has extended the public comment period by 45 days for the new 2.2-million-cubic yard waste disposal facility at the Oak Ridge Reservation in Tennessee. Comments are now being accepted through Dec. 10. The department has also postponed a public hearing on the landfill, which had been scheduled for Oct. 18, until […]

The contractor that manages the Department of Energy’s Savannah River Site in South Carolina performed well during its emergency response drills earlier this year, but needs to improve its response in several areas, according to a new agency report. In a detailed assessment of the SRS Emergency Management Exercise Program, DOE’s Office of Enterprise Assessments […]

The Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board has concerns about the Department of Energy’s proposed change to nuclear safety management rules governing the agency and its contractors. The proposed rule, published in the Aug. 8 Federal Register, does not spell out certain bedrock nuclear safety principles such as “defense in depth” and the “hierarchy of controls,” […]

By John Stang The owner of the radioactively contaminated West Lake Landfill is suing to recoup some cleanup costs from a company that generated radioactive waste sent to the site. Bridgeton Landfill LLC, a subsidiary of Republic Services, filed the lawsuit Tuesday in U.S. District Court for Eastern Missouri against Mallinckrodt LCC, seeking an unspecified amount of money […]

The largest corporate names in Energy Department environmental remediation were among more than 40 companies registered to attend briefings last week on the Central Plateau Cleanup Contract for the Hanford Site in Washington state. AECOM, Bechtel, BWX Technologies, Fluor, Holtec, Jacobs, Navarro, North Wind, Orano, Perma-Fix, SNC-Lavalin, and Veolia were all registered with multiple representatives […]

Department of Energy Office of Project Management Director Paul Bosco joins the Office of Environmental Management on Monday as its associate principal deputy assistant secretary for corporate affairs. “In this new role, Paul will lead all business services for EM including contract and project management, resource management, and internal and external communications,” according to a […]

Bechtel National expects in the next few months to fill up to 300 jobs at the Waste Treatment Plant it is building at the Department of Energy’s Hanford Site in Washington state. The hiring comes as the contractor continues to shift from primarily construction to preparations for waste processing by a federal court-enforced deadline of […]

The Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board has concerns about the Department of Energy’s proposed change to nuclear safety management rules governing the agency and its contractors. The proposed rule, published in the Aug. 8 Federal Register, does not spell out certain bedrock nuclear safety principles such as “defense in depth” and the “hierarchy of controls,” […]

The Department of Energy has extended the public comment period by 45 days for the new 2.2-million-cubic yard waste disposal facility at the Oak Ridge Reservation in Tennessee. Comments are now being accepted through Dec. 10. The department has also postponed a public hearing on the landfill, which had been scheduled for this past Thursday, […]

The Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board (DNFSB) has scheduled a series of meetings, including a closed-door session to brew up a new safety recommendation and two public hearings about a controversial Department of Energy order the board says would weaken its oversight of defense-nuclear sites. In the closed meeting, scheduled for Oct. 23, the board […]

An article in the Oct. 12 issue of Weapons Complex Monitor (“Life With Single Contractor at Hanford 222-S Lab, Could be Simpler, DOE Says”) should have said the former Wastren Advantage had its corporate name retired after it was folded into Veolia Nuclear Solutions – Federal Services.

The contractor for legacy cleanup at the Energy Department’s Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico, Newport News Nuclear BWXT-Los Alamos (N3B), has hired a subcontractor to remove telephone poles, old fences, and tons of concrete from Technical Area 21. The $1.5 million contract was awarded to a team of Montana-based Envirocon and Los Alamos-based […]