Department of Energy

Thanks to retirements, the Department of Energy and its Washington state regulator have some new managers at the Hanford Site, the Hanford Advisory Board heard Wednesday. Hanford Advisory Board member Pam Lasen also announced during the start of the two-day board meeting that a former longtime board member from Oregon, Norma Jean Germond, died this […]

The BWX Technologies-led team that won a $45-billion Department of Energy contract at Hanford Site in Washington state, only to see the award blocked by a federal court in June, should brief an appeals court in early October about why the trial court’s ruling was wrong. The team, Hanford Tank Waste Operations & Closure, should […]

As a byproduct of Post-Tropical Cyclone Hilary, some normally arid Department of Energy weapons complex sites out West experienced unusually heavy rain or wind, according to the latest from the National Weather Service. However, a DOE Office of Environmental Management spokesperson said Tuesday morning no significant weather-related damage or disruptions have been reported at the […]

Members of United Steelworkers Local 1-689 employed in cleanup at the Department of Energy’s Portsmouth Site in Ohio voted Monday to extend their existing collective bargaining deal with Fluor-BWXT Portsmouth until March, a union official said. The extension includes a retroactive 2% raise, a $1,500 cash bonus and buys time until a new Amentum-led team […]

The Waste Isolation Pilot Plant in New Mexico received 39 shipments of transuranic waste during July and is on pace for its biggest year since an accidental underground radiation release in 2014, according to a Department of Energy website. Along with 31 shipments from Idaho National Laboratory, there were five from the Los Alamos National […]

Southeast New Mexico College in Carlsbad is receiving $11.7 million in Department of Energy grant money over five years to develop employee training programs for the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant, the agency said Monday. The college will collaborate with DOE and the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP), to provide training and education for current and […]

The New Mexico Environment Department plans a hybrid public meeting next month on the proposed new 10-year hazardous waste permit for the Department of Energy’s Waste Isolation Pilot Plant near Carlsbad. The meeting, slated to start at 5 p.m. Mountain Time on Sept. 22, will be conducted both online via Webex and in-person at locations […]

Atkins Nuclear Secured Holding Corp. has appointed a former Bechtel National executive, Michael Hughes, to serve as an outside director on the Atkins board of directors, the company said in a Monday press release. Hughes, who has 35 years of experience leading nuclear ventures around the Department of Energy’s weapons complex, will provide oversight for […]

A community organization focused on reindustrialization around the Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge Site in Tennessee will close up shop within two years, the group said last week. The Community Reuse Organization of East Tennessee (CROET) is starting the “orderly, planned closing of the CROET Corporation and its affiliate organization, Heritage Center, LLC,” CROET announced […]

The Department of Energy’s Office of Economic Impact and Diversity seeks an external consultant to assess how the Joe Biden administration’s Justice40 program has affected economically underserved communities, according to recently published procurement documents. The small business contract has a one-year base period and a one-year option period. The base period will stretch well into […]

Workers at the Hanford Site in Washington state last week practiced three early steps of solidifying liquid radioactive waste inside glass, a site contractor said Tuesday in a press release. Personnel poured glass beads called frit into a heated melter at the Waste Treatment and Immobilization Plant, liquifying the glass in a first-ever trial run […]

Severe thunderstorms along the East Coast knocked out power and damaged property near Department of Energy nuclear sites from South Carolina to Washington, but much service was restored by Friday. Federal employees in the Washington region got an early dismissal on Monday as storms rolled in, but federal offices returned to normal operating schedules for […]

Severe thunderstorms along the East Coast knocked out power and damaged property near Department of Energy nuclear sites from South Carolina to Washington, but much service was restored by Friday. Federal employees in the Washington region got an early dismissal on Monday as storms rolled in, but federal offices returned to normal operating schedules for […]

The winner of a decade-long, $45-billion liquid-waste cleanup contract at the Hanford Site on Tuesday appealed a court order that blocked work on the deal at the behest of a losing bidder. Hanford Tank Waste Operations and Closure asked the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit to overturn a June decision by the Court […]

The Department of Energy said Friday it cleared a paperwork hurdle for a planned five-year extension of California’s Diablo Canyon Power Plant by adopting the Nuclear Regulatory Commission’s environmental reviews of the plant. DOE had a duty under federal law to do environmental diligence on Diablo Canyon after the department in 2022 agreed to provide […]

Secretary of Energy Jennifer Granholm this week traveled to Missouri where she visited with the congresswoman whose district includes Jana Elementary School, which was closed and vacated due to radioactive contaminants from the Manhattan Project discovered in Coldwater Creek, just outside the school. The school is near the Formerly Utilized Sites Remedial Action Program cleanup […]

The Department of Energy on Friday released a little more than $3.5 million in funding for Four Rivers Nuclear Partnership to demolish facilities at the shuttered Paducah Gaseous Diffusion Plant in Kentucky. The task order calls for demolition of the C-727 and C-146-A facilities. Parts of each formerly housed hazardous waste, so the Kentucky Energy & […]

Holtec International planned to meet with Nuclear Regulatory Commission staff Aug. 29 to discuss what the company says is the biggest regulatory hurdle to restarting the Palisades Nuclear Generating Station. The commission posted a notice of the meeting online Tuesday. Executives with Holtec International will join members of the NRC’s Office of Nuclear Reactor Regulation and Office […]

The winner of a decade-long, $45-billion liquid-waste cleanup contract at the Hanford Site on Tuesday appealed a court order that blocked work on the deal at the behest of a losing bidder. Hanford Tank Waste Operations and Closure asked the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit to overturn a June decision by the Court […]

Secretary of Energy Jennifer Granholm this week traveled to Missouri where she visited with the congresswoman whose district includes Jana Elementary School, which was closed and vacated due to radioactive contaminants from the Manhattan Project discovered in Coldwater Creek, just outside the school. The school is near the Formerly Utilized Sites Remedial Action Program cleanup […]

The Department of Labor will host an informational session next week in Ohio for current and former nuclear weapons workers who may qualify for federal financial compensation for on-the-job illnesses, the agency said Tuesday. Labor will host the seven-hour session about the Energy Employees Occupational Illness Compensation Program Act on Aug. 16 at a hotel […]

The Department of Energy said Friday it cleared a paperwork hurdle for a planned five-year extension of California’s Diablo Canyon Power Plant by adopting the Nuclear Regulatory Commission’s environmental reviews of the plant. DOE had a duty under federal law to do environmental diligence on Diablo Canyon after the department in 2022 agreed to provide […]

The Department of Energy on Friday released a little more than $3.5 million in funding for Four Rivers Nuclear Partnership to demolish facilities at the shuttered Paducah Gaseous Diffusion Plant in Kentucky.  The task order calls for demolition of the C-727 and C-146-A facilities. Parts of each formerly housed hazardous waste, so the Kentucky Energy […]

The Department of Energy’s Office of Economic Impact and Diversity seeks an external consultant to assess how the Joe Biden administration’s Justice40 program has affected economically underserved communities, according to recently published procurement documents. The small business contract has a one-year base period and a one-year option period. The base period will stretch well into […]

Earnings fell at Fluor, Irving, Texas, in the second quarter, which the Department of Energy contractor attributed partly to a $34 million charge cost and schedule issues in its Energy Solutions sector. Net earnings for the second quarter ended June 30 were $61 million, or $0.35 a share, down from $66 million, or $0.38 a […]

Earnings fell at Fluor, Irving, Texas, in the second quarter, which the Department of Energy contractor attributed partly to a $34 million charge cost and schedule issues in its Energy Solutions sector. Net earnings for the second quarter ended June 30 were $61 million, or $0.35 a share, down from $66 million, or $0.38 a […]

After acting as the lone deputy manager for 17 months at the Department of Energy’s Hanford Site in Washington state, Brian Stickney is now officially the agency’s sitewide second-in-command, DOE said Monday. In 2019, DOE made Brian Vance the sole site manager for the former plutonium production complex, overseeing both Hanford’s Richland Operations Office and […]

A three-person military bomb squad blew up a segment of an anti-aircraft shell after midnight Tuesday at the Department of Energy’s Hanford Site in Washington state, a U.S. Army spokesperson confirmed Wednesday. The artillery fuse did appear to pose an explosion risk, but was blown up as a precautionary move in keeping with standard procedures […]

News of a Department of Energy plan to use weapons complex land to host carbon-free electricity projects is being met with a mix of excitement, skepticism and curiosity about how the process might work. A smattering of stakeholders contacted by Exchange Monitor Tuesday said they have many questions about the initiative announced last Friday in […]

While the Department of Energy and the occupational medical services provider for the Hanford Site in Washington state are at odds over how much data should be shared during an audit, DOE’s refusal to mediate the dispute is no sign of bad faith, a federal contracting board ruled. A DOE contracting officer told HPM Corp. […]