With dignitaries such as U.S. Rep. Chuck Fleischmann (R-Tenn.) on hand, Amentum Thursday formally opened what it calls its Global Nuclear headquarters in Oak Ridge, Tenn.

The offices at 151 Lafayette Drive will house more than 150 staff and serve as a hub for Amentum’s international nuclear operations as well as providing the company a base for the expanding nuclear business in East Tennessee, according to the news release. Amentum is also lead partner for United Cleanup Oak Ridge, the Department of Energy remediation contractor for the Oak Ridge site.

Amentum also used the occasion to announce a scholarship program with Roane State Community College and the University of Tennessee at Knoxville to bolster the region’s nuclear workforce pipeline.

After being replaced by a new facility earlier this year, the 1940s-era water treatment plant at the Department of Energy’s Hanford Site in Richland, Wash., is being taken down.

DOE announced Sept. 22 that the 283W water treatment plant has been removed from service and is being decommissioned after spending more than eight decades treating and delivering over 2 million gallons of water daily. 

DOE’s landlord contractor, Leidos-led Hanford Mission Integration Solutions has taken out the old plant’s chlorine gas cylinders, DOE’s Office of Environmental Management said in a press release.  Removing the cylinders removes a safety risk to workers, according to the press release. In January, the new Central Plateau Water Treatment Facility, which can handle 3.5 million gallons per day, came online to, among other things, provide water to the Waste Treatment Plant at Hanford. The new water plant was built by Fowler General Construction. 

Berkeley, Calif.-based Deep Isolation was issued a drilling permit by a Texas state agency for its full-scale, non-nuclear borehole demonstration project in Cameron, Texas, the company said Oct. 1.

The Texas Railroad Commission issued the permit. With this regulatory approval, Deep Isolation said in its press release, the borehole disposal pilot project can move from engineering and design to construction at the site. The company plans to conduct site and construction activities ahead of drilling and subsurface testing.

Deep Isolation’s project, which the company refers to as its Commercialization Pilot, serves as a program to collect data and gain operational experience to advance the company’s strategy for its disposal technology, the company said. It broke ground for the project in late January.

BWX Technologies has received a contract worth approximately $189 million to manufacture nuclear reactor fuel for the U.S. Navy, the company said Oct. 1.

The award calls for BWXT subsidiary Nuclear Fuel Services (NFS) in Erwin, Tenn., to manufacture and deliver fuel for the Naval Nuclear Propulsion Program. Work is scheduled to be completed in August 2027, according to the company.

The Department of Energy’s Office of Intelligence and Counterintelligence currently has a vacancy available for its Director position, according to a job posting on usajobs.gov.

“I can personally attest that this is a uniquely important, demanding, and satisfying position, serving as both the senior intelligence officer/advisor to the Secretary and Deputy Secretary of Energy and being one of the lead intelligence executives within the Intelligence Community for Nuclear and S&T intelligence,” Jay Tilden, formerly in this position, said in a LinkedIn post. “This position is also responsible for protecting our national laboratories from espionage threats and providing critical cyber intelligence to the Energy Sector.”

The office is accepting applications until Oct. 13.