Archive

Cleanup & Remediation

Coverage of DOE-EM’s multi-billion-dollar effort to address Cold War and Manhattan Project nuclear legacy waste, including tank waste treatment, site remediation, and decommissioning at Hanford, Savannah River, Oak Ridge, and other major sites.

  • IWTU startup seen in November, state says

    The Department of Energy intends in November to start up the long-delayed Integrated Waste Treatment Unit at the Idaho National Laboratory, the federal agency told state officials. That was the target DOE’s Office of Environmental Management gave officials with the Idaho Department of Environmental Quality on a conference call last week, Kim Custer, a senior […]

  • Report stresses contamination at school near Coldwater Creek cleanup site

    In news reminiscent of disclosure of radioactive contamination found at a school bordering the Department of Energy’s Piketon Site in Ohio, a citizens group in Missouri is citing a report of high levels of thorium and radium contamination on school grounds near a U.S. Army Corps of Engineers cleanup site at the St. Louis Airport. […]

  • ‘Integrated team’ to hash out Savannah River Site’s transfer to nuclear-weapons agency

    The Department of Energy could be prepared to start transferring control of the Savannah River Site to its semiautonomous nuclear-weapons agency in bits and pieces starting around 2023, a spokesperson at Washington headquarters said Monday. DOE’s Office of Environmental Management (EM), which owns the Aiken, S.C., site now, and the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA), […]

  • Justice Department basing federal prosecutors in Richland, Wash.

    The U.S. Department of Justice is opening a U.S. Attorney’s Office branch in Richland, Wash., near the Department of Energy’s Hanford Site, Vanessa Waldref, U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Washington said Friday. “The number of cases prosecuted by the Richland Division of my office has risen significantly over the last two decades,” Waldref […]

  • Portsmouth Site sheds its high-COVID transmission status

    The Department of Energy’s Portsmouth Site in Pike County, Ohio, which as of last month was the last nuclear cleanup property with indoor mask restrictions, no longer has a high local transmission rate for COVID-19. The transmission rate in the county surrounding the former gaseous diffusion plant is now medium, according to figures updated Friday […]

  • DOE procurement office lays out foreign ownership disclosure requirements

    The Department of Energy’s nuclear cleanup procurement office last week laid out what type of foreign ownership and control disclosures bidders should be ready to provide when pursuing contracts in the weapons complex. The DOE’s Cincinnati-based Environmental Management Consolidated Business Center in a seven-page document detailed the Foreign Ownership Control or Influence review that contractors […]

  • Cameco, Brookfield Renewable to buy Westinghouse

    Uranium fuel company Cameco and environmental investment firm Brookfield Renewable Partners announced this week a strategic partnership aimed at purchasing Westinghouse Electric Company, according to a press release. If the deal closes as planned, Cameco will own a 49% stake in Westinghouse and Brookfield Renewable will control 51% of the company, according to a Tuesday […]

  • Contractors could plead to submitting false bills at Savannah River

    Two research contractors for the Department of Energy’s Savannah River National Laboratory could enter guilty pleas next week for allegedly submitting false bills to the federal agency for nearly a decade, according to filings in the U.S. District Court for South Carolina. Greenway Energy and Savannah River Consulting, both of which have agreed to plead […]

  • Change of guard occurring in Navarro leadership ranks

    There is a changing at the guard in upper management ranks of Oak Ridge, Tenn.,-based Navarro Research & Engineering as Ryan Overton, formerly of GEM Technologies, becoming executive vice president, gradually takes over the role from industry vet Cathy Hickey who plans to retire from the company next year. “Ryan is fabulous,” Hickey said in […]

  • Change of guard occurring in Navarro leadership ranks

    There is a changing at the guard in upper management ranks of Oak Ridge, Tenn.,-based Navarro Research & Engineering as Ryan Overton, formerly of GEM Technologies, becoming executive vice president, gradually takes over the role from industry vet Cathy Hickey who plans to retire from the company next year. “Ryan is fabulous,” Hickey said in […]

  • DOE to start removing waste from single-shell tank next month

    A Department of Energy contractor at the Hanford Site in Washington state will commence retrieving radioactive waste from a single-shell tank next month, a federal safety board said recently. Amentum-led contractor Washington River Protection Solutions plans to begin retrieval of tank AX-101’s  waste in mid-November, the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board (DNFSB) said in a […]

  • New Mexico, feds continue exploring changes to 2016 consent order

    A federal judge in New Mexico has granted an additional 100 days for the Department of Energy and the New Mexico Environment Department to continue settlement talks over a 2016 compliance order on consent that governs legacy nuclear cleanup at the Los Alamos National Laboratory. U.S. Magistrate Judge John Robbenhaar granted the request Oct. 3 […]

  • Contractors could plead to submitting false bills at Savannah River

    Two research contractors for the Department of Energy’s Savannah River National Laboratory could enter guilty pleas next week for allegedly submitting false bills to the federal agency for nearly a decade, according to filings in the U.S. District Court for South Carolina. Greenway Energy and Savannah River Consulting, both of which have agreed to plead […]

  • Wrap Up: Ex-cleanup boss distillery opens; Dounreay seals containers; contractor dedicates office; Navarro hires biz developer

    An upscale distillery run by Anne Marie White, the last Senate-confirmed assistant secretary for the Department of Energy’s Office of Environmental Management, is now open in a renovated theatre in White’s hometown of Marquette, Mich. The Honorable Distillery is now open and has scheduled an official grand opening celebration for this Saturday Oct. 8. White, […]

  • Former Wastren chief tapped as new CEO of Veolia in United States

    Department of Energy contractor Veolia Nuclear Solutions Federal Services has promoted chief operating officer Steve Moore to be its president and CEO. The U.S. based subsidiary of Veolia Nuclear Solutions announced the promotion in a Tuesday press release. Moore has been interim CEO since August following the resignation of William Morrison, who left Veolia to […]

  • Cavendish Nuclear opens new U.S. shop; seeks more biz

    Cavendish Nuclear, an international nuclear player in countries such as Canada and the United Kingdom, opened a United States office headquarters Sept. 22 in Arlington, Va., a spokesperson confirmed by email Wednesday. The nuclear industries in the United Kingdom and United States “share many similarities in their plant designs, operational histories and in the search […]

  • UCOR takes home 85% of its potential fee; discusses new Oak Ridge contract

    An Amentum-Jacobs team won about $27.5 million or 85% out of a potential $32 million from the Department of Energy for its remediation of the Oak Ridge Site in Tennessee during the final seven months on the job. The DOE released the URS CH2M Oak Ridge (UCOR) award Oct. 3 for the period spanning Nov. […]

  • Savannah River Site to be transferred to NNSA control by 2025, DOE confirms

    The National Nuclear Security Administration will take over the Savannah River Site in Aiken, S.C., by 2025, and the transition has started, the Department of Energy confirmed Tuesday. The former plutonium production site is currently the responsibility of DOE’s Office of Environmental Management (EM), the part of the agency responsible for cleaning up shuttered Manhattan […]

  • Materials costs, hiring, small reactors loom large at industry gathering near Oak Ridge

    KNOXVILLE, TENN. — The Department of Energy looks forward to a future with miniature power reactors springing up around cleanup sites, but first it must deal with headaches such as brain drain and rising commodities costs: a few of the recurring themes from a two-day conference here this week. Re-industrialization of Cold War and Manhattan […]

  • Savannah River Site to be transferred to NNSA control by 2025, DOE confirms

    The National Nuclear Security Administration will take over the Savannah River Site in Aiken, S.C., by 2025, and the transition has started, the Department of Energy confirmed Tuesday. The former plutonium production site is currently the responsibility of DOE’s Office of Environmental Management (EM), the part of the agency responsible for cleaning up shuttered Manhattan […]

  • UCOR takes home 85% of its potential fee; discusses new Oak Ridge contract

    An Amentum-Jacobs team won about $27.5 million or 85% out of a potential $32 million from the Department of Energy for its remediation of the Oak Ridge Site in Tennessee during the final seven months on the job. The DOE released the URS CH2M Oak Ridge (UCOR) award Oct. 3 for the period spanning Nov. […]

  • State, Feds formalize authorization of long-sought new landfill at Oak Ridge

    KNOXVILLE, TENN. – The Department of Energy’s acting manager for nuclear cleanup at the Oak Ridge Site in Tennessee said here Wednesday that final state and federal authorization are in hand for design and construction of a long-sought onsite low-level hazardous waste landfill. “We had a major milestone on Friday,” when the state of Tennessee […]

  • Savannah River Site to be transferred to NNSA control by 2025, DOE confirms

    The National Nuclear Security Administration will take over the Savannah River Site in Aiken, S.C., by 2025, and the transition has started, the Department of Energy confirmed Tuesday. The former plutonium production site is currently the responsibility of DOE’s Office of Environmental Management (EM), the part of the agency responsible for cleaning up shuttered Manhattan […]

  • Cleanup, procurement, new nuclear potential, highlight annual ETEBA gathering

    KNOXVILLE, TENN. —The acting boss of the $7.8-billion Department of Energy office in charge of cleaning up Cold War and Manhattan Project nuclear weapon sites will kick off an annual nuclear and environmental business opportunities conference here Wednesday. William (Ike) White, senior adviser for the DOE Office of Environmental Management, headlines the annual gathering sponsored […]

  • Former Wastren chief tapped as new CEO of Veolia in United States

    Department of Energy contractor Veolia Nuclear Solutions Federal Services has promoted chief operating officer Steve Moore to be its president and CEO. The U.S. based subsidiary of Veolia Nuclear Solutions announced the promotion in a Tuesday press release. Moore has been interim CEO since August following the resignation of William Morrison, who left Veolia to […]

  • Los Alamos field office talks strategic plan, waste issues

    Representatives of the Department of Energy’s nuclear cleanup field office at the Los Alamos National Laboratory told the Northern New Mexico Advisory Board Monday the legacy waste contractor has started digging up corrugated metal pipes at Area G. In addition, the DOE’s Environmental Management field office should produce a strategic plan within the next 15 […]

  • DOE asks Idaho for extra six months to start Idaho Integrated Waste Unit ops

    The Department of Energy is asking state regulators for another six months to start operating a plant to treat high-level radioactive sodium-bearing waste at the Idaho National Laboratory. In a Sept. 29 letter, DOE asked the Idaho Department of Environmental Quality to extend the formal state milestone to March 31, 2023 to process sodium-bearing waste […]

  • DOE cleanup office re-ups $2.5M, five-year grant for Ohio University

    The Department of Energy’s nuclear cleanup office said last week it is again issuing a five-year, $2.5-million grant to Ohio University to further redevelopment work at the Portsmouth Site in Pike County, Ohio. Since 2016, the university has received $8.2 million from the DOE Office of Environmental Management to advance stakeholder cleanup information and evaluate […]

  • Tropical storm Ian hits Savannah River Site with high winds

    Tropical Storm Ian was expected to bring wind gusts of up to 45 miles per hour Friday to Aiken County, S.C., and the Department of Energy’s Savannah River Site, according to the National Weather Service. Wind gusts of up to 36 miles per hour were expected later Friday evening, with up to an inch-and-a-half of […]

  • Cleanup Field bosses lack long tenures in current outposts

    ARLINGTON, VA — During a conference dominated by workforce continuity issues, it was noted Friday  Sept. 23 that Department of Energy field office managers for nuclear cleanup, who often head the biggest employers in rural locales, have been in their current posts for less than five years.  Being a major government employer in small-town America […]