Cleanup & Remediation

The Energy Department may reclassify its West Valley Demonstration Project as a defense nuclear site, upping the federal funding for which the former spent fuel reprocessing facility is eligible, a local New York newspaper reported last week. Former Energy Sec. Ernest Moniz notified Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) of the possibility Thursday, the Olean Times Herald […]

Editor’s note: This is the first in a series of quarterly news summaries and analyses about President Donald Trump’s first 100 days in office. We’ll check in with one long, big-picture update every 25 days, with a regular flow of updates in between to keep you up to date on news affecting Department of Energy […]

The Hanford Site’s tank farm contractor has agreed to pay a $5.275 million settlement to resolve federal allegations of time-card fraud. Washington River Protection Solutions (WRPS) was accused of submitting false claims to the Department of Energy between October 2008 and July 2013 concerning internal audit processes, along with time cards seeking payment for worker […]

Despite progress made to address vapors from radioactive waste storage tanks at the Hanford Site in Washington state, union worker concerns have not decreased, according to a new review from the Department of Energy’s Office of Enterprise Assessments (EA). The review largely echoed findings released in late November by the Centers for Disease Control and […]

The Savannah River Site liquid waste tank farms hold less than 35 million gallons of waste for the first time since 1999, according to a Jan. 9 Facebook post from Savannah River Remediation (SRR), the Department of Energy facility’s liquid waste contractor. Since taking over the contract in 2009, SRR’s goal has been to rid the […]

The Energy Department is likely next year to miss another major nuclear waste removal milestone set in its 1995 settlement agreement with the state of Idaho. Under the agreement, DOE committed to remove from the Idaho National Laboratory site some 65,000 cubic meters of stored transuranic waste by the end of 2018. But limited operations […]

The mayor of the village of Piketon wants the Energy Department to fund an independent assessment of the nuclear landfill the agency wants to build at the former uranium enrichment site near the small town in southeast Ohio. DOE formally decided to build the proposed 100-acre on-site disposal cell in 2015, saying it was the least […]

Kathryn Roberts, who helped regulate major nuclear cleanup projects in New Mexico, is leaving the New Mexico Environment Department to become a project manager at consulting shop Longenecker & Associates, the firm said Tuesday. Roberts, most recently director of the state agency’s Resource Protection Division, will join the firm on Jan. 23, Martin Schneider, senior vice president […]

Despite a few unplanned days off due to wicked winter weather in Washington state, the Energy Department still expects to tear down the Plutonium Finishing Plant at the Hanford Site to the concrete slab on which it was built by a Sept. 30 regulatory deadline, a DOE official said Monday. “Right now, we still think we […]

Prosidian Consulting of North Carolina has been awarded a firm-fixed-price contract worth up to $2 million for management and facilitation services to the Hanford Advisory Board in Washington state. The Department of Energy contract is for a one-year-base period with four one-year options. Prosidian replaces EnviroIssues, which has offices in the Northwest, including near the […]

The Energy Department is on track to empty most of the waste in a leaky double-shell tank at the Hanford Site in Washington state by a March 4 regulatory deadline — a job likely to cost more than $40 million, a DOE official said Wednesday. The final bill for draining waste from Tank AY-102 is […]

By Todd Wright This is a period of change for America and for the Department of Energy (DOE). Fittingly, the transition to a new president and new administration offers the chance to reflect on one of DOE’s core programs: the Office of Environmental Management (EM), and the opportunities that lie ahead. While DOE, like all […]

The environmental remediation contractor for the Department of Energy’s West Valley Demonstration Project in upstate New York earned “very good” ratings in all four categories of its latest performance evaluation. That was a slight dip from the previous evaluation but enough to earn CH2M Hill BWXT West Valley (CHBWV) a $360,000 award fee, 80 percent of the […]

The Trump administration will take a hard look at the Energy Department’s budget for legacy nuclear waste cleanup, Energy Secretary-designate Rick Perry said Thursday during his Senate confirmation hearing. “[P]rioritizing the funding and managing that funding in an appropriate way to clean up these waste sites is going to be very, very high on the priority […]

Centrus Energy Corp. plans to ship low-level waste from the decommissioned American Centrifuge uranium enrichment demonstration facility in Piketon, Ohio, to the Nevada National Security Site for disposal beginning in March, company filings with the Nuclear Regulatory Commission show. “Planning and budgeting for the waste shipments by Centrus, the waste disposal contractor and the transportation […]

Centrus Energy Corp. plans to ship low-level waste from the decommissioned American Centrifuge uranium enrichment demonstration facility in Piketon, Ohio, to the Nevada National Security Site for disposal beginning in March, company filings with the Nuclear Regulatory Commission show. “Planning and budgeting for the waste shipments by Centrus, the waste disposal contractor and the transportation […]

Sellafield Ltd. has agreed to a collaborative agreement with the National Nuclear Laboratory (NNL) for the £70 billion ($86.7 billion) decommissioning of the United Kingdom’s Sellafield site, the companies announced Wednesday. The two partners will focus on reducing hazards at the U.K.’s most complex nuclear waste site through technical research and development. The 55-building decommissioning project is […]

The Energy Department is on track to empty most of the waste in a leaky double-shell tank at the Hanford Site in Washington state by a March 4 regulatory deadline — a job likely to cost more than $40 million, a DOE official said Wednesday. The final bill for draining waste from Tank AY-102 is […]

Prosidian Consulting of North Carolina has been awarded a firm-fixed-price contract worth up to $2 million for management and facilitation services to the Hanford Advisory Board in Washington state. The Department of Energy contract is for a one-year-base period with four one-year options. Prosidian replaces EnviroIssues, which has offices in the Northwest, including near the […]

The Savannah River Site liquid waste tank farms hold less than 35 million gallons of waste for the first time since 1999, according to a Jan. 9 Facebook post from Savannah River Remediation (SRR), the Department of Energy facility’s liquid waste contractor.   Since taking over the contract in 2009, SRR’s goal has been to […]

Despite progress made to address vapors from waste storage tanks at the Hanford Site in Washington state, union worker concerns have not decreased, according to a new review from the Department of Energy Office of Enterprise Assessments. The review largely echoed findings released in late November by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s National […]

Despite a few unplanned days off due to wicked winter weather in Washington state, the Energy Department still expects to tear down the Plutonium Finishing Plant at the Hanford Site to the concrete slab on which it was built by a Sept. 30 regulatory deadline, a DOE official said Monday. “Right now, we still think we […]

The environmental remediation contractor for the Department of Energy’s West Valley Demonstration Project in upstate New York earned “very good” ratings in all four categories of its latest performance evaluation. That was enough to earn CH2M Hill BWXT West Valley (CHBWV) a $360,000 award fee, 80 percent of the total available $450,694 for the performance period […]

Kathryn Roberts, who helped regulate major nuclear cleanup projects in New Mexico, is leaving the New Mexico Environment Department to become a project manager at consulting shop Longenecker & Associates, the firm said Tuesday. Roberts, most recently director of the state agency’s Resource Protection Division, will join the firm on Jan. 23, Martin Schneider, senior vice president […]

The mayor of the village of Piketon wants the Energy Department to fund an independent assessment of the nuclear landfill the agency wants to build at the former uranium enrichment site near the small town in southeast Ohio. DOE formally decided to build the proposed 100-acre on-site disposal cell in 2015, saying it was the least […]

The top contractor at the Department of Energy’s Savannah River Site is looking for clarity on whether millions of dollars in “unallowable” expense filings in recent years were actually unallowable, as claimed by the federal government, On March 18, the Department of Justice sued Savannah River Nuclear Solutions, the management and operations contractor for the facility […]

LANS Earns 90% of FY16 Fee for Lab Cleanup Contract By Chris Schneidmiller Los Alamos National Security earned 90 percent of available fees in fiscal 2016 for its bridge contract for legacy cleanup operations at the Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico, according to the latest performance scorecard from the Department of Energy’s Office […]

The top contractor at the Department of Energy’s Savannah River Site is looking for clarity on whether millions of dollars in “unallowable” expense filings in recent years were actually unallowable, as claimed by the federal government, On March 18, the Department of Justice sued Savannah River Nuclear Solutions, the management and operations contractor for the […]

The Idaho National Laboratory’s cleanup contractor, Fluor Idaho, has been paid $4.1 million in performance award and incentive fees since in June taking over the contracts of CH2M-WG Idaho and Idaho Treatment Group. Fluor will receive its first formal performance report card at the end of fiscal 2017. The contractor is expected to tally another […]

The Energy Department on Jan. 6 released a draft environmental impact statement for soil and groundwater cleanup and building demolition at the former rocket and atomic test site at the Santa Susana Field Laboratory in Simi Valley, Calif. The overdue draft — DOE once thought it would finish the site’s environmental impact process last year — examines a range […]