Vol. 33, No. 02 
Completion of DOE’s Phased Onsite Return Delayed 1 Month
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Cleanup & Remediation
High Court Agrees to Hear Feds Challenge to Hanford Worker Comp Law
The U.S. Supreme Court this week agreed to hear the Department of Justice’s challenges to a Washington state law that made it easier for cleanup workers at the Department of Energy’s Hanford Site to claim compensation for certain occupational illnesses. The highest court in the land, an independent branch of the federal government, said Monday […]
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Cleanup & Remediation
Early Stumbles for IWTU Included Backwards Valve Labeling, Logistical Snarl
Preparations for a 50-day test-run of a crucial liquid-waste treatment system at the Department of Energy’s Idaho site were cut short Christmas Eve because someone installed an open/closed indicator on the unit’s plumbing backwards, according to the site. The Integrated Waste Treatment Unit (IWTU), designed to solidify some 850,000 gallons of sodium-bearing, radioactive waste leftover […]
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High-Level & Tank Waste
Parsons, DOE Work on Technical Safety Concerns at Savannah River SWPF
The Salt Waste Processing Facility at the Savannah River Site, offline since late October for a combination of an operational outage and technical safety concerns, could get back up by the end of this month, a Department of Energy spokesperson said Monday. The facility near Aiken, S.C remained in an outage early this week, following […]
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Cleanup & Remediation
Settlement talks Extended Until April in NMED-DOE Suit Over Los Alamos Cleanup
State and federal settlement talks about revamping the 2016 consent order for legacy cleanup at the Department of Energy’s Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico will continue into early April, according to a status report filed this month with a federal court. Representatives from the New Mexico Department of Environment (NMED) and DOE Office […]
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High-Level & Tank Waste
Tank-side Cesium Removal at Hanford Tracking January Startup
The Tank-Side Cesium Removal project at the Hanford Site in Washington state, a key cog in the Department of Energy’s plan to begin bulk solidification of liquid radioactive waste there next year, could start up in January, according to a recent memo from the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board. “DOE Hanford is working with the […]
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Contracts & Procurement
Small Biz Would Receive Big Chunks of Portsmouth, DUF6 Contract Values
Eventual winners of new multibillion-dollar contracts at the Portsmouth Site in Ohio and the Paducah Site in Kentucky are expected to use small businesses to perform work worth 15% to 20% of contract value, not counting the 120-day transition period. That is according to a detailed presentation on the $ 5.87-billion Portsmouth Decontamination and Decommissioning […]
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Transuranic Waste
Nevada Lawmaker Concerned About Planned Shipment to NNSS
Rep. Dina Titus (D-Nev.) wants Secretary of Energy Jennifer Granholm to provide details about a Department of Energy plan to bury certain nuclear waste, now at the Idaho National Laboratory, at the Nevada National Security Site. Titus said she was caught off guard by federal plans for the shipments from Idaho to the Nevada National […]
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Cleanup & Remediation
Time and Money Must Factor Into Hanford Waste Research, Panel Finds
An ongoing federal study into alternative liquid-waste cleanup at the Hanford Site in Washington state should focus narrowly on finding the fastest way to get rid of low-level radioactive waste that can’t be solidified by the site’s Waste Treatment and Immobilization Plant, a national academies panel recommended last week. The waste treatment plant, which is […]
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Budget & Policy
Multiple GOP Candidates Eye Congressional Seat Serving West Valley
To date, four Republicans have announced plans to run for Rep. Tom Reed’s (R-N.Y.) seat representing New York’s 23rd Congressional District, which includes the West Valley Demonstration Project, a nuclear site being cleaned up by the Department of Energy. After a former lobbyist accused the lawmaker of sexual harassment last March, Reed, who has served […]
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Cleanup & Remediation
Wrap Up: Key Hanford Facilities Among EM 2022 Goals; Granholm Honors Oak Ridge Work
Construction and commissioning of key nuclear-cleanup facilities headline the Department of Energy’s goals for calendar year 2022, according to the Environmental Management (EM) Office’s recently-published list of priorities. Among these are two big projects at the Hanford Site in Washington state. There, EM intends to finish cold commissioning of the first of two melters at […]