Cleanup & Remediation

The Savannah River Site has delayed opening its gates to nonessential personnel at least another 12 hours as the Aiken, S.C., area where the site is located deals with impacts of Hurricane Irma. The Department of Energy first reported on Saturday that it would close the site’s gates to nonessential workers on Monday, when Irma […]

Incumbent Wastren Advantage and nearly 20 other companies sent representatives to the August industry day for the next management and services contract for the Hanford Site’s 222-S analytical laboratory, according to the newly posted attendance sheet. Other attendees were familiar names in the Department of Energy complex, including Westinghouse Government Services, Navarro Research and Engineering, […]

The Energy Department’s Savannah River Site in South Carolina is closing its gates to all nonessential personnel on Monday due to the potential impacts of Hurricane Irma, according to a site updated released on Saturday. The site will allow essential personnel to report to work Monday morning. Employees should call (803) 725-SITE, visit srs.gov, or check […]

The general manager of Waste Treatment Completion Co., the new subcontractor for the Waste Treatment Plant at the Hanford Site in Washington state, is on medical leave. Acting general manager Mike Costas is filling in for general manager Scott Oxenford. Costas previously served as the manager of functions for the Waste Treatment Plant, which included […]

The Energy Department’s Savannah River Site has lost about 900 jobs over the past five years, primarily due to attrition, according to a recent economic impact study. Released late last month, the study – The Savannah River Site: Economic Impact and Workforce Transition – was prepared by the SRS Community Reuse Organization (SRSCRO), a group tasked with working […]

The findings of a recent report questioning the cohesion of the bedrock on which a nuclear waste disposal facility is to be built in Ohio has not deterred the Energy Department from moving forward with the project. “Based on the intensive review of all the information provided in the Ferguson Group Report, DOE does not […]

SUMMERLIN, Nev. — The Energy Department’s Office of Environmental Management (EM) is establishing a new unit that will focus on completing the Hanford Site’s Waste Treatment Plant, Roger Jarrell, senior adviser to the secretary of energy for environmental management, said Tuesday. Efforts are being made to streamline management decisions at EM, a roughly $6 billion-per-year […]

The Energy Department is likely to extend the nearly expired contract for environmental management services at the Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) in New Mexico ahead of awarding a new deal, an observer said Thursday. Lab management and operations prime Los Alamos National Security holds a two-year, $230 million “bridge” legacy nuclear cleanup contract that ends […]

The Oak Ridge Site Specific Advisory Board (ORSSAB) has identified five priorities in fiscal 2019 for cleanup of the Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge Reservation in Tennessee. The federally appointed advisory panel submitted a two-page list of remediation recommendations for consideration by DOE’s Oak Ridge Office of Environmental Management (EM) in preparing the funding request […]

The Department of Energy has officially acknowledged it will miss the Sept. 30 milestone set under the Tri-Party Agreement to have the Hanford Site’s Plutonium Finishing Plant torn down to slab on grade. The federal agency notified its regulators, the Environmental Protection Agency and the Washington state Department of Ecology, on Sept. 1.  “Tremendous progress […]

New York City has agreed to reimburse the Environmental Protection Agency $659,037 in response costs for the radioactively contaminated Wolff-Alport Superfund Site in Queens. The city owns part of the site, which encompasses the former property of the Wolff-Alport Chemical Co. and businesses, sidewalks, streets, and sewers in the surrounding area. The company, over a […]

The Energy Department isn’t releasing any additional details on the timeline for announcing a new environmental management contractor at the Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) in New Mexico. “DOE does not comment on ongoing procurements,” a spokesperson said Wednesday. The current “bridge” contract for legacy cleanup at LANL, held by lab management and operations prime […]

The U.S. Defense Department announced Friday that it had awarded a $49.5 million contract to Reston, Va.-based Leidos for hazardous toxic radioactive waste investigation services for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers’ Formerly Utilized Sites Remedial Action Program. Further details of the services to be provided under the cost-plus-fixed-fee deal were not immediately available. Under […]

The Energy Department’s Office of Environmental Management (EM) is establishing a new unit that will focus on the Hanford Site’s Waste Treatment Plant, Roger Jarrell, senior adviser to the secretary of energy for environmental management, said Tuesday. Efforts are being made to streamline management decisions at EM, a roughly $6 billion-per-year office that oversees cleanup […]

The general manager of Waste Treatment Completion Co., the new subcontractor for the Waste Treatment Plant at the Hanford Site in Washington state, is on medical leave. Acting general manager Mike Costas is filling in for general manager Scott Oxenford. Costas previously served as the manager of functions for the Waste Treatment Plant, which included […]

New York City has agreed to reimburse the Environmental Protection Agency $659,037 in response costs for the radioactively contaminated Wolff-Alport Superfund Site in Queens. The city owns part of the site, which encompasses the former property of the Wolff-Alport Chemical Co. and businesses, sidewalks, streets, and sewers in the surrounding area. The company, over a […]

Officials at the Energy Department’s Hanford Site in Washington state have been alerted to the recent discovery of some radioactive bird feces. The contaminated bird droppings were discovered during a routine radiation survey in Hanford’s waste tank farms, according to an Aug. 23 Energy Department Occurrence Reporting and Processing System report. The radioactivity reading on […]

The findings of a recent report questioning the cohesion of the bedrock on which a nuclear waste disposal facility is to be built in Ohio has not deterred the Energy Department from moving forward with the project. “Based on the intensive review of all the information provided in the Ferguson Group Report, DOE does not […]

The Oak Ridge Site Specific Advisory Board (ORSSAB) has identified five priorities in fiscal 2019 for cleanup of the Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge Reservation in Tennessee. The fiscal 2019 plan targets continued mercury cleanup in East Poplar Creek; groundwater monitoring; future waste disposal capacity (including trust fund maintenance); excess facilities disposition — including removal […]

The Department of Energy has officially acknowledged it will miss the Sept. 30 milestone set under the Tri-Party Agreement to have the Hanford Site’s Plutonium Finishing Plant torn down to slab on grade. The federal agency notified its regulators, the Environmental Protection Agency and the Washington state Department of Ecology, on Friday.  “Tremendous progress has […]

Hanford Office of River Protection Manager Retiring Kevin Smith, the manager of the Department of Energy Office of River Protection at the Hanford Site in Washington state, plans to retire Sept. 30. He gave the word to Energy Secretary Rick Perry on Aug. 15 when the DOE chief visited Hanford. “The Department of Energy is […]

A panel of experts studying options for stabilizing the second radioactive waste storage tunnel at the Hanford Site’s PUREX Plant is scheduled to meet in teleconference for a second time today. The group’s first meeting, held a week earlier, was largely organizational, with no decisions made or a firm schedule set for future meetings. The […]

A postgraduate student intern and an Oak Ridge Associated Universities researcher in Tennessee are working to replicate an infamous 1976 radiation accident at the Energy Department’s Hanford Site in Washington state. The event exposed Harold McCluskey, a chemical worker who would become known as “The Atomic Man,” to the highest known level of the radioactive isotope […]

A system-wide liquid waste processing outage at the Savannah River Site (SRS) is still expected to last through the end of the year, as workers continue to make strides in other key areas of the Energy Department facility’s liquid waste mission. The site reported in February that it was halting all liquid waste processing due to […]

Don’t be surprised to see acting Assistant Energy Secretary for Environmental Management James Owendoff continue to lead the Energy Department’s nuclear cleanup program for several more months, a longtime industry observer told Weapons Complex Monitor this week. “I think they have got a clean slate at DOE on EM-1 candidates,” the source said. Owendoff, a longtime […]

Longenecker & Associates’ director of technology and international programs has been promoted to the new position of vice president for corporate programs, the consulting firm and Energy Department contractor said Tuesday. The Las Vegas-based company in 2015 hired Laurie Judd away from NuVision Engineering, where he was vice president for government programs. Judd will retain […]

The Washington state Department of Ecology on Thursday issued a $16,000 penalty against the Department of Energy and one of its contractors for failing to identify white powder found during the last two annual inspections of the Hanford Site’s PUREX Plant. The state requires annual detailed inspections of the plant, outlining specific routes through the […]

The Energy Department’s Office of Environmental Management (EM) might have to wait to get the funding boost being considered on Capitol Hill, assuming an anticipated short-term budget measure becomes reality in the next few weeks. Congress, returning to Washington on Tuesday after its August recess, has only a few weeks to pass some sort of […]

The head of the Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) in New Mexico told local officials Tuesday that awarding a new environmental management contract for the facility is taking longer than expected. “We had expected that the announcement would have already been made on that,” LANL Director Charles McMillan told a meeting of the Los Alamos […]

The Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico has as of this week treated half of its stock of containers filled with a volatile mix of remediated nitrate salts and organic kitty litter, a spokesman said Tuesday. Thirty of 60 drums of waste from Cold War-era nuclear weapons operations have been processed at the Energy […]