Cleanup & Remediation

The 3 gallons of low-activity radioactive waste the Hanford Site in Washington state shipped in October to a nearby Perma-Fix Environmental Services facility have been processed and shipped to the Waste Control Specialists site in Andrews County, Texas. A March 2 article gave an incomplete picture of the status of the waste.

Due to potential conflicts of interest, the U.S. Energy Department has determined potential bidders for the $4 billion Hanford Mission Essential Service Contract should not be part of five other key contracts at the Hanford Site in Washington state. The Energy Department issued a draft request for proposals for the 10-year contract in November, with […]

Management relied too heavily on near real-time continuous air monitors (CAMs) to check for airborne radioactive particles during demolition of the Hanford Site’s Plutonium Finishing Plant, according to the root cause evaluation for the December spread of radioactive contamination from the project. Hanford cleanup contractor CH2M Hill Plateau Remediation Co. on Thursday submitted its evaluation […]

A hold by Sen. John Barrasso (R-Wyo.) is seemingly the only barrier remaining between Anne Marie White and a vote by the full Senate on her nomination to become assistant secretary of energy for environmental management. The Senate Armed Services Committee said Tuesday it on March 1 automatically advanced White’s nomination to head the Energy […]

Faced with local news coverage raising questions about her expense account, and in the middle of a state legislative campaign, Andrea Romero acknowledged Friday her days at the helm of an advocacy group for communities near the Energy Department’s Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico are likely over. “It would be hard for me […]

Remediation of radioactively contaminated residential properties in the Canadian municipality of Port Hope is expected to begin no later than summer, the Port Hope Area Initiative (PHAI) said Tuesday. The residential project is one part of the much broader PHAI program of remediation and disposal of low-level radioactive waste in Port Hope and nearby Port […]

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 […]

Remediation of radioactively contaminated residential properties in the Canadian municipality of Port Hope is expected to begin no later than summer, the Port Hope Area Initiative said this week. The property cleanup project is one part of a much broader program of remediation and disposal of low-level radioactive waste in Port Hope and nearby Port […]

Due to potential conflicts of interest, the U.S. Energy Department has determined potential bidders for the $4 billion Hanford Mission Essential Service Contract should not be part of five other key contracts at the Hanford Site in Washington state. The Energy Department issued a draft request for proposals for the potential 10-year contract in November, […]

The Senate Armed Services Committee said Tuesday it has advanced the nomination of Anne Marie White to be assistant secretary of energy for environmental management. However, there was still no official word on whether Sen. John Barrasso (R-Wyo.) might lift his hold on the nomination anytime soon. White was also approved by the Senate Energy […]

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers said Monday it expects this year to complete the extended, protested contract award process for environmental remediation of the radioactively contaminated Shallow Land Disposal Area in Pennsylvania. A Jacobs Engineering subsidiary in April 2017 received a $350 million contract through the Army Corps’ Formerly Utilized Sites Remedial Action Program […]

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 […]

Anne Marie White, the Trump administration’s nominee for assistant secretary of energy for environmental management, understands Congress is getting antsy over the slow progress on key projects within the Energy Department’s $6.5 billion nuclear cleanup program. In 13 pages of questions and answers submitted to the Senate Armed Services Committee before her confirmation hearing last […]

Colorado-based engineering firm Merrick & Co. announced Tuesday it has selected a familiar face to lead its Nuclear Services & Technology (NST) unit. Effective April 1, Merrick Vice President Scott Gustafson will become business unit lead for the NST team. Gustafson will replace John Buckle, who will become a part-time consultant to the firm. In […]

Mission Support Alliance (MSA) has earned its highest award fee since it became the Hanford Site’s services contractor in 2009. The Department of Energy announced late Monday it was awarding MSA $20.4 million, or about 94 percent of the maximum $21.7 million available for fiscal 2017. That was more than the $19.2 million, or 91 […]

A panel of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine kicked off two days of public meetings in Richland, Wash., on Wednesday as it studies supplemental processing of low-activity waste at the U.S. Energy Department’s nearby Hanford Site. The data gathering will culminate in several reports by the National Academies on treatment of low-activity […]

WASHINGTON — At the end of a roughly two-hour hearing that focused for only a few minutes on the Department of Energy’s $6.5-billion-a-year Cold War nuclear cleanup operation, no senator indicated any opposition to the White House’s pick to lead the program. Anne Marie White “got off pretty easy,” Sen. James Inhofe (R-Okla.), acting chairman […]

Jeffrey Kash Grimes, who has been acting director of the U.S. Energy Department Environmental Management Consolidated Business Center (EMCBC) since December, has been named the permanent head of the procurement operation. The DOE Office of Environmental Management announced Grimes’ promotion on Thursday. He replaces Ralph Holland, who retired at the end of 2017. The Cincinnati-based […]

A public meeting is planned for March 14 in Richland, Wash., on permit changes to support the Department of Energy’s plan to stabilize the second waste tunnel at the Hanford Site PUREX Plant. It also will cover actions already taken to stabilize the first tunnel at the plant. After the older of two tunnels storing […]

The U.S. Energy Department’s Office of Environmental Management (EM) says the final request for proposals for construction of the Outfall 200 Mercury Treatment Facility at Oak Ridge, Tenn., could come any time now. The office said in a Feb. 6 procurement notice the final RFP could be issued within 15 to 45 days. One-on-one meetings […]

BWX Technologies President and CEO Rex Geveden sounded confident Wednesday that a partnership led by his company will retain a 10-year contract for liquid waste management at the Energy Department’s Savannah River Site in South Carolina – even after the Government Accountability Office upheld a competitor’s protest against the deal. In a redacted version of […]

The U.S. Energy Department has committed to remediation of existing landfills and plumes at the Portsmouth Gaseous Diffusion Plant site in Ohio, Sen. Rob Portman (R-Ohio) said following a Feb. 23 meeting with stakeholders. Officials in the nearby village of Piketon have raised concerns over such contaminated areas inside the Perimeter Road in connection with […]

BWX Technologies President and CEO Rex Geveden sounded confident Wednesday that a partnership led by his company will retain a 10-year contract for liquid waste management at the Energy Department’s Savannah River Site in South Carolina – even after the Government Accountability Office upheld a competitors’ protest against the deal. In a redacted version of […]

Mission Support Alliance (MSA) has earned its highest award fee since it became the Hanford Site’s services contractor in 2009. The Department of Energy announced late Monday it was awarding MSA $20.4 million, or about 94 percent of the maximum $21.7 million available for fiscal 2017. That was more than the $19.2 million, or 91 […]

A public meeting is planned for March 14 in Richland, Wash., on permit changes to support the Department of Energy’s plan to stabilize the second waste tunnel at the Hanford Site PUREX Plant. It also will cover actions already taken to stabilize the first tunnel at the plant. After the older of two tunnels storing […]

Colorado-based engineering firm Merrick & Co. announced Tuesday it has selected a familiar face to lead its Nuclear Services & Technology (NST) unit. Effective April 1, Merrick Vice President Scott Gustafson will become business unit lead for the NST team. Gustafson will replace John Buckle, who will become a part-time consultant to the firm. In […]

The Senate Armed Services Committee has scheduled a nomination hearing Thursday for two Trump administration picks to lead the Energy Department’s nuclear cleanup and nuclear nonproliferation operations. The Senate panel will take testimony from Brent Park, nominated as deputy administrator for defense nuclear nonproliferation at DOE’s semiautonomous National Nuclear Security Administration, and Anne Marie White, […]

The U.S. Energy Department’s Office of Environmental Management (EM) says the final request for proposals for construction of the Outfall 200 Mercury Treatment Facility at Oak Ridge, Tenn., could come any time now. The office said in a Feb. 6 procurement notice the final RFP could be issued within 15 to 45 days. One-on-one meetings […]

Following a Friday meeting with stakeholders, Sen. Rob Portman (R-Ohio) said the U.S. Energy Department has committed to remediation of existing landfills and plumes at the Portsmouth Gaseous Diffusion Plant in Ohio. Concerns over the areas in the vicinity of Perimeter Road have been one of the issues cited by officials in the village of […]

The Senate Armed Services Committee had yet to schedule a hearing to consider the nomination of Anne Marie White to be assistant secretary of energy for environmental management as of close of business Friday. Sources have said the panel could conduct its nomination hearing as early as March 1. White cleared the Senate Energy and […]