Vol. 28, No. 28 
Marcinowski Replaced as DOE EM Policy Chief
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Budget & Policy
Atkins’ Parker is Possible EM-1; White House Nominates Two DOE Undersecretaries
The White House is considering Alan Parker, who now leads one of the Energy Department’s nuclear-cleanup contractors, to head the agency’s entire remediation of its Cold War legacy as assistant secretary of energy for environmental management (EM), a source said Thursday. Parker is currently president and project manager for Mid-America Conversion Services: a new Atkins-led contracting […]
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Budget & Policy
House Approps Committee OKs $6.4B DOE EM Budget; No Floor Vote Scheduled
House lawmakers this week approved a fiscal 2018 energy and water budget that would give the the Department of Energy about $30 billion and add three new cleanup projects to DOE’s Office of Environmental Management. The House Appropriations Committee agreed by voice vote Wednesday, with a few Democrat dissenters, to send the nearly $38 billion 2018 […]
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Transuranic Waste
After Merger Collapses, WCS Weighing Options for 100 Containers of Problematic DOE Waste
After a federal judge blocked Dallas-based Waste Control Specialists’ takeover by EnergySolutions of Salt Lake City, the Texas company is still trying to figure out what to do with more than 100 potentially flammable containers of transuranic waste it is storing for the Energy Department. Asked what the canceled merger means for the company’s contract […]
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Cleanup & Remediation
Early Morning Flights Scan for Buried Waste at Hanford
Thermal imaging scans were being collected over 20 square miles at the center of the Hanford Site this week to help determine where radioactive waste might be buried. A crew using a small airplane started the flights early Wednesday morning and expected to continue over early mornings for three to five days. Information is being […]
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Cleanup & Remediation
Hanford Contractor Settles Wash. State Waste Storage Claim
CH2M Hill Plateau Remediation Co. and the Washington state Department of Ecology have reached a settlement agreement over waste storage that waives a $50,000 penalty against the Hanford Site cleanup contractor. The state had accused CH2M in August 2016 of breaching requirements for the storage of five containers of waste at Hanford’s T Plant, including identifying […]
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Cleanup & Remediation
DOE Schedules Meeting on Hanford Waste Storage Tunnel
The public meeting promised by the Department of Energy on the structural integrity of the Hanford Site’s PUREX Tunnel No. 2 has been set for 6 p.m. July 20., at the Courtyard by Marriott, 480 Columbia Point Drive in Richland, Wash. The workshop will be webcast. Registration information can be found here. DOE and the Washington […]
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Decommissioning
ETTP Turnover Progressing Under Budget and Ahead of Schedule, Contractor Says
The remaining portions of the site that once housed the old Oak Ridge Gaseous Diffusion Plant in Tennessee will be fully remediated within three years, well ahead of the original schedule, according to Ken Rueter, president of Energy Department site cleanup contractor URS-CH2M Oak Ridge (UCOR). The last Manhattan Project-era uranium enrichment building, K-27, came […]
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Budget & Policy
DOE Bill Funds MOX, Seeks Viable Plan for Proposed Alternative
The House of Representatives’ fiscal 2018 energy funding bill directs the National Nuclear Security Administration to address various legal and diplomatic hurdles in its proposed alternative plutonium disposition method before Congress considers funding the new approach and abandoning the MOX Fuel Fabrication Facility under construction in South Carolina. The House version of the energy and […]
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Interim Storage & Waste Disposal
House Appropriators Approve Trump’s $120M Yucca Ask, But Details Differ
Lawmakers on the House Appropriations Committee this week approved a fiscal 2018 energy budget that “fully supports” the Department of Energy’s plan to create a permanent nuclear waste repository at Yucca Mountain in Nevada — though in a slightly different way than the White House imagined. “The Committee fully supports the Administration’s position to move […]