Cleanup & Remediation

Department of Energy and Washington state Department of Ecology managers reassured the Hanford Advisory Board Wednesday their agencies remain interested in the Test Bed Initiative to grout 2,000 gallons of low-activity tank waste that would be shipped out of state. Brian Vance, the DOE’s manager for the Hanford Site, expects the Nuclear Regulation Commission to […]

UCOR, the Amentum-Jacobs partnership in charge of remediation at the Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge Site in Tennessee, earned 98% of total potential fee or $24.7 million, during a seven-month period ended Oct. 31, according to a scorecard released this week. The contractor, being succeeded by a joint venture made up of Amentum, Jacobs and […]

With declining demand for employee vaccination against COVID-19, the occupational medical provider serving the Department of Energy’s Hanford Site in Washington Site will soon be offering only one option, Moderna, for initial inoculations or booster shots. The provider of occupational medical services, HMP Corp. (HMPC), is dropping the Pfizer shot after March 24 and discontinuing […]

Washington state Department of Ecology Director Laura Watson and her top nuclear waste manager, David Bowen, visited Washington, D.C., last week to urge that more cleanup funds for the Hanford Site be included in the Department of Energy’s fiscal 2023 budget. The Ecology officials were in the nation’s capital March 14-16 while President Joe Biden […]

Scott Sax, top contractor boss for Central Plateau cleanup at the Department of Energy’s Hanford Site in Washington state is retiring in May and will be succeeded by the head of another Amentum-led Hanford joint venture, the company said Monday. Sax, president and project manager for Central Plateau Cleanup Co., is retiring effective May 16 […]

The Nevada National Security Site disposed of roughly 550,000 cubic feet of radioactive waste from other federal sites around the country during 2021, according to the Department of Energy. The total includes classified and low-level or mixed low-level radioactive waste, the DOE Office of Environmental Management said in its Strategic Vision for the former Nevada […]

The Washington Department of Ecology says Congress’ Hanford’s fiscal 2022 appropriation is a few hundred million dollars short of meeting the site’s legal obligations for the year. At a Tuesday public Zoom briefing, the Washington State Department of Ecology put Hanford’s  congressional appropriation for fiscal 2022 at $2.95 billion, under the omnibus budget bill signed […]

The prime contractor for the Savannah River National Laboratory in South Carolina is inviting inquiries from “minority serving institutions” interested in helping carry out research for the Department of Energy’s Office of Environmental Management. Battelle Savannah River Alliance said in a March 11 notice on the federal procurement website (sam.gov) expressions of interest for such […]

Talks on the future of the Savannah River Site in South Carolina are continuing between the Department of Energy’s Office of Environmental Management and the National Nuclear Security Administration, Nicole Nelson-Jean, a veteran of both DOE branches, told the Waste Management Symposia late last week in Phoenix. Nelson-Jean, currently associate principal deputy assistant secretary for […]

Security guards and other plaintiffs suing President Joe Biden and the Department of Energy over COVID19 workforce vaccination requirements at the Hanford Site in Washington state have agreed to drop contractor executives from the litigation, according to a recent federal court filing. The plaintiffs will withdraw claims against Valerie McCain who heads Bechtel’s Waste Treatment […]

Barring settlement, a federal racial discrimination lawsuit brought by a security officer against the Department of Energy contractor running the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant near Carlsbad, N.M., would go to trial early next year. In an order last month, U.S. District Judge James Browning scheduled a trial starting Jan. 9, 2023 in litigation brought by […]

The Department of Energy kicked off solicitation Wednesday for a potential $120 million small business Technical Assistance Contract for certain Office of Environmental Management field sites, including the cleanup office at the Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico. The final request for proposals (RFP) for the multiple-award indefinite delivery/indefinite quantity contract was announced in […]

A facility to remove cesium from low-level radioactive tank waste has already treated 200,000 gallons of waste at the Department of Energy’s Hanford Site in Washington state, an agency spokesperson said this week.    The Tank Side Cesium Removal (TSCR) project at Hanford was offline briefly during February, staff at the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board […]

COVID-19’s grip on the Department of Energy’s Office of Environmental Management continues to loosen, for now anyway, as the number of weekly confirmed cases at the cleanup office declined to 28, down 15 from the prior week’s total of 43, a spokesperson said in a Thursday email. In another sign of the omicron wave’s retreat, […]

Talks on the future of the Savannah River Site in South Carolina are continuing between the Department of Energy’s Office of Environmental Management and the National Nuclear Security Administration, Nicole Nelson-Jean, a veteran of both DOE branches, said during a recent industry gathering. Nelson-Jean, currently associate principal deputy assistant secretary for field operations for the […]

The Department of Energy kicked off solicitation Wednesday for a potential $120 million small business Technical Assistance Contract for certain Office of Environmental Management field sites, including the cleanup office at the Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico. The final request for proposals (RFP) for the multiple-award indefinite delivery/indefinite quantity contract was announced in […]

Barring settlement, a federal racial discrimination lawsuit brought by a security officer against the Department of Energy contractor running the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant near Carlsbad, N.M., would go to trial early next year. In an order last month, U.S. District Judge James Browning scheduled a trial starting Jan. 9, 2023 in litigation brought by […]

The prime contractor for the Savannah River National Laboratory in South Carolina is inviting inquiries from “minority serving institutions” interested in helping carry out research for the Department of Energy’s Office of Environmental Management. Battelle Savannah River Alliance said in a March 11 notice on the federal procurement website (sam.gov) expressions of interest for such […]

Security guards and other plaintiffs suing President Joe Biden and the Department of Energy over COVID19 workforce vaccination requirements at the Hanford Site in Washington state have agreed to drop contractor executives from the litigation, according to a recent federal court filing. The plaintiffs will withdraw claims against Valerie McCain who heads Bechtel’s Waste Treatment […]

Talks on the future of the Savannah River Site in South Carolina are continuing between the Department of Energy’s Office of Environmental Management and the National Nuclear Security Administration, Nicole Nelson-Jean, a veteran of both DOE branches, told the Waste Management Symposia late last week in Phoenix. Nelson-Jean, currently associate principal deputy assistant secretary for […]

The number of weekly confirmed cases of COVID-19 at the Department of Energy’s Office of Environmental Management continued to decline as the winter Omicron wave receded across the country, the nuclear cleanup office said. For the seven-day period ended March 10 there were 43 confirmed active cases of COVID-19, down by 22 from the 65 […]

PHOENIX — After finishing major demolition and remediation last fall of the Y-12 National Security Complex’s Biology center or “mouse house,” the Department of Energy cleanup contractor is “very close” to turning the property back to Y-12 prime Consolidated Nuclear Services, a speaker told the Waste Management Symposia session Wednesday. “It is imminent,” Tommy Morgan, chief engineer […]

Over the next 10 years, the Department of Energy’s $7.6-billion Office of Environmental Management hopes to realize several of its long-desired objectives around the nuclear weapons cleanup complex. According to its Strategic Vision 2022-2032, published Tuesday by the Environmental Management (EM) branch, the feds expect to start converting low-level radioactive tank waste into glass at […]

PHOENIX— The Department of Energy’s $7.6 billion Office of Environmental Management is now responsible for only 15 cleanup sites, with the Brookhaven National Laboratory in New York coming off the board. Meanwhile, DOE Environmental Management planned to sign a new collaboration agreement with the United Kingdom’s Nuclear Decommissioning Authority later today (Monday) at the 2022 […]

PHOENIX  — The president of the legacy cleanup contractor for the Department of Energy’s Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico expects her team will soon close out work on  radioactive contamination found two years ago outside the fence along a public road. Also, this year, the Hunting Ingalls-led joint venture will dig up some […]

Todd Shrader, second in command at the Department of Energy’s Office of Environmental Management since 2019, is leaving the cleanup office for a clean energy job at the agency, according to an internal email sent Monday. Longtime DOE hand Candice Robertson will step in for Shrader on an acting basis, William (Ike) White, senior advisor […]

PHOENIX – The 2,100-plus attendees at Waste Management Symposia were asked upon registration to place a color-coded dot on their name badges to show their level of COVID-era comfort about personal space and handshakes. Then, when the conference began, attendees were asked to observe a moment of silence for Ukrainians being shelled by Russia’s army. […]

PHOENIX —The Department of Energy was eyeing an “easy fix” for the Integrated Waste Treatment Unit in Idaho, knocked offline Feb. 26 during the final demo run preceding treatment of nearly 1 million gallons of liquid radioactive waste, an agency official said here Tuesday. The long-delayed Integrated Waste Treatment Unit (IWTU) was processing a simulant, […]

The final fiscal 2022 compromise budget reached by Congress this week continues the era of flush funding for the Department of Energy’s nuclear cleanup branch, which rises to nearly $7.9 billion for the 12 months ending Sept. 30, up from $7.6 billion. Under the spending plan, which on Friday had cleared Congress and awaited President […]

Idaho-based North Wind Portage has received the green light from the Department of Energy to commence transition to its new Moab Remedial Action Contract, potentially worth $614 million over 10 years for cleanup of uranium mill tailings in Utah. “The transition task order may last up to 60 days,” a DOE spokesperson said by email […]