Department of Energy

ARLINGTON, VA — A facility at the Idaho National Laboratory has solidified more than 68,000 gallons of sodium-bearing, liquid radioactive waste since starting operations in April and it will commence a maintenance outage later this month. That was the word shared with DOE’s National Cleanup Workshop Tuesday on the Integrated Waste Treatment Unit (IWTU) by […]

The Department of Energy’s Waste Isolation Pilot Plant in New Mexico has told transuranic waste generators that it won’t take shipments during February 2024, the head of DOE’s prime contractor said here Wednesday. The Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) has traditionally held a multi-week maintenance outage during the winter and February tends to be hardest […]

ARLINGTON, VA. — This winter the Department of Energy and Waste Control Specialists should start moving remaining containers of transuranic waste, stuck at the company’s Texas facility for nine years, to a new above-ground storage facility to prep the material for shipment to the agency’s Waste Isolation Pilot Plant in New Mexico. The “notional” deadline […]

On Tuesday, SNC-Lavalin, the Montreal-based engineering and project managing company, rebranded itself AtkinsRéalis and its chief U.S. subsidiary Atkins Nuclear Secured is now rechristened as AtkinsRéalis Nuclear Secured, company officials said this week. The parent company, which is involved in the nuclear industry and trades on the Toronto Stock Exchange, will officially change its stock […]

Washington state will regain access to certain Department of Energy data about the Hanford Site in settlement of a $1-million penalty the state issued against DOE in 2020, the parties announced Thursday. As part of the settlement, DOE will create a system for the Washington state Department of Ecology to access documents that the state […]

ARLINGTON, VA. — This winter the Department of Energy and Waste Control Specialists should start moving remaining containers of transuranic waste, stuck at the company’s Texas facility for nine years, to a new above-ground storage facility to prep the material for shipment to the agency’s Waste Isolation Pilot Plant in New Mexico. The “notional” deadline […]

ARLINGTON, VA — A planned test to solidify 2,000 gallons of low-level radioactive tank waste from the Hanford Site into a concrete-like grout could pave the way for a second method of treating waste at the former plutonium production complex near Richland, Wash., the Department of Energy’s top nuclear-cleanup official said here Tuesday. During the […]

The Department of Energy’s Nuclear Energy and Grid Deployment offices got new chiefs of staff, the agency announced Tuesday. Emily Doran, a former campaign staffer for President Joe Biden (D), will be the staff chief at the Grid Deployment Office while Rory Stanley, most recently a staffer on the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, […]

A Department of Energy spokesperson confirmed Monday the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant in New Mexico sent a problematic shipment of transuranic waste back to the Savannah River Site in South Carolina. The shipment, which sat for nearly a year in a Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) parking lot and required special permission by the U.S. […]

A Veolia Nuclear Solutions subsidiary has hired Bob Miklos, a retired nuclear waste manager at the Department of Energy’s Idaho National Laboratory as VNS Federal Services’ executive vice president of program assurance, the company announced last week. Miklos will help Veolia Nuclear Solutions (VNS) target opportunities for its GeoMelt and similar technology across DOE’s nuclear […]

As a safeguard against wildfires, crews for the Department of Energy’s Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico started to thin out the forest in certain areas of Rendija Canyon, lab officials announced last week. The Rendija Canyon Wildland Fire Fuels Reduction and Defensible Space Project, which should be finished in November, will create a […]

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission plans an Oct. 19 hearing on a proposal by Kairos Power to build a demonstration reactor in Oak Ridge, Tenn., on land once used for a Department of Energy gaseous diffusion plant. The hearing at Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) headquarters in Rockville, Md., marks the final phase of the agency’s review […]

Fluor Corp. will pay a civil penalty of $14.5 million as part of a settlement agreement with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, the company said Wednesday. The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) investigated Fluor’s accounting errors on two lump sum engineering, procurement and construction contracts, the company said in a press release. Fluor neither […]

With less than a month left until fiscal year 2024 begins, the White House has asked Congress for a short-term continuing resolution to freeze federal budgets at 2023 levels. Media reported last week that leaders in the House and Senate have remained open to the requested stopgap bill. Fiscal year 2024 begins Oct. 1.  The […]

An unsealed status report filed with the U.S. Court of Federal Claims by the Department of Justice says the Department of Energy might seek updated proposals for the legally embattled liquid waste contract for the Hanford Site in Washington state, potentially worth $45-billion. This time around, a DOE contract officer would have discretion to treat […]

With less than a month left until fiscal year 2024 begins, the White House has asked Congress for a short-term continuing resolution to freeze federal budgets at 2023 levels. Media reported last week that leaders in the House and Senate have remained open to the requested stopgap bill, which may be necessary due to an […]

Months after a deal was announced, the Department of Energy and the Washington state Department of Ecology are still not ready to share details from recently-completed closed-door talks on future cleanup of the Hanford Site, though the feds are preparing to publish a new five-year plan for the former plutonium production property. Back in May, […]

A small fire ignited but did not last long last month at the Department of Energy’s Hanford Site in Washington state, according to a report from the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board. The small blaze occurred at an area associated with heating up melter No. 1 at the Waste Treatment Immobilization Plant built by Bechtel, […]

Bill Richardson, a secretary of energy during the Bill Clinton administration who at various points of his career was a Democratic congressman and New Mexico governor, and became something of a specialist in international hostage negotiation, died Sept. 1 at age 75, according to major media accounts. Richardson was first elected to Congress in 1982 […]

The Department of Energy’s Portsmouth Site in Ohio last week made its first rail shipment of depleted uranium oxide containers to the Waste Control Specialists disposal site in West Texas, DOE announced Tuesday. The shipment of 120 storage cylinders from the Mid-America Conversion Services depleted uranium hexafluoride (DUF6) conversion plant at the former gaseous diffusion […]

Current and former nuclear weapons workers in the Greater Denver area are invited by the Department of Labor to show up at a Sept. 12 information session on federal occupational illness benefits. Labor Department representatives will be on hand at the Arvada, Colo., session to help attendees with filing new claims or assisting with existing […]

Bill Richardson, a secretary of energy during the Bill Clinton administration who at various points of his career was a Democratic congressman and New Mexico governor, and became something of a specialist in international hostage negotiation, died Sept. 1 at age 75, according to major media accounts. Richardson was first elected to Congress in 1982 and represented New Mexico’s […]

Bill Richardson, a secretary of energy during the Bill Clinton administration who at various points of his career was a Democratic congressman and New Mexico governor, and became something of a specialist in international hostage negotiation, died Sept. 1 at age 75, according to major media accounts. Richardson was first elected to Congress in 1982 […]

The Department of Energy did not make an Aug. 29 target to announce the winner, or winners, of the second round of a federal bailouts to buoy financially ailing nuclear power plants. “DOE has not yet made any announcements around Award Cycle 2,” a spokesperson for the agency’s Office of Grid Deployment wrote in an […]

An unsealed status report filed with the U.S. Court of Federal Claims by the Department of Justice says the Department of Energy might seek updated proposals for the legally embattled liquid waste contract for the Hanford Site in Washington state, potentially worth $45-billion. This time around, a DOE contract officer would have discretion to treat […]

Current and former nuclear weapons workers in the Greater Denver area are invited by the Department of Labor to show up at a Sept. 12 information session on federal occupational illness benefits. Labor Department representatives will be on hand at the Arvada, Colo., session to help attendees with filing new claims or assisting with existing […]

The Department of Energy’s Portsmouth Site in Ohio last week made its first rail shipment of depleted uranium oxide containers to the Waste Control Specialists disposal site in West Texas, DOE announced Tuesday. The shipment of 120 storage cylinders from the Mid-America Conversion Services depleted uranium hexafluoride (DUF6) conversion plant at the former gaseous diffusion […]

Oak Ridge, Tenn.-based Boston Government Services, has hired Doug Freund in the newly-created post of chief operating officer, the Department of Energy contractor said Tuesday. Freund was most recently senior vice president for Kiewit Nuclear Solutions, where he was responsible for markets and strategy, Boston Government Services said in a press release. In addition, Freund […]

A small fire ignited but did not last long last month at the Department of Energy’s Hanford Site in Washington state, according to a report from the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board. The small blaze occurred at an area associated with heating up melter No. 1 at the Waste Treatment Immobilization Plant built by Bechtel, […]

The Department of Energy did not make an Aug. 29 target to announce the winner, or winners, of the second round of a federal bailouts to buoy financially ailing nuclear power plants. A spokesperson for DOE’s Office of Grid Deployment did not immediately respond to a query asking how many applications the agency had received […]