Department of Energy

Fewer than five days remain before the Department of Energy is expected to publish instructions for financially-troubled nuclear power plant operators looking to bid on a multi-billion-dollar federal assistance package. DOE’s Office of Nuclear Energy “anticipates opening a combined certification and sealed bid auction process” on its civil nuclear credits program April 18 by first […]

The Department of Energy’s Waste Isolation Pilot Plant near Carlsbad, N.M., received 18 shipments of transuranic waste during March, according to the latest available data. During the past month, the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) took in 13 shipments from Idaho National Laboratory, four from the Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico and one […]

After the government won a key legal battle last week, the U.S. Department of Justice said Monday the Fifth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals should allow it to begin enforcing a presidential executive order that federal employees be vaccinated against COVID-19. On April 7 the New Orleans-based 5th Circuit overturned a nationwide preliminary injunction issued […]

Treatment of the Hanford Site’s liquid radioactive waste will produce toxic vapors from a substance called acetonitrile, the Department of Energy said last year in an internal report, a compound that would be unsafe for workers and, according to an environmental group, potentially threatening to people and animals living near the site. The week of […]

A lawsuit against the Department of Energy’s prime contractor at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory over a COVID-19 vaccination mandate is on hold pending settlement talks, a federal judge in Tennessee said Monday. U.S. District Judge Charles Atchley Jr. stayed all further proceedings in the case, brought by a half-dozen vaccine holdouts against contractor UT-Battelle, […]

Workers at the Department of Energy’s Hanford Site in Washington state had to cope with an unexpected springtime snowfall in their daily commute on Monday. The DOE’s Hanford Site said via Twitter Monday that the 2.3 inches recorded by  Leidos-led services contractor Hanford Mission Integration Solutions (HMIS) represents a new record for an April snow […]

The Department of Energy has yet to carry out needed fixes to allow the Integrated Waste Treatment Unit to resume its final test run at the Idaho National Laboratory, the agency confirmed Monday. A 50-day demonstration run of the long-anticipated Integrated Waste Treatment Unit (IWTU) was suspended Feb. 26 after swings in operating temperatures and […]

Candice Robertson, a familiar face at the Department of Energy, officially started in her new role as acting second-in-command at the agency’s $7.6-billion Office of Environmental Management, according to the latest organizational chart posted Monday.   Robertson is the acting principal deputy assistant secretary, or EM-2, at the DOE nuclear cleanup office, filling the opening created […]

Plaintiffs suing the Department of Energy’s prime contractor at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory in Tennessee over COVID-19 vaccination requirements for employees are interested in settling the case, according to a filing last week in federal court. “Plaintiffs believe that this case is well-situated for settlement discussions,” according to an April 5 status report filed […]

Changes in the scope of work for two new Department of Energy contracts planned at the Portsmouth Site in Ohio and Paducah Site in Kentucky, should not cause job cuts or employee transfers between the two former gaseous diffusion plants, the agency said Thursday in a procurement notice. As DOE has said previously, some work […]

Things are stable once again at the Department of Energy’s Waste Isolation Pilot Plant in New Mexico after discovery of a freestanding liquid with low levels of radioactive contamination in the CH-Bay at the complex near Carlsbad, N.M., DOE said via Twitter Saturday night. The discovery of the liquid at the bottom of a transportation […]

The Department of Energy’s Office of Environmental Management is extending the proposal deadline for a potential $120 million small business Technical Assistance Contract solicitation until April 25, the agency said this week. The prior deadline, from a request for proposals (RFP) issued last month, was April 18. But that conflicts with Easter, said one unidentified […]

Cases of COVID-19 within the Department of Energy’s Office of Environmental Management remained low during the past week, with 27 active confirmed cases of the virus reported, a spokesperson said in a Thursday email. That is up six from the prior week total of 21 but far below the hundreds being recorded weekly during the […]

Fluor-BWXT Portsmouth, the deactivation and demolition contractor at the Portsmouth Site in Ohio, should tighten up work control shortcomings that could endanger employee health and safety, according to a new Department of Energy analysis. While the contractor “generally meets the fundamental expectations” of safety requirements, it needs a comprehensive industrial hygiene effort to ensure workplace […]

The Joe Biden administration last week requested a budget of $41 million for the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board in fiscal 2023, an increase of $5 million over $36 million from the 2022 omnibus passed in early March. That 2023 request is about a 14% year-over-year increase for the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board (DNFSB). […]

With COVID-19 illnesses declining nationally, a United Steelworkers officer at the Department of Energy’s Portsmouth Site in Ohio wants Mid-America Conversion Services to reconsider an earlier decision to fire a handful of longtime employees who refused vaccination. United Steelworkers Local 1-689 is negotiating a new contract with Mid-America to replace the one that expired Jan. […]

The Department of Energy will not revoke until August a disputed landlord services contract that could keep Swift & Staley at the Paducah Site in 2027 — but the agency also will not slow down plans to recompete or reward the work, which the incumbent is fighting in court to keep. That was the news […]

The U.S. Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals Thursday overturned a federal district court’s injunction against President Joe Biden’s COVID-19 vaccination mandate for federal employees. Meanwhile, the Eleventh U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Atlanta was scheduled to hear arguments Friday for and against an injunction against the Biden administration’s vaccine mandate for federal contractors. The […]

John (Jack) William Crawford, Jr., a Navy captain who served on the staff of Admiral Hyman Rickover prior to stints with the Atomic Energy Commission and later the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board, has died, the board announced in a press release last week. The Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board (DNFSB) was created by Congress […]

Thanks to more than a quarter-billion dollars of congressional funds since 2018, the Department of Energy’s Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory is tearing down some of the most contaminated facilities in the weapons complex and “making bad things go away,” a manager at the California nuclear-weapons design lab said recently. Much progress has happened since the […]

The New Mexico-based Los Alamos Study Group filed suit Wednesday against the National Nuclear Security Administration in Washington, D.C., claiming the semi-autonomous Department of Energy agency is violating the Freedom of Information Act when it comes to plans for expanded plutonium pit production. The Albuquerque-based Los Alamos Study Group has made 65 requests under the […]

John (Jack) William Crawford, Jr., a Navy captain who served on the staff of Admiral Hyman Rickover prior to stints with the Atomic Energy Commission and later the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board, has died, the board announced in a press release last week. The Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board (DNFSB) was created by Congress […]

SUN VALLEY, IDAHO — Despite a perceived lack of interest in the technology at the federal level and a major roadblock in the form of federal nuclear-waste law, Curio Solutions is still carrying a torch for spent fuel reprocessing and the company’s CEO wants Congress to know. “We have a once-through fuel cycle that treats […]

The Department of Energy’s Office of Environmental Management is extending the proposal deadline for a potential $120 million small business Technical Assistance Contract solicitation until April 25, the agency said this week. The prior deadline, from a request for proposals (RFP) issued last month, was April 18. But that conflicts with Easter, said one unidentified […]

SUN VALLEY, IDAHO — The almighty dollar is the only thing standing in the way of Holtec International’s plans to build an advanced reactor at the site of a former New Jersey nuclear plant, the company’s CEO said here Tuesday. “The government is the one that has to step up” to help fund Holtec’s plan […]

Fluor-BWXT Portsmouth, the deactivation and demolition contractor at the Portsmouth Site in Ohio, should tighten up work control shortcomings that could endanger employee health and safety, according to a new Department of Energy analysis. While the contractor “generally meets the fundamental expectations” of safety requirements, it needs a comprehensive industrial hygiene effort to ensure workplace […]

With COVID-19 illnesses declining nationally, a United Steelworkers officer at the Department of Energy’s Portsmouth Site in Ohio wants Mid-America Conversion Services to reconsider an earlier decision to fire a handful of longtime employees who refused vaccination. United Steelworkers Local 1-689 is negotiating a new contract with Mid-America to replace the one that expired Jan. […]

The Department of Energy is looking for someone within the agency to run the Office of Nuclear Energy’s spent nuclear fuel programs, according to an internal job listing obtained last week by RadWaste Monitor. According to the posting, DOE is hiring a 120-day detail for the Senior Executive Service (SES) position of assistant secretary for […]

As of March 9, 427 intermodal containers filled with radiologically-contaminated soil or debris had been shipped to EnergySolutions from the Balance of Site Facilities cleanup at the West Valley Demonstration Project in New York, a contractor representative told the West Valley Citizen Task Force meeting last week. Kelly Wooley, deputy general manager for the West […]

A Hanford occupational health contractor agreed to pay almost $3 million in restitution and penalties for false financial statements that enabled it to obtain a COVID-related loan from the U.S. Small Business Administration, which was later forgiven. The loan ended up in the personal bank accounts of the owners of HPMCorp., Holly and Grover Cleveland […]