Department of Energy

In the latest rallying cry for an issue now back-burnered for a decade, the federal government’s independent technical experts on nuclear waste called on the Department of Energy to help forge a “long-term political commitment” to site a nuclear waste repository. “Successful repository implementation needs a legal framework that clearly describes the roles of the […]

An ongoing federal study into alternative liquid-waste cleanup at the Hanford Site in Washington state should focus narrowly on finding the fastest way to get rid of low-level radioactive waste that can’t be solidified by the site’s Waste Treatment and Immobilization Plant, a national academies panel recommended last week. The waste treatment plant, which is […]

As the Department of Energy inches towards the March deadline for its federal interim storage information request, the agency’s nuclear energy chief is impressed with some of the responses already rolling in, she said this week. “We’re coming into this with a pretty open mind as to what [a federal interim storage site] should look […]

To date, four Republicans have announced plans to run for Rep. Tom Reed’s (R-N.Y.) seat representing New York’s 23rd Congressional District, which includes the West Valley Demonstration Project, a nuclear site being cleaned up by the Department of Energy. After a former lobbyist accused the lawmaker of sexual harassment last March, Reed, who has served […]

Eventual winners of new multibillion-dollar contracts at the Portsmouth Site in Ohio and the Paducah Site in Kentucky are expected to use small businesses to perform work worth 15% to 20% of contract value, not counting the 120-day transition period. That is according to a detailed presentation on the $ 5.87-billion Portsmouth Decontamination and Decommissioning […]

For now, top management at the Department of Energy still plans a phased return to onsite work for employees and contractors starting on Tuesday, Jan. 18. “Per DOE’s COVID-19 Workplace Safety and Reentry Framework, employees who are designated site critical will return to the worksite on Jan. 18,” a DOE headquarters spokesperson said in a […]

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 […]

To date, four Republicans have announced plans to run for Rep. Tom Reed’s (R-N.Y.) seat representing New York’s 23rd Congressional District, which includes the West Valley Demonstration Project, a nuclear site being cleaned up by the Department of Energy. After a former lobbyist accused the lawmaker of sexual harassment last March, Reed, who has served […]

Towing a popular line among industry and nuclear power advocates, executives at Exelon’s recently-named spin-off company Constellation said Wednesday that the federal government can’t achieve its climate objectives without giving nuclear energy a hand. “[I]f we bring in new renewables, and all they do is replace lost nuclear generation, we will be running in place,” […]

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 […]

With the New Mexico Environment Department suing the Department of Energy over a 2016 consent order on legacy waste cleanup at the Los Alamos National Laboratory, the head of an advocacy group last week questioned why the state is negotiating with the feds over remediation milestones. The New Mexico Environment Department has filed suit against […]

For now, top management at the Department of Energy still plans a phased return to onsite work for employees and contractors starting on Tuesday, Jan. 18. “Per DOE’s COVID-19 Workplace Safety and Reentry Framework, employees who are designated site critical will return to the worksite on Jan. 18,” a DOE headquarters spokesperson said in a […]

In the latest rallying cry for an issue now back-burnered for a decade, the federal government’s independent technical experts on nuclear waste called on the Department of Energy to help forge a “long-term political commitment” to site a nuclear waste repository. “Successful repository implementation needs a legal framework that clearly describes the roles of the […]

The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday 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 […]

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. In late November, the facility near Aiken, S.C., was already in an outage […]

Sam Brinton will join the Department of Energy’s nuclear energy 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 Monday. Brinton, who currently serves as global political affairs director at aspirant nuclear-waste services company Deep Isolation, will become the Office of Nuclear […]

What was shaping up to be a productive trial run of the long-delayed Integrated Waste Unit was cut short just after New Year’s, about a third of the way through its planned duration, because of weather-related supply-chain issues, a state official said Monday. The Integrated Waste Treatment Unit (IWTU) started its 50-day run, loaded with […]

SHINE Technologies, Janesville, Wis., signed contracts with the National Nuclear Security Administration and the Department of Energy’s Office of Environmental Management to support the company’s initiative to domestically manufacture a medical isotope without highly enriched uranium, according to a DOE press release. The release did not disclose the financial terms of the deal, or the […]

Eventual winners of new multibillion-dollar contracts at the Portsmouth Site in Ohio and the Paducah Site in Kentucky are expected to use small businesses to perform work worth 15% to 20% of contract value, not counting the 120-day transition period. That is according to a detailed presentation on the $ 5.87-billion Portsmouth Decontamination and Decommissioning […]

An ongoing federal study into alternative liquid-waste cleanup at the Hanford Site in Washington state should focus narrowly on finding the fastest way to get rid of low-level radioactive waste that can’t be solidified by the site’s Waste Treatment and Immobilization Plant, a national academies panel recommended last week. The waste treatment plant, which is […]

The Department of Energy’s Environmental Management published draft solicitations Tuesday for two contracts potentially worth more than $7.7 billion combined at the Portsmouth Site in Ohio and the Paducah Site in Kentucky. The larger draft request for proposals (RFP) is for the potential $5.87-billion Portsmouth Decontamination and Decommissioning Contract, DOE said in a press release. […]

The Department of Energy Thursday announced plans to solicit Technical Assistance Contracts for several Office of Environmental Management Field Sites within the next 60 days. Requests for proposals could be released by early to mid-March for small business set-aside contracts at the West Valley Demonstration Project in New York, the Moab Uranium Mill Tailings Remedial […]

Vermont’s citizen-led nuclear waste advisory committee would support “immediate action” by the federal government to site an interim storage facility for the nation’s spent nuclear fuel, if a draft opinion presented to the committee is finalized. The draft opinion included alongside a Dec. 6 meeting of the Vermont Nuclear Decommissioning Citizens’ Advisory Panel (NDCAP) proposed […]

The Department of Energy could solicit bids for long-term management and storage of elemental mercury in January, the Office of Environmental Management said in a procurement update after Christmas. After court action by gold mining companies forced DOE to drop earlier plans to designate Waste Control Specialists in West Texas as its preferred long-term storage […]

Department of Energy management at the Hanford Site is not doing enough about a leak from a single-shell, high-level waste tank made public in April 2021, according to a Washington state lawmaker and some other members of the Hanford Advisory Board. Hanford bosses and the Washington state Department of Ecology lack a sense of urgency […]

Since the confirmed, domestic start of the COVID-19 pandemic in early 2020, the Department of Energy’s Office of Environmental Management has confirmed 7,916 cases of the illness among the agency’s workforce, a spokesperson said Thursday. Likewise, the latest weekly total of confirmed cases is 313, a whopping jump of 242 since the office’s last weekly […]

With litigation on a controversial contract award two years ago still ongoing, the Department of Energy has extended incumbent Swift & Staley as the landlord services provider at the Paducah Site in Kentucky through February, a spokesperson confirmed via email this week. Without the extension, first revealed in a U.S. Court of Federal Claims order, […]

As of mid-December, the Department of Energy’s Waste Isolation Pilot Plant near Carlsbad, N.M., had received 210 shipments of defense-related transuranic waste in 2021, beating the 2020 total of 192 shipments before the calendar year was out, according to the deep-underground repository’s website. In November alone, the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) received 27 shipments […]

The Department of Energy has picked up the first two-year option in its agreement with HPM Corp., the incumbent provider of occupational medical services to thousands of federal and contractors at the Hanford Site in Washington state. The three-year base period of the potential seven-year, $152-million contract with Kennewick. Wash.,-based HPM Corp. (HPMC), was due […]

The new management team is in place at the Idaho National Laboratory, according to the Idaho Environmental Coalition’s website. The change was effective Jan. 1. The Idaho Environmental Coalition (IEC) has a potential ten-year, $6.4 billion contract and took  over from Fluor Idaho.  Ty Blackford is the president and program manager at the new team, […]