Department of Energy

Earnings rose at Fluor, Irving, Texas, in the third quarter, which the engineering and construction company attributed in part Friday to metals and mining projects as well as a steady stream of government contracts. Net earnings attributable to Fluor for the third quarter ended Sept. 30 were $206 million, or $1.15 a share, up from […]

Teams seeking to land a major Department of Energy contract that includes running depleted uranium hexafluoride conversion facilities at former gaseous diffusion plants in Ohio and Kentucky have been asked to keep their bids open through Nov. 17, sources said this week. Two DOE weapons complex contractor executives and one municipal government official told Exchange […]

A draft solicitation for a carbon-free power project at the Hanford Site in Washington state could be released within a month, a senior adviser with the Department of Energy’s nuclear cleanup office said during an online presentation Tuesday. Hanford was the first DOE Office of Environmental Management property to hold a “Cleanup to Clean Energy” […]

Bechtel National Wednesday pushed back against a Department of Energy Office of Inspector General audit report that questioned the reliability of the contractor’s cost estimates for the Waste Treatment and Immobilization Plant at the Hanford Site in Washington state. “We believe that the report overlooks relevant factual data that is essential for consideration prior to […]

A draft solicitation for a carbon-free power project at the Hanford Site in Washington state could be released within a month, a senior adviser with the Department of Energy’s nuclear cleanup office said during an online presentation Tuesday. Hanford was the first DOE Office of Environmental Management property to hold a “Cleanup to Clean Energy” […]

Three long-serving feds at the Department of Energy’s Office of Environmental Management have been formally appointed to key management roles on a permanent basis, the No. 2 official at the nuclear cleanup branch said recently. Greg Sosson will become associate principal deputy assistant secretary for field operations effective immediately, said Jeff Avery, DOE Environmental Management […]

Gary Petersen, retired vice president of the Tri-City Economic Development Council in Washington state and a former manager at the Department of Energy’s Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, died Oct. 27 at age 83, according to published reports. The Tri-City Herald newspaper reported Monday that over a long career Petersen was a vocal advocate of nuclear […]

Having been skipped the first time around, the Government Accountability Office was asked to consider a challenge by an Atkins-led team over a $45-billion Department of Energy contract for liquid waste management. The bid protest, dated Friday, arrived after DOE called upon losing bidder Hanford Tank Disposition Alliance and the winning bidder, BWX-Technologies-led Hanford Tank […]

When the House last week passed its version of the Department of Energy’s 2024 budget, members crossed the aisle to defeat an amendment to cut the Secretary of Energy’s salary to $1.  Most of the “no” votes on the amendment from Rep. Ralph Norman (R-S.C.) were from Democrats and most of the “aye” votes were […]

The Department of Energy started site preparation this summer for expansion of a low-level radioactive waste landfill at the Idaho National Laboratory and the prep work should continue into July 2024, an agency official told an advisory panel last week. Construction of the third cell for the landfill should be done around September 2025 with […]

Three years after Bechtel and a fellow contractor at the Department of Energy’s Hanford Site in Washington state paid about $58 million to settle fraud claims, DOE’s Office of Inspector General still lacks confidence in Bechtel’s cost estimates, according to a new report. In an audit report out last week, DOE’s  Office of Inspector General […]

The Senate Armed Services Committee in a voice vote Thursday advanced the White House’s nomination of Patricia Lee to be a member of the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board, a panel designed for five people that’s currently down to two.  The nomination of Lee, a manager at the Department of Energy’s Savannah River National Laboratory […]

The prime environmental contractor at the Department of Energy’s Savannah River Site in South Carolina expects the Salt Waste Processing Facility to treat roughly six million gallons of waste during fiscal 2024, after doing more than 4 million in fiscal 2023. That was the assessment BWX Technologies-led Savannah River Mission Completion President Dave Olson provided […]

On Thursday, after a two-week squabble about who to elect as speaker, the House of Representatives passed a bill to fund defense and civilian nuclear nuclear programs for the rest of fiscal year 2024, including $8.3-billion for the Department of Energy’s nuclear cleanup branch.  Civilian nuclear programs at DOE and elsewhere would essentially remain flat […]

The Department of Energy’s contention that the state of Washington lacks authority to order installation of decontamination showers at a waste disposal site won’t block a larger permit modification for the facility, state and federal agencies agreed last week. “Due to the critical need for the timely execution of Direct-Feed Low Activity Waste at Hanford,” […]

The head of the Department of Energy’s Office of Nuclear Energy hopes the agency can select its first clean power project at the Idaho National Laboratory within a year. “A year from today” is the target, Kathryn Huff, DOE’s assistant secretary for nuclear energy, told reporters on the sidelines of the Idaho lab’s Cleanup to […]

The long-planned new air-intake shaft at the Department of Energy’s Waste Isolation Pilot Plant in New Mexico has been excavated to its final depth of 2,275 feet, the agency said Tuesday. Completion of the 26-feet-wide shaft is a 2023 priority for DOE’s Office of Environmental Management at the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) 26 miles […]

The head of the Department of Energy’s Office of Nuclear Energy hopes the agency can select its first clean power project at the Idaho National Laboratory within a year. “A year from today” is the target, Kathryn Huff, DOE’s assistant secretary for nuclear energy, told reporters on the sidelines of the Idaho lab’s Cleanup to […]

Shipments of transuranic waste to the Department of Energy’s Waste Isolation Pilot Plant in New Mexico from Idaho National Laboratory could decline in 2024, according to a recent federal safety board update. The Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) near Carlsbad receives waste drums from the Idaho National Laboratory’s Advanced Mixed Waste Treatment Project (AMWTP), as […]

A first-of-its kind facility to convert sodium-bearing waste at the Department of Energy’s Idaho National Laboratory into a solid form, is likely to stay offline for maintenance at least a few more weeks, an advisory board heard Wednesday. The Integrated Waste Treatment Unit (IWTU) is using a maintenance outage that began in September to replace […]

An advocacy group has gone to federal court in Washington, D.C., seeking to force the Environmental Protection Agency to hand over documents that led to approval of a new low-level radioactive waste landfill at the Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge Site in Tennessee. Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER) filed suit Oct. 19 in the […]

Two teams fighting over the prized $45-billion Integrated Tank Contract at the Hanford Site in Washington state, filed updated proposals with the Department of Energy during the past week, according to legal filings Thursday. BWX-Technologies-led Hanford Tank Waste Operations & Closure as well as AtkinsRéalis Nuclear-led Hanford Tank Disposition Alliance filed their revised contract proposals […]

In a return to pre-pandemic practice, the Department of Energy said last week it will vet management teams in person for the next $3 billion cleanup contract at the West Valley Demonstration Project in western New York. In a special notice, DOE’s Office of Environmental Management said it would hold its oral interviews and problem […]

On Thursday, after a two-week squabble about who to elect as speaker, the House of Representatives passed a bill to fund defense and civilian nuclear nuclear programs for the rest of fiscal year 2024. Civilian nuclear programs at the Department of Energy and elsewhere would essentially remain flat under the House’s bill. Active nuclear weapons […]

Inés Triay, a former Department of Energy assistant secretary for environmental management, was appointed interim dean of Florida International University’s College of Engineering and Computing and the executive director of the university’s Applied Research Center. The university announced Triay’s appointment in a Tuesday press release. She has been at Florida International and a top manager […]

A first-of-its kind facility to convert sodium-bearing waste at the Department of Energy’s Idaho National Laboratory into a solid form, is likely to stay offline for maintenance at least a few more weeks, an advisory board heard Wednesday. The Integrated Waste Treatment Unit (IWTU) is using a maintenance outage that began in September to replace […]

The long-planned new air-intake shaft at the Department of Energy’s Waste Isolation Pilot Plant in New Mexico has been excavated to its final depth of 2,275 feet, the agency said Tuesday. Completion of the 26-feet-wide shaft is a 2023 priority for DOE’s Office of Environmental Management at the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) 26 miles […]

Inés Triay, a former Department of Energy assistant secretary for environmental management, was appointed interim dean of Florida International University’s College of Engineering and Computing and the executive director of the university’s Applied Research Center. The university announced Triay’s appointment in a Tuesday press release. She has been at Florida International and a top manager […]

The Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board, the small agency created to provide independent safety advice to the Department of Energy, no longer has a quorum following retirement of longtime member Jessie Hill Roberson, Congress was officially told last week. Federal standards allow Chair Joyce Connery, with an assist from Vice Chair Thomas Summers, to keep […]

The Department of Energy’s contention that the state of Washington lacks authority to order installation of decontamination showers at a waste disposal site won’t block a larger permit modification for the facility, state and federal agencies agreed last week. “Due to the critical need for the timely execution of Direct-Feed Low Activity Waste at Hanford,” […]