Publications: Weapons Cleanup Monitor

Department of Energy’s nuclear cleanup field bosses and top brass faced a Friday March 21 deadline to review existing contracts and recommend which ones should be retained, tweaked or terminated, according to an Office of Environmental Management memo. This “review of covered contracts and grants” is implemented under President Donald Trump’s Executive Order 14222, according […]

The Nuclear Waste Technical Review Board (NWTRB) has recommended Congress and the Department of Energy (DOE) formally start planning for a permanent geologic repository for nuclear waste. The Technical Review Board said it is seeking a “workable pathway” to site, license, build and operate the facility for spent fuel and high-level waste, but is not […]

The Department of Energy and its Office of Environmental Management is rehiring many probationary employees laid off in recent government downsizing by the Donald Trump administration, sources said this week. DOE and Environmental Management did not immediately reply to an email Friday morning seeking confirmation and no hard numbers were available. The workers are being […]

Work crews at the Department of Energy’s Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in California will soon start removing the concrete slab from the site of Building 251, DOE’s Office of Environmental Management said Tuesday. Once the slab is gone, Building 251 or the Heavy Elements Facility will become available for future work by DOE and its […]

A bill agreeing to a continuing resolution to avert a shutdown and fund the U.S. government through the end of the fiscal year, passed the Senate 54-to-46 on Friday afternoon March 14  and was signed by President Donald Trump. A measure to allow the measure to proceed to a floor vote and the final vote […]

In response to a recent environmental report, Santa Fe County commissioners reportedly plan to raise concerns about impacts of a potential expansion of the Department of Energy’s Los Alamos National Laboratory on regional resources. According to an article last week in the Santa Fe New Mexican newspaper, the county commissioners are preparing to respond to […]

PHOENIX – Expediting nuclear cleanup and making it less expensive is vital to the Department of Energy’s Office of Environmental Management, a senior adviser to Secretary of Energy Chris Wright said here Monday. Current projections indicate the Hanford Site in Washington state, which once produced plutonium for the government, won’t be fully cleaned up until […]

PHOENIX —After layoffs and buyouts and the possibility of a government shutdown, the Department of Energy presence was lighter than usual at the annual Waste Management Symposia here. Although no official figures were immediately available, the buzz at a Sunday night reception here was that while DOE and its nuclear cleanup arm typically send around […]

PHOENIX —With remediation of an old uranium tailings pile along the Colorado River in Utah entering the home stretch, a Department of Energy Office of Environmental Management executive said Monday that closure plans are already being discussed. With only one million tons left to be removed from a tailings pile near the Colorado River, Environmental […]

PHOENIX—— The Department of Energy could ultimately solidify between 20 million and 30 million gallons of lower-level radioactive liquid waste at the Hanford Site into a concrete-like grout form, a senior manager at the nuclear cleanup site said here Wednesday. DOE managers at the Hanford Site in Washington state are talking with commercial providers on […]

Contractor Bechtel announced Monday it appointed Dena Volovar as the new president of its Nuclear, Security & Energy business.  Volovar succeeds John Howanitz, who will retire in April after 42 years at Bechtel, according to the company press release.  Volovar’s tenure at Bechtel extends 26 years, most recently as executive vice president and manager of […]

It is official: Brian Stickney, deputy manager for the Department of Energy’s Hanford Site in Washington state, is retiring from the federal government, according to a memo viewed by Exchange Monitor. “After more than 15 years with the U.S. Department of Energy and over 30 years with the federal government, HFO [Hanford Field Office] Deputy […]

PHOENIX — The Department of Energy during President Donald Trump’s second term hasn’t focused on a Joe Biden administration effort to tap underused land at federal nuclear sites for carbon-free power, an Environmental Management official said Monday. With the administration being “new,” less than two months old, no decisions on the Cleanup to Clean Energy […]

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) said Thursday he intends to vote to advance a Republican-drafted stopgap funding bill to keep the federal government operating through the rest of fiscal 2025. Unless a continuing resolution was approved Friday, the government would partially shut down at 12:01 a.m. Saturday. A vote was expected Friday after the […]

President Donald Trump’s nominee to head the Department of Energy’s multibillion-dollar Office of Environmental Management, is founder of a real estate development business in Golden, Colo. Tim Walsh founded Confluence Companies in 2006 and the business has 15 developments, including apartment complexes, condominiums and hotels, according to the company’s website. Walsh is an Army veteran […]

PHOENIX — The Department of Energy’s Hanford Site in Richland, Wash., lost 51 employees to federal job cuts so far, a senior manager at the nuclear cleanup complex said here Wednesday. At the same time, Delmar Noyes, a senior DOE manager at the former plutonium production site, said having a single Hanford Field Office helps […]

The member of Congress whose district includes the Department of Energy’s Waste Isolation Pilot Plant in New Mexico has received written assurance from the General Services Administration that the lease for the DOE Carlsbad Field Office won’t be terminated. A spokesperson for Rep. Gabe Vasquez (D-N.M.) said Friday the lawmaker has received written word from […]

The Department of Energy’s Savannah River Site could see completion of its Advanced Manufacturing Collaborative this June at the nearby University of South Carolina-Aiken, a spokesperson said recently.  Construction of the Advanced Manufacturing Collaborative was 85% completed   In November 2024. Contractor North Wind Group started building it in March 2023 and will wrap up this […]

The government of Canada announced this week it is entering into a four-year contract worth up to C$304 million with AtkinsRéalis to support the development and modernization of a new, large-scale, natural uranium–fuelled Canadian deuterium uranium (CANDU) nuclear reactor. The contract with AtkinsRéalis is meant to finance half of the design project, according to the […]

Two Department of Energy nuclear cleanup offices in New Mexico could be hard hit by the White House deferred-resignation program, according to a list viewed by Exchange Monitor. The Department of Energy’s Office of Environmental Management field offices at Los Alamos National Laboratory and the Carlsbad, N.M., office that oversees the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant […]

Kevin Dressman, a longtime federal manager who heads the Department of Energy’s Office of Health and Safety, said this week he has accepted a deferred resignation buyout and will leave government after more than 30 years. Dressman announced his departure Tuesday on his LinkedIn profile page. “After 33 years of federal service, I have elected […]

Dae Chung, a long-serving Department of Energy executive, has been tapped by the Donald Trump administration to serve as the acting head of DOE’s multi-billion-dollar nuclear cleanup branch. A status change in Chung’s LinkedIn profile Tuesday now lists him as acting principal deputy assistant secretary in the Office of Environmental Management. Chung takes over the […]

The Department of Energy issued a memo dated Thursday Feb. 27 saying telework and remote work agreements will be terminated, with exceptions, and all employees will return to in-person work. The memo, obtained by the Exchange Monitor on Feb. 28, said DOE was pursuing President Donald Trump’s executive order from his first full day in […]

Sen. Martin Heinrich (D-N.M.) says Energy Secretary Chris Wright has promised the Department of Energy’s Carlsbad Field Office and Waste Isolation Pilot Plant facilities in New Mexico will stay open.  “I’m pleased to announce that on my call with Secretary Wright, he promised they will stay open,” Heinrich said in a Thursday post on the […]

Outlays at the Department of Energy as well as the Department of Defense are two areas that remain among the federal government’s “high-risk areas needing significant attention,” Comptroller General Gene Dodaro said last week in testimony before the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee. On the other hand, DOE’s Office of Environmental Management (EM) is […]

The Department of Energy said Tuesday it has finished commissioning the long-anticipated new underground ventilation system for the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant near Carlsbad, N.M. The roughly $500-million Safety Significant Confinement Ventilation System (SSCVS) is designed to more than triple underground airflow to the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP), to 540-,000 cubic feet per minute, […]

The Department of Energy’s multi-billion-dollar nuclear cleanup wing could see 11 members of its federal Senior Executive Service level managers leave via buyout, according to a document viewed Friday by Exchange Monitor. In addition to the previously-reported anticipated departure of the head of DOE’s Office of Environmental Management operations at the Savannah River Site in […]