Cleanup & Remediation

The U.S. Department of Labor has set a July 18 information session in Lisle, Ill., for current and former nuclear weapons workers and survivors covered by the Energy Employees Occupational Illness Compensation Program Act. Presentations were scheduled for at 9:00 a.m. Central Time at the Sheraton Lisle Naperville, 3000 Warrenville Road, Lisle, Ill., according to […]

The full Senate Tuesday voted 54-to-41, mostly upon party lines, to confirm the nomination of Patricia Lee, a manager at the Department of Energy’s Savannah River National Laboratory in South Carolina, to be a member of the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board.  The final vote was tallied shortly after 3:00 p.m. Eastern time. The Senate […]

The Senate Armed Services Committee’s version of a must-pass defense policy bill would again authorize more than $7 billion for the Department of Energy to carry out Defense Environmental Cleanup at nuclear weapons complex sites. Language in the nearly 1,200-page bill would also allow the secretary of energy to accelerate cleanup at nuclear facilities if […]

The Department of Energy’s $8-billion nuclear cleanup branch has started implementing some best practices sought by the Government Accountability Office but still has far to go, according to a report out Monday. The DOE Office of Environmental Management “is updating its site-specific life-cycle cost and schedule estimates to use as baselines to track progress and […]

Richland, Wash., where the Department of Energy’s Hanford Site is based, will see daytime highs above 100-degrees Fahrenheit this week, according to the National Weather Service. According to the forecast, the high Monday could hit 106 degrees followed by 110 degrees Tuesday. An “excessive heat warning” is in effect through Wednesday at 10 p.m. Pacific […]

Key environmental construction projects are nearly complete at the Department of Energy’s Hanford Site in Washington state and its Waste Isolation Pilot Plant, and that’s reflected in a House Appropriations funding plan for fiscal 2025. The budget proposal, details of which House appropriators released Monday in a bill report, was scheduled to be marked up […]

In notices last week, the Department of Energy said it plans to again extend incumbent cleanup contractors at the Portsmouth Site in Ohio and the Paducah Site in Kentucky for up to a year. DOE published a notice of intent July 2 to extend the Decontamination & Decommissioning services contract held by Fluor-BWXT Portsmouth for […]

State emergency management coordinators in South Carolina will receive a $2.4-million grant from the Department of Energy to enhance emergency preparedness at DOE’s Savannah River Site, the federal agency announced Friday. The five-year grant to the South Carolina Emergency Management Division runs from July 5, 2024, through June 30, 2029, according to a DOE press […]

The Washington state Department of Ecology in June formally signed off on a Department of Energy plan to solidify into a concrete-like grout up to 2,000 gallons of low-level liquid radioactive waste from the Hanford Site. Filtering of cesium and other radionuclides, what DOE calls pretreatment, will happen onsite at the former plutonium production complex, […]

The security guard’s union at the Department of Energy’s Hanford Site in Washington state accuses Leidos-led Hanford Mission Integration Solutions in court papers of trying to run out the clock on the existing labor contract without first resolving an overtime dispute. Hanford Mission Integration Solutions (HMIS), the DOE landlord contractor, has twice canceled arbitration sessions […]

Bruce Covert, a longtime executive with Amentum and its predecessors, who held many senior jobs across the Department of Energy’s weapons complex, retired June 30, the company confirmed Tuesday. Covert in May announced he would retire as deputy general manager at Amentum-led Waste Treatment Completion Co. He will be succeeded by another longtime senior manager […]

A relatively new federal district judge in South Carolina will preside over an employment discrimination case against the Department of Energy’s management prime for the Savannah River Site. U.S. District Judge Jacquelyn Austin will hear the job discrimination and retaliation lawsuit against Fluor-led Savannah River Nuclear Solutions filed this spring by a former employee, a […]

Leidos-led Hanford Mission Integration Solutions, the contractor for roads, grounds and essential infrastructure-related chores at the Department of Energy’s Hanford Site, appointed Todd Synoground acting chief operations officer. Synoground, listed as senior vice president of infrastructure and site services on the contractor’s website, will step in as acting operations chief with Amy Basche moving up […]

The Washington state Department of Ecology in June formally signed off on a Department of Energy plan to solidify into a concrete-like grout up to 2,000 gallons of low-level liquid radioactive waste from the Hanford Site. Filtering of cesium and other radionuclides, what DOE calls pretreatment, will happen onsite at the former plutonium production complex, […]

Leidos-led Hanford Mission Integration Solutions, the contractor for roads, grounds and essential infrastructure-related chores at the Department of Energy’s Hanford Site, appointed Todd Synoground acting chief operations officer. Synoground, listed as senior vice president of infrastructure and site services on the contractor’s website, will step in as acting operations chief with Amy Basche moving up […]

In June, the Washington state Department of Ecology published its 85-page response to public comments about the Department of Energy’s plans to solidify 2,000 gallons of low-level radioactive waste at the Hanford Site in a concrete-like grout. The state’s public response to the comments checks one of the last boxes prior to issuance of the […]

The lame duck cleanup contractor at the Department of Energy’s Portsmouth Site in Ohio and the provider of depleted uranium hexafluoride services there and at the Paducah Site in Kentucky each collected most of the available fee for the opening four months of fiscal 2024, DOE said Tuesday. In a press release, DOE’s Portsmouth/Paducah Project […]

In a Friday voice vote, the House Appropriations  Energy & Water Subcommittee advanced to the full committee a Department of Energy budget bill that proposes more than $8.3 billion for the agency’s Office of Environmental Management, down about $160 million from this year. The 2025 spending bill was reported to the full House Appropriations Committee […]

The head of an Amentum-led cleanup prime at the Department of Energy’s Hanford Site is leaving and will be replaced by the top executive of the Leidos-led landlord contractor at the former plutonium production complex in Washington state. In a Monday press release, Central Plateau Cleanup President John Eschenberg said he was leaving the remediation […]

Two citizen groups in Washington state that track the Department of Energy’s Hanford Site said Friday they were not surprised to see a delay in cold commissioning of the multibillion-dollar plant to turn liquid radioactive waste into glass. DOE said last week it expects to miss the Aug. 1 target for starting cold commissioning, which […]

The Energy Facility Contractors Group last week elected Honeywell International vice president David (DJ) Johnson chair of the group’s board of directors, according to a press release. Johnson will succeed Michael Lempke of Huntington Ingalls. The Energy Facility Contractors Group (EFCOG) also elected Mark Whitney, the president of Amentum’s national security group, its vice chair […]

At a time of much Department of Energy turnover at the Savannah River Site in South Carolina, a government safety watchdog says DOE relies too heavily on staff expertise. As a result, Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board (DNFSB) Chair Joyce Connery wants a report and briefing before Christmas on DOE steps to upgrade its facility […]

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit has ordered final briefs by July 18 in a COVID-19 vaccination lawsuit brought by a former employee against the Department of Energy’s environmental prime at the Oak Ridge Site in Tennessee. The Cincinnati-based federal appeals court said May 31 it “has determined that oral argument is […]

A BWX Technologies-led joint venture that twice won a $45-billion liquid waste contract at the Department of Energy’s Hanford Site, last week withdrew its 2023 case with a federal appeals court, seemingly clearing the way for a U.S. Federal Claims Court to again rule on a contract challenge by the losing bidder. According to online […]

House appropriators on Thursday rolled out a Department of Energy budget bill that proposes $8.32 billion for the agency’s Office of Environmental Management, down about $160 million from this year. Still, the topline figure for DOE’s nuclear cleanup branch is $100 million more than what President Joe Biden’s administration sought. The act, announced via press […]

At a time of much Department of Energy turnover at the Savannah River Site in South Carolina, a government safety watchdog says DOE relies too heavily on staff expertise. As a result, Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board (DNFSB) Chair Joyce Connery wants a report and briefing before Christmas on DOE steps to upgrade its facility […]

The lame duck cleanup contractor at the Department of Energy’s Portsmouth Site in Ohio and the provider of depleted uranium hexafluoride services there and at the Paducah Site in Kentucky each collected most of the available fee for the opening four months of fiscal 2024, DOE said Tuesday. In a press release, DOE’s Portsmouth/Paducah Project […]

The Energy Facility Contractors Group last week elected Honeywell International vice president David (DJ) Johnson chair of the group’s board of directors, according to a press release. Johnson will succeed Michael Lempke of Huntington Ingalls. The Energy Facility Contractors Group (EFCOG) also elected Mark Whitney, the president of Amentum’s national security group, its vice chair […]

A BWX Technologies-led joint venture that twice won a $45-billion liquid waste contract at the Department of Energy’s Hanford Site, Friday withdrew its 2023 case with a federal appeals court, seemingly clearing the way for a U.S. Federal Claims Court to again rule on a contract challenge by the losing bidder. According to online court […]

Two citizen groups in Washington state that track the Department of Energy’s Hanford Site said Friday they were not surprised to see a delay in cold commissioning of the multibillion-dollar plant to turn liquid radioactive waste into glass. DOE said last Thursday it expects to miss the Aug. 1 target for starting cold commissioning, which […]