Cleanup & Remediation

Weapons Complex Morning Briefing will be published on Tuesdays and Thursdays during the ExchangeMonitor’s publishing recess in the second and third week of August. The regular daily publishing schedule will resume on Monday, Aug. 21.

After four months of deliberations, the state of South Carolina and the Department of Energy could not agree on how best to remove plutonium from DOE’s Savannah River Site, or whether the department will pay $200 million in fines that have piled up while the dispute lingered. In a joint statement Monday to Judge J. Michelle Childs, […]

Tuesday was the 10th anniversary of the start of construction of the Energy Department’s Mixed Oxide Fuel Fabrication Facility at the Savannah River Site in South Carolina — an occasion unheralded by either the agency or its contractor while lawmakers again debate whether to cancel the facility. As part of an arms-control agreement with Russia, initiated in 2000 and […]

The mayor of Piketon, Ohio, bitterly opposed to the Energy Department’s strategy for disposal of nuclear waste from demolition of the Portsmouth Site’s uranium facilities, is angling for few minutes alone with Energy Secretary Rick Perry — whenever the DOE chief actually visits the Buckeye State. “I sent a letter about a month ago asking for a […]

The Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board has invited Energy Department and National Nuclear Security Administration leadership to speak at a public hearing Sept. 13 on the status of emergency management across defense nuclear facilities. The hearing, to be held at the DNFSB’s Washington, D.C., headquarters, will allow DOE officials to make prepared remarks on the […]

Glyn Trenchard has been named assistant manager of the Hanford Site Tank Farms Project for the Department of Energy Office of River Protection. He will oversee the storage, treatment, and disposal of 56 million gallons of waste stored in underground tanks starting Aug. 6. Trenchard joined the Office of River Protection in 1998 and has […]

Energy Secretary Rick Perry has postponed his scheduled Monday visit to the Energy Department’s Portsmouth Site in Piketon, Ohio, Sen. Rob Portman (R-Ohio) said Saturday. “While I’m disappointed that Secretary Perry cannot make it to Piketon on Monday I’m pleased he has indicated that he will reschedule the visit soon,” Portman said in a prepared […]

The Environmental Protection Agency announced Thursday that it had developed a nearly $40 million plan for cleanup of a radioactively contaminated site in Queen, N.Y. From about 1920 to 1954, the Wolff-Alport Chemical Co. retrieved rare earth minerals via processing of monazite sand, a process that produced radioactive waste that the company through 1947 dumped […]

Analysis of concrete degradation at the Savannah River Site’s H Canyon should be completed by the end of 2017, allowing the facility to resume receiving nuclear material for processing, a Department of Energy spokesman said last week. Savannah River Nuclear Solutions, DOE’s management and operations contractor for the South Carolina site, on June 28 stopped […]

Energy Secretary Rick Perry is scheduled to travel to Ohio on July 31 to view the Portsmouth Gaseous Diffusion Plant and American Centrifuge Project, Sen. Rob Portman (R-Ohio) announced on July 21. “I’m excited to announce that Secretary Perry has accepted my invitation to visit the cleanup site of the Portsmouth Gaseous Diffusion Plant to get […]

Demolition began Wednesday on the Hanford Site’s Z Plant, the main processing building at the Plutonium Finishing Plant. “Starting the work on the main processing facility complex marks the final step in demolition” of the Plutonium Finishing Plant, which was used during the Cold War to shape the material for use in nuclear weapons, said […]

A local advisory board this week voiced its opposition to using the Department of Energy’s Savannah River Site (SRS) in South Carolina for interim storage of nuclear waste, but could not come to agreement on a request for DOE to prohibit shipments to the facility of highly enriched uranium from Germany. The Energy Department should […]

Lockheed Martin and Leidos have allocated liabilities between themselves should the Department of Justice pursue a claim in connection with an ongoing false claims investigation of Mission Support Alliance, the support services contractor at the Hanford Site, according to a quarterly Securities and Exchange Commission filing from Lockheed Martin. In August 2016, Lockheed completed the […]

The Energy Department’s Office of Environmental Management would get $6.4 billion for fiscal 2018, and take on cleanup responsibility for three new facilities, under a DOE budget approved Thursday by the House of Representatives. The House approved the 2018 DOE budget recommendation on a highly-partisan 235-192 vote, with five Democrats voting “aye” and five Republicans […]

The Los Alamos National Laboratory is still waiting on word regarding a new contract for legacy nuclear cleanup at the Department of Energy facility in New Mexico, an official said Tuesday. DOE’s Office of Environmental Management (EM) in September 2016 issued its final request for proposals for the contract, which could be worth up to […]

The Energy Department on Wednesday released a request for information on a follow-up paramilitary security services contract at the Savannah River Site near Aiken, S.C. Centerra LLC is the incumbent SRS security contractor. Its roughly $1 billion security services for safeguard of special nuclear material contract, awarded in 2009, expires on Oct. 7, 2019. DOE […]

The Department of Energy would be required to establish a resource center to support ill and injured Hanford Site workers in their efforts to obtain workers’ compensation, under language added to the U.S. Senate appropriations bill covering DOE for the next fiscal year. The language, inserted by Washington state’s two Democratic senators, Patty Murray and […]

The lead liquid waste contractor at the Savannah River Site near Aiken, S.C., on July 18 finished building the Saltstone Disposal Unit- (SDU) 6: the first of seven planned 30-million-plus-gallon tanks that will store radioactive salt waste left over from processing some 35 million gallons of Cold War liquid waste, the Department of Energy said […]

A local advisory board this week voiced its opposition to using the Department of Energy’s Savannah River Site (SRS) in South Carolina for interim storage of nuclear waste, but could not come to agreement on a request for DOE to prohibit shipments to the facility of highly enriched uranium from Germany. The Energy Department should […]

By Wayne Barber The House of Representatives on Thursday approved fiscal 2018 appropriations legislation that would provide more than $939.1 million for Nuclear Regulatory Commission salaries and expenses. The NRC funding is included within the energy appropriations section of the so-called “mini-bus” bill, which also covers defense, legislative, military construction, and veterans affairs operations. It […]

Two interconnected facilities at the Department of Energy’s Savannah River Site in South Carolina have stopped receiving nuclear materials due to growing infrastructure problems that could have significant consequences in the event of an earthquake. A newly released report from the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board noted the suspension of nuclear materials receipts at H […]

A local advisory board this week voiced its opposition to using the Department of Energy’s Savannah River Site (SRS) in South Carolina for interim storage of nuclear waste, but could not come to agreement on a request for DOE to prohibit shipments to the facility of highly enriched uranium from Germany. The Energy Department should […]

A local advisory board this week voiced its opposition to using the Department of Energy’s Savannah River Site (SRS) in South Carolina for interim storage of nuclear waste, but could not come to agreement on a request for DOE to prohibit shipments to the facility of highly enriched uranium from Germany. The Energy Department should […]

The House of Representatives on Wednesday was considering fiscal 2018 legislation that would provide more than $939.1 million for Nuclear Regulatory Commission salaries and expenses. Floor debate on the bill, which covers appropriations for energy, defense, and other federal operations, was ongoing at deadline for Weapons Complex Morning Briefing. Of the base funding amount for […]

The Energy Department on Wednesday released a request for information on a follow-up paramilitary security services contract at the Savannah River Site near Aiken, S.C. Centerra LLC is the incumbent SRS security contractor. Its roughly $1 billion security services for safeguard of special nuclear material contract, awarded in 2009, expires on Oct. 7, 2019. DOE […]

The Los Alamos National Laboratory is still waiting on word regarding a new contract for legacy nuclear cleanup at the Department of Energy facility in New Mexico, an official said Tuesday. DOE’s Office of Environmental Management (EM) in September 2016 issued its final request for proposals for the contract, which could be worth up to […]

The Department of Energy would be required to establish a resource center to support ill and injured Hanford Site workers in their efforts to obtain workers’ compensation, under language added to the U.S. Senate appropriations bill covering DOE for the next fiscal year. The language, inserted by Washington state’s two Democratic senators, Patty Murray and […]

The Department of Energy’s prime contractor at the Savannah River Site near Aiken, S.C., has finished building the Saltstone Disposal Unit- (SDU) 6: the first of seven planned 30-million-plus-gallon tanks that will store radioactive salt waste left over from processing some 35 million gallons of Cold War liquid waste, the agency said in a Friday […]

Energy Secretary Rick Perry is scheduled to travel to Ohio on July 31 to view the Portsmouth Gaseous Diffusion Plant and American Centrifuge Project, Sen. Rob Portman (R-Ohio) announced Friday. “I’m excited to announce that Secretary Perry has accepted my invitation to visit the cleanup site of the Portsmouth Gaseous Diffusion Plant to get a firsthand […]

Two interconnected facilities at the Department of Energy’s Savannah River Site in South Carolina have stopped receiving nuclear materials due to growing infrastructure problems that could have significant consequences in the event of an earthquake. A newly released report from the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board states that H Canyon – a nuclear materials separation […]