Department of Energy

Communities interested in receiving federal funding to explore hosting an interim storage facility for spent nuclear fuel now have through January to apply, the Department of Energy announced Wednesday. The deadline for DOE’s roughly $16 million interim storage funding opportunity is now Jan. 31, the agency announced in a Tweet Wednesday. Dec. 19 had been […]

A two-year legal fight comes to a head Thursday with a federal appeals court in Washington, D.C., set to consider if incumbent Swift & Staley was too large to qualify for a $160-million small business contract it won in December 2020 at the Department of Energy’s Paducah Site in Kentucky. Sometime after 10 a.m. Eastern […]

The Department of Energy is planning to open up its second round of bailouts for economically-troubled nuclear power plants in the new year, an agency spokesperson said Tuesday. DOE is preparing its next round of funding under its roughly $6 billion civil nuclear credits program, greenlit in November 2021 under the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs […]

Long-idled design work resumed this summer on the high-level waste portion of the Waste Treatment and Immobilization Plant at the Department of Energy’s Hanford Site in Washington state, according to the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board. After August workshops, prime contractor Bechtel National and DOE created what they call the “HLW [High Level Waste] Firm […]

During fiscal 2022, the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board worked on staffing needs and finalized a deal with the Department of Energy spelling out the watchdog’s authority to access people, records and facilities around the weapons complex. Those are a couple of highlights from the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board (DNFSB) fiscal 2022 Agency Financial […]

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission was scheduled this week to discuss a proposed 20-year life extension for California’s last operating nuclear power plant, according to agency documents. NRC is currently weighing whether to renew Diablo Canyon Power Plant’s operating license. According to a meeting notice published Monday afternoon, the commission planned to meet with the plant […]

The Department of Energy’s nuclear cleanup branch should not see a significant near-term decrease in its budget for the Savannah River Site in South Carolina because control of the federal complex is being transferred to the National Nuclear Security Administration, a budget and planning official said last week. “Most of our funding is for liquid […]

The Department of Energy’s nuclear cleanup branch could increase the value of a North Wind Group environmental remediation contract at a naval reactor laboratory site in New York state to $47 million from $22 million, according to a procurement notice published last week. The DOE’s Cincinnati-based Environmental Management Consolidated Business Center published a justification for […]

The Department of Energy will apply a little extra scrutiny to a worker’s heat exhaustion during legacy nuclear waste cleanup at the Los Alamos National Laboratory, the agency’s Office of Enterprise Assessments said recently. The worker “experienced heat exhaustion while supporting corrugated metal pipe retrieval operations at the Los Alamos National Laboratory on September 8, […]

The administration of President Joe Biden has yet to submit its legal response to a brief filed in November in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit over legality of a COVID-19 vaccination requirement for most workers at the Department of Energy’s Hanford Site. The current deadline for the government’s answering briefing in […]

Small businesses on the hunt for a share of assorted nationwide nuclear cleanup work at government sites are encouraged to team up by the Department of Energy’s Office of Environmental Management. “DOE is issuing this notification to encourage offerors to consider the establishment of contractor teaming arrangements,” in pursuit of small business set-aside awards for […]

Amentum-led Washington River Protection Solutions is seeking a subcontractor to help ensure the quality of its cesium-removal system for low-level radioactive tank waste at the Department of Energy’s Hanford Site in Washington state. Washington River Protection Solutions (WRPS) is looking for a subcontractor to help with the “procurement, fabrication, and testing of replacement ion exchange […]

Jeff Avery, a longtime manager with the Office of Naval Reactors, has been selected as the new second-in-command at the Department of Energy’s $7.8-billion Office of Environmental Management. Avery, current director of regulatory and security affairs with the Office of Naval Reactors, officially becomes principal deputy assistant secretary for Environmental Management, or EM-2, effective in […]

The acting head of the Department of Energy’s $7.8-billion nuclear cleanup program says flexibility is key to solving tough-to-eradicate problems such as radioactive liquid waste disposal and groundwater contamination at Cold War and Manhattan Project sites. “At this point in time we are about 80 years removed from the Manhattan Project,” William (Ike) White told […]

The Hanford Site in Washington may not be able to make its first canister of glass from low-level radioactive tank waste until 2024, a year later than the Department of Energy hoped, an agency official said Thursday at a public meeting in New Orleans. “We originally had hoped to have hot commission by December” of […]

Amentum-led Washington River Protection Solutions started procurement this week for a subcontractor to help with the next liquid radioactive waste pretreatment system at the Department of Energy’s Hanford Site in Washington state. The planned Advanced Modular Pretreatment System will be a successor to the Tank Side Cesium Removal (TSCR) project that the Amentum-led Washington River […]

The long-delayed Integrated Waste Treatment Unit at the Department of Energy’s Idaho National Laboratory should start heating up before New Year’s and begin its cleanup mission in January, state and federal agencies said Wednesday. The Integrated Waste Treatment Unit (IWTU), designed to convert 900,000 gallons of high-level sodium bearing radioactive waste into a granular form, […]

Sam Brinton’s alleged theft of a woman’s suitcase from the Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport in September, and the lies Brinton allegedly told law enforcement about it, has greatly damaged Brinton’s credibility. To take the wrong suitcase from an airport baggage carousel is one thing. To take a suitcase from a carousel at your destination after […]

After the Department of Energy snubbed a shuttered Michigan nuclear power plant for a federal bailout, the company in charge of the facility may not throw its hat in the ring for the agency’s second round of awards. A spokesperson for Holtec International, which in June took ownership of Palisades Nuclear Generating Station, told RadWaste […]

WASHINGTON — The head of the Department of Energy’s nuclear power office said this week that the agency was preparing to roll out its second round of bailouts for economically-troubled nuclear power plants. Applications for the next funding cycle of DOE’s civil nuclear credits program will open “soon,” Assistant Secretary of Energy for Nuclear Energy […]

WASHINGTON — Days after news broke that Samuel Brinton, a Department of Energy official responsible for nuclear waste policy, was charged with felony theft in Minnesota, Brinton’s boss spoke only in general terms to lawmakers and press here Thursday about possible disciplinary steps. “It is certainly correct that when a DOE clearance-holder is charged with […]

The long-delayed Integrated Waste Treatment Unit at the Department of Energy’s Idaho National Laboratory should start heating up before New Year’s and begin its cleanup mission in January, state and federal agencies said Wednesday. The Integrated Waste Treatment Unit (IWTU), designed to convert 900,000 gallons of high-level sodium bearing radioactive waste into a granular form, […]

The ranking member of the Senate’ Energy and Natural Resources Committee Tuesday urged the Department of Energy to fire its head of spent nuclear fuel disposal activities following news of a recent felony theft charge. In his Tuesday letter to Secretary of Energy Jennifer Granholm, Sen. John Barrasso (R-Wyo.) expressed “serious concerns” regarding news that […]

Jeff Avery, a longtime manager with the Office of Naval Reactors, has been selected as the new second-in-command at the Department of Energy’s $7.8-billion Office of Environmental Management. Avery, current director of regulatory and security affairs with the Office of Naval Reactors, officially becomes principal deputy assistant secretary for Environmental Management, or EM-2, effective in […]

Amentum-led Washington River Protection Solutions is seeking a subcontractor to help ensure the quality of its cesium-removal system for low-level radioactive tank waste at the Department of Energy’s Hanford Site in Washington state. Washington River Protection Solutions (WRPS) is looking for a subcontractor to help with the “procurement, fabrication, and testing of replacement ion exchange […]

Small businesses on the hunt for a share of assorted nationwide nuclear cleanup work at government sites are encouraged to team up by the Department of Energy’s Office of Environmental Management. “DOE is issuing this notification to encourage offerors to consider the establishment of contractor teaming arrangements,” in pursuit of small business set-aside awards for […]

The administration of President Joe Biden has yet to submit its legal response to a brief filed earlier this month in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit over legality of a COVID-19 vaccination requirement for most workers at the Department of Energy’s Hanford Site. The current deadline for the government’s answering briefing […]

After the Department of Energy snubbed a shuttered Michigan nuclear power plant for a federal bailout, the company in charge of the facility does may not throw its hat in the ring for the agency’s second round of awards. A spokesperson for Holtec International, which in June took ownership of Palisades Nuclear Generating Station, told […]

The state of Minnesota has charged the Department of Energy’s recently-hired head of spent nuclear fuel management with felony theft, court documents show. According to a criminal complaint filed Oct. 27 in Minnesota’s 4th Judicial District Court, Sam Brinton, who began working in June as DOE’s deputy assistant secretary for spent fuel and waste disposition, […]

The environmental cleanup contractor at the Department of Energy’s Savannah River Site in South Carolina will start testing its newest supersize Saltstone Disposal Unit for potential leaks right after Thanksgiving. BWX Technologies-led Savannah River Mission Completion will start a leak-tightness test at Saltstone Disposal Unit No. 8 (SDU 8) on Nov. 26, the company said […]