Archive

Decommissioning

Project reporting on the decontamination and decommissioning of legacy nuclear facilities across the DOE-EM complex, from building teardowns to soil and groundwater remediation.

  • NRC expects lower decommissioning fund minimums in 2024

    Lower disposal costs mean nuclear reactor operators will not need to keep as much cash on hand to cover the cost of end-of-life plant cleanup, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission said last week. Two of the four U.S. disposal sites for low-level radioactive waste, the two used by most NRC licensees, are charging “moderately lower” rates […]

  • NRC expects lower decommissioning fund minimums in 2024

    Lower disposal costs mean nuclear reactor operators will not need to keep as much cash on hand to cover the cost of end-of-life plant cleanup, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission said last week. Two of the four U.S. disposal sites for low-level radioactive waste, the two used by most NRC licensees, are charging “moderately lower” rates […]

  • UCOR removes lower vessel from Oak Ridge Research Reactor

    The Department of Energy’s environmental prime at the Oak Ridge Site in Tennessee has removed the lower reactor vessel from Oak Ridge National Laboratory’s Building 3042, the department said Tuesday. The facility is also known as the Oak Ridge Research Reactor, which was built in the mid-1950s and used for isotope production before Oak Ridge […]

  • Round up: Partial site release at Clinton; BWXT TRISO in Wyo.?; Framatome Inc. CEO; more

    The NRC is considering a request from Constellation Energy Generation, LLC to approve the release of 172.2 acres of land to DeWitt County, Illinois for a new marina, according to a regulatory filing posted online.  A previous licensee for Clinton Power Station, Unit 1, AmerGen Energy Company, LLC had executed a Quit Claim Deed for […]

  • DOE spent fuel official to address San Onofre community panel

    Paul Murray, the Department of Energy’s deputy assistant secretary for spent fuel and high-level waste, will address a community panel on the decommissioning of a retired Southern California Edison nuclear plant on Thursday, according to the electric utility. Murray will discuss the federal spent fuel management program during a quarterly meeting of the San Onofre […]

  • Old Oak Ridge Lab reactor vessel hauled off to Utah

    Workers at the Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory in Tennessee have shipped the old reactor vessel from the Low Intensity Test Reactor, also known as Building 3005, to Utah for disposal, the agency said this week. Crews loaded the 37,600-pound, 30-foot-long vessel onto a truck last week and shipped it to Clive, Utah, […]

  • 14 small businesses share DOE’s nationwide D&D award; North Wind gets first order

    The Department of Energy nuclear cleanup branch has selected 14 small businesses to share in a set-aside contract worth up to $2 billion for Nationwide Deactivation, Decommissioning, and Removal work across the weapons complex, the agency said Thursday. The DOE Office of Environmental Management said in the same press release that the contract’s first task […]

  • Old Oak Ridge Lab reactor vessel hauled away

    Workers at the Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory in Tennessee have shipped the old reactor vessel from the Low Intensity Test Reactor, also known as Building 3005, to Utah for disposal, the agency said Tuesday. Crews loaded the 37,600-pound, 30-foot-long vessel onto a truck last week and shipped it to Clive, Utah, for […]

  • Livermore plans to use Aptim for teardown of Building 281

    The Department of Energy plans to use Aptim, one of nine companies selected in a national solicitation in 2020, as its decommissioning and demolition contractor for Building 281 at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in California. DOE published a justification for not doing additional competitive bidding for the work, worth up to $22.1 million, in […]

  • Livermore plans to use Aptim for teardown of Building 281

    The Department of Energy plans to use Aptim, one of nine companies selected in a national solicitation in 2020, as its decommissioning and demolition contractor for Building 281 at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in California. DOE published a justification for not doing additional competitive bidding for the work, worth up to $22.1 million, in […]

  • More Palisades decommissioning funds misappropriated, enviros say in meeting with NRC staff

    The company that was to decommission the Palisades Nuclear Power Plant in Michigan inappropriately withdrew more than $160 million from the plant’s decommissioning trust fund and did not pay it back, environmental and anti-nuclear activists said Wednesday in a meeting with NRC staff. The activists said Wednesday that they had identified in public reports filed […]

  • Livermore plans to use Aptim for teardown of Building 281

    The Department of Energy plans to use Aptim, one of nine companies selected in a national solicitation in 2020, as its decommissioning and demolition contractor for Building 281 at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in California. DOE published a justification for not doing additional competitive bidding for the work, worth up to $22.1 million, in […]

  • Federal judge considers next step in lawsuit over Rocky Flats Refuge trail

    It is up to a federal district judge in Washington, D.C., to decide what comes next in an advocacy group’s lawsuit to force an additional environmental review for a hiking trail near what used to be the Department of Energy’s Rocky Flats plant in Colorado. U.S. District Judge Timothy Kelly heard oral arguments last month […]

  • DOE can’t make plant owners tap trust funds to pay for spent fuel storage, judge says

    The Department of Energy cannot make utilities pay for storage of spent nuclear fuel with interest from their own decommissioning trust funds, a federal judge ruled this month. DOE had argued in the Court of Federal Claims that it should not have to pay $149 million in damages to three former power plant operators in […]

  • At HQ meeting, NRC commish quizzes staff on buried contamination guidance for decom sites

    Commissioner Annie Caputo on Thursday questioned whether it made sense for the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to issue a blanket guidance for detecting buried low-level radioactive waste at power plants undergoing decommissioning. NRC staff plan to finish the guidance by Sept. 30, a commission spokesperson said. Staff opened comments on the draft guidance in December. The […]

  • Much work left to do on Oak Ridge Mercury Treatment Facility, DOE says

    The Mercury Treatment Facility at the Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge Site in Tennessee, which is about to become the responsibility of the site’s Amentum-led prime, is 50% complete, a DOE spokesperson said Friday. The DOE Office of Environmental Management spokesperson replied to an Exchange Monitor inquiry on the current status of the project. The […]

  • Much work left to do on Oak Ridge Mercury Treatment Facility, DOE says

    The Mercury Treatment Facility at the Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge Site in Tennessee, which is about to become the responsibility of the site’s Amentum-led prime, is 50% complete, a DOE spokesperson said Friday. The DOE Office of Environmental Management spokesperson replied to an Exchange Monitor inquiry on the current status of the project. The […]

  • UCOR taking over construction, completion of Oak Ridge mercury facility

    The Amentum-led remediation prime at the Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge Site in Tennessee will finish construction of the Mercury Treatment Facility at the Y-12 National Security Complex, DOE announced Friday.  Earlier in the week, DOE confirmed to Exchange Monitor the agency will not again extend a contract with a joint venture of APTIM and […]

  • After final RFP, DOE to interview key personnel of West Valley bidders in person

    In a return to pre-pandemic practice, the Department of Energy said last week it will vet management teams in person for the next $3 billion cleanup contract at the West Valley Demonstration Project in western New York. In a special notice, DOE’s Office of Environmental Management said it would hold its oral interviews and problem […]

  • Aptim-Amentum team wins $96M contract to take down old reactor in Alaska

    The APTIM-Amentum Alaska Decommissioning joint venture has won a U.S. Army Corps of Engineers contract worth $95.5 million over six years to take down an old reactor at Fort Greely, Alaska, Amentum said last week. The Army Corps Baltimore District awarded the contract to decommission and dismantle the SM-1A Reactor Facility, Amentum said in a […]

  • After final RFP, DOE to interview key personnel of West Valley bidders in person

    In a return to pre-pandemic practice, the Department of Energy said last week it will vet management teams in person for the next $3 billion cleanup contract at the West Valley Demonstration Project in western New York. In a special notice, DOE’s Office of Environmental Management said it would hold its oral interviews and problem […]

  • Aptim-Amentum team wins $96M contract to take down old reactor in Alaska

    The APTIM-Amentum Alaska Decommissioning joint venture has won a U.S. Army Corps of Engineers contract worth $95.5 million over six years to take down an old reactor at Fort Greely, Alaska, Amentum said last week. The Army Corps Baltimore District awarded the contract to decommission and dismantle the SM-1A Reactor Facility, Amentum said in a […]

  • North Wind’s ETEC environmental task order extended by DOE

    The Department of Energy awarded North Wind Portage a nine-month, $1.9-million extension to continue various environmental chores at the DOE-controlled portion of the Santa Susana Field Laboratory in California, according to a recent procurement notice. Following the mid-September extension, the company’s current task order is now valued at $66.4-million. Without the extension, North Wind’s work […]

  • Decom site for former nuclear-Navy barge safe for other uses, NRC finds after review of contractor data

    The decommissioning site of a barge used for more than 50 years to service nuclear-powered Navy ships appears safe for unrestricted release, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission said in documents posted online Tuesday. The Surface Ship Support Barge’s decommissioning site in Mobile, Ala., is not an NRC-licensed site, but if it were, it “would have met […]

  • Decom site for former nuclear-Navy barge safe for other uses, NRC finds after review of contractor data

    The decommissioning site of a barge used for more than 50 years to service nuclear-powered Navy ships appears safe for unrestricted release, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission said in documents posted online Tuesday.  The Surface Ship Support Barge’s decommissioning site in Mobile, Ala., is not an NRC-licensed site, but if it were, it “would have met […]

  • North Wind’s ETEC environmental task order extended by DOE

    The Department of Energy awarded North Wind Portage a nine-month, $1.9-million extension to continue various environmental chores at the DOE-controlled portion of the Santa Susana Field Laboratory in California, according to a recent procurement notice. Following the mid-September extension, the company’s current task order is now valued at $66.4-million. Without the extension, North Wind’s work […]

  • West Valley draft RFP presentation draws big crowd

    About three dozen businesses turned out Sept. 21-22 to learn about the potential $3 billion contract for Phase 1B of Department of Energy cleanup at the West Valley Demonstration Project in New York state, according to online documents. While the big crowd included plenty of the usual names around the weapons complex, one curiously absent […]

  • West Valley draft RFP presentation draws big crowd

    About three dozen businesses turned out Sept. 21-22 to learn about the potential $3 billion contract for Phase 1B of Department of Energy cleanup at the West Valley Demonstration Project in New York state, according to online documents. While the big crowd included plenty of the usual names around the weapons complex, one curiously absent […]

  • Wrap: Another ORNL reactor comes down; Bechtel opens Knoxville office; Sen. Feinstein dies at 90; Granholm salary targeted

    A Department of Energy environmental remediation contractor has taken down the second nuclear reactor on the central campus of the Oak Ridge National Laboratory in Tennessee, the agency said Tuesday. Amentum-led United Cleanup Oak Ridge (UCOR) has finished tearing down the Low Intensity Test Reactor, which is also known as building 3005. Demolition of the […]

  • West Valley only final RFP on EM’s 6-month horizon

    The Department of Energy’s nuclear cleanup branch only expects to issue one solicitation over the next six months, for remediation of the West Valley Demonstration Project in western New York, the agency said in a Wednesday procurement update. The agency expects the final RFP for the Phase 1B Deactivation and Demolition at West Valley will […]