Vol. 28, No. 9 
Rick Perry Sworn in as Energy Secretary
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Nuclear Weapons & Stockpile
DOE Contractors Wait for Policy Guidance as Trump Administration Slowly Forms
The absence of senior leadership at the Trump administration’s Cabinet agencies threatens to leave contractors without clear policy direction on matters including the Department of Energy’s nuclear weapons and cleanup complexes, executives said Tuesday. There is no imminent end in sight to this dilemma, they acknowledged. Panelists at the ExchangeMonitor’s Nuclear Deterrence Summit spoke two […]
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Budget & Policy
DOE Would Have to ‘Do More With Less’ Under Trump’s Proposed Budget
The White House will pitch a big increase for defense spending in fiscal 2018, while other parts of the federal government will have to “do more with less,” President Donald Trump said Monday. “This defense spending increase will be offset and paid for by finding greater savings and efficiencies across the federal government,” Trump said […]
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Cleanup & Remediation
DOE Wavers on PFP Demolition Deadline
Demolition of the Hanford Site’s Plutonium Finishing Plant might stretch beyond a Sept. 30 regulatory deadline, the manager of the Energy Department’s Richland Operations Office told a citizens group Wednesday. While there is a “high probability we can get it done by the end of this year,” the project might only be “near-done by the […]
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Cleanup & Remediation
Uranium Sequestration Expands at Hanford
Uranium sequestration operations near the Columbia River in the Hanford Site’s 300 Area are expanding after a successful test project. Soil had earlier been excavated in places down to a depth of 15 feet in the 300 Area to remove most of the uranium that has put the groundwater at risk of contamination. The hope […]
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Transuranic Waste
NMED Letter Hints at Progress on WIPP Shipment Authorizations
While the Energy Department still has not said which of its cleanup sites will first send waste to the reopened Waste Isolation Pilot Plant, recent correspondence between the New Mexico Environment Department and the agency shows DOE has made headway in approving shipments from three of the five sites on its shortlist. In a Feb. […]
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Cleanup & Remediation
Idaho AMWTP Employees Honored for Finishing Retrieval
Officials and employees on Thursday celebrated retrieving all 65,000 cubic meters of transuranic waste that was buried under a dirt berm at the Department of Energy’s Advanced Mixed Waste Treatment Project in Idaho. Idaho Gov. C.L. “Butch” Otter and Attorney General Lawrence Wasden attended the event, which honored AMWTP personnel whose job for the past 14 years […]
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Budget & Policy
SRS on Pace to Double-Stack 200 Canisters of Waste in FY17
The Savannah River Site is on pace to meet its fiscal 2017 goal to double-stack and safely store 200 canisters of treated radioactive waste, according to a site official. In October, liquid waste contractor Savannah River Remediation (SRR) began stacking canisters of vitrified waste on top of each other in Glass Waste Storage Building 1 […]
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Cleanup & Remediation
BWXT CEO Seeks to Bolster Profits at Nuclear Cleanup Segment
Revenue at the BWX Technologies business focused on the Energy Department’s Cold War cleanup program rose more than 15 percent last year as part of a generally strong 2016, the company reported Monday. The Lynchburg, Va., company derives the preponderance of its revenue from its sole-source nuclear propulsion work for the U.S. Navy and reports […]
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Cleanup & Remediation
AREVA Clips Loss in 2016 as Back-End Segment Returns to Profitability
French nuclear giant AREVA, in the middle of a massive restructuring, said Wednesday it stemmed its corporate losses in 2016 and returned the segment of its business dealing with nuclear cleanup to operational profitability during the year. Overall, the company’s 2016 loss was just under $700 million, a 66-percent improvement compared with 2015’s multibillion loss. Last year, […]
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Cleanup & Remediation
DOE IG Dings Bechtel, DOE Over $2M Wasted in Procurement Squabble
Bechtel National and the Energy Department could have saved about $2 million if they had reached an agreement to cancel orders for equipment the Hanford Site’s Waste Treatment Plant (WTP) did not urgently need, the agency’s inspector general wrote in a new report. Bechtel is building the plant at the site near Richland, Wash., to treat 56 million […]
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Cleanup & Remediation
COMMENTARY: Portsmouth Gaseous Diffusion Plant Needs Third-Party Assessment
By Billy Spencer, Mayor, Piketon, Ohio. Scioto County Commissioner Mike Crabtree is misinformed with respect to the Village of Piketon’s long-held position on the cleanup and redevelopment plan for the Portsmouth Gaseous Diffusion Plant (PORTS) and the need for a third-party independent assessment. He should also know that the Village of Piketon is not alone […]