Publications: Weapons Cleanup Monitor

The Department of Energy has picked four nuclear complex sites to be used for deployment of new artificial intelligence (AI) data centers. DOE announced the Idaho National Laboratory, Oak Ridge Site in Tennessee, Paducah Gaseous Diffusion Plant site in Kentucky and the Savannah River Site in South Carolina will host the AI data centers, according […]

The staff at the Department of Energy’s Paducah Site in Kentucky has completed an environmental baseline study that could set the stage for transferring 188 acres of land to local authorities for redevelopment. The 169-page study was completed by DOE contractor Four Rivers Nuclear Partnership and forwarded to Kentucky officials and the Environmental Protection Agency […]

A trio of experts told a subcommittee of the House Oversight Committee Tuesday that expanded debriefings on federal contract awards might reduce the number of bid protests. More detailed debriefings, which explain to bidders the rationale behind contract awards, are being used by the Department of Defense and other agencies might consider them as well,  […]

The Savannah River Site in South Carolina hopes to officially open its $66 million, offsite research center next month, following a greenlight this week from the Department of Energy to begin operations. During a bimonthly meeting of the Savannah River Site (SRS) Citizens Advisory Board, Edwin DeShong, field boss for the Office of Environmental Management […]

A team led by Salt Lake City-based EnergySolutions has won $240 million worth of radiological support services business with the U.S. Navy, the company announced this week. EnergySolutions said it has won a position on the Navy’s Radiological Support Services (RADMAC III) multiple-award contract, valued at up to $240 million. The contract was issued by […]

The Department of Energy has announced a new pilot program to strengthen the U.S. supply chains for nuclear fuel and support the expedition of the development of new advanced reactors. The initiative is intended to reduce the country’s reliance on foreign sources of enriched uranium and critical materials, while allowing the private sector to invest […]

A Department of Energy contractor at the Hanford Site in Washington state has finished taking down a 6,000-square-foot water treatment structure near the Columbia River that supported remediation work at the property. Crews from Amentum-led Central Plateau Cleanup carried out the work, DOE said in a Tuesday release. The facility provided water for firefighting and […]

The House Appropriations Committee Thursday night passed the Energy & Water Development Appropriations bill for fiscal 2026, which trims the budget of the Department of Energy’s Office of Environmental Management to $7.7 billion, down from more than $8.4 billion in the current fiscal year. The measure passed 35-27 in the House committee and now moves […]

The Department of Energy’s Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) in New Mexico received 59 transuranic (TRU) waste shipments last month.  That is more than the 53 shipments it received in May and is the highest total the facility has received since the 64 shipments sent to WIPP in June 2024.  Of the 59 shipments, 45 […]

Six environmental groups have sued the Department of Energy and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) over approval of a new low-level radioactive waste landfill at DOE’s Oak Ridge Site in Tennessee. The lawsuit was filed in U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, according to a press release from the groups. The case has […]

Robert (Bob) Alvarez, a former Senate staffer, 1990s Department of Energy official and nuclear watchdog, died July 1 following a years-long battle with Parkinson’s disease at age 78.  The Institute for Policy Studies and the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists published remembrances of Alvarez in recent days.  Among other things, Alvarez worked on the Senate […]

Brian Vance, the Department of Energy’s former manager of nuclear cleanup at the Hanford Site in Washington state is the new site leader at the Framatome nuclear fuel plant in Richland, Wash. The Tri-City Herald reported Monday Vance started working as a manager for the Framatome fuel manufacturing plant July 9. The company subsequently confirmed […]

The Department of Energy’s nuclear cleanup office could issue a draft solicitation as early as next month for a contractor to perform landlord services at the Portsmouth Site in Ohio. The draft request for proposals (RFP)  for the Portsmouth Infrastructure Support Services could be issued in August, the DOE Environmental Management Consolidated Business Center in […]

The U.S. Supreme Court Tuesday said the White House can go ahead with plans for major layoffs and restructuring of the federal government while legal challenges play out, according to media reports. The Washington Post  and other media outlets reported Tuesday afternoon that the high court elected not to block planning for mass layoffs at […]

Crews at the Department of Energy’s Savannah River Site (SRS) are expected to double-stack 300 canisters of vitrified high level waste this fiscal year ending Sept. 30.  That figure would continue a decade-long mission that is conserving space at the South Carolina complex, according to the DOE.    To date, liquid waste contractor BWX Technologies-led Savannah […]

The Department of Energy’s underground disposal site for defense-related transuranic waste is still well behind its shipment rate from before a major accident in 2014, but things are gradually rebounding, according to the Government Accountability Office. “According to DOE officials, WIPP [the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant near Carlsbad, N.M.] had been receiving as many as […]

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Timothy Walsh, President Donald Trump’s nominee to be assistant secretary of energy for environmental management, or EM-1, told the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee Wednesday his military and business background has prepared him to lead the world’s largest nuclear cleanup. An Army veteran and company commander in the 82nd Airborne Division […]

The final version of the budget reconciliation package signed into law July 4 by President Donald Trump includes a long-sought bipartisan proposal to extend the Radiation Exposure Compensation Act (RECA). “After nearly two years of negotiations—and two separate passages of RECA packages by the Senate in 2023 and 2024,” the RECA expansion was included in […]

The Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board (DNFSB) has asked the Department of Energy for a briefing on plans to refurbish an old shaft and hoist relied upon for emergency evacuation of underground workers at the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP). “Despite long-standing recognition of underlying problems, age-related degradation and technical obsolescence issues with the shafts […]

Montreal-based AtkinsRéalis said recently Chief Operating Office Philip Hoare is leaving the company this summer to pursue other opportunities and his exit leads to the return of a former AtkinsRéalis executive. On Aug. 23, Louis Véronneau will return to AtkinsRéalis and succeed Hoare as chief operating officer, the company announced in a June 17 press […]

Several publicly-traded companies doing business within the Department of Energy weapons complex are scheduled to report earnings in the coming weeks. Here is a rundown of currently scheduled earnings releases and conference calls.  July 31: Huntington Ingalls Industries, Newport News, Va., will report its second quarter earnings results, the company said in a press release. […]

Sixteen single-wide office trailers in the 100-K area of the Department of Energy’s Hanford Site at Richland, Wash., have been torn down, DOE said Tuesday. Hundreds of engineers and other staff at the former plutonium production complex near the Columbia River have worked at the office trailer complex since 2000, DOE said in a Tuesday […]

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission held a public online meeting on June 26 to take comments on closure plans for the Calcined Solids Storage Facility at the Department of Energy’s Idaho National Laboratory. “Calcine is a solid, granular waste form produced through the calcination of liquid radioactive waste resulting, in part, from spent nuclear fuel (SNF) […]

Secretary of Energy Chris Wright this week announced Department of Energy plans to end what he calls “permitting paralysis” under the National Environmental Policy Act. Wright announced the changes, which are in line with a prior executive order by President Donald Trump, in a July 2 press release. DOE published an interim final rule rescinding […]

If things don’t change by mid-October, what is designed to be a five-person safety panel for Department of Energy sites could be down to one member. The Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board (DNFSB) currently has only two members, Acting Chair Thomas Summers and board member Patricia Lee. Summers was confirmed by the Senate in July […]

The Government Accountability Office, which serves as Congress’s watchdog over federal programs, would see its budget nearly cut by nearly half in fiscal 2026, under a bill advanced by the House Appropriations Committee on Thursday. The Legislative Appropriation Act for fiscal 2026, which passed through the committee Thursday 34-to-28, provides  $415.4 million for the Government […]

The Department of Energy’s Savannah River Site in South Carolina said June 17 it has removed waste from two more radioactive waste tanks at the 310-square-mile facility near the Georgia state line. Tanks 11 and 15 are the fourth and fifth waste tanks in 12 months to meet the “preliminary cease waste removal” designation, DOE’s […]