High-Level & Tank Waste

The Savannah River Site will receive $637.1 million for liquid waste treatment and cleanup in the current fiscal year – the largest chunk of the $1.31 billion designated for the Department of Energy facility in South Carolina. The amount for liquid waste operations included in the fiscal 2018 omnibus signed last week is $37 million […]

Having already granted one contract extension, the U.S. Energy Department proposes to keep incumbent Savannah River Remediation (SRR) in charge of liquid waste management at the Savannah River Site in South Carolina into 2019. In a March 21 notice on a federal contracts website, DOE announced plans to retain SRR for up to another 10 […]

The Department of Energy awarded Bechtel National Inc. just 48 percent of the performance evaluation award fee available for calendar year 2017 for its work on the Waste Treatment Plant at the Hanford Site in Washington state, saying it had concerns about the company’s ability to meet contract milestones. Bechtel earned about $3.81 million of […]

Having already granted one contract extension, the U.S. Energy Department proposes to keep incumbent Savannah River Remediation (SRR) in charge of liquid waste management at the Savannah River Site in South Carolina into 2019. In a March 21 notice on a federal contracts website, DOE announced plans to retain SRR for up to another 10 […]

The Savannah River Site will receive $637.1 million for liquid waste treatment and cleanup in the current fiscal year – the largest chunk of the $1.31 billion designated for the Department of Energy facility in South Carolina. The amount included in the fiscal 2018 omnibus signed last week is $37 million more than provided in fiscal […]

PHOENIX, Ariz. — In the aftermath of a successful bid protest, the Energy Department expects to “re-award” a 10-year liquid waste contract for the Savannah River Site in South Carolina in late summer or early fall, a DOE procurement official said Wednesday. Norbert Doyle, DOE’s acting deputy assistant secretary for acquisition and project management, offered […]

Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) said Tuesday he plans to look into the transfer of the Energy Department project manager for the Waste Treatment Plant (WTP), at the Hanford Site in Washington state, shortly after he raised concerns about missing documentation on steel being used at the facility. During a hearing on Capitol Hill, Wyden suggested […]

In the aftermath of a successful bid protest, the Energy Department expects to “re-award” a 10-year liquid waste contract for the Savannah River Site in South Carolina in late summer or early fall, a DOE procurement official said Wednesday. Norbert Doyle, DOE’s acting deputy assistant secretary for acquisition and project management, offered the schedule during […]

Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) said Tuesday he plans to look into the transfer of the Energy Department project manager for the Waste Treatment Plant (WTP), at the Hanford Site in Washington state, shortly after he raised concerns about missing documentation on steel being used at the facility. On March 6, then-WTP Federal Project Director William […]

Gaps in safety assurance documents filed by Bechtel National are not serious enough to imperil the schedule for the Waste Treatment Plant the company is building at the Energy Department’s Hanford Site in Washington state, the head of DOE’s Hanford Office of River Protection said Monday. “No, I don’t think it’s a significant issue,” ORP […]

A Department of Energy review has found more quality assurance issues at the Waste Treatment Plant being built at the Hanford Site in Washington state. Quality records “needed to demonstrate that the important-to-safety structural steel could perform its safety function were either missing or of indeterminate quality,” according to a March 6 letter from DOE’s […]

The Department of Energy has named a new federal project director and assistant manager for the Hanford Site Waste Treatment Plant as the $17 billion project moves into a new phase. Tom Fletcher, now deputy manager of DOE’s Hanford Richland Operations Office, will move to the DOE Hanford Office of River Protection to take the […]

The U.S. Energy Department’s Office of Environmental Management is promising by to soon spell out steps for “final” revisions to bid proposals for the liquid waste management contract at the Savannah River Site in South Carolina. At least one industry source, however, doubts DOE will fully reconsider its original contract award from last fall. After […]

The Waste Treatment Plant (WTP) at the Hanford Site in Washington state should start converting low-activity radioactive waste into vitrified glass by the end of 2021, in advance of a legal deadline, the highest-ranking official at the Energy Department Office of Environmental Management said Wednesday. James Owendoff, principal deputy assistant energy secretary for environmental management, […]

The Department of Energy has named a new federal project director and assistant manager for the Hanford Site Waste Treatment Plant as the $17 billion project moves into a new phase. Tom Fletcher, now deputy manager of DOE’s Hanford Richland Operations Office, will move to the DOE Hanford Office of River Protection to take the […]

Cleanup workers at the former Dounreay fast-reactor site in Scotland are mixing a radioactive liquid with three solids to ensure the material can be placed safely into storage, the United Kingdom’s Nuclear Decommissioning Authority said Monday. The raffinate was the byproduct of reprocessing of fuel from the Prototype Fast Reactor at Dounreay, which shut down […]

Following a 14-month outage, liquid waste processing at the U.S. Energy Department’s Savannah River Site is expected to restart by the end of the April. The South Carolina facility said in January operations would begin by March. But that milestone has been delayed by a month, Sonya Goines, DOE spokeswoman at Savannah River, said last […]

The U.S. Energy Department appears to be reaching out to all the teams that bid on the $4.7 billion contract to manage liquid waste at the Savannah River Site in South Carolina, after the Government Accountability Office last month upheld one protest against the deal, industry sources said this week. Two industry sources said Thursday […]

Management relied too heavily on near real-time continuous air monitors (CAMs) to check for airborne radioactive particles during demolition of the Hanford Site’s Plutonium Finishing Plant, according to the root cause evaluation for the December spread of radioactive contamination from the project. Hanford cleanup contractor CH2M Hill Plateau Remediation Co. on Thursday submitted its evaluation […]

The U.S. Energy Department appears to be reaching out to all the teams that bid on the $4.7 billion contract to manage liquid waste at the Savannah River Site in South Carolina, after the Government Accountability Office last month upheld one protest against the deal, industry sources said this week. One industry source said Tuesday DOE officials […]

Following a 14-month outage, liquid waste processing at the U.S. Energy Department’s Savannah River Site is expected to restart by the end of the April. The South Carolina facility said in January operations would begin by March. But that milestone has been delayed by a month, Sonya Goines, DOE spokeswoman at Savannah River, said last […]

A panel of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine kicked off two days of public meetings in Richland, Wash., on Wednesday as it studies supplemental processing of low-activity waste at the U.S. Energy Department’s nearby Hanford Site. The data gathering will culminate in several reports by the National Academies on treatment of low-activity […]

The U.S. Energy Department failed to “reasonably evaluate the viability” of the technical approach put forth by the winning bidder for a $4.7 billion contract for liquid waste services at the Savannah River Site in South Carolina, according to a redacted version of the Government Accountability Office ruling on protests against the procurement award. The […]

Environmental Management (EM) missions at the Department of Energy’s Savannah River Site in South Carolina are in line to receive $287 million more in the next federal budget than they received in fiscal 2017, with a strong emphasis on liquid waste cleanup. President Donald Trump’s fiscal 2019 budget proposal, released Monday, would provide $1.66 billion […]

The U.S. Department of Energy has as of Tuesday incurred $3.2 million in fines from the state of Idaho for failure to successfully start operating the Integrated Waste Treatment Unit at the Idaho National Laboratory. The facility is intended to process 900,000 gallons of liquid sodium-bearing waste produced during Cold War-era spent fuel reprocessing at […]

Environmental Management (EM) missions at the Department of Energy’s Savannah River Site in South Carolina are in line to receive $287 million more in the next federal budget than they received in fiscal 2017, with a strong emphasis on liquid waste cleanup. A budget justification detailing specific funding lines for President Donald Trump’s fiscal 2019 […]

While it sustained one contract protest, the U.S. Government Accountability Office on Friday did not weigh in on which proposal the Energy Department Office of Environmental Management should have selected for a $4.7 billion liquid waste management contract at the Savannah River Site in South Carolina. “GAO’s decision expresses no view as to the merits […]

Workers at the Hanford Site in Washington state twice this week have reported smelling suspicious odors that could be chemical vapors. The two incidents are the first time since Nov. 28 that suspicious odors have been reported outside the radioactive waste storage tank farms at the Department of Energy facility. On Monday afternoon, five Hanford […]

Although details are being kept under wraps by a protective order, the U.S. Government Accountability Office on Friday sustained a protest brought by one losing bidding team against a $4.7 billion contract the Department of Energy awarded in October for liquid waste management at the Savannah River Site in South Carolina. The GAO indicated it has […]

Workers at the Hanford Site in Washington state twice this week have reported smelling suspicious odors that could be chemical vapors. The two incidents are the first time since Nov. 28 that suspicious odors have been reported outside the radioactive waste storage tank farms at the Department of Energy facility. On Monday afternoon, five Hanford […]