Vol. 29, No. 38 DOE Hopes Procurement Tweaks Accelerate Nuclear Cleanup Jobs
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High-Level & Tank Waste
Energy Department Reconsiders Classification for High-Level Waste
The U.S. Energy Department’s Office of Environmental Management will within a few days formally propose to change the way it interprets the term “high-level radioactive waste” (HLW). A Federal Register notice, expected to be posted next week, will outline DOE’s plan to classify high-level waste more on its radioactive characteristics and less on its source […]
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High-Level & Tank Waste
Extension Sought for Two Hanford Tank Waste Retrieval Milestones
The state of Washington and the Department of Energy have jointly asked a federal judge for an extension of two milestones for retrieval of radioactive tank waste set in the court-enforced consent decree governing cleanup of the Hanford Site. Washington state sued the federal agency in 2008, asking a federal judge to set new deadlines […]
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Contracts & Procurement
Several Big DOE Cleanup Contracts Could be Awarded by New Year
The Energy Department’s Office of Environmental Management expects to award a trio of big contracts, two of them re-awards following protests by losing bidders, by the end of the year. The department hopes this month to reissue both the liquid waste management contract at the Savannah River Site in South Carolina and a consolidated technical […]
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High-Level & Tank Waste
Savannah River Liquid Waste Manager Earns 96 Percent of Fee for 2nd Half of 2017
Contractor Savannah River Remediation (SRR) received more than 96 percent of its fee during the second half of 2017 for liquid waste management at the Energy Department’s Savannah River Site in South Carolina. Of an available $12.44 million for work performed between July 1 and Dec. 31, 2017, SRR earned $12 million, or 96.4 percent […]
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Cleanup & Remediation
DOE Focuses on 70-Acre Central Bear Creek Site for Oak Ridge Landfill
The Energy Department believes the central Bear Creek Valley is the best place within the Oak Ridge Reservation (ORR) in Tennessee to develop a new 2.2-million-cubic yard waste disposal facility – due in part to its geology and groundwater flow conditions. Because the same valley is home to Oak Ridge’s existing Environmental Management Waste Management […]
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Vitrification & Grout
Wash. State OKs Grouting to Stabilize Second Hanford Waste Tunnel
Workers at the Hanford Site are preparing to start filling the PUREX Plant’s second waste storage tunnel with concrete-like grout as soon as this week, after the Washington state Department of Ecology on Sept. 28 approved the interim stabilization work to prevent collapse. In May 2017, there was a partial collapse of the older and […]
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High-Level & Tank Waste
SRS Ends Sludge Waste Processing Outage, Salt Waste to Resume This Month
The Savannah River Site’s Defense Waste Processing Facility (DWPF) resumed operations Tuesday following a nearly two-month outage for routine maintenance. Meanwhile, the site’s Modular Caustic Side Solvent Extraction Unit (MCU), which treats a different form of liquid waste, will remain offline until mid-October. Both facilities were shut down on Aug. 8 for maintenance, which meant liquid […]
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High-Level & Tank Waste
Hanford Tank Farm Manager Gets Contract Extension
Washington River Protection Solutions has been awarded a contract extension of up to a year for management of the radioactive waste storage tanks at the Hanford Site in Washington state. The Department of Energy announced the extension Sept. 28, two days before the expiration of WRPS’ 10-year contract. The contract extension, which will expire Sept. […]
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Innovation & Infrastructure
Bulk of SRS Road Infrastructure Project Slated for 2020 Completion
A $40 million project to refurbish all 119 miles of paved roads at the Savannah River Site in South Carolina is on pace for completion by fiscal 2023, with work on the last of three major roads expected to wrap up by 2020. In an update on the project last week, Thomas Johnson, the Department […]
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Decommissioning
Centrus Nabs $15 Million Deal to Decommission Oak Ridge Facility
The Energy Department has retained Centrus Energy to prepare the K-1600 facility at the Oak Ridge Reservation in Tennessee for demolition. The Rockville, Md.-based nuclear fuel supplier has leased the uranium enrichment plant since 2002. Centrus announced Tuesday it has received a $15 million work authorization for decontamination and decommissioning (D&D) of the plant, one […]
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Vitrification & Grout
Veolia, Battelle Ink Deal for Vitrification Technology Testing
A newly inked deal has paved the way for Veolia Nuclear Solutions to demonstrate its patented GeoMelt technology to process radioactive waste sent from the Idaho National Laboratory (INL). Under the agreement, announced Sept. 25, INL management and operations contractor Battelle Energy Alliance (BEA) will ship some drums with small amounts of radioactive contaminated sodium […]
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Transuranic Waste
Wrap Up: Livermore to Resume TRU Shipments to WIPP
Another Department of Energy facility is preparing to resume shipping its transuranic waste to the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) in New Mexico. Shipments of contact-handled waste from the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in California should begin in 2019, lab spokesman Nolan O’Brien said Tuesday by email. The resumption is based on availability of funding […]