Cleanup & Remediation

Although details are being kept under wraps by a protective order, the U.S. Government Accountability Office on Friday sustained a protest brought by one losing bidding team against a $4.7 billion contract the Department of Energy awarded in October for liquid waste management at the Savannah River Site in South Carolina. The GAO indicated it has […]

President Donald Trump plans to nominate a nuclear physicist from the Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) in Tennessee to lead the National Nuclear Security Administration’s roughly $2-billion-a-year nonproliferation division, the White House said Thursday. In a notice posted online, the administration said it intends to nominate Brent Park, who also serves as an ORNL associate laboratory […]

Members of South Carolina’s congressional delegation this week got on board with constituents’ calls for the U.S. National Nuclear Security Administration to start manufacturing nuclear-warhead cores at the Savannah River Site in Aiken, S.C. Sen. Lindsey Graham (R) and Rep. Joe Wilson (R) say the pit mission — currently entrenched at the Los Alamos National […]

WASHINGTON — Territorial snarling over Department of Energy plutonium programs imparted some edge to an otherwise cordial nomination hearing here Thursday, where President Donald Trump’s pick to lead the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) said production of nuclear-weapon cores would be her top priority if she is confirmed. “We do need to have a robust […]

Layoff notices will be delivered this week to up to 60 workers at the Hanford Site’s Waste Treatment Plant as progress is made in completing much of the remaining engineering, procurement, and construction at some plant facilities. The facilities nearing completion are needed for the Waste Treatment Plant to begin converting low-activity radioactive waste at […]

The Department of Energy and other federal agencies could get a full fiscal 2018 budget as soon as late March, if a budget compromise Senate leaders announced Wednesday becomes law. That would be nearly six full months after the current budget year began on Oct. 1, 2017. On Wednesday morning, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell […]

Jacobs Engineering Group reported $2 million in net earnings for its latest financial quarter, a steep year-over-year dive from $61 million linked to its recent acquisition of CH2M. Earnings for Jacobs’ fiscal 2018 first quarter ended Dec. 31, 2017, took a hit from the $3.27 billion CH2M acquisition and a one-time tax charge, Jacobs said […]

A committee of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine has scheduled a two-day public meeting in Richland, Wash., starting on Feb. 28 to consider supplemental treatment methods for tank waste at the Department of Energy’s Hanford Site. The Waste Treatment Plant being built at Hanford was not planned to be large enough to […]

A federal judge had been asked to reschedule the trial in the Hanford Site chemical vapors lawsuit to Feb. 5, 2019, a delay of more than two months. If U.S. District Judge Thomas Rice agrees, this would be his ninth rescheduling order in the case, with most of the delays intended to give the plaintiffs […]

The U.S. Department of Energy’s record of policing itself is “mixed at best,” and the agency might benefit from independent oversight by an entity such as the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, Rep. Frank Pallone (D-N.J.) said Tuesday. Pallone made his remarks during a House Energy and Commerce energy subcommittee hearing on U.S. nuclear infrastructure. “For example, […]

AECOM on Tuesday reported $4.9 billion in revenue for the first quarter of its fiscal year, ended Dec. 31, 2017. That was 12.7 percent higher than the $4.35 billion recorded in the quarter ended Dec. 31, 2016. The Los Angeles-based global infrastructure company reported quarterly net income and diluted earnings per share of $111 million […]

Members of South Carolina’s congressional delegation this week got on board with constituents’ calls for the U.S. National Nuclear Security Administration to start manufacturing nuclear-warhead cores at the Savannah River Site in Aiken, S.C. Sen. Lindsey Graham (R) and Rep. Joe Wilson (R) say the pit mission — currently entrenched at the Los Alamos National […]

The deputy director of the Department of Energy’s Environmental Management Consolidated Business Center has taken over as acting director. The vacancy newly filled on an interim basis by Jeffrey Kash Grimes was created by the December retirement of Ralph Holland following a 22-year career at DOE. Grimes has since May 2016 served as deputy director […]

Workers at the Hanford Site in Washington state twice this week have reported smelling suspicious odors that could be chemical vapors. The two incidents are the first time since Nov. 28 that suspicious odors have been reported outside the radioactive waste storage tank farms at the Department of Energy facility. On Monday afternoon, five Hanford […]

Incumbent Navarro Research and Engineering was among a large crowd of firms preregistered with the Energy Department Office of Environmental Management for presolicitation meetings last month on the Nevada Environmental Services Program at the Nevada National Security Site (NNSS). The registration document posted on the Environmental Management Consolidated Business Center website included a four-page printed […]

Strata-G LLC has won a $1 million contract from the Energy Department to conduct environmental sampling at the Oak Ridge Reservation in Tennessee. The sampling will support DOE plans for construction of an additional on-site disposal facility for hazardous and radioactive wastes at the Bear Creek Valley area of Oak Ridge, DOE said in a […]

The California Department of Toxic Substances Control has granted the Department of Energy and two other responsible parties at the Santa Susana Field Laboratory a deadline extension until mid-April to begin baseline air monitoring at the cleanup site. NASA, acting on behalf of Boeing and DOE, asked the state agency in late November for permission […]

Two major players in the Department of Energy cleanup complex, AECOM and Jacobs, will post financial results this week for the final three months of 2017. Los Angeles-based AECOM will discuss earnings for the first quarter of its fiscal 2018 during a conference call with analysts at noon Eastern time Tuesday. Dallas-based Jacobs, which in […]

The federal government wants the two men who stole more than $4 million while conducting work for the Department of Energy’s MOX project at the Savannah River Site to fork over enough money and assets to cover the total sum. In a motion filed Monday in U.S. District Court for South Carolina, U.S. Attorney Beth […]

An advisory board to South Carolina Gov. Henry McMaster is the latest entity in the state to support relocating Department of Energy nuclear warhead-core production to the Savannah River Site. The board, known as the Governor’s Nuclear Advisory Council (GNAC), voted 7-0 on Tuesday in support of the plan being considered by DOE. Two of […]

Longenecker & Associates has hired a new executive to lead its mission assurance team as it increases its workload in that area at two Department of Energy sites. Energy Department and nuclear navy veteran Craig Ferguson is now Longenecker’s group vice president for mission assurance, according to a Jan. 26 press release. The Las Vegas-based […]

Appearing Tuesday on Capitol Hill, new Department of Energy Undersecretary for Science Paul Dabbar was asked whether a recent DOE reorganization put too much on his plate by having him oversee both nuclear cleanup and federal scientific research. “The Environmental Management portfolio has dominated the time and attention of whichever undersecretary has had it,” Rep. […]

The Department of Energy on Monday transferred management of the troubled Plutonium Finishing Plant demolition at the Hanford Site in Washington state to Jacobs Engineering Group, the new owner of cleanup contractor CH2M Hill Plateau Remediation Co. (CHPRC). The change came after another spread of radioactive contamination at the plant was identified on Jan. 26, […]

A new contract modification will enable the Department of Energy’s nuclear cleanup office in Oak Ridge, Tenn., to participate in a cancer research arrangement. The Oak Ridge Office of Environmental Management (OREM) said a third-party medical company – whose name was not disclosed – will “milk” thorium from uranium stores at the Oak Ridge National […]

An executive with a U.S. affiliate of French multinational Veolia on Jan. 25 said the waste management company’s acquisition of Piketon, Ohio-based Wastren Advantage is “a great fit,” according to slides for a presentation to the Energy, Technology and Environmental Business Association in Tennessee. The presentation by VNS Federal Services Senior Vice President for Business […]

During a visit by Energy Secretary Rick Perry, the Savannah River Site broke ground Thursday on a multimillion-dollar disposal unit for radioactive salt waste. Saltstone Disposal Unit (SDU) 7 will be a 32-million-gallon concrete structure designed and built by Savannah River Remediation (SRR), the liquid waste contractor for the Energy Depatrtment site near Aiken, S.C. […]

The town of Ashford, N.Y., hopes to eventually land federal payment in lieu of taxes funding to help offset the cost of the nuclear cleanup at the West Valley Demonstration Project site, which is within town limits. Town Supervisor Charles Davis said by telephone Wednesday he has been working with the office of Sen. Charles […]

Stoller Newport News Nuclear (SN3) President Nick Lombardo has been tapped to lead the management team for the joint venture recently awarded the $1.39 billion legacy cleanup contract at the Energy Department’s Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico. Lombardo will serve as program manager for Newport News Nuclear BWXT-Los Alamos, which will be responsible […]

The Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee on Tuesday voted to support the nomination of Anne Marie White to become assistant secretary of energy for environmental management. The voice vote clears the way for White’s eventual consideration by the full Senate. One obstacle to White’s confirmation remains Sen. John Barrasso (R-Wyo.), who during a hearing […]

The Department of Energy plans to open a center to help ill current and former Hanford Site workers or their survivors understand the benefits for which they may qualify. The new center, called the Hanford Worker Engagement Center, is one of the steps DOE is taking after hearing worker complaints about difficulty getting help. The […]