Cleanup & Remediation

Jeff Avery, a longtime manager with the Office of Naval Reactors, has been selected as the new second-in-command at the Department of Energy’s $7.8-billion Office of Environmental Management. Avery, current director of regulatory and security affairs with the Office of Naval Reactors, officially becomes principal deputy assistant secretary for Environmental Management, or EM-2, effective in […]

The acting head of the Department of Energy’s $7.8-billion nuclear cleanup program says flexibility is key to solving tough-to-eradicate problems such as radioactive liquid waste disposal and groundwater contamination at Cold War and Manhattan Project sites. “At this point in time we are about 80 years removed from the Manhattan Project,” William (Ike) White told […]

The long-delayed Integrated Waste Treatment Unit at the Department of Energy’s Idaho National Laboratory should start heating up before New Year’s and begin its cleanup mission in January, state and federal agencies said Wednesday. The Integrated Waste Treatment Unit (IWTU), designed to convert 900,000 gallons of high-level sodium bearing radioactive waste into a granular form, […]

Jeff Avery, a longtime manager with the Office of Naval Reactors, has been selected as the new second-in-command at the Department of Energy’s $7.8-billion Office of Environmental Management. Avery, current director of regulatory and security affairs with the Office of Naval Reactors, officially becomes principal deputy assistant secretary for Environmental Management, or EM-2, effective in […]

The long-delayed Integrated Waste Treatment Unit at the Department of Energy’s Idaho National Laboratory should start heating up before New Year’s and begin its cleanup mission in January, state and federal agencies said Wednesday. The Integrated Waste Treatment Unit (IWTU), designed to convert 900,000 gallons of high-level sodium bearing radioactive waste into a granular form, […]

Jeff Avery, a longtime manager with the Office of Naval Reactors, has been selected as the new second-in-command at the Department of Energy’s $7.8-billion Office of Environmental Management. Avery, current director of regulatory and security affairs with the Office of Naval Reactors, officially becomes principal deputy assistant secretary for Environmental Management, or EM-2, effective in […]

The administration of President Joe Biden has yet to submit its legal response to a brief filed earlier this month in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit over legality of a COVID-19 vaccination requirement for most workers at the Department of Energy’s Hanford Site. The current deadline for the government’s answering briefing […]

The Department of Energy will apply a little extra scrutiny to a worker’s heat exhaustion during legacy nuclear waste cleanup at the Los Alamos National Laboratory, the agency’s Office of Enterprise Assessments said recently. The worker “experienced heat exhaustion while supporting corrugated metal pipe retrieval operations at the Los Alamos National Laboratory on September 8, […]

In observance of the U.S. Thanksgiving holiday, Weapons Complex Monitor will not publish this Friday, Nov. 25. Look for the next issue in your inbox on Friday, Dec. 2.

The West Valley Demonstration Project in Cattaraugus County, N.Y., experienced a cold and snowy weekend sufficient to delay start of work on Monday, but avoided the worst of the mega-storm that dumped several feet of snow 35 miles to the north in Buffalo, N.Y. “The site is in a two-hour delay, to allow employees who […]

Two federal agencies and the state of Idaho signed off on expansion of a low-level radioactive waste landfill at the Department of Energy’s Idaho National Laboratory. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), DOE and the Idaho Department of Environmental Quality have agreed to expand the existing on-site Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation and Liability Act waste […]

Many sites within the Department of Energy’s weapons complex have at least some level of exposure to certain human-made chemicals drawing increasing attention from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, according to a report released Tuesday. The DOE rolled out its “Initial Assessment of Per- and Polyfluoroalkyl Substances PFAS” at 53 properties, including sites run by […]

Many sites within the Department of Energy’s weapons complex have at least some level of exposure to certain human-made chemicals drawing increasing attention from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, according to a report released Tuesday. The DOE rolled out its “Initial Assessment of Per- and Polyfluoroalkyl Substances PFAS” at 53 properties, including sites run by […]

On Nov. 17, the legacy cleanup contractor at the Department of Energy’s Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico lifted a month-long stop work order issued after a steady drip of small mishaps, a spokesperson said Tuesday. Newport News Nuclear BWXT-Los Alamos (N3B) fully lifted the “self-imposed stop work order” last week after allowing some […]

Two federal agencies and the state of Idaho signed off on expansion of a low-level radioactive waste landfill at the Department of Energy’s Idaho National Laboratory. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), DOE and the Idaho Department of Environmental Quality have agreed to expand the existing on-site Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation and Liability Act waste […]

While Cattaraugus County, N.Y., home of the West Valley Demonstration Project, experienced a cold and snowy weekend, it seems to have avoided the worst of the mega-storm that dumped several feet of snow 35 miles to the north in Buffalo, N.Y. “The site is in a two-hour delay, to allow employees who live away from […]

Advanced reactor developer NuScale Power Corp. is still losing money but is otherwise in excellent financial shape, with a $ 268.6 million war chest, short-term investments of $50 million and no debt, NuScale CEO John Hopkins and CFO Chris Colbert said in a teleconference with analysts.  In the third quarter of 2022 that ended Sept. […]

The Department of Energy’s nuclear cleanup field office at the Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico, set up in 2015, and its remediation contractor still face staff shortages, a federal safety watchdog heard Wednesday. Michael Mikolanis, who heads the DOE Office of Environmental Management field office at Los Alamos, told the Defense Nuclear Facilities […]

Local residents must retain a voice in what goes on at the Department of Energy’s Savannah River Site in South Carolina after federal responsibility for the complex shifts  to the semi-autonomous National Nuclear Security Administration in 2025, the head of the Citizens Advisory Board said Monday. Last month, DOE confirmed its Office of Environmental Management […]

Candice Robertson, a long-serving hand with the Department of Energy currently acting as the No. 2 boss at the Office of Environmental Management, is moving to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission effective Dec. 4. The news was shared by Office of Environmental Management senior adviser William (Ike) White in an “EM Colleagues” email Thursday. Candice Robertson, […]

Local residents must retain a voice in what goes on at the Department of Energy’s Savannah River Site in South Carolina after federal responsibility for the complex shifts  to the semi-autonomous National Nuclear Security Administration in 2025, the head of the Citizens Advisory Board said Monday. Last month, DOE confirmed its Office of Environmental Management […]

Starting after Thanksgiving, citizens of the city of Aiken, S.C., can give the city council their two cents about how to spend $25 million in federal settlement money the city got because of a federal lawsuit involving the Department of Energy’s canceled plutonium recycling plant at the Savannah River Site, local media reported Monday. Aiken […]

Local residents must retain a voice in what goes on at the Department of Energy’s Savannah River Site in South Carolina after federal responsibility for the complex shifts  to the semi-autonomous National Nuclear Security Administration in 2025, the head of the Citizens Advisory Board said Monday. Last month, DOE confirmed its Office of Environmental Management […]

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers St. Louis District plans a community briefing Thursday to discuss early results from sampling for radioactive contamination at Jana Elementary School in Florissant, Mo., the Corps announced Monday. The St. Louis District’s Formerly Utilized Sites Remedial Action Program (FUSRAP) is hosting a town hall-style meeting, Nov. 17, from 5-8 […]

Depleted uranium hexafluoride conversion operations are going slower and costing more than the Department of Energy expected only a few years ago, according to an audit by the agency’s Office of Inspector General. When DOE brought its first depleted uranium hexafluoride (DUF6) conversion plant online in 2010, it still thought converting 800,000 metric tons of […]

A federal magistrate judge in Ohio Thursday declined to force a resident near the Department of Energy’s Portsmouth Site to turn over information she collected over time with her own private air monitors. That is according to an online notice of an order from U.S. Magistrate Judge Elizabeth Preston Deavers filed “without prejudice,” meaning it […]

Mediation was set to resume Dec. 9 between the Oak Ridge National Laboratory’s prime contractor and six lab employees who sued the company over its COVID-19 vaccination policy. Plaintiffs led by Jeffrey and Jessica Bilyeu were to sit down with the University of Tennessee-Battelle (UT-Battelle) contractor team and mediator Chadwick Hatmaker in an attempt to […]

Sampling overseen by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers around the Jana Elementary School in Florissant, Mo., has not turned up evidence of radiation above background levels, the Corps’ St. Louis District Office said Wednesday. “From a radiological standpoint, the school is safe,” Col. Kevin Golinghorst, St. Louis District commander, said in a press release.  […]

Plaintiffs suing current and past Department of Energy contractors at the Portsmouth Site in Pike County, Ohio asked a U.S. District Court this week to force a resident near the nuclear site to turn over information she collected over time with her own private air monitors. Attorneys for Ursula McGlone and several other residents living […]

Sampling overseen by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers around the Jana Elementary School in Florissant, Mo., has not turned up evidence of radiation above background levels, the Corps’ St. Louis District Office said Wednesday. “From a radiological standpoint, the school is safe,” Col. Kevin Golinghorst, St. Louis District commander, said in a press release.  […]