Cleanup & Remediation

The University of Arkansas hopes Congress will soon come through with the last $10.1 million needed to complete cleanup of the long-disused Southwest Experimental Fast Oxide Reactor (SEFOR) facility. The university aims in October to begin the third and final phase of the nearly decade-long remediation program, which would involve removing the plant reactor and […]

The Missouri Department of Natural Resources has issued a final contingent hazardous waste permit modification for the Bannister Federal Complex in Kansas City, which was previously used for the manufacture of non-nuclear components for nuclear weapons. A 225-acre portion of the old complex is set to be transferred to a private developer and redeveloped for […]

The Energy Department’s Office of Environmental Management would get some $6.6 billion in fiscal 2018 and take on $55 million worth of new cleanup projects from active nuclear-weapon sites, under a budget bill approved Thursday by the Senate Appropriations Committee. The panel’s recommendation for the Office of Environmental Management (EM) is nearly 3 percent above the […]

The 200-foot-tall ventilation stack at the Hanford Site’s Plutonium Finishing Plant crashed to the ground Saturday in an explosive demolition. It was another step toward bringing the plant down to slab on grade by the end of September as required by the Tri-Party Agreement (TPA) covering cleanup at the former plutonium production complex in Washington […]

The Energy Department and its prime contractor for the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant notified the New Mexico Environment Department last week that they plan to start major upgrades to the site’s ventilation system by next December. The notification was part of a recently published letter to John Kieling, chief of the New Mexico Environment Department’s Hazardous Waste […]

The Department of Energy is evaluating multiple options for stabilizing the second radioactive waste storage tunnel for the PUREX facility at the Hanford Site, as an Aug. 1 deadline nears. The Washington state Department of Ecology set the deadline for DOE to present a draft plan for stabilizing the second tunnel after the other PUREX […]

The University of Arkansas hopes Congress will soon come through with the last $10.1 million needed to complete cleanup of the long-disused Southwest Experimental Fast Oxide Reactor (SEFOR) facility. The university aims in October to begin the third and final phase of the nearly decade-long remediation program, which would involve removing the plant reactor and […]

A former employee who filed a discrimination lawsuit against the Savannah River Site’s liquid waste management provider must respond to the contractor’s motion for dismissal by July 28, or the case will be thrown out. A federal judge set the deadline after attorneys for Jimmy Rouse missed an earlier response date this month. In a lawsuit filed […]

A major waste treatment facility at the Department of Energy’s Savannah River Site in South Carolina was placed in deliberate operations last month following multiple safety-related incidents in recent months. The Defense Waste Processing Facility (DWPF) entered into deliberate operations – a reduced work phase in which personnel pay extra attention to detail and planning when conducting […]

The United Kingdom’s Nuclear Decommissioning Authority said Wednesday it spent £3.2 billion ($4.2 billion) through its 2016-2017 fiscal year in carrying out its mission to clean up 17 nuclear sites around the country. Milestones during the year included extracting all bulk stocks of nuclear fuel from the Pile Fuel Storage Pond at the Sellafield site […]

A major waste treatment facility at the Department of Energy’s Savannah River Site in South Carolina was placed in deliberate operations last month following multiple safety-related incidents in recent months. The Defense Waste Processing Facility (DWPF) entered into deliberate operations – in which workers pay extra attention to detail and planning when conducting work — on June […]

The University of Arkansas hopes Congress will come through with the last $10.1 million needed to complete cleanup of the long-disused Southwest Experimental Fast Oxide Reactor (SEFOR) facility. The university hopes in October to begin the third and final phase of the nearly decade-long remediation program, which would involve removing the plant’s reactor and all […]

A Senate Appropriations panel advanced a fiscal 2018 spending bill that would focus DOE’s near-term nuclear-waste management efforts on consent-based interim storage and cancel the Mixed Oxide Fuel Fabrication Facility under construction in South Carolina. The $38.4-billion bill from the Senate Appropriations energy and water development subcommittee would also provide a smaller-than-requested funding increase for DOE’s […]

A former employee who filed a discrimination lawsuit against the Savannah River Site’s liquid waste management provider must respond to the contractor’s motion for dismissal by July 28, or the case will be thrown out. A federal judge set the deadline after attorneys for Jimmy Rouse missed an earlier response date this month. In a lawsuit filed […]

The Energy Department and its prime contractor for the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant notified the New Mexico Environment Department last week that they plan to start major upgrades to the site’s ventilation system by next December. The notification was part of a recently published letter to John Kieling, chief of the New Mexico Environment Department’s Hazardous Waste […]

The Missouri Department of Natural Resources has issued a final contingent hazardous waste permit modification for the Bannister Federal Complex in Kansas City, a site that was previously used for the manufacture of non-nuclear components for nuclear weapons. A 225-acre portion of the old complex is set to be transferred to a private developer and […]

The 200-foot-tall ventilation stack at the Hanford Site’s Plutonium Finishing Plant crashed to the ground Saturday in an explosive demolition. It was another step toward bringing the plant down to slab on grade by the end of September as required by a Tri-Party Agreement (TPA) milestone. Demolition work at the plant had shifted in recent […]

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission is conducting an environmental assessment as part of its review of the Energy Department’s application for a 20-year extension of its license for storage in Idaho of waste from the Three Mile Island nuclear power plant. “The purpose of the EA is to assess potential environmental impacts that may significantly affect the […]

The House of Representatives’ fiscal 2018 energy funding bill directs the National Nuclear Security Administration to address various legal and diplomatic hurdles in its proposed alternative plutonium disposition method before Congress considers funding the new approach and abandoning the MOX Fuel Fabrication Facility under construction in South Carolina. The House version of the energy and […]

By Wayne Barber The Environmental Protection Agency continues to believe that people living and working near the West Lake Landfill Superfund Site in Missouri are not being exposed to radiological contaminant levels that pose health concerns. The St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported this week that a stormwater sample, collected April 30 following a period of heavy […]

Thermal imaging scans were being collected over 20 square miles at the center of the Hanford Site this week to help determine where radioactive waste might be buried. A crew using a small airplane started the flights early Wednesday morning and expected to continue over early mornings for three to five days. Information is being […]

The public meeting promised by the Department of Energy on the structural integrity of the Hanford Site’s PUREX Tunnel No. 2 has been set for 6 p.m. July 20., at the Courtyard by Marriott, 480 Columbia Point Drive in Richland, Wash. The workshop will be webcast. Registration information can be found here. DOE and the Washington […]

CH2M Hill Plateau Remediation Co. and the Washington state Department of Ecology have reached a settlement agreement over waste storage that waives a $50,000 penalty against the Hanford Site cleanup contractor. The state had accused CH2M in August 2016 of breaching requirements for the storage of five containers of waste at Hanford’s T Plant, including identifying […]

The White House is considering Alan Parker, who now leads one of the Energy Department’s nuclear-cleanup contractors, to head the agency’s entire remediation of its Cold War legacy as assistant secretary of energy for environmental management (EM), a source said Thursday. Parker is currently president and project manager for Mid-America Conversion Services: a new Atkins-led contracting […]

Mark Gilbertson has replaced Frank Marcinowski as the top policy and regulatory affairs official in the Department of Energy’s Office of Environmental Management (EM), according to official agency correspondence reviewed by Weapons Complex Monitor. A DOE spokesperson in Washington confirmed Wednesday that Gilbertson is EM’s current acting associate principal deputy assistant secretary for regulatory and […]

The remaining portions of the site that once housed the old Oak Ridge Gaseous Diffusion Plant in Tennessee will be fully remediated within three years, well ahead of the original schedule, according to Ken Rueter, president of Energy Department site cleanup contractor URS-CH2M Oak Ridge (UCOR). The last Manhattan Project-era uranium enrichment building, K-27, came […]

House lawmakers this week approved a fiscal 2018 energy and water budget that would give the the Department of Energy about $30 billion and add three new cleanup projects to DOE’s Office of Environmental Management. The House Appropriations Committee agreed by voice vote Wednesday, with a few Democrat dissenters, to send the nearly $38 billion 2018 […]

Members of the House of Representatives have thrown early support in the latest budget process behind sustaining funding for the MOX project at the Department of Energy’s Savannah River Site, but their colleagues in the Senate are so far silent on whether they will also again back the controversial program. The House version of the fiscal 2018 […]

CH2M Hill Plateau Remediation Co. and the Washington state Department of Ecology have reached a settlement agreement over waste storage includes the waiver of a $50,000 penalty against the Hanford Site cleanup contractor. The state had accused CH2M in August 2016 of breaching requirements for the storage of five containers of waste at Hanford’s T Plant, […]

The House of Representatives’ fiscal 2018 energy funding bill directs the National Nuclear Security Administration to address various legal and diplomatic hurdles in its proposed alternative plutonium disposition method before Congress considers funding the new approach and abandoning the MOX Fuel Fabrication Facility under construction in South Carolina. The House version of the energy and […]