Publications: Weapons Cleanup Monitor

Two Department of Energy contractors, one in in charge of operations and the other responsible for liquid waste and cleanup, touted recent developments at the Savannah River Site Thursday a meeting of the South Carolina Governor’s Nuclear Advisory Council (GNAC), A $1.4 billion training facility to support the Savannah River Plutonium Production Facility (SRPPF) is […]

The Department of Energy is seeking expressions of interest (EOI) from vendors that could potentially help recover valuable critical materials from nuclear cleanup sites. DOE expects it can reclaim rare earth elements and other materials important to industry from Cold War and Manhattan Project sites overseen by the department’s Office of Environmental Management, according to […]

The Hanford Site’s Tank-side Cesium Removal (TSCR) system is back in operation for the first time since February, the Department of Energy’s Office of Environmental Management said in a Sept. 15 press release. DOE contractor Hanford Tank Waste Operations & Closure (H2C) suspended operations Feb. 25 because Tank AP-106 was too full to take more […]

ARLINGTON, VA — The head of the Department of Energy’s Hanford Field Office in Richland, Wash., said at a conference here last week it would be feasible to treat 80% of the Hanford Site’s underground tank waste by 2040. Hanford Field Office Manager Ray Geimer made the remark during a Sept. 15 panel discussion during […]

ARLINGTON, VA — The Department of Energy’s nuclear cleanup wing recently delayed or paused a couple of contract procurements, participants in the National Cleanup Workshop heard here Sept 15. The Los Alamos Legacy Cleanup solicitation in New Mexico has been delayed, as well as the Paducah Decontamination and Decommissioning Contract in Kentucky, said Aaron Deckard, […]

Uranium recovery at the Department of Energy’s Savannah River Site in South Carolina will resume next month when the site’s H Canyon facility restarts head end operations, meaning it will begin the initial processing stage.  During an SRS Citizens Advisory Board (CAB) meeting on Tuesday, the site’s DOE Office of Environmental Management executive Edwin Deshong […]

ARLINGTON, VA – Within weeks the Department of Energy could announce potential winners of a solicitation to set up a nuclear fuel recycling demonstration at the Idaho National Laboratory (INL), the department’s head of nuclear cleanup said here last week. Tim Walsh, the head of DOE’s Office of Environmental Management, said Sept. 15 at the […]

Nuclear cleanup crews at the Department of Energy’s Portsmouth Site in Ohio have taken down a huge chunk of the X-333 Process Building as part of the ongoing demolition of the 33-acre facility. The DOE Office of Environmental Management said in a Tuesday press release that workers have torn down the 66,000-square-foot southwest corner of […]

Holtec International confirmed in a press release Thursday it is pausing its planned initial public  offering (IPO),due to a combination of market factors including plummeting support for artificial intelligence data centers.  “The decision to postpone the offering has been caused by the unusual confluence of developments that has impaired investor confidence in the market for […]

ARLINGTON, VA – The head of the Department of Energy’s $8-billion nuclear cleanup branch said here Tuesday the Office of Environmental Management (EM) is indeed being renamed. In his “State of EM” speech, Walsh again said the Environmental Management office is being rebranded as the “Office of Nuclear Restoration and Revitalization. His remarks came at […]

The Integrated Waste Treatment Unit (IWTU) at Idaho National Laboratory is still in an outage that began in June, a Department of Energy spokesperson said Monday. “The IWTU entered a scheduled outage in early June to replace the facility’s process gas filters,” the DOE spokesperson said in a Monday email reply to an Exchange Monitor […]

ARLINGTON, VA – Tim Walsh, the Department of Energy’s Assistant Secretary for the Office of Environmental Management (EM) said here Tuesday that his department is close to reaching an agreement with New Mexico officials over the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) near Carlsbad, N.M. Walsh said EM has been in productive negotiations with the New […]

Savannah River Site is moving beyond its traditional environmental cleanup mission as the Department of Energy and National Nuclear Security Administration prepare to expand nuclear-fuel, plutonium and other national-security activities at the South Carolina site. The NNSA took over landlord responsibilities from DOE’s Environmental Management in October 2024. Edwin Deshong, manager of DOE Environmental Management’s […]

ARLINGTON, Va. — The Department of Energy’s Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) near Carlsbad, N.M., will spend about half of 2027 down for maintenance, DOE and contractor officials told the National Cleanup Workshop here Tuesday. WIPP will be essentially offline and not receiving waste for two three-month cycles during 2027, said Ken Harrawood, president and […]

ARLINGTON, Va. – Rep. Chuck Fleischmann (R-Tenn.) told the National Cleanup Workshop here on Wednesday he expects the Energy & Water Development bill for fiscal 2027 to pass during the so-called “lame duck” session after Congress returns following the November election. Fleischmann, a member of the House Appropriation Committee, chairs the Energy & Water subcommittee […]

ARLINGTON, Va. – Someone who mistakenly stumbled into the Department of Energy’s National Cleanup Workshop without an agenda might be excused for confusing it with a conference on artificial intelligence (AI). Many conversations from the podium and in the hallways here this week have focused to some extent on the potential and perils of AI. […]

ARLINGTON, Va. – The anticipated expansion of missions and private-sector projects around Savannah River Site could require the surrounding region to build as many as 17,000 homes over the next five years, according to a local official here Tuesday. Chuck Smith, a former city councilman in Aiken, S.C. where Savannah River Site (SRS) is located, […]

The Department of Energy’s Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) in New Mexico received 29 transuranic (TRU) waste shipments in August, in its first full month following hoist repairs that paused disposal back in May.  By comparison, the facility received 55 waste shipments in August 2025, and 55 shipments in April of this year, when operations […]

ARLINGTON, VA — The Department of Energy’s nuclear cleanup branch is about a third smaller than it was a few years ago, although more people could be brought on following a pending regional reorganization. “You know today we are at about 820 federal employees,” Tim Walsh, the head of DOE’s Office of Environmental Management said […]

Twenty-five years ago, after terrorists flew airplanes into New York’s World Trade Center and the Pentagon in Virginia, then-Secretary of Energy Spencer Abraham ordered all Department of Energy facilities be placed in high security status. “All non-essential DOE personnel are evacuated and sent home,” according to a DOE webpage on Sept. 11, 2001. As for […]

West Virginia has been selected as a finalist to host a nuclear campus under a high-profile Department of Energy program Gov. Patrick Morrisey (R) announced in a Tuesday press conference. West Virginia is now the sixth state to be considered for a Nuclear Lifecycle Innovation Campus, joining Idaho, Louisiana, Oklahoma, Tennessee and Utah, which were […]

The South Carolina Environmental Law Project (SCELP) is demanding the Department of Energy and its National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) conduct a public environmental review of plans to provide 19.7 metric tons of surplus weapons-grade plutonium to private nuclear companies. SCELP published the letter of demand Sept. 8 on behalf of Nuclear Watch New Mexico, […]

An independent assessment by a branch of the Department of Energy last month issued a couple of findings calling for Bechtel National and its subcontractor to make certain improvements at the Hanford Site Waste Treatment and Immobilization Plant (WTP). DOE’s Office of Enterprise Assessments issued the report last month calling for Bechtel and subcontractor Waste […]

A Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board (DNFSB) resident inspector watched an emergency drill at the Department of Energy’s Hanford Site in Washington state in August to see how crews might handle an earthquake that damaged facilities within the tank farms. “An RI [resident inspector] observed an emergency preparedness event-scene limited drill simulating a seismic event […]

The Department of Energy has sent its first shipment of remote-handled transuranic waste since 2009 from the Savannah River Site in South Carolina to the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) using a new shipping container. Remote-handled waste is more radioactive than contact-handled transuranic (TRU) waste, which accounts for the vast majority of TRU waste disposed […]

A Mexican national living illegally in the United States has been sentenced to two years in federal prison for identity theft and passport fraud after working at the Department of Energy’s Savannah River Site (SRS) in Aiken, S.C., under a false identity.  The South Carolina division of the U.S. Attorney’s Office announced Thursday that Ricardo […]

The Department of Energy’s cleanup contractor for Los Alamos National Laboratory recently drilled a borehole more than 1,000-feet deep for a new groundwater monitoring well to help keep tabs on a hexavalent chromium plume. DOE’s Office of Environmental Management announced Sept. 1 that legacy cleanup contractor Newport News Nuclear BWXT-Los Alamos (N3B) had finished drilling […]

Although the maintenance program at the Department of Energy’s Hanford Site tank farms and liquid waste facilities is satisfactory, there are a couple of issues that demand attention, according to a recent DOE report. The facilities at the complex are overseen by BWX Technologies-led contractor Hanford Tank Waste Operations & Closure (H2C), which needs to […]