Cleanup & Remediation

Scientists at the Savannah River Site in South Carolina are calling for more research to understand why mercury is being produced in local tributaries that flow into the Savannah River waterways and how the environment is impacted when that mercury discharges into the Savannah River. During a June 8 presentation to a committee of the […]

The Department of Energy’s first open industry briefing for the estimated $1.7 billion contract that covers up to 10 years of legacy nuclear cleanup work at the Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) drew a crowd of nearly 150 earlier this month, but the partners for incumbent Los Alamos National Security (LANS) kept a low profile, […]

Registration is open for the ExchangeMonitor’s newly revamped Global Environmental Management Forum & Showcase, formerly the Decisionmakers’ Forum. The event, scheduled for Nov. 1-3 at the Omni Shoreham in Washington, D.C., will offer decision makers in the nuclear industry an opportunity to discuss new markets and new technologies being developed to reduce nuclear dangers and […]

The Department of Energy would do well to reduce the number of cleanup contractors at the Hanford Site in Washington state, according to the Hanford Advisory Board. It prepared advice at its June 9 meeting intended to help DOE provide the best value for taxpayers, improve workforce safety, reduce workforce stress due to contract changes, […]

The Plutonium Finishing Plant (PFP) at the Department of Energy’s Hanford Site continues to live up to its billing as the most dangerous and complicated cleanup at the former plutonium production facility near Richland, Wash., with a government watchdog disclosing Wednesday some close calls involving one of the plant’s radio-contaminated glove boxes. Difficulties with the facility’s last […]

Environmental regulators, the city of Oak Ridge, Tenn., and community activists have pushed the Department of Energy to explore more alternatives before choosing a definitive site for a new CERCLA landfill for disposal of hazardous and radioactive wastes generated during cleanup projects at the Oak Ridge Reservation. The department had previously put its eggs in […]

The Hanford Site’s Plutonium Finishing Plant was immediately evacuated Thursday morning when a criticality alarm sounded. Hanford officials confirmed 90 minutes later that it was a false alarm related to maintenance being conducted on the alarm system that morning. The cause of the false alarm is being investigated. The alarm is designed to warn workers […]

Two more workers were checked for possible exposure to chemical vapors at the Hanford Site in Washington state this week, bringing the total in recent months to 52. The 52 workers received medical checks because they had respiratory symptoms, smelled a suspicious odor, or were in the vicinity of suspected chemical vapors. This week two […]

A Department of Energy Inspector General’s Office assessment released Wednesday raised questions about hundreds of thousands of dollars in costs claimed by URS-CH2M Oak Ridge (UCOR), the DOE cleanup manager for the Oak Ridge Reservation in Tennessee. It also cited the contractor for not performing any cost-allowability audits for subcontractor work that totaled more than […]

The tank farm contractor at the Department of Energy’s Hanford Site has launched a web page with data on chemical vapor monitoring as part of a push to make more information readily available to workers and the public, said officials with Washington River Protection Solutions (WRPS) on Monday. Better communication on vapors from waste in […]

Registration is open for the ExchangeMonitor’s newly revamped Global Environmental Management Forum & Showcase, formerly the Decisionmakers’ Forum. The event, scheduled for Nov. 1-3 at the Omni Shoreham in Washington, D.C., will offer decision makers in the nuclear industry an opportunity to discuss new markets and new technologies being developed to reduce nuclear dangers and […]

Washington Closure Hanford reached a new safety milestone of 7 million hours without a lost workday injury as its contract at winds down. It has been three and a half years since an injury on the job caused an employee of the contractor or its subcontractors to spend time away from work, the Hanford Site […]

A Department of Energy Inspector General’s Office assessment released Wednesday raised questions about hundreds of thousands of dollars in costs claimed by URS-CH2M Oak Ridge (UCOR), the DOE cleanup manager for the Oak Ridge Reservation in Tennessee. It also cited the contractor for not performing any cost-allowability audits for subcontractor work that totaled more than $250 […]

The Energy Department late Wednesday released a draft solicitation  for support services for the development of a supplemental environmental impact statement for the West Valley Demonstration Project and Western New York Nuclear Service Center.. The planned five-year contract includes a three-year base period with two one-year options. This procurement is 100% set aside for small business competition […]

Registration is open for the ExchangeMonitor’s newly revamped Global Environmental Management Forum & Showcase, formerly the Decisionmakers’ Forum. The event, scheduled for Nov. 1-3 at the Omni Shoreham in Washington, D.C., will offer decision makers in the nuclear industry an opportunity to discuss new markets and new technologies being developed to reduce nuclear dangers and […]

The House Energy and Commerce Committee will not consider legislation that would transfer cleanup authority at Missouri’s West Lake Landfill Superfund site from the Environmental Protection Agency to the U.S. Army Corps’ Formerly Utilized Sites Remedial Action Program (FUSRAP), a committee aide told RadWaste Monitor Monday. Residents near the Bridgeton, Mo., landfill have been calling […]

RRC-JGMS NHO, of Wexford, Pa., will perform a variety of technical and management services for the Energy Department’s Office of Environmental Management under a four-year, $4 million indefinite-quantity, indefinite-delivery contract announced Monday. The contract includes firm-fixed-price and time and material task orders for management services of DOE EM facilities and infrastructure; program and project management; technical […]

The Tri-Party agencies have approved extending milestones for much of the central Hanford Site cleanup work under the Department of Energy Richland Operations Office, but not before incorporating changes in response to public comments. The Tri-Party agencies – DOE and its regulators, the Washington state Department of Ecology, and the Environmental Protection Agency – proposed […]

The mercury cleanup at the Y-12 nuclear weapons plant in Tennessee could cost up to $3 billion, according to an estimate in a newly released Department of Energy report. The report, which is dated February 2016, focuses on the technology plans to address the extensive mercury challenges at DOE’s Oak Ridge Reservation and the Savannah […]

The Department of Energy at the Hanford Site in Washington state has notified local counties that it may be able to pay only 20 percent of the counties’ bills for payments in lieu of taxes this year. DOE signed an agreement with the three counties that include parts of Hanford — Benton, Franklin, and Grant […]

As part of a proposed reorganization of the Energy Department’s Office of Environmental Management (EM), Stacy Charboneau, manager of DOE’s Richland Operations Office at the Hanford Site, would move from Washington state to Washington, D.C., and become head of a new office to which the managers of DOE’s nine nuclear-cleanup field offices would report. Charboneau’s […]

Cotter Corp. will pay the Environmental Protection Agency about $1 million for past and future contamination analysis at the company’s uranium mill at the Lincoln Park Superfund site, near Cañon City, Colo., according to an agreement EPA announced Wednesday. The agreement dictates that the uranium production company pay for EPA oversight costs incurred from 2012 to 2014, […]

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers said it could not clean up Missouri’s West Lake Landfill Superfund site any faster than the Environmental Protection Agency, which state lawmakers have been trying to take off the job. That’s one of the takeaways from a June 2 letter a top Corps official sent to Rep. Fred Upton […]

As part of a proposed reorganization of the Energy Department’s Office of Environmental Management (EM), Stacy Charboneau, manager of DOE’s Richland Operations Office at the Hanford Site, would move from Washington state to Washington, D.C.,  and become head of a new office to which the managers of DOE’s nine nuclear-cleanup field offices would report. Charboneau’s […]

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers said it could not clean up Missouri’s West Lake Landfill Superfund site any faster than the Environmental Protection Agency, which state lawmakers have been trying to take off the job. That’s one of the takeaways from a June 2 letter a top Corps official sent to Rep. Fred Upton (R-Mich.), […]

The tank farm contractor at the Department of Energy’s Hanford Site has launched a web page with data on chemical vapor monitoring as part of a push to make more information readily available to workers and the public, said officials with Washington River Protection Solutions (WRPS) on Monday. Better communication on vapors from waste in […]

A regional economic development group representing rural South Carolina counties that house DOE’s Savannah River Site (SRS) may not join the state’s $100 million dollar plutonium lawsuit against the Energy Department, a federal judge ruled Wednesday. The Southern Carolina Regional Development Alliance filed its motion to intervene in March, a month after the state filed […]

The Energy Department’s Inspector General on Tuesday started a review of actions taken by the agency to address worker concerns about chemical vapors at the Hanford tank farms near Richland, Wash. The DOE IG held an entrance conference with Hanford officials to discuss the scope of the review and related matters, according to a memo […]

An advisory board to the Savannah River Site wants more staffers and assessments for site work involving radioactive materials and/or criticality. The request comes in the aftermath of the safety pause on all nonessential work implemented on Sept. 11, 2015, by Savannah River Nuclear Solutions (SRNS), the South Carolina site’s management and operations contractor. The […]

The Department of Energy’s Richland Operations Office (RL) plans to start moving its employees out of the Federal Building in Richland, Wash., to privately owned buildings this summer. The move would put workers in the Richland Stevens Center complex, which is about 3 miles to the north and home to the Hanford Site’s other DOE […]