Vol. 32, No. 28 
House Panel Bill Nixes Any Budget Reductions for Big DOE Cleanup Sites
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Contracts & Procurement
Two GAO Bid Protests on DOE Contracts Withdrawn
Two protests filed with the Government Accountability Office over long-term Department of Energy contracts awards, each worth more than a billion dollars, were withdrawn this week. Bechtel-led Idaho Remediation on Tuesday withdrew its challenge of a $6.4-billion nuclear contract at the Idaho National Laboratory awarded in May to a Jacobs-led team, Idaho Environmental Coalition. “The […]
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Decommissioning
Draft ROD Says New Oak Ridge Landfill Could Cost $732M Over Time
The Department of Energy this week publicly released its long-delayed draft Record of Decision for a proposed new landfill to handle low-level radioactive waste from building demolition at the Oak Ridge Site in Tennessee. The 350-page draft on the Environmental Management Disposal Facility, dated June 22, now will undergo a 60-day review, by the Tennessee […]
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Cleanup & Remediation
DNFSB Chair, Acting Cleanup Boss Fear ‘Silver Tsunami’ of Regents at DOE
There has been no big retirement spike among federal employees at the Department of Energy’s nuclear cleanup office during the COVID-19 pandemic but officials who spoke at a virtual hearing this week fear that could change. The assessment was offered by William “Ike” White, acting assistant secretary for environmental management, in response to a question […]
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Transuranic Waste
New Mexico Reviews New Shaft, Revised Permit at WIPP
The environmental regulator in New Mexico should decide by this fall whether to allow the Department of Energy and its contractor to resume digging a new underground shaft at the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant this fall, a state official told the New Mexico Legislature’s Radioactive & Hazardous Materials Committee this week. The final decision by […]
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Budget & Policy
Advocacy Groups Want EM-1 Strong on Environmental Justice
A coalition of more than 30 citizen groups, called the Alliance for Nuclear Accountability, wants President Joe Biden to nominate a Department of Energy assistant secretary for environmental management committed to cleanup and environmental justice, according to a Monday letter. Whoever gets picked to run the $7-billion-plus DOE Office of Environmental Management must have a […]
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Vitrification & Grout
SWPF Hits 1-Million Gallon Mark at Savannah River
Since starting up in October, the Salt Waste Processing Facility at the Department of Energy’s Savannah River Site in South Carolina has processed 1 million gallons of radioactive tank waste, plant builder Parson wrote this week in press release. The 140,000-square-foot Salt Waste Processing Facility (SWPF) is the center of DOE plans to empty 36 […]
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Cleanup & Remediation
Wrap Up: N3B Investigates Bottle, Savannah River Studies Container Alert
The legacy cleanup contractor for the Department of Energy’s Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico has shipped off a bottle of unidentified liquid found around a pothole along a contaminated stretch of a public road for analysis. On July 8, Newport News Nuclear-BWXT Los Alamos (N3B) discovered an intact 500-milliliter amber glass bottle containing […]