Vol. 27, No. 26 Waste Control Specialists Waiting on Permission to Keep LANL Waste in Texas
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Cleanup & Remediation
CDC Branch to Assess Hanford Tank Farms Worker Safety Efforts
In an eventful week for the Hanford Site tank farms, unions issued a list of demand for better worker protection against chemical vapors and the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) agreed to conduct a safety and health evaluation of the chemical vapors situation. On Monday, the Hanford Atomic Metal Trades Council (HAMTC) […]
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Plutonium Pit Production
Judge Denies Request to Delay Summary Judgment Motion Ruling in MOX Case
A U.S. District Court judge on Tuesday denied the Department of Energy’s request for a delay in proceedings for South Carolina’s multimillion-dollar lawsuit against the federal agency. DOE had requested that Judge J. Michelle Childs postpone a June 30 hearing on the state’s request for summary judgment in the civil case charging DOE with failing […]
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Cleanup & Remediation
Union Wants Meetings With EM Senior Managers About Reorganization
The union representing federal workers at the Energy Department’s Office of Environmental Management (EM) in Washington, D.C., wants face-to-face meetings with senior DOE leaders about a planned reorganization that would bring nine field offices around the country under the supervision of a single, Washington-based manager. The National Treasury Employees Union [NTEU] “is requesting direct face-to-face negotiations […]
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Cleanup & Remediation
Answers Needed on SRS Mercury Impacts: Lab Scientist
Scientists at the Savannah River Site in South Carolina are calling for more research to understand why mercury is being produced in tributaries that flow into the Savannah River waterways and how the environment is impacted when that mercury discharges into the river itself. During a June 8 presentation to a committee of the SRS […]
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Cleanup & Remediation
New Mexico Joins Defense in LANL Waste Lawsuit
The New Mexico Environment Department on Thursday joined the Energy Department and one of its contractors as a defendant in a lawsuit filed in May by the advocacy group Nuclear Watch New Mexico. The group’s lawsuit alleges the federal agency owes the state millions of dollars after it blew a 2015 deadline to clean up a large cache of Cold […]
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High-Level & Tank Waste
Ribbon Cutting Held for SWPF at Savannah River Site
The Department of Energy and Savannah River Site held a ribbon cutting on Tuesday to formally celebrate completion of the South Carolina site’s Salt Waste Processing Facility (SWPF). The facility will process the salt waste that is stored in SRS storage tanks and send the cesium and actinide portions of the waste to the site’s […]
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Cleanup & Remediation
Incumbents Keep Low Profile at DOE Briefing on New LANL Cleanup Contract
The Department of Energy’s first open industry briefing for the estimated $1.7 billion contract that covers up to 10 years of legacy nuclear cleanup work at the Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) drew a crowd of nearly 150 earlier this month, but the partners for incumbent Los Alamos National Security (LANS) kept a low profile, […]
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Cleanup & Remediation
DNFSB Wants to See DOE Emergency Response Plan This Summer
The Department of Energy has completed only five of the 13 steps in a complex-wide emergency preparedness implementation plan the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board recommended the department start work on more than two years ago, according to a recently published letter to Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz. The letter is the latest to be made public […]
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National Laboratories
Worker Loses Part of Finger at Idaho During ATR Maintenance
A worker lost part of his finger during routine maintenance of the Advanced Test Reactor at the Idaho National Laboratory, according to a notice the Department of Energy posted online. The cause was a loop of wire the worker ran through the shaft of a drill socket, which was affixed to a handheld drill. As […]
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High-Level & Tank Waste
Bechtel Flubs Some Electrical Construction Work at WTP, DOE Says
Electrical work still tops a list of construction-related concerns at the Waste Treatment Plant (WTP) contractor Bechtel National is building at the Department of Energy’s Hanford Site in Washington state, according to a Friday report from the agency’s Office of Enterprise Assessments (EA). “Electrical construction weaknesses were identified with completed wiring installations that did not […]
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Transuranic Waste
Maintenance on the Mend at WIPP
Despite a few hiccups, workers at the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) near Carlsbad, N.M., are generally adhering well to stricter maintenance procedures and requirements established after the 2014 accidents that have kept the nation’s only transuranic waste-disposal facility closed for more than two years, according to a report the Energy Department’s Office of Enterprise […]