Department of Energy

Hanford’s liquid waste contractor successfully appealed a U.S. Department of Energy order to pay the federal government $6 million for alleged overpayments to temporary workers, according to documents posted online recently. The U.S.  Civilian Board of Contract Appeals ruled in Washington River Protection Solutions’  (WRPS) favor on June 28, but made the decision public on […]

During June, Department of Energy contractor North Wind Portage relocated 89,656 tons of uranium tailings and mill debris from the Moab, Utah site near the Colorado River to a disposal site about 30 miles away, according to a report to the Grand County, Utah Commission. As a result, 13.6 million tons of the 16 million […]

Oak Ridge, Tenn., City Council last week held video interviews with a half-dozen candidates to be city manager for the municipality, population 31,000, which borders the Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge Site. Zoom interviews with candidates to succeed City Manager Mark Watson, who retired on May 5, occurred July 17-18, according to a post on […]

On Oct. 1, 2024, the National Nuclear Security Administration will become the landlord, rather than a tenant, at the Department of Energy’s Savannah River Site in South Carolina and shoulder responsibility for operation and security of the site, a federal advisory panel heard Tuesday. When the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) takes over from DOE’s […]

A public hearing is set Aug. 8 on the environmental assessment for an Oak Ridge City airport on land conveyed to the locality by the Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge Site in Tennessee. The hearing under the National Environmental Policy Act is scheduled for 6 p.m. Eastern Time at the DoubleTree Hotel located at 215 […]

The Department of Energy wants a domestic supply of high-assay, low-enriched uranium for use in nuclear reactors and for other purposes and is inviting industry to hear about the program next month.  Ahead of an “anticipated action to acquire” high-assay, low-enriched uranium (HALEU), the Department of Energy’s Office of Nuclear Energy is holding an industry […]

The first melter at the Department of Energy’s waste-solidification plant at the Hanford Site in Washington state has reached its operating temperature of 2,100 degrees Fahrenheit, the agency and contractor Bechtel National said late Monday. The milestone for the Waste Treatment and Immobilization Plant (WTP) completed the heat up process that started June 24, DOE […]

Bechtel National’s $14.9-billion contract to build the Waste Treatment and Immobilization Plant at the Department of Energy’s Hanford Site in Washington state was updated last month to keep the company on the job into September 2024, which is still before before the plant is expected to start solidifying low-level radioactive waste.  An Aug. 31 contract […]

A DOE official may share details about the National Nuclear Security Administration’s planned takeover of the Savannah River Site in 2025 during a public meeting on Tuesday, the official said Monday. That was the word from the No. 2 DOE Office of Environmental Management field office manager for Savannah River, Edwin Deshong, during a Monday […]

Parties fighting over a $45-billion Department of Energy radioactive tank waste cleanup contract at the Hanford Site in Washington say there is a good chance of ending up back before the U.S. Court of Federal Claims and, with that in mind, want the judge to hang onto key records. The parties made the motion in […]

The Department of Energy’s Northern New Mexico Advisory Board, which provides input on cleanup issues at the Los Alamos National Laboratory, asked the acting head of the DOE’s Office of Environmental Management last week about expanding its role to include the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant near Carlsbad. William (Ike) White, the senior adviser for DOE’s […]

The Department of Energy’s Office of Nuclear Energy would get roughly the $1.6 billion the White House requested for it in fiscal year 2024, if a bill approved this week by the Senate Appropriations Committee becomes law. The full committee approved the bill 29-0 on Thursday, setting up both a floor vote in the full […]

Government conferences can rarely boast of a speech by a well-known actor featured in Home Box Office’s series, including ‘The Wire’ — except maybe when the actor has a brother who is a Department of Energy manager. The DOE Small Business Forum & Expo last week in New Orleans included a keynote address from actor […]

The Senate Appropriations Committee’s energy and water development bill would provide about $8.5 billion in fiscal 2024 funds for the Department of Energy’s cleanup of Cold War and Manhattan Project nuclear sites, according to the bill unanimously passed out of committee Thursday.  Altogether, DOE’s Office of Environmental Management would be funded at $8.5 billion under […]

The Department of Energy is still considering how and whether it will help bail out a shuttered power plant in Michigan, a senior agency official testified this week in Congress. Plant owner Holtec International, Jupiter, Fla., seeks a roughly $1 billion loan for DOE and said this spring that the federal agency could conditionally approve […]

The Department of Energy and New Mexico should work with a third-party mediator “to build trust” on legacy cleanup at the Los Alamos National Laboratory, a Congressional watchdog reported Wednesday. Without “clearer communication that leads to smoother relationships with the regulators and the public,” DOE and the New Mexico Environment Department could risk, “further delaying […]

The Department of Energy said Tuesday the legacy cleanup contractor at the Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico started cutting recently dug-up corrugated metal pipes into sections small enough for shipment to the agency’s underground disposal site for transuranic waste. Newport News Nuclear BWXT Los Alamos (N3B) workers are using hydraulic shears to cut […]

The Department of Energy’s Waste Isolation Pilot Plant near Carlsbad, N.M., received 56 shipments of transuranic waste in June, according to the federal agency’s public website for the site. There were 45 during June from the Idaho National Laboratory; four from the Savannah River Site in South Carolina, three from the Oak Ridge Site in […]

An amendment to the Senate’s fiscal 2024 National Defense Authorization Act bill could make it easier for nuclear-site employees to receive compensation for beryllium-related illnesses associated with their work. Sen. Patty Murray (D-Wash.) successfully won approval for her amendment to the Senate version of the 2024 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) bill Thursday.  The amendment […]

The Department of Energy’s Office of Environmental Management intends to issue no-bid business to Waste Control Specialists in Andrews County, Texas to relocate containers of long-stranded transuranic waste to a new above-ground storage area at the commercial waste site. “The estimated value of the resulting order is not expected to exceed $16,500,000 ($16.5 million),” DOE’s […]

The Department of Energy’s Office of Environmental Management intends to issue no-bid business to Waste Control Specialists in Andrews County, Texas to relocate containers of long-stranded transuranic waste to a new above-ground storage area at the commercial waste site. “The estimated value of the resulting order is not expected to exceed $16,500,000 ($16.5 million),” DOE’s […]

The Department of Energy invited the public to attend the kickoff of the agency’s Consent Based Siting Consortia, the group among which the agency split $26 million in federal funding to help define what it means to consent to the storage of spent nuclear fuel. The 13 consortia members were set to be online for […]

The Department of Energy first discovered more contaminated soil under Building 324 at the Hanford Site in Washington state last August and suspended work on stabilizing the structure in April, DOE said this month in a letter to the Environmental Protection Agency. The timeline was laid out in a July 5 letter to David Einan, […]

With last week’s award of the Department of Energy’s $5.87-billion environmental remediation contract for the Portsmouth Site in Ohio to an Amentum-led team, two industry sources expect a companion contract is imminent for operations of that property as well as the Paducah Site in Kentucky. The sources, executives who work for different government contractors, also […]

The Department of Energy says no significant environmental impact should result from the Savannah River Site in South Carolina shipping contaminated process equipment, currently managed as a high-level radioactive waste, to a commercial disposal site for low-level waste. The DOE Office of Environmental Management released environmental assessment documents Wednesday backing its conclusion that the grouted […]

The Department of Energy and New Mexico should work with a third-party mediator “to build trust” on legacy cleanup at the Los Alamos National Laboratory, a Congressional watchdog reported Wednesday. Without “clearer communication that leads to smoother relationships with the regulators and the public,” DOE and the New Mexico Environment Department could risk, “further delaying […]

The Department of Energy said Tuesday the legacy cleanup contractor at the Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico started cutting recently dug-up corrugated metal pipes into sections small enough for shipment to the agency’s underground disposal site for transuranic waste. Newport News Nuclear BWXT Los Alamos (N3B) workers are using hydraulic shears to cut […]

The Department of Energy first discovered more contaminated soil under Building 324 at the Hanford Site in Washington state last August and suspended work on stabilizing the structure in April, DOE said this month in a letter to the Environmental Protection Agency. The timeline was laid out in a July 5 letter to David Einan, […]

The Department of Energy is still considering how and whether it will help bail out a shuttered power plant in Michigan, a senior agency official testified Tuesday in Congress. Plant owner Holtec International, Jupiter, Fla., seeks a roughly $1 billion loan for DOE and said this spring that the federal agency could conditionally approve the […]

The Department of Energy’s Office of Environmental Management intends to issue no-bid business to Waste Control Specialists in Andrews County, Texas to relocate containers of long-stranded transuranic waste to a new above-ground storage area at the commercial waste site. “The estimated value of the resulting order is not expected to exceed $16,500,000 ($16.5 million),” DOE’s […]