Cleanup & Remediation

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Timothy Walsh, President Donald Trump’s nominee to be assistant secretary of energy for environmental management, or EM-1, told the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee Wednesday his military and business background has prepared him to lead the world’s largest nuclear cleanup. An Army veteran and company commander in the 82nd Airborne Division […]

The Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board (DNFSB) has asked the Department of Energy for a briefing on plans to refurbish an old shaft and hoist relied upon for emergency evacuation of underground workers at the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP). “Despite long-standing recognition of underlying problems, age-related degradation and technical obsolescence issues with the shafts […]

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Timothy Walsh, President Donald Trump’s nominee to be assistant secretary of energy for environmental management, or EM-1, told the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee Wednesday his military and business background has prepared him to lead the world’s largest nuclear cleanup. An Army veteran and company commander in the 82nd Airborne Division […]

The Bonneville Power Administration, a regional authority for the Department of Energy, and DOE’s Office of Environmental Management have flipped the switch on a major new 18-mile electric transmission line at the Hanford Site in Washington state. The new 230-kilovolt transmission line connects two substations at the nuclear cleanup site and replaces an 80-year-old line, […]

Three months after he was nominated to head the Department of Energy’s $8-billion nuclear cleanup office, Colorado developer Timothy Walsh will undergo a hearing this week before the Senate Energy & Natural Resources Committee. Walsh, nominated in March to head DOE’s Office of Environmental Management, is one of four people nominated to the Department of […]

Rep. Dan Newhouse (R-Wash.), whose district includes the Department of Energy’s Hanford Site, on Thursday July 3 voted in favor of President Donald Trump’s budget reconciliation package dubbed the One Big Beautiful Bill. In a statement after the vote, Newhouse said the final version of the bill preserves production tax credits for nuclear power plants […]

Sixteen single-wide office trailers in the 100-K area of the Department of Energy’s Hanford Site at Richland, Wash., have been torn down, DOE said Tuesday. Hundreds of engineers and other staff at the former plutonium production complex near the Columbia River have worked at the office trailer complex since 2000, DOE said in a Tuesday […]

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission held a public online meeting on June 26 to take comments on closure plans for the Calcined Solids Storage Facility at the Department of Energy’s Idaho National Laboratory. “Calcine is a solid, granular waste form produced through the calcination of liquid radioactive waste resulting, in part, from spent nuclear fuel (SNF) […]

Secretary of Energy Chris Wright this week announced Department of Energy plans to end what he calls “permitting paralysis” under the National Environmental Policy Act. Wright announced the changes, which are in line with a prior executive order by President Donald Trump, in a July 2 press release. DOE published an interim final rule rescinding […]

If things don’t change by mid-October, what is designed to be a five-person safety panel for Department of Energy sites could be down to one member. The Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board (DNFSB) currently has only two members, Acting Chair Thomas Summers and board member Patricia Lee. Summers was confirmed by the Senate in July […]

The Department of Energy’s Savannah River Site in South Carolina said June 17 it has removed waste from two more radioactive waste tanks at the 310-square-mile facility near the Georgia state line. Tanks 11 and 15 are the fourth and fifth waste tanks in 12 months to meet the “preliminary cease waste removal” designation, DOE’s […]

The Department of Energy’s Savannah River Site in South Carolina said June 17 it has removed waste from two more radioactive waste tanks at the 310-square-mile facility near the Georgia state line. Tanks 11 and 15 are the fourth and fifth waste tanks in 12 months to meet the “preliminary cease waste removal” designation, DOE’s […]

Paul Dabbar, a Department of Energy executive during the first Donald Trump administration, was confirmed by the U.S. Senate 56-to-40 Wednesday as Deputy Secretary of Commerce. Dabbar was undersecretary of energy for science during the first Trump administration. As part of that position during the first term, Dabbar had authority over the Office of Environmental […]

The Department of Energy’s nuclear cleanup branch has awarded a potential five-year $85-million technical services contract to a team led by South Carolina-based Catawba Engineering and Environmental Services. The consolidated Technical Support Services contract for DOE’s Office of Environmental Management has been won by Catawba TEAPEC, a small business venture made up of Catawba and […]

A BWX Technologies-led joint venture took over this week as the new remediation contractor at the West Valley Demonstration Project in Western New York. The four-month management transition started in February and ended Tuesday for West Valley Cleanup Alliance (WCVA), Jason Casper, the president and project manager of the alliance said during a Citizens Task […]

The Department of Energy’s former tank waste contractor at the Hanford Site in Washington state this week agreed to pay $6.5 million to the feds to settle a fraud case brought by a whistleblower. The Justice Department settlement with Amentum-led contractor Washington River Protection Solutions (WRPS) was announced Tuesday in a press release by Acting […]

Holtec International, known for decommissioning reactors and developing nuclear power projects, could become a publicly-traded company within the next year. In a Monday interview with Barrons, Holtec CEO Kris Singh said the company was looking at an initial public offering sometime in the January through April 2026 time period, a Holtec spokesperson confirmed Wednesday via […]

The Department of Energy’s $8-billion nuclear cleanup office posted a new organizational chart earlier this month, reflecting that longtime fed Steve Trischman is now heading the office of corporate services. With the May 30 retirement of 32-year federal supervisor Dae Chung, Trischman  is now officially the acting associate principal deputy assistant secretary for the DOE […]

Centrus Energy, headquartered in Bethesda, Md., has been awarded an extended contract with the Department of Energy, worth about $110 million, to produce high-assay low-enriched uranium through June 30, 2026. In 2022, Centrus was awarded a three-phase follow-on contract to bring the cascade into production and produce HALEU for DOE’s use. DOE has exercised its […]

The Alliance for Nuclear Accountability (ANA), an umbrella organization of citizen groups active on nuclear weapons, cleanup and energy issues, wants the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board to have a quorum again. In a recent report, the alliance said Congress should protect the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board (DNFSB), which is down to two members […]

Pipe modifications in a tank farm at the Department of Energy’s Savannah River Site in South Carolina are winding down and should be complete in July, according to DOE.  The utility work at the 310-square-mile site near Aiken, S.C., comes  during a planned outage, which began on April 28 and is on track to finish […]

Amentum-led Southern Ohio Cleanup Co. has unveiled a website laying out its transition to become remediation contractor at the Department of Energy’s Portsmouth Site. DOE’s Office of Environmental Management awarded the contract, potentially worth about $5.9 billion over a decade, in June 2023. But it only greenlighted the start of transition this month following the […]

The Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board said the National Nuclear Security Administration’s upgrade to safety controls, including to gloveboxes, is a “significant improvement” to safety at the Savannah River Plutonium Processing Facility. The safety watchdog’s comments come in a letter dated May 21 to Secretary of Energy Chris Wright, as well as to Teresa Robbins, […]

Utah-based EnergySolutions has finished grouting and disposing of 1,000 gallons of liquid tank waste from the Department of Energy’s Hanford Site in Washington state. EnergySolutions said in a Wednesday news release it had completed solidification and disposal of 1,000 gallons of mixed low-level waste from Hanford as part of the much-anticipated Test Bed Initiative demonstration. […]

The Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board said the National Nuclear Security Administration’s upgrade to safety controls, including to gloveboxes, is a “significant improvement” to safety at the Savannah River Plutonium Processing Facility. The safety watchdog’s comments come in a letter dated May 21 to Secretary of Energy Chris Wright, as well as to Teresa Robbins, […]

Amentum-led Southern Ohio Cleanup Co. has unveiled a website laying out its transition to become remediation contractor at the Department of Energy’s Portsmouth Site. DOE’s Office of Environmental Management awarded the contract, potentially worth about $5.9 billion over a decade, in June 2023. But it only greenlighted the start of transition this month following the […]

Waste Control Specialists (WCS) received a lot of radioactive waste by train at its West Texas site during 2024, company president David Carlson told Exchange Monitor’s Radwaste Summit last week in Savannah, Ga. During 2024, WCS received 600 shipments of waste by rail. This included 5,000 canisters and 3 million cubic feet of waste, according […]

Pipe modifications in a tank farm at the Department of Energy’s Savannah River Site in South Carolina are winding down and should be complete in July, according to DOE.  The utility work at the 310-square-mile site near Aiken, S.C., comes  during a planned outage, which began on April 28 and is on track to finish […]

The Alliance for Nuclear Accountability (ANA), an umbrella organization of citizen groups active on nuclear weapons, cleanup and energy issues, wants the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board to have a quorum again. In a recent report, the alliance said Congress should protect the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board (DNFSB), which is down to two members […]

Work crews using heavy equipment have torn down a 1960s era train shed at the Department of Energy’s Nevada National Security Site, DOE announced last week. “We are pleased to get this structure to the ground as part of our long term cleanup mission,” DOE Office of Environmental Management Nevada Program Manager Robert Boehlecke said […]