Transuranic Waste

Don’t expect another Senate-confirmed nominee during President Donald Trump’s current term to succeed Anne Marie White at the helm of the Energy Department Office of Environmental Management. That was the assessment offered Monday by several observers of the DOE weapons complex. The chances of the White House finding a qualified and willing candidate – and […]

Supporters of the departing Assistant Secretary for Environmental Management Anne Marie White say she refocused the Energy Department’s $7 billion nuclear cleanup office on completing work, rather than just safely maintaining 16 Cold War sites. But when Energy Secretary Rick Perry confirmed in a Friday email to DOE staff White has resigned effective June 14, […]

Fluor Idaho expects to finish its work this month at the site of a radioactive waste sludge accident in April 2018 at the Idaho National Laboratory, the company informed state officials last week. Four 55-gallon drums of waste overheated and blew off their lids on April 11, 2018, hours after the contents were exposed to […]

Assistant Energy Secretary for Environmental Management Anne Marie White has resigned effective June 14. In an email obtained by Weapons Complex Monitor, Energy Secretary Rick Perry and Deputy Secretary Dan Brouillette confirmed widespread industry chatter that White is leaving the agency after less than two years. The same email, distributed to a DOE mailing list, confirmed longtime […]

The Department of Energy as of Thursday had neither officially confirmed nor denied widespread chatter regarding the resignation of Assistant Secretary for Environmental Management Anne Marie White. A number of sources first said last week that White had been asked to step down after 14 months leading the office charged with cleanup of 16 radioactively […]

Face-to-face mediation is expected in June between public interest groups and the New Mexico Environment Department over changes to the way waste volume is calculated underground at the Energy Department’s Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP). The New Mexico Court of Appeals often encourages mediation in cases involving state agencies in hopes parties can bridge their […]

Face-to-face mediation is expected in June between public interest groups and the New Mexico Environment Department over changes to the way waste volume is calculated underground at the Energy Department’s Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP). The New Mexico Court of Appeals often encourages mediation in cases involving state agencies in hopes parties can bridge their […]

The Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board (DNFSB) has postponed its scheduled May 22 public hearing in Washington, D.C., on past radioactive waste accidents at the Energy Department’s Idaho National Laboratory and its Waste Isolation Pilot Plant in New Mexico. In a notice on its website, the DNFSB said the half-day public hearing is being rescheduled […]

The Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board (DNFSB) has postponed its scheduled May 22 public hearing in Washington, D.C., on past radioactive waste accidents at the Energy Department’s Idaho National Laboratory and its Waste Isolation Pilot Plant in New Mexico. In a notice on its website, the DNFSB said the half-day public hearing is being rescheduled […]

The Advanced Mixed Waste Treatment Project (AMWTP) at the Idaho National Laboratory (INL) should complete its transuranic waste processing mission this summer, although some work remains beyond fiscal 2019. Roughly 6,500 cubic meters of material, or about 10% of the original total, still requires certification and transport to the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) in […]

The Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board (DNFSB) has set a public hearing for May 22 in Washington, D.C., to consider the Department of Energy’s efforts to prevent future accidents during nuclear waste operations. The half-day meeting is broken into two sessions, according to the recently released agenda. In the first, the DNFSB will focus on improved […]

The Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board (DNFSB) has set a public hearing for May 22 in Washington, D.C., to consider the Department of Energy’s efforts to prevent future accidents during nuclear waste operations. The half-day meeting is broken into two sessions, according to the recently released agenda. In the first, the DNFSB will focus on […]

Energy Department contractor Fluor Idaho says 28 employees took a voluntary separation package this spring as it reduces the workforce for the Advanced Mixed Waste Treatment Project (AMWTP) at the Idaho National Laboratory. Another 30 have since March 1 either transferred to other Fluor jobs away from AMWTP or left the company altogether, spokesman Erik […]

Communities around Energy Department nuclear cleanup sites deserve a voice in the agency’s much-discussed end-state contracting model, according to the Energy Communities Alliance. Local input is important “particularly in regard to DOE’s plans to implement any updated or revised approaches to waste management and disposal,” the ECA said in a recent report on radioactive waste […]

The AECOM-led Nuclear Waste Partnership (NWP) pocketed nearly $10.8 million of a potential $12.5 million in fees for its operation of the Energy Department’s Waste Isolation Pilot Plant in New Mexico during fiscal 2018. The NWP return would have been higher, but DOE deducted $100,000 for “breakdowns” in the contractor’s industrial hygiene program to protect […]

The Energy Department should prepare comprehensive assessments of Cold War nuclear sites now storing high-level radioactive waste to determine how much of it could safely be handled as low-level or transuranic waste, the Energy Communities Alliance said Monday. That is one of a set of recommendations in an ECA report, which aims to build on […]

Lynchburg, Va.,-based BWX Technologies on Wednesday reported a drop in both revenue and profit during the first quarter of 2019. The Department of Energy contractor recorded revenue of $416 million, down 9% from $457 million in the first three months of 2018, according to a press release. Meanwhile, net income dropped from $66.4 million, or […]

The Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in California has finished a readiness assessment as it prepares to make its first shipment of transuranic waste in 14 years to the Energy Department’s Waste Isolation Pilot Plant in New Mexico. The national laboratory on March 29 completed the formal evaluation of its ability to characterize TRU waste and […]

Lynchburg, Va., -based BWX Technologies on Wednesday reported a drop in both revenue and profit during the first quarter of 2019. The company recorded revenue of $416 million, down 9% from $457 million in the first three months of 2018, according to a press release. Meanwhile, net income dropped from $66.4 million, or $0.66 per […]

The AECOM-led Nuclear Waste Partnership pocketed nearly $10.8 million of a potential $12.5 million in fees for its operation of the Energy Department’s Waste Isolation Pilot Plant in New Mexico during fiscal 2018. The NWP return would have been higher, but DOE deducted $100,000 from the award because of “breakdowns” in the contractor’s industrial hygiene […]

The Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in California has finished a readiness assessment as it prepares to make its first shipment of transuranic waste in 14 years to the Energy Department’s Waste Isolation Pilot Plant in New Mexico. The national laboratory on March 29 completed the formal evaluation of its ability to characterize TRU waste and […]

The Energy Department should make a “full evaluation” of Cold War sites now storing high-level radioactive waste to determine how much of it could safely be handled as low-level or transuranic waste, the Energy Communities Alliance said Monday. That is one of a set of recommendations in an ECA report, which aims to build on […]

An advocacy group has asked the New Mexico Environment Department (NMED) to hold public meetings soon on the Energy Department’s plan to build a new underground multi-use shaft into the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant near Carlsbad, N.M. In an April 15 letter to NMED, Southwest Research and Information Center Administrator Don Hancock said the state […]

Assistant Energy Secretary for Environmental Management Anne Marie White says 90% of remediation at the East Tennessee Technology Park at the Oak Ridge Site in Tennessee should be finished in the upcoming federal budget year. The ETTP site enriched uranium for the U.S. nuclear deterrent, and later for commercial nuclear power plants, from 1945 through […]

WASHINGTON — While more than three months passed since the public comment period closed, the Energy Communities Alliance (ECA) is “trying to keep this conversation going” on reinterpreting what material should be deemed high-level radioactive waste (HLW) by the Department of Energy. That was the word Wednesday from the ECA’s director of nuclear energy policy, […]

An advocacy group has asked the New Mexico Environment Department to hold public meetings soon on the Energy Department’s plan to build a new underground multi-use shaft into the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant near Carlsbad, N.M. In an April 15 letter to the state agency, Southwest Research and Information Center Administrator Don Hancock said the […]

Assistant Energy Secretary for Environmental Management Anne Marie White says 90% of remediation at the East Tennessee Technology Park at the Oak Ridge Site in Tennessee should be finished in the upcoming federal budget year. The ETTP site enriched uranium for the U.S. nuclear deterrent, and later for commercial nuclear power plants, from 1945 through […]

The Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) last recertification of the Energy Department’s Waste Isolation Pilot Plant in New Mexico lasted more than three years. The protracted review followed the February 2014 underground radiological accident at the DOE transuranic waste disposal site near Carlsbad, N.M., according to April 16 slide presentation by EPA supervisory environmental scientist Thomas […]

The Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) expects in October to solicit bids for design and construction of a facility to treat liquid transuranic waste generated by future production of fissile nuclear-weapon cores, called plutonium pits, according to a recent procurement note. Triad National Security, which since November has managed the New Mexico facility for the National Nuclear […]

The National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) this week revealed new details about its proposed dilute-and-dispose plan to eliminate 34 metric tons of weapon-usable plutonium — including that the agency is close to beginning a yearlong environmental review of its new approach. The agency will release its draft dilute-and-dispose supplemental environmental impact statement “in the very […]