High-Level & Tank Waste

An article in the Oct. 13 edition of Weapons Complex Monitor should have reported that the new liquid waste management contract for the Department of Energy’s Savannah River Site will not immediately cover the Salt Waste Processing Facility built by Parsons Government Services. Savannah River EcoManagement would run the plant after startup and one year […]

The Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board (DNFSB) said in a new report the Energy Department Office of Environmental Management has more work to do to resolve safety issues connected with criticality and flammable gas at the Waste Treatment Plant’s Pretreatment Facility at the Hanford Site in Washington state. The 100-page-plus technical report centers on four […]

The Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board (DNFSB) said in a new report the Energy Department Office of Environmental Management has more work to do on safety issues connected with criticality and flammable gas at the Pretreatment Facility for the Waste Treatment Plant at the Hanford Site in Washington state. The 100-page-plus technical report centers on […]

Installation of the two melters for the Low-Activity Waste Facility at the Hanford’ Site’s Waste Treatment Plant has been completed, a key milestone on the project, plant officials announced Wednesday. “When operational, these melters will be the largest operating vitrification plant melters in the world,” said Bill Hamel, Department of Energy project director for the […]

A group comprised of BWX Technologies, Bechtel National, and Honeywell International has won a contract valued at $4.7 billion over 10 years for liquid waste management at the Savannah River Site in South Carolina, the Energy Department’s Office of Environmental Management announced Thursday. Savannah River EcoManagement’s contact features a seven-year base and a three-year option […]

Installation of the two melters at the Low-Activity Waste Facility at the Hanford’ Site’s Waste Treatment Plant has been completed, a key milestone on the project, plant officials announced Wednesday. “When operational, these melters will be the largest operating vitrification plant melters in the world,” said Bill Hamel, Department of Energy project director for the […]

The Energy Department’s Office of Environmental Management could as early as today announce award of a new contract for liquid waste management at the Savannah River Site in South Carolina, an industry observer said Wednesday. Rumors are circulating widely that the department’s nuclear cleanup office will release the news by close of business, the source […]

In what appears to be a sign of progress, Bechtel National has filed a revised preliminary documented safety analysis to the Department of Energy for the Hanford Site Waste Treatment Plant’s High-Level Waste Facility. The document is intended to support the resumption of procurement and construction on the facility, according to a newly released weekly […]

There is some surprise among Department of Energy contractors that the agency has not yet awarded a new contract for liquid waste management at the Savannah River Site in South Carolina, an industry source said Wednesday. The major procurements summary from DOE’s Office of Environmental Management, as of Aug. 11, projected the new contract would […]

The Department of Energy expects to begin transferring cesium and strontium capsules from underwater storage at the Hanford Site in Washington state to dry storage in 2022. The latest step toward that goal has been identifying a proposed location at Hanford for dry storage and completing a conceptual design of a new concrete pad storage […]

The Energy Department has as of this week been penalized more than $2.37 million by the state of Idaho over the ongoing failure to start operating a liquid waste treatment facility at the Idaho National Laboratory (INL). The Integrated Waste Treatment Unit (IWTU) was built to process 900,000 gallons of liquid sodium-bearing waste produced during […]

The Department of Energy expects to begin transferring cesium and strontium capsules from underwater storage at the Hanford Site in Washington state to dry storage in 2022. The latest step toward that goal has been identifying a proposed location at Hanford for dry storage and completing a conceptual design of a new concrete pad storage […]

The Energy Department has as of Tuesday been penalized more than $2.37 million by the state of Idaho over the ongoing failure to start operating a liquid waste treatment facility at the Idaho National Laboratory (INL). The Integrated Waste Treatment Unit (IWTU) was built to process 900,000 gallons of liquid sodium-bearing waste produced during Cold […]

The siting, construction, and operation of a proposed dry capsule storage area for the Hanford Site’s cesium and strontium capsules will be discussed at a meeting Thursday in Richland, Wash. The capsules will be moved from underwater storage at the Waste Encapsulation and Storage Facility in central Hanford due to concerns that a severe earthquake […]

Contractor Washington River Protection Solutions is ending fiscal 2017 with two successful evaporation campaigns that have freed up enough of the Hanford Site’s limited double-shell tank space to store 525,000 gallons of waste. Material from 149 single-shell tanks is being emptied into the site’s 27 double-shell tanks at Hanford that remain in service until the […]

SUMMERLIN, Nev. — The Energy Department’s Office of Environmental Management (EM) is establishing a new unit that will focus on completing the Hanford Site’s Waste Treatment Plant, Roger Jarrell, senior adviser to the secretary of energy for environmental management, said Tuesday. Efforts are being made to streamline management decisions at EM, a roughly $6 billion-per-year […]

The general manager of Waste Treatment Completion Co., the new subcontractor for the Waste Treatment Plant at the Hanford Site in Washington state, is on medical leave. Acting general manager Mike Costas is filling in for general manager Scott Oxenford. Costas previously served as the manager of functions for the Waste Treatment Plant, which included […]

A system-wide liquid waste processing outage at the Savannah River Site (SRS) is still expected to last through the end of the year, as workers continue to make strides in other key areas of the Energy Department facility’s liquid waste mission. The site reported in February that it was halting all liquid waste processing due to […]

The state of Idaho and the Department of Energy have resolved a $648,000 fine levied for the federal agency’s failure to start operating a liquid waste treatment facility at the Idaho National Laboratory (INL). The Integrated Waste Treatment Unit (IWTU) was built to process 900,000 gallons of liquid sodium-bearing waste produced during Cold War-era spent […]

Hanford Site workers have begun the push to empty most of the remaining waste in the final tank at the C Tank Farm, 19 years after preparations for waste retrieval at the farm began. If work goes as planned, Tank C-105 could be emptied to regulatory standards by the end of the year. C-105 is […]

The secondary bottom of a double-shell tank at the Hanford Site “has likely failed,” the Washington state Department of Ecology said last week in a letter to the Department of Energy. There is no sign, though, that any radioactive waste is leaking out of the tank into the environment, officials said Friday. The specific concern is that […]

Fluor Corp. has posted an online help-wanted advertisement connected to liquid waste management at the Energy Department’s Savannah River Site in South Carolina. The company is not a member of the current liquid waste team at SRS, but is widely believed to have joined with Westinghouse Government Services to bid on the upcoming contract. The job […]

A local advisory board this week voiced its opposition to using the Department of Energy’s Savannah River Site (SRS) in South Carolina for interim storage of nuclear waste, but could not come to agreement on a request for DOE to prohibit shipments to the facility of highly enriched uranium from Germany. The Energy Department should […]

The lead liquid waste contractor at the Savannah River Site near Aiken, S.C., on July 18 finished building the Saltstone Disposal Unit- (SDU) 6: the first of seven planned 30-million-plus-gallon tanks that will store radioactive salt waste left over from processing some 35 million gallons of Cold War liquid waste, the Department of Energy said […]

A local advisory board this week voiced its opposition to using the Department of Energy’s Savannah River Site (SRS) in South Carolina for interim storage of nuclear waste, but could not come to agreement on a request for DOE to prohibit shipments to the facility of highly enriched uranium from Germany. The Energy Department should […]

A local advisory board this week voiced its opposition to using the Department of Energy’s Savannah River Site (SRS) in South Carolina for interim storage of nuclear waste, but could not come to agreement on a request for DOE to prohibit shipments to the facility of highly enriched uranium from Germany. The Energy Department should […]

A local advisory board this week voiced its opposition to using the Department of Energy’s Savannah River Site (SRS) in South Carolina for interim storage of nuclear waste, but could not come to agreement on a request for DOE to prohibit shipments to the facility of highly enriched uranium from Germany. The Energy Department should […]

The Department of Energy’s prime contractor at the Savannah River Site near Aiken, S.C., has finished building the Saltstone Disposal Unit- (SDU) 6: the first of seven planned 30-million-plus-gallon tanks that will store radioactive salt waste left over from processing some 35 million gallons of Cold War liquid waste, the agency said in a Friday […]

Sen. Claire McCaskill (D-Mo.) on Thursday demanded the Energy Department brief Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs staff by July 21 about what the senior senator from Missouri considers a questionable contracting arrangement between Bechtel National and AECOM at DOE’s Hanford Site in Washington state. McCaskill, the committee’s ranking Democrat, questioned in a letter to […]

Money for liquid waste processing and tank closures at the Department of Energy’s Savannah River Site (SRS) would tick up if Congress approves funding levels proposed by President Donald Trump for fiscal 2018. All told, the budget proposal would provide $1.28 billion for the DOE facility in South Carolina, according to the detailed version of the budget […]