Transuranic Waste

New Mexico Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham (D) said Monday she has selected a former U.S. Environmental Protection Agency official as secretary of the New Mexico Environment Department (NMED). James Kenney until recently was a senior policy adviser for oil and natural gas at EPA headquarters in Washington, D.C. He will have an official start date, […]

Fluor Idaho continues to prepare a plan for restarting waste operations at a fabric filter building at the Energy Department’s Idaho National Laboratory where four drums of radioactive sludge overheated and ejected their lids in April 2018. The contractor has already received feedback from DOE officials in Idaho regarding its corrective action plan to address […]

There is no indication yet whether the administration of New Mexico’s newly inaugurated Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham (D) might take a fresh look at a state policy, signed days before she took office, on the Energy Department’s Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) near Carlsbad. Before retiring from state service, New Mexico Environment Department (NMED) Secretary […]

Randy Manus POWER Heavy loads must often be moved at power plants of all types. Air bearing-based vehicles can make the process safer, faster, and cheaper. Cask relocation at a nuclear waste facility offers one successful example of the process in action. Load moving in the nuclear industry comes with unique challenges, particularly when the […]

Prior to exiting his job, New Mexico Environment Department (NMED) Secretary Butch Tongate authorized the U.S. Energy Department to change the way it counts material volume at the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) near Carlsbad so vacant spaces between container drums are no longer recorded as waste. The longtime NMED manager was appointed to lead […]

New Mexico Environment Department Secretary Butch Tongate has allowed the U.S. Energy Department to change the way it counts material volume at the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) near Carlsbad so vacant spaces between container drums are no longer recorded as waste. Tongate took the position favored by DOE and its prime contractor for WIPP, […]

A New Mexico hearing officer has endorsed the Energy Department’s request to revise how transuranic waste “volume” is calculated at the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) under the 1992 WIPP Land Withdrawal Act. The Dec. 10 report by state Hearing Officer Max Shepherd is now before New Mexico Environment Department (NMED) Secretary Butch Tongate, who […]

The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission has approved leaving problem waste from the Energy Department’s Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) at the Waste Control Specialists (WCS) disposal facility in Texas for up to two more years, and Texas regulators are expected to follow suit. The head of NRC’s Office of Nuclear Material Safety and Safeguards, Marc […]

A New Mexico hearing officer has endorsed the Energy Department’s request to revise how transuranic waste “volume” is calculated at the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) under the 1992 WIPP Land Withdrawal Act. The Dec. 10 report by state Hearing Officer Max Shepherd is now before New Mexico Environment Department (NMED) Secretary Butch Tongate, who […]

Leaving problem waste from the Energy Department’s Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) at the Waste Control Specialists (WCS) site in Texas for two more years should not cause any significant environmental risks, according to Nuclear Regulatory Commission. With the current extension to a 2014 order set to expire in days, the NRC is publishing an […]

The Energy Department’s Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) in New Mexico expects within days to take a shipment of remote-handled waste from the Argonne National Laboratory in Illinois, which has a higher radiation dose than most shipments over the past nearly two years. The Argonne shipment will be one of the last WIPP takes this […]

A hearings officer for the New Mexico Environment Department has recommended the state approve a request by the Department of Energy to change the way underground waste is counted at the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP). The recommendation, issued this week, must now be considered by NMED Secretary Butch Tongate, DOE Carlsbad Field Office Manager […]

An economic development executive in eastern Idaho said Wednesday that a number of questions remain about the Energy Department’s decision to close the Advanced Mixed Waste Treatment Project (AMWTP) at the Idaho National Laboratory. Dana Kirkham, CEO of the Regional Economic Development for Eastern Idaho, will attend a meeting with DOE officials in a few […]

WASHINGTON, D.C. — The Government Accountability Office (GAO) plans to publish three reports during January and February that will detail challenges facing the Energy Department’s Office of Environmental Management (EM). That was a major takeaway from a Tuesday presentation to a panel of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine by GAO Director of […]

Fluor Idaho has spent roughly $7 million to date on expenses related to the April 11 accident in which four drums of radioactive waste sludge overheated and blew off their lids at the Idaho National Laboratory. Spokesman Erik Simpson provided the figure in an Dec. 7 email responding to questions about Fluor Idaho’s efforts to […]

Nuclear Waste Partnership, the Energy Department contractor responsible for running the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) near Carlsbad, N.M., has hired Gene Balsmeier as its new chief operating officer and deputy project manager. Balsmeier, who has held management posts at a number of sites in the DOE complex, replaces Tammy Reynolds, NWP President and Project […]

An Energy Department analysis made public last week finds there was not a compelling business case to continue operating the Advanced Mixed Waste Treatment Project (AMWTP) at the Idaho National Laboratory to process transuranic waste from other states. The agency has officially decided to close the facility in mid-to-late 2019 after it completes treating and […]

The Energy Department and its contractor for the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) have summed up their arguments to the New Mexico state government for a new system of recording underground waste disposal volume. Together with AECOM-led Nuclear Waste Partnership, DOE filed its closing statement with the New Mexico Environment Department on Nov. 28, following […]

The Energy Department is giving interested parties more time to weigh in on the proposed new interpretation of high-level radioactive waste (HLW). The public comment deadline has been pushed back from Dec. 10 to Jan. 9, according to a DOE notice Tuesday in the Federal Register. Comments can be emailed to HLWnotice@em.doe.gov. After the department […]

The Idaho Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) is taking comments this month on the Energy Department’s annual update to its cleanup plans for the Idaho National Laboratory complex. The comment deadline on DOE’s draft 2019 version of its Site Treatment Plan for the 890-square-mile national laboratory expires at 5 p.m. local time on Dec. 28, […]

The Energy Department and its cleanup contractor for the Idaho National Laboratory confirmed Friday the Advanced Mixed Waste Treatment Project (AMWTP) will close in 2019 once it has finished its work. “The Department of Energy analyzed the feasibility of extending the AMWTP mission to treat waste from other DOE sites, and concluded it would not […]

The Energy Department and its contractor for the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) have summed up their arguments to the New Mexico state government for a new system of recording underground waste disposal volume. Together with AECOM-led Nuclear Waste Partnership, DOE filed its closing statement with the New Mexico Environment Department on Nov. 28, following […]

The Idaho Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) is taking comments this month on the Energy Department’s annual update to its cleanup plans for the Idaho National Laboratory complex. The comment deadline on DOE’s draft 2019 version of its Site Treatment Plan for the 890-square-mile national laboratory expires at 5 p.m. local time on Dec. 28, […]

While details have not been released, Fluor Idaho has presented Energy Department officials with its corrective action plan for preventing another radioactive-waste drum breach at an Idaho National Laboratory facility. Energy Department officials in Idaho are expected to finish their adequacy review of the plan by Dec. 21. At dates yet to be determined, Fluor […]

The Department of Energy should consider performing a lengthy environmental review of its plan to dispose of 34 metric tons of surplus weapon-usable plutonium by burying the material deep underground, a congressionally chartered panel said Friday. The department’s semiautonomous National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) might find the disposal plan easier to manage if it produces […]

Critical Applications Alliance (CAA), a venture comprised of two Houston companies, has won a $135 million contract to build a new permanent ventilation system at the Energy Department’s Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) near Carlsbad, N.M. The award to the team of Christensen Building Group and Kilgore Industries was announced Nov. 19 by the Energy […]

Weapons Complex Monitor took a break last week for the U.S. Thanksgiving holiday, but out affiliate publication, Weapons Complex Morning Briefing did not. Here’s a recap of some of the nuclear security enterprise news covered last week. Work Resumes at WIPP After Rock Fall Work resumed underground before Thanksgiving at the Energy Department’s Waste Isolation […]

Work resumed underground last week at the Energy Department’s Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) near Carlsbad, N.M., following a recent rock fall, a New Mexico newspaper reported Nov. 20. The Carlsbad Current-Argus reported work resumed Nov. 16 after a rock fall in Room 6 of Panel 7 on Nov. 14. The newspaper also cited Donavan Mager, […]

Critical Applications Alliance (CAA), a venture comprised of two Houston-based companies, has won a $135 million contract to build a new permanent ventilation system at the Energy Department’s Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) near Carlsbad, N.M. The award to the team of Christensen Building Group and Kilgore Industries was announced Monday by the Energy Department […]

Nuclear Waste Partnership (NWP), the Energy Department’s management contractor for the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) near Carlsbad, N.M., has not yet awarded the construction contract for a new $288 million permanent underground ventilation system, although it should come soon, a spokesman said recently. The Energy Department and its contractor have been talking about awarding […]