Cleanup & Remediation

The U.S. Court of Federal Claims (CFC) should require the Department of Energy to pay South Carolina $200 million in their dispute over plutonium disposal at the federal Savannah River Site, rather than allowing the lawsuit to go to trial, the state said in a March 30 motion. Specifically, the South Carolina Attorney General’s Office […]

The Department of Energy on Monday opened a new resource center near the Hanford Site to help guide facility workers, former personnel, and their families to the best care and compensation programs for their needs. The center was championed by Sens. Patty Murray and Maria Cantwell (both D-Wash.), who have been concerned about how workers’ […]

Registration will open at 9 a.m. April 10 for the 20 tours planned this year by the Department of Energy to let the public see cleanup at the Hanford Site in Eastern Washington state. The limited public bus tours are popular and all seats sometimes fill within a day, if not hours. Registration is available […]

The New Mexico Environment Department (NMED) plans to penalize the U.S. Energy Department’s Los Alamos National Laboratory for mishandling certain waste earlier this year, a move that could entail a $10,000 daily fine for each instance of noncompliance. “Los Alamos National Laboratory self-reported a violation earlier this year, which involved five stored hazardous waste containers […]

Days after the Department of Energy (DOE) gave the go-ahead to start building key parts of a $6.5 billion facility to process uranium for U.S. defense programs, a federal judge ordered a venue change in a lawsuit aimed at stopping the plant’s construction. Three environmental groups and four individuals filed suit in July 2017 in […]

A federal judge has given former Hanford Site contractor Washington Closure Hanford and the Department of Justice a three-week extension to finalize a settlement agreement in a civil lawsuit over alleged subcontracting fraud. Judge Salvador Mendoza Jr. on Monday set a deadline for April 13. If the deadline is not met, a status conference will […]

Rather than reducing schedule delays and expense overruns, the Energy Department’s use of a cost cap at the Separations Process Research Unit (SPRU) cleanup project in upstate New York might have had the opposite effect, DOE’s Office of Inspector General said in an audit released Wednesday. The Energy Department in February 2011 instituted what was […]

The U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of New York has approved the Chapter 11 reorganization plan for Westinghouse Electric, which said the authorization paves the way for its sale to a Canadian asset management company. The reorganization plan was overwhelmingly supported by Westinghouse’s creditors, the company said in a Tuesday news release. Brookfield […]

A U.S. Energy Department official last week defended plans for an on-site waste disposal cell at the Portsmouth Gaseous Diffusion Plant Site in Ohio The disposal cell, intended to hold 2 million cubic yards of waste resulting from decontamination and decommissioning of buildings at Portsmouth, benefits the environment, reduces the amount of land in need […]

The Savannah River Site will receive $637.1 million for liquid waste treatment and cleanup in the current fiscal year – the largest chunk of the $1.31 billion designated for the Department of Energy facility in South Carolina. The amount for liquid waste operations included in the fiscal 2018 omnibus signed last week is $37 million […]

Having already granted one contract extension, the U.S. Energy Department proposes to keep incumbent Savannah River Remediation (SRR) in charge of liquid waste management at the Savannah River Site in South Carolina into 2019. In a March 21 notice on a federal contracts website, DOE announced plans to retain SRR for up to another 10 […]

The Energy Department has proposed extending the Washington River Protection Solutions tank waste management contract at the Hanford Site in Washington state for up to one year. In a notice filed Thursday on a federal business opportunities website, DOE and its Office of River Protection at Hanford announced a proposed contract extension potentially from Oct. […]

Anne Marie White was sworn in Thursday as assistant secretary of energy for environmental management. She went to work Friday as head of the Energy Department’s Office of Environmental Management, an informed source said Friday. “It’s an honor to serve as Assistant Secretary of Energy for EM,” White said in a Friday press release from […]

The U.S. Energy Department is prioritizing installing a new permanent ventilation system and replacing aging infrastructure at the Waste Isolation Pilot Project (WIPP) in New Mexico, according to the newly released fiscal 2019 budget justification document for the Office of Environmental Management. The $403 million WIPP budget request for the budget year starting Oct. 1 […]

The U.S. Energy Department’s internal watchdog has initiated a formal investigation into the spread of radioactive contamination at the Hanford Site’s Plutonium Finishing Plant. The DOE Office of Enterprise Assessments’ (EA) Office of Enforcement notified the contractor demolishing the plant, CH2M Hill Plateau Remediation Co., of the probe in a letter sent March 21 and […]

The Trump administration’s budget request for fiscal 2019 justifies spending cuts for cleanup of the Hanford Site in Washington state by focusing on some of the work that will soon be completed. The proposed budget would trim funding for DOE’s Richland Operations Office at Hanford to $747 million, down by $169 million from the enacted […]

The Department of Energy awarded Bechtel National Inc. just 48 percent of the performance evaluation award fee available for calendar year 2017 for its work on the Waste Treatment Plant at the Hanford Site in Washington state, saying it had concerns about the company’s ability to meet contract milestones. Bechtel earned about $3.81 million of […]

Friday marked the official start of the 30-day window during which the Department of Energy has said it will release a draft solicitation for the Savannah River Site management and operations contract that includes oversight of the National Nuclear Security Administration’s tritium-refining operations. The window is open through April 29, a Sunday, according to the presolicitation […]

Friday marked the official start of the 30-day window during which the Department of Energy has said it will release a draft solicitation for the Savannah River Site management and operations contract. The window is open through April 29, a Sunday, according to the presolicitation synopsis the Department of Energy’s Office of Environmental Management posted online […]

The National Nuclear Security Administration gave Bechtel National the go-ahead to begin about $4 billion worth of construction on the Uranium Processing Facility in Oak Ridge, Tenn., marking the official start of the busiest, costliest years of the project to date. However, the agency still has not divulged the official cost and schedule estimate for […]

The U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of New York has approved the Chapter 11 reorganization plan for Westinghouse Electric, which said the authorization paves the way for its sale to a Canadian asset management company. The reorganization plan was overwhelmingly supported by Westinghouse’s creditors, the company said in a Tuesday news release. Brookfield […]

Rather than reducing schedule delays and expense overruns, the Energy Department’s use of a cost cap at the Separations Process Research Unit (SPRU) cleanup project in upstate New York might have had the opposite effect, DOE’s Office of Inspector General said in an audit released Wednesday. The Energy Department in February 2011 instituted what was […]

The U.S. Energy Department on Tuesday issued the 2018 Project Excellence Award to the team in charge of building Saltstone Disposal Unit (SDU) 6, a 30-million-gallon salt waste disposal concrete unit constructed at the Savannah River Site in South Carolina. Liquid waste contractor Savannah River Remediation (SRR) in July completed the disposal unit 18 months early and at a […]

The U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of New York has approved the Chapter 11 reorganization plan for Westinghouse Electric, which said the authorization paves the way for its sale to a Canadian asset management company. The reorganization plan was overwhelmingly supported by Westinghouse’s creditors, the company said in a Tuesday news release. Brookfield […]

The U.S. Energy Department’s internal watchdog has initiated a formal investigation into the spread of radioactive contamination at the Hanford Site’s Plutonium Finishing Plant. The DOE Office of Enterprise Assessments’ (EA) Office of Enforcement notified the contractor demolishing the plant, CH2M Hill Plateau Remediation Co., of the probe in a letter sent March 21 and […]

Anne Marie White should be sworn in this week as assistant secretary of energy for environmental management, an industry source said Tuesday. The Senate confirmed White’s nomination on Thursday by voice vote, but the Energy Department is apparently waiting for some paperwork to be sent over from the White House, the source said. Energy Department […]

Having already granted one contract extension, the U.S. Energy Department proposes to keep incumbent Savannah River Remediation (SRR) in charge of liquid waste management at the Savannah River Site in South Carolina into 2019. In a March 21 notice on a federal contracts website, DOE announced plans to retain SRR for up to another 10 […]

The final funding level in the Energy Department’s fiscal 2018 omnibus for the Portsmouth Site is roughly $448 million. The overall fiscal 2019 DOE budget request for Portsmouth is about $415 million. Totals cited in a Tuesday Weapons Complex Morning Briefing article omitted certain line items for the site.

The Savannah River Site will receive $637.1 million for liquid waste treatment and cleanup in the current fiscal year – the largest chunk of the $1.31 billion designated for the Department of Energy facility in South Carolina. The amount included in the fiscal 2018 omnibus signed last week is $37 million more than provided in fiscal […]

The Energy Department’s fiscal 2019 budget request includes $41 million for the On-Site Waste Disposal Facility at the Portsmouth Site in Ohio. That is up from the $39 million funding included in the final fiscal 2018 budget passed last week, according to the recently released DOE Office of Environmental Management budget justification package and the […]