Vol. 28, No. 35 
Owendoff Says Review Should Ready DOE Nuclear Cleanup for Key Decisions
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Cleanup & Remediation
Nuclear Cleanup Insiders Ponder Administration’s ‘Bias Towards Action’
With a large budget request, a programmatic review process encompassing top officials at Department of Energy headquarters and sites, and political appointees who seem to share a “bias for action,” there is cause for optimism about increasing the pace of cleanup of DOE’s nuclear legacy, officials said Wednesday. That was the sense that emerged following […]
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Transuranic Waste
WIPP Receives 60th Waste Shipment Since Reopening
Within recent days, the Waste Isolation Pilot Project (WIPP) in New Mexico has received its 60th shipment since it resumed receiving radioactive waste from other Department of Energy sites in April. WIPP is the nation’s sole permanent repository for transuranic waste, and its nearly three-year closure following a February 2014 radiation release left shipments stranded […]
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National Laboratories
Former Sen. Pete Domenici, Patron Saint of NM Weapons Labs, Dies
Former Sen. Peter Domenici (R-N.M.), a stalwart ally of virtually all things nuclear in his state, died Wednesday following complications from abdominal surgery, the Albuquerque Journal reported. He was 85. Domenici was first elected to the Senate in 1972 and served six terms. During his Senate career, he chaired the chamber’s Energy Committee and Budget […]
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Interim Storage & Waste Disposal
Simpson Tags Senate Leadership for Yucca Holdup
The primary obstacle to opening Yucca Mountain in Nevada as a nuclear waste-disposal site could be Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), the House’s top Energy Department appropriator said Thursday. “[I]n the Senate they have a two-vote Republican majority,” Rep. Mike Simpson (R-Idaho) said during the Energy Department-sponsored National Cleanup Workshop in Alexandria, Va. “One of those […]
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Nuclear Weapons & Stockpile
Simpson Still Skeptical About MOX Alternative
A number of major policy questions must be addressed before the federal government drops the mixed-oxide fuel (MOX) project in South Carolina in favor of a “dilute and dispose” approach to disposal of 34 metric tons of surplus weapon-grade plutonium, House Appropriations energy and water subcommittee Chairman Mike Simpson (R-Idaho) said Thursday. “There are a […]
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Transuranic Waste
DOE Studying Pathway for Combustible Waste Stored in Texas
The Energy Department’s Environmental Management Field Office at the Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico is studying potential strategies for dealing with combustible radioactive waste held at a private facility in West Texas. Between 300 and 400 drums of waste from Los Alamos have been kept at Waste Control Specialists storage complex in Andrews […]
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Cleanup & Remediation
Irma’s Impact on Savannah River Site Limited to Downed Trees
Damage at the Energy Department’s Savannah River Site in South Carolina this week from Hurricane Irma was limited to downed trees, with no reported issues at any facilities. Wind gusts reached up to 76 mph at the site near Aiken, S.C., with sustained winds of 35 mph on Monday when Irma did most of its damage in […]
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Decommissioning
Portsmouth X-326 Building Moving Toward ‘Cold and Dark’ Status
The final paperwork is being filed to declare the Department of Energy’s X-326 building at Portsmouth, Ohio, “cold and dark” and ready for demolition, Robert Edwards, manager of DOE’s Portsmouth/Paducah Project Office, said Wednesday. The cold and dark designation could come in early 2018, Edwards and Dennis Carr, site director for Portsmouth cleanup contractor Fluor-BWXT […]
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Cleanup & Remediation
Hanford Wraps Up Two Waste Evaporation Campaigns
Contractor Washington River Protection Solutions is ending fiscal 2017 with two successful evaporation campaigns that have freed up enough of the Hanford Site’s limited double-shell tank space to store 525,000 gallons of waste. Material from 149 single-shell tanks is being emptied into the site’s 27 double-shell tanks at Hanford that remain in service until the […]
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Cleanup & Remediation
EPA Picks Interim Managers for Hanford Office
The Environmental Protection Agency has not made a permanent plan for management of its office at the Energy Department’s Hanford Site in Washington state. Instead, the EPA on Monday assigned two staffers at its Hanford Project Office to fill in as acting manager over the next eight months. The move came after Dennis Faulk, who […]
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Commercial Low-Level Waste
Perma-Fix Promotes Exec to CEO
Perma-Fix Environmental Services President and CEO Lou Centofanti on Monday formally stepped down from the top spot he has held for more than two decades, replaced by the company’s chief operating officer. Centofanti founded the Atlanta-based nuclear services and waste management provider in 1991, and served two extended stints as president and chief executive officer: […]
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Interim Storage & Waste Disposal
Bad Information, Mistrust Hurt Borehole Discussions: Officials
When ENERCON Federal Services last year became one of four teams bidding to dig a 16,000-foot deep borehole as a test for a potential means of radioactive waste disposal, Outreach Manager Francis “Chip” Cameron thought of it as a mere research effort. “We made the mistake of walking into this, thinking it was going to […]
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Cleanup & Remediation
At Hanford
DOE to Skip Another Hanford Cleanup Life-Cycle Report The Department of Energy will not be required to issue an annual report in January outlining the remaining costs and schedule for cleanup of the Hanford Site in Washington state. The annual Hanford Lifecycle Scope, Schedule and Cost Report has been mandatory since 2010, when it was […]
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Cleanup & Remediation
Wrap Up: DOE Contractors Recognized for Safety Efforts
The cleanup contractor for the Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge Reservation in Tennessee said this week it is among a number of agency contractors to be recognized for their safety performance last year. The National Safety Council in July recognized 51 member entities for “outstanding safety achievements” in calendar year 2016 through the Industry Leader […]