Vol. 34, No. 37 DOE must act first on Hanford tank contract, Justice says
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Budget & Policy
DOE, contractors, would keep working after shutdown, but travel would be restricted
Still deadlocked over whether to spend the maximum allowed by a law passed this spring, Congress on Friday still had not passed a bill to keep federal agencies open in the new government fiscal year that begins Sunday. On Friday, even before it failed by a 198-232 vote to pass in the chamber in which […]
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Cleanup & Remediation
Cleanup won’t go away after NNSA takes over Savannah River, DOE manager says
There will be no slowdown in nuclear cleanup next autumn when the Department of Energy’s Office of Environmental Management gives up its landlord role at the Savannah River Site, a citizens group heard Tuesday. “What we are not transferring are any of the EM [environmental management] missions,” Michael Budney, operations manager for DOE’s Office of […]
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Transuranic Waste
SRS crews prepare to open, treat problem container rejected by WIPP
Crews at the Department of Energy’s Savannah River Site plan next week to open up a contaminated waste box recently returned to South Carolina from the agency’s underground disposal site in New Mexico, a federal advisory board heard Tuesday. These specific drums initially contained debris waste sent to the Savannah River Site from the shuttered […]
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Transuranic Waste
New Mexicans voice support for toughened WIPP permit, urge enforcement
New Mexicans who took part in a hybrid public meeting Friday, largely expressed support for a new state permit for the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant while urging the New Mexico Environment Department to be vigilant in monitoring Department of Energy compliance. Too often from 2011 through 2018, the New Mexico Environment Department (NMED) managers under […]
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High-Level & Tank Waste
Chemical safety changes sought by DOE at Hanford Waste Treatment Plant
The Department of Energy and Bechtel National should make several upgrades to the chemical safety program for the Waste Treatment and Immobilization Plant at the Hanford Site in Washington state, according to DOE’s enforcement wing. While Bechtel and subcontractor Waste Treatment Completion Co. have a “generally adequate” chemical safety program, until key improvements are made, […]
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High-Level & Tank Waste
SRS prime starts long-term task order that includes bulk of liquid-waste cleanup
The BWX Technologies-led nuclear remediation contractor for the Savannah River Site in South Carolina and the Department of Energy’s Office of Environmental Management have inked an eight-year task order for the next stages of cleanup, the site’s Citizens Advisory Board heard Tuesday. Michael Budney, DOE’s operations manager for the Savannah River nuclear cleanup, said the […]
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Innovation & Infrastructure
Nevada Site continues to diversify its power supply, report finds
About 75% of the motor vehicle fleet at the Nevada National Security Site is powered by either electricity or alternate fuels, according to the just-released annual environmental report for 2022. The former nuclear testing site also gets more than a third of its electricity from carbon-free sources, according to the 270-page report prepared by prime […]
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Cleanup & Remediation
DOE funds $54M worth of joint efforts with states, other groups
States agencies and other entities will receive a combined $54 million worth of funding for programs supporting the Department of Energy’s nuclear cleanup work, the federal agency said Thursday. For starters, Pittsburgh-based NuVision Engineering will receive $3.5 million for an independent comparison of the DOE nuclear cleanup program with governmental counterparts for the United Kingdom, […]
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Decommissioning
Wrap: Another ORNL reactor comes down; Bechtel opens Knoxville office; Sen. Feinstein dies at 90; Granholm salary targeted
A Department of Energy environmental remediation contractor has taken down the second nuclear reactor on the central campus of the Oak Ridge National Laboratory in Tennessee, the agency said Tuesday. Amentum-led United Cleanup Oak Ridge (UCOR) has finished tearing down the Low Intensity Test Reactor, which is also known as building 3005. Demolition of the […]