Department of Energy

California’s Department of Toxic Substances Control could start taking public comments as early as this fall on groundwater cleanup for the Department of Energy’s area of the sprawling Santa Susana Field Laboratory, according to a report released Thursday. The California Agency on Thursday issued its long-awaited Final Program Environmental Impact Report (PEIR) for the 2,850-acre […]

One major COVID-19-related lawsuit in the Department of Energy’s weapons complex ended this week when an appeals court ruled there was nothing much to resolve while another, on the other side of the country, is restarting.  A case involving DOE’s COVID-19 vaccination policy at the Hanford Site in Washington state is effectively over, a panel […]

The Department of Energy’s $45-billion liquid waste contract awarded in April for the Hanford Site in Washington state “was improper and is set aside,” a federal judge said in a public one-page document Tuesday. “Performance of the contract is enjoined,” U.S.  Court of Federal Claims Judge Marian Blank Horn said of the Integrated Tanks Contract […]

A House Appropriations panel wants to give the federal government’s independent safety watchdog for nuclear weapon sites almost as much money as the White House requested, bill published this week show. On Thursday, the House Appropriations energy and water development subcommittee chaired by Rep. Chuck Fleischmann (R-Tenn), passed a draft budget bill that would provide […]

An Idaho county this week urged a federal judge to reject the federal governent’s motion to dismiss a lawsuit against the Department of Energy over ongoing use of the Idaho National Laboratory as a repository for spent nuclear fuel. Butte County, which says DOE should shoulder more of the social and economic impact of decades […]

Some House Democrats told the Nuclear Regulatory Commission in a hearing Wednesday that development of new nuclear power plants should be yoked to development of a permanent nuclear waste storage facility. In the same hearing of the House Energy and Commerce energy, climate and grid security subcommittee, another Democrat, Rep. Frank Pallone (D-N.J.), urged the […]

A House Appropriations panel wants to give the federal government’s independent safety watchdog for nuclear weapon sites almost as much money as the White House requested, a bill published Wednesday shows. On Wednesday, the House Appropriations energy and water development subcommittee chaired by Rep. Chuck Fleischmann (R-Tenn), released its draft budget plan Wednesday that would […]

A House Appropriations panel led by a lawmaker with a local interest in the Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge Site in Tennessee would keep nuclear cleanup spending roughly $8.3 billion in fiscal 2024, according to a draft budget bill released Wednesday. That is about flat compared with the 2023 appropriation, and while numbers don’t change […]

Christopher Leichtweis, the president and CEO of Idaho Falls-based North Wind Group, plans to leave the company by the end of the year, the company announced Tuesday. Leichtweis, who has led the Department of Energy contractor since 2013, will remain on through Dec. 31, “to ensure a smooth and orderly transition,” North Wind said in […]

The Department of Energy’s $45-billion liquid waste contract awarded in April for the Hanford Site in Washington state “was improper and is set aside,” a federal judge said in a public one-page document Tuesday. “Performance of the contract is enjoined,” U.S.  Court of Federal Claims Judge Marian Blank Horn said of the Integrated Tanks Contract […]

The Department of Energy’s Office of Environmental Management has not been aggressive enough in cleaning up a hexavalent chromium plume within the Los Alamos National Laboratory, the head of the New Mexico Environment Department said last week. DOE and its contractors “have denied New Mexicans and tribal members timely and effective clean-up of hexavalent chromium […]

A federal judge on Monday abruptly dismissed a losing bidder’s lawsuit over a $45-billion Department of Energy contract at the Hanford Site in Washington state. According to an online notice, an “order of dismissal” was issued under seal by U.S.  Court of Federal Claims Judge Marian Blank Horn in a bid protest brought by an […]

A panel of judges for the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit said last week it need not hear oral arguments in order to make a ruling in a case involving the Department of Energy’s COVID-19 vaccination policy at the Hanford Site in Washington state. “The court is of the unanimous opinion that […]

California’s Department of Toxic Substances Control could start taking public comments as early as this fall on groundwater cleanup for the Department of Energy’s area of the sprawling Santa Susana Field Laboratory, according to a report released Thursday. The California Agency on Thursday issued its long-awaited Final Program Environmental Impact Report (PEIR) for the 2,850-acre […]

The Paducah Area Chamber of Commerce, which takes an active interest in the Department of Energy’s Paducah Site in McCracken County, Ky., has been awarded a $2-million grant to study future use of the agency’s gaseous diffusion plant. The $2-million financial assistance act, consistent with the fiscal 2023 federal budget, will go toward community studies […]

The Department of Energy on Friday announced it split $26 million among 13 teams who will help the agency define consent-based siting. The list includes trade groups, universities, local and tribal interest groups and even a few outright antinuclear groups. Some groups are part of multiple teams. Awards max out at $2 million. Consent-based siting […]

After being down for a while last week for upkeep on a major component, a $1.4-billion facility to treat sodium-bearing waste at the Department of Energy’s Idaho National Laboratory is back in operation, an agency spokesperson said by email this week. The Integrated Waste Treatment Unit (IWTU) “continues to process 100% rad waste,” the DOE […]

SUMMERLIN, NEV. — The manager of the Department of Energy’s Carlsbad, N.M., field office expects the major new ventilation system for the transuranic waste disposal site could start up sometime in 2024. “Preliminary commissioning” work on the Safety Significant Confinement Ventilation System should start this calendar year, said Mark Bollinger, who heads the Carlsbad Field […]

SUMMERLIN, NEV. — By June 30, the Department of Energy’s nuclear cleanup office expects to provide the Texas attorney general with a “detailed schedule” for retrieving boxes of transuranic waste stranded at a private disposal site in Andrews County for nearly a decade. In a May 10 letter to Phillip Ledbetter, managing enforcement lawyer with […]

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission has granted one-time approval for the Department of Energy to return a problem container of transuranic waste with expired paperwork to the Savannah River Site in South Carolina from the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant parking lot in New Mexico. The Nuclear Regulatory Commission authorized the return in a June 2 letter […]

Washington and Oregon officials agreed Tuesday that concrete-like grout could be used instead of glass to solidify a significant portion of Hanford’s radioactive liquid waste, as long as the grouted waste is taken off-site. Suzanne Dahl, tank waste manager for the Washington Ecology Department and Matt Hendrickson, her counterpart at the Oregon Department of Energy, […]

The Department of Energy this week released a draft solicitation for a contract under which it could acquire up to 145 metric tons of high assay low-enriched uranium to help develop new nuclear reactor designs. Also this week, the agency released a draft solicitation for converting the energy-dense uranium into reactor fuel. DOE did not […]

SUMMERLIN, NEV. — Amentum-led United Cleanup Oak Ridge will break ground this summer on a new low-level radioactive waste landfill at the Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge Site, U.S. Rep. Chuck Fleischmann (R-Tenn.) told Exchange Monitor’s Radwaste Summit here Tuesday. “I’m proud to announce that on Aug. 2 in Oak Ridge we are going to […]

With extensive bid protest arguments now filed by the Department of Justice and the winning and losing teams for a $45 billion Department of Energy tank waste contract, it will be up to a U.S. Court of Federal Claims judge to decide the next move. As of Thursday night, Judge Marian Blank Horn had not […]

SUMMERLIN, NEV. — EnergySolutions’ radioactive waste disposal site in Clive, Utah, may be able to accept depleted uranium from the Department of Energy early next year, a company executive said here this week. EnergySolutions has worked with DOE Office of Environmental Management waste director Doug Tonkay “to come up with an MOU [memorandum of understanding] […]

SUMMERLIN, NEV. — EnergySolutions’ radioactive waste disposal site in Clive, Utah, may be able to accept depleted uranium from the Department of Energy early next year, a company executive said here this week. EnergySolutions has worked with DOE Office of Environmental Management waste director Doug Tonkay “to come up with an MOU [memorandum of understanding] […]

Washington and Oregon officials agreed Tuesday that concrete-like grout could be used instead of glass to solidify a significant portion of Hanford’s radioactive liquid waste, as long as the grouted waste is taken off-site. Suzanne Dahl, tank waste manager for the Washington Ecology Department and Matt Hendrickson, her counterpart at the Oregon Department of Energy, […]

SUMMERLIN, NEV. — The manager of the Department of Energy’s Carlsbad, N.M., field office expects the major new ventilation system for the transuranic waste disposal site could start up sometime in 2024. “Preliminary commissioning” work on the Safety Significant Confinement Ventilation System should start this calendar year, said Mark Bollinger, who heads the Carlsbad Field […]

SUMMERLIN, NEV. — By June 30, the Department of Energy’s nuclear cleanup office expects to provide the Texas attorney general with a “detailed schedule” for retrieving boxes of transuranic waste stranded at a private disposal site in Andrews County for nearly a decade. In a May 10 letter to Phillip Ledbetter, managing enforcement lawyer with […]

SUMMERLIN, NEV — The Department of Energy should in June provide a timeline for removing long-stranded drums of transuranic waste from a commercial storage site in Andrews County, a Texas regulator said here Tuesday.  “They are moving forward with getting the building ready to eventually move the waste,” Ashley Forbes, deputy director of the radioactive […]