High-Level & Tank Waste

Nearly 40 years have passed since the Nuclear Waste Policy Act went into effect, mandating that the U.S. government designate a location to permanently dispose of the nation’s spent nuclear fuel from power plants.  It never happened, as nuke-watchers well know, but this week, an interim waste storage site conceived by the privately owned Interim […]

Testing done in recent weeks by the Department of Energy at the Hanford Site in Washington state has turned up no signs the foul odor encountered by workers around a tank farm was ammonia from tank vapors, an agency spokesperson said this week. Following last month’s incident three employees were checked out at a Richland, […]

Testing done in recent weeks by the Department of Energy at the Hanford Site in Washington state has turned up no signs the foul odor encountered by workers around a tank farm was ammonia from tank vapors, an agency spokesperson said Tuesday. Following last month’s incident three employees were checked out at a Richland, Wash., […]

Senior officials from the Department of Energy’s Office of Environmental Management, and the states of Oregon and Washington, were scheduled to discuss radioactive tank waste at the Hanford Site in Washington today during a virtual meeting of a National Academies panel. The Nuclear and Radiation Studies Board of the National Academies was slated to hear […]

An internal Department of Energy watchdog recently gave a generally positive appraisal of evolving plans to protect workers and the public from potential hazards at the main treatment plant for the Hanford Site’s most radioactive liquid waste. It was part of the Office of Enterprise Assessments’ recent review of the Preliminary Documented Safety Analysis for […]

Amentum-led Washington River Protection Solutions, the Department of Energy contractor in charge of the 177 underground tanks of radioactive waste at the Hanford Site in Washington state, is looking for firms to do corrosion testing on double-shell tanks. Washington River Protection Solutions (WRPS) published a notice Wednesday on a federal procurement website seeking “expressions of […]

Amentum-led Washington River Protection Solutions, the Department of Energy contractor in charge of the 177 underground tanks of radioactive waste at the Hanford Site in Washington state, is looking for firms to do corrosion testing on double-shell tanks. Washington River Protection Solutions (WRPS) published a notice Wednesday on a federal procurement website seeking “expressions of […]

After holding up the project two years, the Department of Energy will start developing an environmental assessment in July for a 2,000-gallon test of the Test Bed Initiative that involves grouting and out-of-state disposal of low-activity tank waste from the Hanford Site in Washington state. DOE’s site manager for Hanford, Brian Vance, told the Washington […]

After holding up the project two years, the Department of Energy will start developing an environmental assessment in July for a 2,000-gallon test of the Test Bed Initiative that involves grouting and out-of-state disposal of low-activity tank waste from the Hanford Site in Washington state. DOE’s site manager for Hanford, Brian Vance, told the Washington […]

Secretary of Energy Jennifer Granholm told the Senate Armed Services Committee Thursday morning her agency’s Office of Environmental Management remains on track to commence treatment of low-activity tank waste by the end of 2023 at the Hanford Site in Washington state. The startup of direct feed low activity waste (DFLAW) operations would mark the beginning […]

Bid protests of large federal contracts are a fact of life, a top acquisition manager at the Department of Energy’s Office of Environmental Management said during an online forum Thursday. This is evidenced by the fact that two contract awards have been challenged in a little more than a week with the Government Accountability Office […]

The April announcement from the Department of Energy that the B-109 tank is leaking at the Hanford Site in Washington state is not a cause for alarm, site manager Brian Vance said this week. The single-shell tank is leaking at the rate of about 1,000 to 1,500 gallons per year, Vance told an online meeting […]

The April announcement from the Department of Energy that the B-109 tank is leaking at the Hanford Site in Washington state is not a cause for alarm, site manager Brian Vance said Wednesday. The single-shell tank is leaking at the rate of about 1,000 to 1,500 gallons per year, Vance told an online meeting of […]

The Department of Energy said Thursday a single-shell underground radioactive waste tank at its Hanford Site in Washington state is probably leaking at the rate of about 3.5 gallons daily. The DOE concluded the B-109 tank is leaking after monthly monitoring “detected a small drop in the level of liquid in the tank, and a […]

Don’t expect the Department of Energy to roll out its final solicitation for the potential $26.5-billion Integrated Tank Disposition Contract at the Hanford Site in Washington state before August, officials said Tuesday during a virtual briefing for potential bidders. Hanford’s site manager, Brian Vance and many of his lieutenants at the DOE Office of Environmental […]

Don’t expect the Department of Energy to roll out its final solicitation for the potential $26.5-billion Integrated Tank Disposition Contract at the Hanford Site in Washington state before August, officials said Tuesday during a virtual briefing for potential bidders. Hanford’s site manager, Brian Vance and many of his lieutenants at the DOE Office of Environmental […]

The prime contractor for liquid-waste cleanup at the Department of Energy’s Hanford Site in Washington state is looking for a subcontractor to transport and dispose of non-radioactive waste this fall from test runs of the site’s main treatment plant. The contract will be worth $900,000 over one year beginning Oct. 1, 2021, Amentum-led Washington River […]

Bechtel National earned 70%, or $5.54 million out of a potential $7.88 million, for its work on the Waste Treatment Plant at the Department of Energy’s Hanford Site in Washington state in 2020. That is according to a fee scorecard released this week by the DOE’s Office of Environmental Management for the 2020 calendar year.  […]

Bechtel National earned 70%, or $5.54 million out of a potential $7.88 million, for its work on the Waste Treatment Plant at the Department of Energy’s Hanford Site in Washington state in 2020. That is according to a fee scorecard released this week by the DOE’s Office of Environmental Management for the 2020 calendar year.  […]

The Department of Energy’s long-awaited Integrated Waste Treatment Unit at the Idaho National Laboratory could start operating in mid-fall, perhaps October, a Fluor Idaho executive told the online Waste Management Symposia this week. The facility is now in the final weeks of an extended maintenance period that will precede a 50-day test run and eventual […]

Teams will soon be finalized to compete for the Department of Energy’s potential $26-billion Hanford Integrated Tank Disposition Contract in Washington state, three industry sources said recently. Two of the three expect a very small number of teams, perhaps as few as two, will be in the mix for the contract arising from the draft […]

The Department of Energy’s long-awaited Integrated Waste Treatment Unit at the Idaho National Laboratory could start operating in mid-fall, perhaps October, a Fluor Idaho executive told the online Waste Management Symposia Monday. The facility is now in the final weeks of an extended maintenance period that will precede a 50-day test run and eventual approval […]

Teams will soon be finalized to compete for the Department of Energy’s potential $26-billion Hanford Integrated Tank Disposition Contract in Washington state, three industry sources said late last week. Two of the three expect a very small number of teams, perhaps as few as two, will be in the mix for the contract arising from […]

Rebutting a recent letter from Washington state and the Yakama Tribe, local officials from communities around the Hanford Site this week defended the Department of Energy’s 2019 policy change on high-level waste. In a letter dated Wednesday, mayors and other officials from Benton and Franklin Counties said they are disappointed to see the state, the […]

The Department of Energy is testing Saltwaste Disposal Unit 7, a key part of the Savannah River Site’s liquid waste cleanup effort, for leaks, the agency said this week. Amentum-led contractor Savannah River Remediation is conducting what DOE described in a press release as a liquid tightness test, which involves pumping 33 million gallons of […]

The Department of Energy plans this week to test Saltwaste Disposal Unit 7, a key part of the Savannah River Site’s liquid waste cleanup effort, for leaks, the agency said Monday. Amentum-led contractor Savannah River Remediation is conducting what DOE described in a press release as a liquid tightness test, which involves pumping 33 million […]

The Washington state government and others asked new Secretary of Energy Jennifer Granholm to rescind the Department of Energy’s recent decision to reclassify some high-level waste, including waste in the Hanford Site’s underground tanks. On Friday, less than a day after Granholm’s swearing in, the Washington Department of Ecology, Washington Attorney General Robert Ferguson (D), […]

The Washington Department of Ecology is taking public comment through March 25 on proposed modifications to the state’s permit for key equipment used to help control liquid waste volume in underground tanks at the Department of Energy’s Hanford site. The original transfer lines that connect double-shell tanks holding radioactive waste to the 242-A Evaporator flunked […]

The Washington Department of Ecology is taking public comment through March 25 on proposed modifications to the state’s permit for key equipment used to help control liquid waste volume in underground tanks at the Department of Energy’s Hanford site. The original transfer lines that connect double-shell tanks holding radioactive waste to the 242-A Evaporator flunked […]

The Washington state Department of Ecology kicked off a 45-day comment period Monday on proposed changes to its permit for the Waste Treatment Plant being built by Bechtel at the Department of Energy’s Hanford Site. The state is inviting public comment until March 17 on the closure plan for the $17-billion facility designed to convert […]