Department of Energy

Barry Goss, who founded Professional Project Services, or Pro2Serve, 25 years ago, is stepping down next week as the CEO although he will remain as a non-executive chairman of the board, the federal government contractor said in a Thursday press release. Mark DeGraff, a 20-year Pro2Serve employee, was to succeed Goss as CEO on Monday. […]

After both the House of Representatives and Senate passed a stopgap funding plan Thursday, President Joe Biden signed the continuing budget resolution to keep the federal government open through Dec. 3. The action prevented the Department of Energy and other federal agencies from largely shutting down at midnight. The 2022 fiscal year started Friday, with […]

The Department of Energy’s Waste Isolation Pilot Plant near Carlsbad, N.M. is again receiving transuranic shipments after a combination of underground conditions and temporary staffing problems from COVID-19 halted disposal for a month. “Yes, shipments resumed,” a spokesman for Nuclear Waste Partnership, prime contractor for the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP), said by email Wednesday. […]

The ripple effects of the COVID-19 pandemic and a June legal settlement between the state and the Department of Energy to prevent mislabeled radioactive waste shipments from again ending up at the Nevada National Security Site dominate the site’s just released 2020 environmental report. The report also notes that the wildland fires burned 3,150 acres […]

United Steelworkers local unions at five Department of Energy sites are urging elected officials from their states to intercede on their behalf against President Joe Biden’s plans for mandatory vaccinations of federal contractor employees. The Sept. 17 letter was sent to the governors in all five states: Gov. Brad Little (R) of Idaho, Gov. Mike […]

Removal of radioactively contaminated soil along a stretch of Middle DP Road in Los Alamos County, N.M., near a new housing complex, poses little risk to human health and should be about done this month, the Department of Energy’s Office of Environmental Management said this week. That’s a little later than the Sept. 30 target […]

A total of 20 employees at the Department of Energy’s Hanford Site in Washington state informed management this week that they tested positive for COVID-19. In addition, federal employees and contractors at Hanford were told Wednesday that visitors coming to the site must either attest they are fully vaccinated or provide evidence of a negative […]

The Department of Energy missed its self-imposed target to issue a final request for proposals by Sept. 30 for the multibillion-dollar Savannah River Site Management and Operating Contract and now plans to put the deal on the street in October. The agency made the announcement in a procurement notice posted online Thursday. If the date […]

Although the looming threat of a shutdown appeared to have dissipated at deadline Thursday, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission said it was prepared to keep the lights on for a bit if federal funds dried up because Congress and the White House could not agree on a budget for the 2022 fiscal year that starts after […]

The House and Senate are both expected to take votes today on a stopgap spending plan that could prevent federal government services from going dark at midnight, according to media reports. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) was quoted by USA Today as saying the upper chamber can act quickly to try and get a […]

The Department of Energy’s Waste Isolation Pilot Plant near Carlsbad, N.M. is again receiving transuranic shipments after a combination of underground conditions and temporary staffing problems from COVID-19 halted disposal for a month. “Yes, shipments resumed,” a spokesman for Nuclear Waste Partnership, prime contractor for the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP), said by email Wednesday. […]

Washington Attorney General Bob Ferguson plans to file legal arguments with the U.S. Supreme Court by Nov. 15 responding to a U.S. Department of Justice petition to overturn a 2018 state law that made it easier for cleanup employees at the Department of Energy’s Hanford Site to qualify for worker compensation. That’s according to Brionna […]

With Congressional Republicans threatening to thwart a stopgap funding plan to keep the government running beyond Thursday, the Department of Energy and other agencies could be forced to suspend operations. The DOE declined comment Tuesday, directing inquiries to the White House’s Office of Management and Budget, which did not immediately respond by Weapons Complex Morning […]

The ripple effects of the COVID-19 pandemic and a June legal settlement between the state and the Department of Energy to prevent mislabeled radioactive waste shipments from again ending up at the Nevada National Security Site dominate the site’s just released 2020 environmental report. The settlement reached this summer calls upon DOE to increase the […]

United Steelworkers local unions at five Department of Energy sites are urging elected officials from their states to intercede on their behalf against President Joe Biden’s plans for mandatory vaccinations of federal contractor employees. “The government has not done a very good job of winning a large percentage of the public’s trust when it comes […]

A total of nine employees at the Department of Energy Hanford Site in Washington state informed management Monday they have tested positive for COVID-19. That is according to a post on a DOE website for Hanford maintained by Leidos-led Hanford Mission Integration Solutions. Meanwhile, on Friday, the Savannah River Site in South Carolina posted on […]

As of last week, the legacy cleanup contractor at the Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico had excavated most potholes along a radiologically contaminated stretch of Middle DP Road in Los Alamos County, N.M., and believes the attendant risk to human health is low, a manager with the Department of Energy told a meeting […]

The Department of Energy nuclear cleanup office has until Thursday to meet its own previously-announced target of issuing a final request for proposals this month for the multibillion-dollar  Savannah River Site Management and Operating Contract in South Carolina. Also, Jacobs-led Idaho Environmental Coalition will begin its 90-day transition Friday, Oct. 1, to head what is […]

Two industry sources said Thursday the Department of Energy has asked teams bidding on the Savannah River Site’s multibillion-dollar liquid waste contract to keep their offers open until early November — a sign that DOE could make the long-awaited decision before the winter holidays. The request for proposals went out on Oct. 1, 2020, and […]

Recent problems behind it, the Department of Energy said Friday it is ready to resume taking shipments of transuranic waste at the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant in New Mexico after being unable to do so for about a month. Having addressed difficulties with the mine’s underground floor and COVID, shipments should resume next week, a […]

While the Department of Energy’s Carlsbad, N.M., field office believes passage of time has made transuranic drums stranded since 2014 at Waste Control Specialists in Texas safe for travel to the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant, the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board is not yet convinced. That is the crux of a Sept. 8 letter sent to […]

Now that a state administrative law judge recommends the Department of Energy be allowed to continue digging a new underground shaft at the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant near Carlsbad, N.M., parties in the case have until Wednesday, Sept. 29, to file responses. In a 56-page report provided Sept. 14 to DOE, prime contractor Nuclear Waste […]

By John Stang For want of a quorum, the Hanford Advisory Board this week could not officially recommend that the Department of Energy do something about a radioactive waste tank leak reported in April and plan for future leaks the board feels are sure to follow.  DOE recently told the board that the terms of […]

The next phase of the Department of Energy’s spent fuel storage inquiry should begin next year, the head of the agency’s nuclear energy office told congressional investigators this month. DOE’s Office of Nuclear Energy (ONE) is “resuming consent-based siting activities,” acting ONE assistant secretary Kathryn Huff told the Government Accountability Office (GAO) in a Sep. […]

Congress needs to make some changes to federal law before the Department of Energy can tackle the spent fuel storage problem, congressional investigators said this week.  “Congress needs to take action to break the impasse over a permanent solution for commercial spent nuclear fuel—used fuel removed from nuclear power reactors,” the Government Accountability Office (GAO) […]

By John Stang The first melter at Hanford’s first vitrification facility is scheduled to start up in December, site officials told the Hanford Advisory Board this week, teeing up the long-awaited solidification of liquified Cold War plutonium-byproducts by 2023. After the startup, it should take two months to increase the melter’s temperature to 2,100 degrees […]

A local wish list for speeding cleanup at the Department of Energy’s Paducah Site in Kentucky headed the agenda as Paducah Chamber of Commerce representatives visited federal officials in Washington, D.C. this week. “During this two-day trip, we will meet with Members of Congress, federal officials and key federal agencies to share details on what’s […]

A possible government shutdown loomed closer at deadline, as Senate Republicans threatened to filibuster a stopgap budget to keep federal agencies, including the Department of Energy, funded when the 2022 fiscal year begins on Oct. 1. The continuing resolution, which passed the House Tuesday on a 220-211 party-line vote, will keep federal agencies at their […]

With the number of weekly cases still well into triple digits in the old weapons complex, the Department of Energy wants its employees to receive their final vaccination against COVID-19 by Nov. 8, and said it could soon set a deadline for contractor employees to get the shot, according to a memo from the agency’s […]

The Department of Energy’s Savannah River Site in South Carolina spends much of its infrastructure money taking care of “aging, old systems” some of which are 70 years old, an agency official told the site’s Citizens Advisory Board Monday. David Bender, the DOE infrastructure services director at the federal complex along the Georgia state line, […]