High-Level & Tank Waste

The Department of Energy and Parsons Corp. have finished hot commissioning of the Salt Waste Processing Facility at the Savannah River Site in South Carolina. Parsons, which designed and built the 140,000-square-foot plant to treat salt waste left over from Cold War era nuclear weapons work, will run the facility for a year before turning […]

Less than a month after officially calling off a $13-billion liquid-waste cleanup award at the Hanford Site, the Department of Energy has started procurement of a replacement pact called the Hanford Integrated Tank Disposition Contract, with a draft solicitation expected by March. The draft request for proposals (RFP) will, unlike the now-revoked tank-waste contract awarded […]

The Department of Energy and Parsons Corp. have finished hot commissioning of the Salt Waste Processing Facility at the Savannah River Site in South Carolina. Parsons, which designed and built the 140,000-square-foot plant to treat salt waste left over from Cold War era atomic weapons work, will run the facility for a year before turning […]

Less than a month after officially calling off a $13-billion liquid-waste cleanup award at the Hanford Site, the Department of Energy has started procurement of a replacement pact called the Hanford Integrated Tank Disposition Contract, with a draft solicitation expected by March. The draft request for proposals (RFP) will, unlike the now-revoked tank-waste contract awarded […]

For the second time in two years, the Department of Energy is looking at shipping certain radioactive waste, now classified as high-level, from the Savannah River Site in South Carolina to a commercial disposal site out of state. The DOE said in a Wednesday press release it will issue a Federal Register notice within days […]

For the second time in two years, the Department of Energy is looking at shipping certain radioactive waste, now classified as high-level, from the Savannah River Site in South Carolina to a commercial disposal site out of state. The DOE said in a Wednesday press release it will issue a Federal Register notice within days […]

The Department of Energy and Bechtel announced Wednesday in an online ceremony that construction of facilities needed to start processing low-activity tank waste are complete at the $17-billion vitrification plant at the Hanford Site in Washington state. The direct-feed low-activity waste (DFLAW) facilities at the Waste Treatment Plant include a new Analytical Laboratory, the new […]

Just before Christmas, and months after two losing teams protested the award, the Department of Energy canned a $13-billion liquid-waste cleanup contract awarded in May to a BWX Technologies-led team. It is the second time in two years that a BWXT-led team has seen DOE cancel a major procurement which it had originally won. In […]

The Department of Energy and Bechtel announced Wednesday in an online ceremony that construction of facilities needed to start processing low-activity tank waste are complete at the $17-billion vitrification plant at the Hanford Site in Washington state. The direct-feed low-activity waste (DFLAW) facilities at the Waste Treatment Plant include a new Analytical Laboratory, the new […]

The Low Activity Waste Facility at the Hanford Site in Washington State is now scheduled to begin solidifying liquid waste not sooner than 2024, instead of 2023, because of COVID-19, under a recent agreement between the Department of Energy and Washington state. In December, Judge Rosanna Peterson of the Eastern District of Washington approved a […]

Lowering the hazard classification of some defense-nuclear waste could save the Department of Energy more than $200 billion in disposal costs, the agency told Congress in a report three years in the making. Most of the potential savings, between roughly $70 billion and $200 billion, would come from reclassifying low-activity waste at the Hanford West […]

Just before Christmas, and months after two losing teams protested the award, the Department of Energy canned a $13-billion liquid-waste cleanup contract awarded in May to a BWX Technologies-led team. In a Dec. 23 memo to Hanford employees, DOE said it scrapped the Tank Closure Contract because it wants to combine that work — emptying […]

Plutonium pits, Cold War liquid waste and stricter policing of the contractor base are among the biggest management challenges for the Department of Energy in fiscal year 2021, the agency’s Inspector General wrote this week in the latest version of an annual report. Pits are new on the Inspector General’s list this year, but liquid […]

Cleaning up the former plutonium production complex at the Hanford Site in Washington state could be even more costly and take longer than expected, a Department of Energy official said Wednesday during a virtual meeting. The forecast is from DOE’s ninth and latest revision of the River Protection Project System Plan. Brian Harkins, the agency’s […]

Cleaning up the former plutonium production complex at the Hanford Site in Washington state could be even more costly and take longer than expected, a Department of Energy official said Wednesday during a virtual meeting. The forecast is from DOE’s ninth and latest revision of the River Protection Project System Plan. Brian Harkins, the agency’s […]

The contractor for the Salt Waste Processing Facility at the Savannah River Site in Aiken, S.C. fixed a problem pump flagged by a federal watchdog, and the newly opened facility has now received 86,000 gallons of waste from the site’s H Tank Farm in its first month of radioactive operations, according to the Department of […]

Leidos-led Mission Support Alliance, the landlord services provider at the Department of Energy’s Hanford Site in Washington state, awarded a $13-million subcontract for local firm Fowler General Construction to build a new water treatment plant. The new facility would replace the current 1940s vintage plant and automate water services and support treatment of tank waste […]

The contractor for the Salt Waste Processing Facility at the Savannah River Site in Aiken, S.C. fixed a problem pump flagged by a federal watchdog, and the newly opened facility has now received 86,000 gallons of waste from the site’s H Tank Farm in its first month of radioactive operations, according to the Department of […]

Twelve people representing 11 companies showed up at the Department of Energy’s Savannah River Site Oct. 21 to take a physical tour and learn more about a potential $21-billion, long-term contract for liquid waste cleanup. In addition to Amentum, the lead partner for incumbent Savannah River Remediation, other firms who turned out are Aecon-Wachs, Akima, […]

Although the Department of Energy has put the award on hold, BWX Technologies President and CEO Rex Geveden likes his company’s chances of retaining the potential $13-billion Tank Closure Contract at the Hanford Site in Washington state. “We feel good about our prospects there,” Geveden said during the Lynchburg, Va.-based company’s third-quarter earnings call Monday […]

Twelve people representing 11 companies showed up at the Department of Energy’s Savannah River Site Oct. 21 to take a physical tour and learn more about a potential $21-billion, long-term contract for liquid waste cleanup. In addition to Amentum, the lead partner for incumbent Savannah River Remediation, other firms who turned out are Aecon-Wachs, Akima, […]

Prospective bidders are asking the Department of Energy for some leeway on making oral presentations for a potential $21-billion long-term contract for management of liquid waste at the Savannah River Site in South Carolina. Early this month, the department issued the request for proposals (RFP) for a potential 15-year contract for liquid waste management to […]

Although the Department of Energy has put the award on hold, BWX Technologies President and CEO Rex Geveden likes his company’s chances of retaining the potential $13-billion Tank Closure Contract at the Hanford Site in Washington state. “We feel good about our prospects there,” Geveden said during the Lynchburg, Va.-based company’s third-quarter earnings call Monday […]

The Department of Energy is entering the final phase of construction at the seventh large saltstone disposal unit at the Savannah River Site in South Carolina, an agency manager said this week. Workers are currently installing a leak-proof rubber liner in the inside of the tank at Saltstone Disposal Unit-7 (SDU-7) before testing of the […]

Idaho has now imposed about $9.16 million in fines against the Department of Energy for failing to treat sodium-bearing liquid radioactive waste at the Idaho National Laboratory with the long-delayed Integrated Waste Treatment Unit, a state official said this week. Depending on how COVID-19 plays out, the Integrated Waste Treatment Unit (IWTU) could start radioactive […]

The Department of Energy has yet to decide what exactly it will do about a contested $13-billion tank management contract at the Hanford Site in Washington state that was placed on hold in July. There are issues “that the department is still working our way through,” Hanford’s DOE site manager, Brian Vance, told an online […]

The Department of Energy is entering the final phase of construction at the seventh large saltstone disposal unit at the Savannah River Site in South Carolina, an agency manager said Monday. Workers are currently installing a leak-proof rubber liner in the inside of the tank at Saltstone Disposal Unit-7 (SDU-7) before testing of the facility […]

The Department of Energy Office of Environmental Management announced Oct. 15 it has resumed operation of the Tank-Closure Cesium Removal module following an extended maintenance outage that started in summer 2019 when an aging transfer pump stopped working.  The pump, used to prepare salt waste inside Tank 10 for cesium removal, was replaced this past […]

Tank waste operations, particularly a project at the Idaho National Laboratory, are hard hit by workplace restrictions brought about by the COVID-19 pandemic, the No. 2 official at the Department of Energy cleanup office said Monday. A year ago, the DOE Office of Environmental Management (EM) expected the Integrated Waste Treatment Unit (IWTU) at Idaho […]

The Department of Energy Office of Environmental Management announced Thursday it has resumed operation of the Tank-Closure Cesium Removal module following an extended maintenance outage that started in summer 2019 after when an aging transfer pump stopped working.  The pump, used to prepare salt waste inside Tank 10 for cesium removal, was replaced this past […]