Cleanup & Remediation

Jacobs Engineering will report its fiscal fourth-quarter 2017 earnings prior to the market opening on Tuesday, and will hold a quarterly conference call with financial analysts at 10 a.m. EST. It will mark the company’s last earnings call prior to the Dec. 13 vote by CH2M stockholders on a buyout by Jacobs. The CH2M vote […]

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission will work with the Energy Department and a New York state agency in drafting a scoping plan for Phase 2 cleanup of the West Valley Demonstration Project near Buffalo, N.Y. In late September DOE asked the NRC to participate in the supplemental environmental impact statement (SEIS) process to ensure the West […]

Workers at the Department of Energy’s Hanford Site in Washington state on Monday completed filling with grout the PUREX Plant tunnel that was discovered partially collapsed on May 9. The tunnel holds eight railcars loaded with highly radioactively contaminated equipment from the shuttered plutonium extraction plant. “Since a portion of the tunnel’s roof collapsed last […]

The U.S. Department of Energy is seeking partial dismissal of two protests filed with the Government Accountability Office by losing bidders for the recently awarded $4.7 billion contract for liquid waste management at the Savannah River Site in South Carolina. The Energy Department on Oct. 12 awarded the new work to Savannah River EcoManagement, a […]

AECOM management said Monday the company remains a major player in cleaning up the U.S. Department of Energy’s nuclear complex and believes it has a real chance of overturning the recent loss of the $4.7 billion contract for liquid waste management at the Savannah River Site in South Carolina. “We still consider the Savannah River […]

CH2M shareholders are scheduled to vote Dec. 13 on the company’s proposed buyout by Jacobs Engineering, according to a new filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. The shareholder meeting will be held at company headquarters in Englewood, Colo., CH2M said in a Nov. 13 10-Q filing. Stockholder approval is one of the final […]

The Hanford Advisory Board is calling for the Department of Energy to ramp up to $4 billion in annual spending for cleanup of the Hanford Site in Washington state, despite DOE officials saying that will not happen. A combination of operating the Waste Treatment Plant starting within a half-decade while construction continues on parts of […]

The Environmental Protection Agency is considering relocating its program manager for the Energy Department’s Hanford Site away from the nearby city of Richland. Acting program manager Laura Buelow told the Hanford Advisory Board (HAB) last week that a decision on potentially basing the manager on the other side of Washington state in Seattle would be […]

A community advisory board to the Savannah River Site in South Carolina wants the Energy Department to provide funding to start construction of a vault that will store retired waste processing equipment. In a recommendation approved Tuesday, the SRS Citizens Advisory Board (CAB) asked DOE to get a head start on building a vault to […]

Perma-Fix Environmental Services on Nov. 10 indicated it is moving ahead with testing of technology for treating low-activity radioactive waste from the Department of Energy’s Hanford Site, while acknowledging funding challenges facing its medical isotope program. The Atlanta-based based nuclear services and waste management specialist offered the update in a 10-Q filing with the U.S. […]

Workers at the Department of Energy’s Hanford Site in Washington state on Monday completed filling with grout the PUREX Plant tunnel that was discovered partially collapsed on May 9. The tunnel holds eight railcars loaded with highly radioactively contaminated equipment from the shuttered plutonium extraction plant. “Since a portion of the tunnel’s roof collapsed last […]

Contractor CH2M Hill BWXT West Valley (CHBWV) has earned $300,000, or 66 percent, of its potential fee from the Energy Department for six months of cleanup work at the West Valley Demonstration Project near Buffalo, N.Y. The fee was awarded for the joint venture’s performance between March 1 and Aug. 29 of this year, according […]

No decisions were made about possible ways to speed up certain cleanup operations at the Hanford Site during a meeting Nov. 9 between top officials from the Energy Department’s Office of Environmental Management and the Washington state Department of Ecology. Acting Assistant Energy Secretary for Environmental Management (EM) James Owendoff met with Ecology Department Director […]

Construction of the Mercury Treatment Facility at the Department of Energy’s Y-12 National Security Complex in Tennessee will ceremonially begin Monday with assistance from two U.S. lawmakers. Scheduled to attend the 10 a.m. Nov. 20 groundbreaking ceremony are Deputy Energy Secretary Dan Brouillette, U.S. Sen. Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.), and Rep. Chuck Fleischmann (R-Tenn.). The Energy […]

President Donald Trump plans to nominate nuclear industry lobbyist and former Capitol Hill staffer Melissa Burnison as assistant secretary of energy for congressional and intergovernmental affairs, the White House announced Wednesday. If nominated and then confirmed by the Senate, Burnison would lead the Office of Congressional and Intergovernmental Affairs as the principal Department of Energy […]

Perma-Fix Environmental Services on Nov. 10 indicated it is moving ahead with testing of technology for treating low-activity radioactive waste from the Department of Energy’s Hanford Site, while acknowledging funding challenges facing its medical isotope program. The Atlanta-based based nuclear services and waste management specialist offered the update in a 10-Q filing with the U.S. […]

The Environmental Protection Agency is considering relocating its program manager for the Energy Department’s Hanford Site away from the nearby city of Richland. Acting program manager Laura Buelow told the Hanford Advisory Board (HAB) last week that a decision on potentially basing the manager on the other side of Washington state in Seattle would be […]

Changing the nature of the contract for the Department of Energy’s Mixed Oxide Fuel Fabrication Facility would not necessarily help restrain the rising costs for building the plant that will eliminate stocks of nuclear weapon-usable plutonium, the Government Accountability Office (GAO) said in a report Wednesday. The report does not include any recommended action, but rather reveals […]

A community advisory board to the Savannah River Site in South Carolina wants the Energy Department to provide funding to start construction of a vault that will store retired waste processing equipment. In a recommendation approved Tuesday, the SRS Citizens Advisory Board (CAB) asked DOE to get a head start on building a vault to […]

CH2M shareholders are scheduled to vote Dec. 13 on the company’s proposed buyout by Jacobs Engineering, according to a new filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. The shareholder meeting will be held at company headquarters in Englewood, Colo., CH2M said in a Nov. 13 10-Q filing. Stockholder approval is one of the final […]

Workers at the Department of Energy’s Hanford Site in Washington state on Monday completed filling with grout the PUREX Plant tunnel that was discovered partially collapsed on May 9. The tunnel holds eight railcars loaded with highly radioactively contaminated equipment from the shuttered plutonium extraction plant. “Since a portion of the tunnel’s roof collapsed last […]

An interest group representing communities that host Department of Energy nuclear weapons and cleanup sites wants a meeting with the head of the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board (DNFSB), who earlier this summer urged the White House to dissolve the decades-old safety watchdog. The Energy Communities Alliance “believes DNFSB must not be eliminated in order […]

Construction of the Mercury Treatment Facility at the Department of Energy’s Y-12 National Security Complex in Tennessee will ceremonially begin next Monday with assistance from two U.S. lawmakers. Scheduled to attend the 10 a.m. Nov. 20 groundbreaking ceremony are Deputy Energy Secretary Dan Brouilette, U.S. Sen. Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.), and Rep. Chuck Fleischmann (R-Tenn.). The […]

No decisions were made about possible ways to speed up certain cleanup operations at the Hanford Site during a meeting Thursday between top officials from the Energy Department’s Office of Environmental Management and the Washington state Department of Ecology. Acting Assistant Energy Secretary for Environmental Management (EM) James Owendoff met with Ecology Department Director Maia […]

A Nov. 9 article in Weapons Complex Morning Briefing incorrectly indicated Kevin Hall had been manager of the Energy Department’s Oak Ridge Office of Environmental Management (OREM) in Tennessee. Hall, now president at Juno Management Professionals, served as manager of the Office of Science Integrated Support Center at Oak Ridge.

The Hanford Advisory Board is calling for the Department of Energy to ramp up to $4 billion in annual spending at the Hanford Site in Washington state, despite DOE officials saying that will not happen. A combination of operating the Waste Treatment Plant starting within five years from now while construction continues on parts of […]

The Department of Energy has picked Delmar Noyes as the assistant manager for Hanford Site Waste Treatment Plant startup, commissioning, and integration, effective Nov. 12. He will support integration of the waste storage tank farm and the Waste Treatment Plant to assure close coordination during startup and commissioning of Hanford’s tank waste treatment facilities and […]

Acting Assistant Energy Secretary for Environmental Management (EM) James Owendoff was scheduled to meet with Washington state Department of Ecology Director Maia Bellon on Thursday, at least in part to discuss ideas about speeding up progress on construction of the Waste Treatment Plant (WTP) at the Hanford Site, a state official confirmed. The visit follows […]

The U.S. Energy Department confirmed Tuesday that the Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico has finished treating 60 potentially combustible containers of radioactive waste, ending ahead of the latest targeted date and setting the stage for the next phase of nitrate salt processing. The drums contained a mix of nitrate salts and organic kitty […]

Dennis Wilson has been elected as the new chairman of the Energy Department’s Oak Ridge Site Specific Advisory Board (ORSSAB) in Tennessee for fiscal 2018. The panel of up to 22 members makes recommendations to DOE regarding operations at the Oak Ridge Reservation, home to a large-scale cleanup of former uranium enrichment operations. ORSSAB held […]