Department of Energy

Savannah River Remediation, the outgoing, Amentum-led liquid waste contractor at the Department of Energy’s Savannah River Site in South Carolina, took home about $43.8 million, or 98%, of a potential $44.6 million fee during fiscal 2021, according to a scorecard released by the agency this week. Savannah River Remediation (SRR), which includes Amentum, Bechtel, Jacobs […]

The Department of Energy’s Office of Environmental Management plans to award new contracts this year at the Hanford Site in Washington state, the Moab uranium tailings site in Utah and the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant in New Mexico, the office said in its recent list of 2022 priorities. The biggest prize is the potential $45-billion, […]

Kathryn Huff is a step closer to removing ‘acting’ from her title as assistant secretary of the Department of Energy’s nuclear energy office, as the Joe Biden administration nominated her to take over the position full-time this week. If confirmed by the Senate, Huff will take over the Office of Nuclear Energy’s (NE) head chair, […]

The Department of Energy is planning this year to award cash to communities exploring the prospect of hosting a federal interim storage facility for spent nuclear fuel, the agency said this week. “We expect to announce a funding opportunity for interested groups and communities later this year,” a DOE spokesperson told RadWaste Monitor in an […]

Most staffers with the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board don’t need to return to their pre-pandemic workplaces this month, a spokesperson with the federal safety watchdog said Tuesday morning. The Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board (DNFSB) is no longer requiring a return to work on Jan. 24, as earlier scheduled, “but is giving the staff […]

A U.S. Court of Federal Claims judge was scheduled to hear oral arguments next month on whether Kentucky-based Swift & Staley is too large to qualify for the Department of Energy’s three-year, $160-million small business set-aside contract for Infrastructure Support Services at the Paducah Site in Kentucky. Judge Thompson Dietz plans to hear arguments Feb. […]

The final numbers for December confirm 2021 was a bounce-back year of sorts for the Department of Energy’s Waste Isolation Pilot Plant in New Mexico, which disposed of 21 more shipments of transuranic waste than during its first year of the COVID-19 pandemic. The Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) near Carlsbad, N.M., received 20 shipments […]

Fluor-led Savannah River Nuclear Solutions, the prime in charge of the Department of Energy’s Savannah River Site in South Carolina, garnered an “excellent” scorecard from the feds and took home about $38.8 million, or 96%, of its potential fee for the last 10 months of fiscal 2021. Meanwhile, Battelle Savannah River Alliance, the new spinoff […]

Centerra-Savannah River Site, security provider at the Department of Energy site in South Carolina, won $6.4 million or 95% of a potential $6.7 million fee for a 12-month period ended Oct.7, according to a new DOE scorecard. “Throughout this performance period, Centerra-SRS executed the Site security mission at an excellent level of proficiency,” DOE said […]

The former head of the Department of Energy’s nuclear energy office is headed to the C-Suite of Westinghouse Electric, the company announced Tuesday. Rita Baranwal, assistant secretary for DOE’s Office of Nuclear Energy (NE) from July 2019 to January 2021, was appointed chief technology officer at Westinghouse, according to a press release dated Tuesday. In […]

This week, some 292 plaintiffs, many working in security at the Department of Energy’s Hanford Site in Washington, filed a new complaint in their federal lawsuit opposing government vaccine mandates. But attorneys for the federal government replied the same day with a motion to dismiss the new complaint, saying it is little better than the […]

The Department of Energy and its environmental management contractor at the Idaho National Laboratory hope to resume a test run of the Integrated Waste Treatment Unit by the end of the month, an Idaho state official said Thursday. As of Tuesday Jan. 18, managers at the Integrated Waste Treatment Unit (IWTU) envisioned having a nitrogen […]

Savannah River Remediation, the outgoing, Amentum-led liquid waste contractor at the Department of Energy’s Savannah River Site in South Carolina, took home about $43.8 million, or 98%, of a potential $44.6 million fee during fiscal 2021, according to a scorecard released by the agency this week. Savannah River Remediation (SRR), which includes Amentum, Bechtel, Jacobs […]

Fluor-led Savannah River Nuclear Solutions, the prime in charge of the Department of Energy’s Savannah River Site in South Carolina, garnered an “excellent” scorecard from the feds and took home about $38.8 million, or 96%, of its potential fee for the last 10 months of fiscal 2021. Meanwhile, Battelle Savannah River Alliance, the new spinoff […]

Kathryn Huff is a step closer to removing ‘acting’ from her title as assistant secretary of the Department of Energy’s nuclear energy office, as the Joe Biden administration nominated her to take over the position full-time Wednesday. If confirmed by the Senate, Huff will take over the Office of Nuclear Energy’s (NE) head chair, which […]

A U.S. Court of Federal Claims judge was scheduled to hear oral arguments next month on whether Kentucky-based Swift & Staley is too large to qualify for the Department of Energy’s three-year, $160-million small business set-aside contract for Infrastructure Support Services at the Paducah Site in Kentucky. Judge Thompson Dietz planned to hear arguments Feb. […]

Most staffers with the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board don’t need to return to their pre-pandemic workplaces this month, a spokesperson with the federal safety watchdog said Tuesday morning. The Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board (DNFSB) is no longer requiring a return to work on Jan. 24, as earlier scheduled, “but is giving the staff […]

The Department of Energy’s Office of Environmental Management plans to award new contracts this year at the Hanford Site in Washington state, the Moab uranium tailings site in Utah and the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant in New Mexico, the office said in its recent list of 2022 priorities. The biggest prize is the potential $45-billion, […]

An article in the Jan. 13 Weapons Complex Morning Briefing  [“Tank-side Cesium Removal at Hanford Tracking January Startup”] should have reported subcontractor AVANTech designed the Tank-Side Cesium Removal project at the Hanford Site in Washington state. An article in the same edition, [“Settlement Talks Extended Until April in NMED-DOE Suit Over Los Alamos Cleanup”] should […]

Happy Friday, nuke-watchers. Here are some other stories from around the civilian nuclear power space that RadWaste Monitor was tracking this week. NRC Conference to go All-Virtual Amid Omicron Surge After the COVID-19 Omicron variant spread rapidly across the country this winter, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission has decided to host an annual spring conference virtually, […]

The Salt Waste Processing Facility at the Savannah River Site, offline since late October for a combination of an operational outage and technical safety concerns, could get back up by the end of this month, a Department of Energy spokesperson said Monday. The facility near Aiken, S.C remained in an outage early this week, following […]

The U.S. Supreme Court this week agreed to hear the Department of Justice’s challenges to a Washington state law that made it easier for cleanup workers at the Department of Energy’s Hanford Site to claim compensation for certain occupational illnesses. The highest court in the land, an independent branch of the federal government, said Monday […]

Rep. Dina Titus (D-Nev.) wants Secretary of Energy Jennifer Granholm to provide details about a Department of Energy plan to bury certain nuclear waste, now at the Idaho National Laboratory, at the Nevada National Security Site. Titus said she was caught off guard by federal plans for the shipments from Idaho to the Nevada National […]

State and federal settlement talks about revamping the 2016 consent order for legacy cleanup at the Department of Energy’s Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico will continue into early April, according to a status report filed this month with a federal court. Representatives from the New Mexico Department of Environment (NMED) and DOE Office […]

Construction and commissioning of key nuclear-cleanup facilities headline the Department of Energy’s goals for calendar year 2022, according to the Environmental Management (EM) Office’s recently-published list of priorities.  Among these are two big projects at the Hanford Site in Washington state. There, EM intends to finish cold commissioning of the first of two melters at […]

Preparations for a 50-day test-run of a crucial liquid-waste treatment system at the Department of Energy’s Idaho site were cut short Christmas Eve because someone installed an open/closed indicator on the unit’s plumbing backwards, according to the site. The Integrated Waste Treatment Unit (IWTU), designed to solidify some 850,000 gallons of sodium-bearing, radioactive waste leftover […]

With a spike in COVID-19 cases, top management at the Department of Energy plans to go “the extra mile” by stretching out its phased return to onsite work for employees and contractors by an additional month, according to a Thursday email. “We are delaying our increased return to the workplace schedule by one month,” Tarak […]

The Tank-Side Cesium Removal project at the Hanford Site in Washington state, a key cog in the Department of Energy’s plan to begin bulk solidification of liquid radioactive waste there next year, could start up in January, according to a recent memo from the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board. “DOE Hanford is working with the […]

The Department of Energy is planning to soon take some initial steps to nail down a process for allocating several billion dollars in federal funds to economically-troubled nuclear power plants, an agency spokesperson said this week. A Request for Information (RFI) and notice of intent from DOE related to the civil nuclear credits program greenlit […]

Sam Brinton will join the Department of Energy’s nuclear power office as the agency’s second-in-command of nuclear waste issues, the nuclear-waste policy expert and current global political director for Deep Isolation announced this week. Brinton, who currently serves as global political affairs director at aspirant nuclear-waste services company Deep Isolation, will become the Office of […]