Cleanup & Remediation

Bechtel National is assigning a new project director for the Waste Treatment Plant (WTP) it is building at the Energy Department’s Hanford Site in Washington state as it moves toward a new phase of work, the partial startup of waste treatment as soon as 2022. Peggy McCullough, the contractor’s current WTP project director, told plant […]

South Carolina is giving the Department of Energy extra time — more than a year in one case — to meet key milestones in treatment of liquid waste and closure of storage tanks at the Savannah River Site (SRS). The previously unreported suspension agreement, signed on Nov. 6 by DOE, the South Carolina Department of Health and […]

The Department of Energy on Friday made official a long-rumored bureaucratic reorganization that puts the agency’s Cold War nuclear-cleanup programs under new management but leaves the quasi-independent National Nuclear Security Administration essentially unchanged. The Department of Energy’s (DOE) roughly $6.5-million-a-year Office of Environmental Management (EM), steward of environmental remediation of Cold War nuclear weapons sites […]

The House Appropriations Committee this week unveiled a peculiar budget bill that would provide full-year fiscal 2018 appropriations for the Pentagon, but keep other federal agencies including the Department of Energy funded at prior-year levels through Jan. 19. House Appropriations Committee Chairman Rodney Frelinghuysen (R-N.J.) introduced the bill Wednesday. The Department of Energy (DOE), like […]

CH2M shareholders voted Wednesday to approve the deal that will make the Colorado-based company a wholly owned subsidiary of Dallas-based Jacobs Engineering. The preliminary results of the special meeting of CH2M shareholders show more than 95 percent approval for the merger, the two companies said in a joint press release. The vote should clear the […]

The Hanford Atomic Metal Trades Council (HAMTC) has agreed to ease the respiratory protection required for workers in a second waste storage tank farm at the Department of Energy’s Hanford Site in Washington state. Jeff McDaniel, elected president of the umbrella group for 15 Hanford labor unions in March, approved the decision. The move indicates […]

A particulate filter developed to survive the tough conditions and stringent demands at the Hanford Site’s Waste Treatment Plant could have applications across the Department of Energy nuclear complex, according to Hanford officials. The filters were developed after initial testing showed that standard high-efficiency particulate air (HEPA) filters used across the nuclear industry would not […]

South Carolina is giving the Department of Energy extra time — more than a year in one case — to meet key milestones in treatment of liquid waste and closure of storage tanks at the Savannah River Site (SRS). The previously unreported suspension agreement, signed on Nov. 6 by DOE, the South Carolina Department of Health and […]

Navarro Research and Engineering earned more than 97 percent of its total potential award fee for its work on the Department of Energy’s Nevada Environmental Program Services (EPS) contract in fiscal 2017. Navarro garnered $835,975 of a potential $857,037 for the period from Oct. 1, 2016, through Sept. 30, 2017, at the Nevada National Security […]

Peggy McCullough, who Bechtel announced Friday would be leaving her post as project director at the Waste Treatment and Immobilization Plant at the Hanford Site in Washington state, will be replacing John Howanitz as head of the company’s Nuclear Security, and Operations business based in Virginia. Bechtel said Friday that Brian Reilly, who like McCullough […]

Citing the devastating wildfires in Southern California, the California Department of Toxic Substances Control has extended by a week the public comment period on two major environmental documents for the Santa Susana Field Laboratory cleanup. DTSC said last week that it was extending the comment deadline from Dec. 7 to Thursday Dec. 14 for the […]

The Hanford Waste Treatment Plant (WTP) will have a new Bechtel National project director as it moves toward the partial startup of waste treatment as soon as 2022. Peggy McCullough, the current project director for the contractor, told plant staff Friday that she is taking a new assignment to lead Bechtel’s Nuclear Security and Operations […]

With settlement talks continuing, parties in the chemical vapors lawsuit at the Hanford Site in Washington state have asked a federal judge to delay the trial date for another three months. Parties are requesting that the trial date be extended until Nov. 27, 2018. If a trial occurs then, it would be three years after […]

Hanford Site services contractor Mission Support Alliance (MSA) has selected Amy Basche, a longtime worker at the Department of Energy complex in Washington state, as its new chief operations officer. Basche replaces Bob Wilkinson, who was promoted to president in October after prior company President Bill Johnson left for a corporate job with Leidos, one of MSA’s […]

A senior industry source said Tuesday he is hearing an increasing amount of “chatter” that the Trump administration might early next year nominate someone to lead the Department of Energy’s nuclear cleanup office. The source said the talk is circulating among a trusted circle of industry representatives who often share such rumors. Assuming approval by […]

Washington Closure Hanford has asked a federal judge for summary judgment in the Department of Justice lawsuit accusing the former Energy Department cleanup contractor of falsely claiming credit for awarding three subcontracts to women-owned small businesses. A hearing on the motion filed in U.S. District Court for Eastern Washington is scheduled for Jan. 12 at […]

The National Academy of Sciences (NAS) has begun analyzing whether the Energy Department’s Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) in New Mexico would be a viable facility for storage of plutonium that would be downblended at the Savannah River Site in South Carolina. In its fiscal 2017 budget, Congress mandated that the nongovernmental research organization conduct […]

The Energy Department’s Waste Isolation Pilot Plant in New Mexico has received 118 shipments of transuranic waste since reopening to shipments in April, officials said Wednesday night at the WIPP Town Hall in Carlsbad. WIPP is now averaging between five and six shipments per week from other DOE sites, according to Bruce Covert, president and […]

An advisory committee that monitors nuclear waste issues at the Savannah River Site (SRS) in South Carolina wants the Department of Energy to consider reclassifying retired waste-treatment equipment and waste containers so they are eligible for permanent disposal off-site. On Tuesday, the SRS Citizens Advisory Board’s (CAB) Waste Management Committee voted 10-1 to approve a […]

The Energy Department intends to temporarily extend the current contract for liquid waste management at the Savannah River Site in South Carolina while the Government Accountability Office reviews protests to the newly awarded successor deal. The current contract held by Savannah River Remediation (SRR) – a partnership comprised of AECOM, Bechtel National, CH2M, and BWXT […]

Construction of a new permanent ventilation system for the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant near Carlsbad, N.M., should not trigger any major environmental impacts, the Energy Department said in a recent supplemental analysis. “Because of the way the underground ventilation system is segregated and operated, construction and operation of the upgraded ventilation system would not contribute […]

The Department of Energy kept mum this week on how many responses it received to a request for information (RFI) from vendors potentially interested in landing a long-term environmental cleanup contract at the Oak Ridge Reservation in Tennessee. Responses were due Nov. 30 for the RFI issued Nov. 13. The Energy Department is looking at […]

The Energy Department and its Office of Environmental Management will remain open for business on Monday thanks to a continuing resolution (CR) passed by Congress late Thursday to keep the government running through Dec. 22. The House of Representatives passed the stopgap spending plan 235-193 while the Senate passed it 81-14. The measure is largely […]

A senior industry source said Tuesday he is hearing an increasing amount of “chatter” that the Trump administration might early next year nominate someone to lead the Department of Energy’s nuclear cleanup office. The source said the talk is circulating among a trusted circle of industry representatives who often share such rumors. Assuming approval by […]

Construction of a new permanent ventilation system for the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant near Carlsbad, N.M., should not trigger any major environmental impacts, the Energy Department said in a recent supplemental analysis. “Because of the way the underground ventilation system is segregated and operated, construction and operation of the upgraded ventilation system would not contribute […]

Hanford Site services contractor Mission Support Alliance (MSA) has selected Amy Basche, a longtime worker at the Department of Energy complex in Washington state, as its new chief operations officer. Basche replaces Bob Wilkinson, who was promoted to president in October after prior company President Bill Johnson left for a corporate job with Leidos, one of MSA’s […]

The Energy Department’s Waste Isolation Pilot Plant in New Mexico has received 118 shipments of transuranic waste since reopening to shipments in April, officials said Wednesday night at the WIPP Town Hall in Carlsbad. WIPP is now averaging between five and six shipments per week from other DOE sites, according to Bruce Covert, president and […]

An advisory committee that monitors nuclear waste issues at the Savannah River Site in South Carolina wants the Department of Energy to consider reclassifying retired waste-treatment equipment and waste containers so they are eligible for permanent disposal off-site. On Tuesday, the SRS Citizens Advisory Board’s (CAB) Waste Management Committee voted 10-1 to approve a recommendation […]

Savannah River Remediation won 96 percent, or $14.5 million of $15.1 million, of the fee available for its liquid waste management at the Energy Department’s Savannah River Site in South Carolina between Oct. 1, 2016, and June 30, 2017, according to a recently disclosed DOE scorecard. “Overall, SRR’s performance during the evaluation period was excellent,” […]

The Department of Energy plans to grout the second PUREX Plant waste tunnel at the Hanford Site in Washington state, just as it did the first tunnel after it was discovered partially collapsed May 9. The Washington state Department of Ecology had ordered DOE to by Dec. 8 propose a stabilization plan for the second […]