Cleanup & Remediation

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 […]

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 California Department of Toxic Substances Control (DTSC) has scheduled a biannual meeting for April 10 to brief the public on plans for cleanup of the Santa Susana Field Laboratory (SSFL). The state agency said Thursday it plans to update the public on progress made during the past six months toward starting environmental remediation of […]

WASHINGTON — Replacing an under-construction plutonium disposal plant in South Carolina will be billions of dollars cheaper than finishing it, even after accounting for transportation and storage costs associated with a proposed alternative, the head of the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) told lawmakers here Tuesday. The Department of Energy wants to cancel the the […]

PHOENIX, Ariz. — In the aftermath of a successful bid protest, the Energy Department expects to “re-award” a 10-year liquid waste contract for the Savannah River Site in South Carolina in late summer or early fall, a DOE procurement official said Wednesday. Norbert Doyle, DOE’s acting deputy assistant secretary for acquisition and project management, offered […]

Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) said Tuesday he plans to look into the transfer of the Energy Department project manager for the Waste Treatment Plant (WTP), at the Hanford Site in Washington state, shortly after he raised concerns about missing documentation on steel being used at the facility. During a hearing on Capitol Hill, Wyden suggested […]

The fiscal 2018 omnibus budget bill signed by President Donald Trump on Friday would provide $7.1 billion for Department of Energy’s environmental management activities, $706 million above the $6.4 billion fiscal 2017 enacted level. That amounts to roughly an 11-percent increase on a year-over-year basis. Congress by early Friday approved the $1.3 trillion budget that […]

SNC-Lavalin Group subsidiary Atkins has hired longtime Energy Department procurement chief Ralph Holland as vice president for commercial development in Atkins Nuclear Secured Holdings Corp. Holland will support Atkins senior leaders in areas including strategy, contract management, and contract assurance. The announcement did not specify if he is replacing another manager or filling a newly […]

The fiscal 2018 omnibus spending legislation approved by Congress by Friday morning includes $2.42 billion for the Department of Energy’s Hanford Site, not including security spending. The bill provides $203 million more for the Washington state cleanup site than requested by the Donald Trump administration for the fiscal year that began Oct. 1., and would […]

The U.S. Department of Energy partially or fully approved 15 of the 20 recommendations submitted by the Savannah River Site’s Citizens Advisory Board (CAB), from January 2016 through December 2017. Of the five other recommendations, three are still pending and the other two were denied in full. The high approval rating signals to board members […]

The Energy Department Office of Environmental Management on Thursday issued its request for proposals for the Outfall 200 Mercury Treatment Facility at Oak Ridge, Tenn., and scheduled a pre-proposal site tour for April 10. The announcement had been expected after DOE issued the draft RFP in November and said last month it was preparing to […]

The U.S. Senate on Thursday confirmed Anne Marie White to become assistant secretary of energy for environmental management, after Energy Secretary Rick Perry agreed to suspend the agency’s uranium barter program. The commitment by Perry, offered publicly during a Tuesday hearing of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, evidently helped persuade Sen. John Barrasso […]

Another new leader has been named for the Hanford Site’s Plutonium Finishing Plant (PFP) project as recovery continues from a spread of radioactive contamination from demolition in December. John Lehew, president of Hanford cleanup contractor CH2M Hill Plateau Remediation Co. (CHPRC) from 2008 to 2012, has been named the new demolition manager. Workers at the […]

SNC-Lavalin subsidiary Atkins has hired longtime Energy Department procurement chief Ralph Holland as vice president for commercial development in Atkins Nuclear Secured Holdings Corp. Holland will support Atkins management in areas including strategy, contract management, and contract assurance, according to a press release. The announcement did not specify if Holland was replacing another manager or […]

Another new leader has been named for the Hanford Site’s Plutonium Finishing Plant (PFP) project as recovery continues from a spread of radioactive contamination from demolition in December. John Lehew, president of Hanford cleanup contractor CH2M Hill Plateau Remediation Co. (CHPRC) from 2008 to 2012, has been named the new demolition manager. Workers at the […]

Anne Marie White could be confirmed this week as assistant secretary of energy for environmental management, and in the meantime has already started working as an adviser at the Energy Department, a DOE official said Monday. “She has reported to DOE” in a senior advisory role, according to Jim Colgary, chief of staff to Deputy […]

A Department of Energy review has found more quality assurance issues at the Waste Treatment Plant being built at the Hanford Site in Washington state. Quality records “needed to demonstrate that the important-to-safety structural steel could perform its safety function were either missing or of indeterminate quality,” according to a March 6 letter from DOE’s […]

A former employee of the Savannah River Site’s management and operations contractor will have an opportunity on March 27 to make the case why her discrimination lawsuit should be sustained after a federal judge it be thrown out. The motion hearing in U.S. District Court in Columbia, S.C., will also allow Savannah River Nuclear Solutions […]

A small group of unpaid advisers that helps the Department of Labor process medical reimbursement claims from workers sickened at Department of Energy nuclear sites remained idle Monday, about a month after the terms of most of its members expired. The terms of all but one member of the agency’s Advisory Board on Toxic Substances […]

A Department of Energy proposal to fill a Hanford Site radioactive waste storage tunnel with grout will not preclude future cleanup options for the tunnel, according to information presented at a public meeting Wednesday in Richland, Wash. The meeting covered DOE’s proposed changes to the Hanford Dangerous Waste Permit issued by the state of Washington, […]

By John Stang Complications in waste treatment operations and closure costs of a facility in Tennessee trimmed Perma-Fix Environmental Services’ revenue and produced an operating loss in the fourth quarter of 2017. However, executives said the company’s outlook is strong in 2018 as it vies for new government and commercial contracts and looks toward a potential […]

Vahid Majidi, a former Pentagon and national-lab hand who most recently worked in industry, is scheduled today to replace the departing Terry Michalske as director of the Savannah River National Laboratory in South Carolina. Majidi will be executive vice president at Savannah River Nuclear Solutions (SRNS), which runs the lab and the Savannah River Site’s […]

Vahid Majidi, a former Pentagon and national-lab hand who most recently worked in industry, is scheduled today to replace the departing Terry Michalske as director of the Savannah River National Laboratory in South Carolina. Majidi will be executive vice president at Savannah River Nuclear Solutions (SRNS), which runs the lab and the Savannah River Site’s non-liquid-waste-cleanup mission for […]

By John Stang Complications in waste treatment operations and closure costs of a facility in Tennessee trimmed Perma-Fix Environmental Services’ revenue and produced an operating loss in the fourth quarter of 2017. However, executives said the company’s outlook is strong in 2018 as it vies for new government and commercial contracts and looks toward a potential […]

Vahid Majidi, a former Pentagon and national-lab hand who most recently worked in industry, is scheduled today to replace the departing Terry Michalske as director of the Savannah River National Laboratory in South Carolina. Majidi will be executive vice president at Savannah River Nuclear Solutions (SRNS), which runs the lab and the Savannah River Site’s non-liquid-waste-cleanup mission for […]

During meetings today in Aiken, S.C., the three parties that bid on the Savannah River Site liquid waste contract could get some insight into what steps the Department of Energy will take after the Government Accountability Office in February sustained one of the bid protests over the $4.7 billion award to Savannah River EcoManagement. An […]

U.S. Energy Department officials, possibly including Energy Secretary Rick Perry, have reached out to persuade Sen. John Barrasso (R-Wyo.) to lift his hold on the nomination of Anne Marie White to be assistant secretary of energy for environmental management, an informed source said Monday. Barrasso wants White and DOE to commit to ending the agency’s […]

A small group of unpaid advisers that helps the Department of Labor process medical reimbursement claims from workers sickened at Department of Energy nuclear sites remained idle Monday, about a month after the terms of most of its members expired. The terms of all but one member of the agency’s Advisory Board on Toxic Substances […]

Washington state Gov. Jay Inslee on Wednesday signed into law a bill that is expected to increase the number of Hanford Site workers’ compensation claims approved by the state Department of Labor and Industries. The legislation would require the state to presume a wide range of illnesses were caused by working for as little as […]

Following a 14-month outage, liquid waste processing at the U.S. Energy Department’s Savannah River Site is expected to restart by the end of the April. The South Carolina facility said in January operations would begin by March. But that milestone has been delayed by a month, Sonya Goines, DOE spokeswoman at Savannah River, said last […]