Cleanup & Remediation

At least some of the 300 employees involved with an unsuccessful federal court challenge to the COVID-19 vaccination policy at the Department of Energy’s Hanford Site in Washington state could take their case to the Ninth U.S. Circuit of Appeals, a lawyer working with the group said last week. “We plan to appeal” a defeat […]

SUMMERLIN, Nev. — The Department of Energy’s $7.6 billion Office of Environmental Management is cleaning up nuclear hazards from Washington state to New York state while dealing with a “silver tsunami,” Jay Mullis, a top executive at the remediation branch, said here Wednesday at the Radwaste Summit. Mullis, currently the acting associate principal deputy assistant […]

A House Armed Services Committee panel wants the Government Accountability Office to scrutinize quality assurance steps taken by the Depart of Energy’s $7.6-billion nuclear cleanup office, according to a House subcommittee draft  of the National Defense Authorization Act for fiscal 2023. The House Armed Services’ strategic forces , subcommittee chaired by Rep. Jim Cooper, (D-Tenn.) […]

U.S. Court of Federal Claims Judge Thompson Dietz appears unlikely to set an end date for Swift & Staley’s tenure as landlord of the Department of Energy’s Paducah Site in Kentucky, based on an online court filing last week. The June 2 decision, filed under seal but described in the online docket for the Court […]

SUMMERLIN, NEV. — The Department of Energy’s Office of Environmental Management is faced with cleaning up nuclear hazards dating to the 1940s era Manhattan Project and its leadership structure should also be designed for the long run, a Government Accountability Office representative said Wednesday. Nathan Anderson, director of the energy and natural resources team for […]

SUMMERLIN, NEV. —Jacobs-led Four Rivers Nuclear Partnership will stay on beyond the five-year base period of its Deactivation and Remediation contract at the Paducah Site in Kentucky, the contractor’s chief operating officer said here Thursday. “I’m very happy to say that we got the option period to continue to work” for at least another three […]

SUMMERLIN, NEV. — The existing low-level hazardous waste landfill at the Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge Site in Tennessee is likely to hit capacity before its replacement is ready in 2029, a manager with prime contractor United Cleanup Oak Ridge said here Thursday. There are probably about five more years left on the existing Environmental […]

This budget season, the Hanford Site got a bigger budget before Congress even published any appropriations bills, with the Joe Biden administration amending its 2023 spending request to provide over $90 million more for the biggest ongoing U.S. nuclear-weapons cleanup. The new Hanford figure is the result of a recent budget amendment from White House’s […]

SUMMERLIN, NEV. — The Department of Energy’s Office of Environmental Management is faced with cleaning up nuclear hazards dating to the 1940s era Manhattan Project and its leadership structure should also be designed for the long run, a Government Accountability Office representative said Wednesday. Nathan Anderson, director of the energy and natural resources team for […]

SUMMERLIN, Nev. — The Department of Energy’s Office of Environmental Management is just starting to get rolling on environmental remediation at the Paducah Site in Kentucky, an agency official charged with overseeing cleanup at the gaseous diffusion plants there and in Portsmouth, Ohio, said Wednesday. “We are just dipping our toe into that,” Joel Bradburne, […]

SUMMERLIN, Nev. — The Department of Energy’s $7.6 billion Office of Environmental Management is cleaning up nuclear hazards from Washington state to New York state while dealing with a “silver tsunami,” Jay Mullis, a top executive at the remediation branch, said here Wednesday at the Radwaste Summit. Mullis, currently the acting associate principal deputy assistant […]

The Exchange Monitor’s annual RadWaste Summit was set to begin at 8:30 a.m. Pacific time, 11:30 a.m. Eastern time on Wednesday in Summerlin, Nevada. The two-day event features detailed discussions of federal nuclear-waste cleanups across the old nuclear-weapons complex, beginning with an opening keynote from the Department of Energy’s Office of Environmental Management. Check exchangemonitor.com […]

A House Armed Services Committee panel wants the Government Accountability Office to scrutinize quality assurance steps taken by the Depart of Energy’s $7.6-billion nuclear cleanup office, according to a House subcommittee draft  of the National Defense Authorization Act for fiscal 2023. The House Armed Services’ strategic forces , subcommittee chaired by Rep. Jim Cooper, (D-Tenn.) […]

U.S. Court of Federal Claims Judge Thompson Dietz appears unlikely to set an end date for Swift & Staley’s tenure as landlord of the Department of Energy’s Paducah Site in Kentucky, based on an online court filing last week. The June 2 decision, filed under seal but described in the online docket for the Court […]

Jacobs-led Four Rivers Nuclear Partnership is less than two weeks away from the end of its five-year base period of its potential 10-year, $1.4-billion Deactivation and Remediation contract at the Paducah Site in Kentucky. The five-year base, which began in June 2017, is set to expire June 19, according to the latest DOE Office of […]

A Federal Claims Court judge has issued a sealed order in the ongoing litigation between Department of Energy contractor Swift & Staley and the government over whether the company should effectively be stripped of a site services contract awarded less than two years ago at the Paducah Site in Kentucky. The ruling was issued under […]

The annual Radwaste Summit kicks off Wednesday morning in Summerlin, Nev., with presentations from top managers at the Department of Energy’s Office of Environmental Management as well as the National Nuclear Security Administration. Jay Mullis II, acting associate principal deputy assistant secretary for regulatory and policy affairs for the $7.6-billion cleanup office, is one of […]

The Department of Energy’s cleanup contractor at the Portsmouth Site has nearly completed structural demolition of the X-326 Process Building, an agency official at the Ohio site said Thursday. The major demolition is 91% complete “as of today,” Jeremy Davis, acting site lead at the Piketon, Ohio uranium enrichment cleanup site since January, told the […]

After working out various kinks since late December, the Department of Energy has resumed its demonstration run of the Integrated Waste Treatment Unit at the Idaho National Laboratory, a spokesperson said Wednesday. Following a successful heat-up, waste simulant processing resumed on May 23, a DOE spokesperson said in an email. The Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety […]

The Department of Energy and the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board this week wrapped up key details of a memorandum of understanding they inked in February pledging full cooperation on safety at federal nuclear-weapons installations. The 19-page supplement announced by the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board (DNFSB) in a Wednesday press release fleshes out specifics […]

Washington Gov. Jay Inslee (D) planned to visit the Department of Energy’s Hanford Site Thursday and will be joined by officials from the Washington state Department of Ecology, according to an advisory issued through the governor’s office Wednesday. Ecology Director Laura Watson and the state’s agency’s nuclear waste program manager David Bowen will join Inslee […]

Confirmed cases of COVID-19 among personnel at Office of Environmental Management sites rose to about 80 this week, up about 30 from last week and about 40 higher than a month ago, according to data provided Friday by a Department of Energy spokesperson. Like the rest of the Department of Energy, the Office of Environmental […]

The head of the Department of Energy’s Environmental Management field office at Los Alamos National Laboratory lavished praise on 1,000 firefighters who battled the Cerro Pelado wildfire in New Mexico, which as of Thurseday was 92% contained. The residents who lived through major past fires in the region went through “a traumatic experience,” said environmental […]

United Cleanup Oak Ridge this week started work under the Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge Reservation Cleanup Contract, potentially worth up to $8.3 billion over 10 years. The Amentum-led United Cleanup Oak Ridge (UROR) includes partners Jacobs Engineering and Honeywell International with teaming subcontractors RSI EnTech, Strata-G, Longnecker & Associates and Environmental Alternatives. The company […]

The head of the Department of Energy’s Environmental Management field office at Los Alamos National Laboratory lavished praise on 1,000 firefighters who battled the Cerro Pelado wildfire in New Mexico, which as of Wednesday was 92% contained. The residents who lived through major past fires in the region went through “a traumatic experience,” said environmental […]

United Cleanup Oak Ridge this week started work under the Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge Reservation Cleanup Contract, potentially worth up to $8.3 billion over 10 years. The Amentum-led United Cleanup Oak Ridge (UROR) includes partners Jacobs Engineering and Honeywell International with teaming subcontractors RSI EnTech, Strata-G, Longnecker & Associates and Environmental Alternatives. The company […]

A long-serving fed, Savannah River Site deputy manager Thomas Johnson Jr., planned to retire at the end of the month after 30 years with the Department of Energy and about 40 as a federal employee. Michael Budney, the DOE Office of Environmental Management’s top boss, announced the pending retirement Monday at a webcast meeting of […]

Washington Gov. Jay Inslee (D) posted a video online over the weekend to mark the 33rd anniversary of the Tri-Party Agreement between Washington, D.C. and Washington state that governs cleanup of the Department of Energy’s Hanford Site. Inslee used the anniversary of the 1989 legal agreement between the Washington Department of Ecology, DOE and the […]

A top manager from the Department of Energy’s nuclear cleanup and Washington state officials told the Hanford Site’s advisory board they are seeking better communication with tribal governments and other minority populations near the former plutonium production complex. The aim is to find out “what is it they need, what is it that they want […]

A federal judge in Washington state tossed a revised lawsuit brought by 300-plus employees at the Department of Energy’s Hanford Site, many of them security guards, over the COVID-19 vaccination rule, saying the plaintiffs never fixed major legal issues with the case they filed in the fall. “We haven’t decided the next step at this […]