Department of Energy

After reviewing its options, cleanup contractor Fluor Idaho has decided to pay the $580,700 civil penalty issued by the Department of Energy over an April 2018 explosion at the Idaho National Laboratory where four 55-gallon drums overheated and blew off their lids spewing radioactive sludge. “Fluor Idaho chose not to contest the findings” in the […]

The Department of Energy has picked up a six-month option keeping North Wind Portage on the job as the technical assistance contractor at the Carlsbad Field Office in New Mexico until June 2021. The basic contract and associated task orders were extended six months from Dec. 4, last Friday, to June 3, 2021, a spokesperson […]

Twelve more employees at the Department of Energy’s Hanford Site in Washington state reported to management that they have tested positive for the coronavirus, according to an online notice posted Friday. The latest batch of positive tests showed up on the employee alerts section of a DOE emergency operations website at Hanford operated by the […]

The Oregon Department of Energy is studying updated rules governing transport and disposal of radioactive materials within the state, which could potentially sock violators with millions of dollars in fines. The state department’s Energy Facility Siting Council has been working on tightening Oregon’s radioactive waste rules since May, according to a slide presentation put together […]

By John Stang Nuclear Waste Technical Review Board is examining geologic research conducted in Europe for nuclear waste repositories in part to get a head start on such studies if the Yucca Mountain project is permanently rejected.  The board, an independent advisory and review panel, keeps tabs on the nation’s radioactive waste repository and spent […]

An environmental advocacy group’s report that questions safety compliance at the Perma-Fix Northwest waste treatment facility located just outside the Department of Energy’s Hanford Site is “very misleading,” a company spokesman said this week.  The report last week by Hanford Challenge claims the subsidiary of Atlanta-based Perma-Fix has “a checkered and worrisome history of environmental […]

Four weeks after election day, first-term incumbent Rep. Mike Garcia (R-Calif.) has clinched a 333-vote victory over California Assemblywoman Christy Smith (D) in the state’s 25th congressional district. The race concluded this week as Smith conceded a recount was unlikely to overturn the verdict, the Santa Clara Signal and other state newspapers reported. “We exhausted […]

Cleanup contractor Fluor Idaho expects to file a formal response this month to the Department of Energy’s proposed $580,700 civil penalty over an April 2018 accident at the Idaho National Laboratory where four drums of radioactive sludge overheated and blew off their lids. “We are reviewing the preliminary notice of violation and considering our response, […]

The total number of active cases of COVID-19 at nuclear cleanup sites overseen by the Department of Energy’s Office of Environmental Management remained high this week at 282, which is still lower than the 298 active cases during Thanksgiving week, a spokesperson said Thursday.  Active, reported cases were in the double digits as recently as […]

The Department of Energy’s Office of Environmental Management on Thursday awarded five-year basic ordering agreements for nationwide low-level and mixed-low level waste treatment to five firms, including some incumbents. The winning companies are Salt Lake City-based EnergySolutions, Atlanta-based Perma-Fix Environmental Services, Massachusetts-headquartered Unitech Services Group, Waste Control Specialists in Texas and Ohio-based Veolia Nuclear Solutions […]

DOE could soon award the first standalone management and operations contract for the Savannah River National Laboratory, the manager of the DOE Savannah River Site office said this week. In addition to announcing the new stand-alone contractor for management of the laboratory, which is focused on nuclear-cleanup science and technology, DOE could announce the next […]

Leaving 110 stranded drums of potentially combustible transuranic waste from the Department of Energy’s Los Alamos National Laboratory at a commercial waste facility in Texas for two more years poses no significant risk, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission said Tuesday. The commission issued its finding Tuesday in the Federal Register, responding to an August request from […]

The current $44-million Carlsbad Technical Assistance Contract is set to expire this week for a North Wind subsidiary at the Department of Energy field office in New Mexico. The DOE can exercise an option to keep North Wind Portage on board through June 3, 2021 while the Office of Environmental Management continues to look for […]

A document obtained by Weapons Complex Morning Briefing indicates the Department of Energy’s environmental contractor at the Portsmouth Site in Ohio has confirmed at least 73 cases of COVID-19 so far during the pandemic, with three of those reported in recent days. The document summarizes COVID-19 data compiled through Tuesday by Fluor-BWXT Portsmouth, the decommissioning […]

Leaving 110 stranded drums of potentially combustible transuranic waste from the Department of Energy’s Los Alamos National Laboratory at a commercial waste facility in Texas for two more years poses no significant risk, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission said Tuesday. The commission issued its finding Tuesday in the Federal Register, responding to an August request from […]

Four weeks after election day, first-term incumbent Rep. Mike Garcia (R-Calif.) has clinched a 333-vote victory over California Assemblywoman Christy Smith (D) in the state’s 25th congressional district. The race concluded Monday as Smith conceded a recount was unlikely to overturn the verdict, the Santa Clara Signal and other state newspapers reported. “We exhausted every […]

Another 16 workers at the Department of Energy’s Hanford Site in Washington state informed management Monday they have tested positive for the coronavirus. The latest COVID-19 cases were disclosed on the emergency operations website run by contractor Mission Support Alliance at the former plutonium production complex. The unofficial tally of cases is now 244 based […]

The top boss for the Department of Energy’s Office of Environmental Management at the Savannah River Site in South Carolina said Monday that major contractor awards could be made soon and there have been “somewhere north of 700” total confirmed cases of the coronavirus at the complex so far. “We continue to get COVID cases […]

An environmental advocacy group focused on the Department of Energy’s Hanford Site issued a report  last week that questions safety compliance at a commercial waste treatment facility, Perma-Fix Northwest, located just outside the former plutonium production reservation. The report by Hanford Challenge claims the subsidiary of Atlanta-based Perma-Fix has “a checkered and worrisome history of […]

The management and operations contractor for the Department of Energy’s Waste Isolation Pilot Plant in New Mexico learned of 13 new cases of COVID-19 at the disposal facility just prior to Thanksgiving. Nuclear Waste Partnership, DOE’s prime contractor at the transuranic waste disposal site, reported the latest set of infections in a press release last […]

Potential bidders on the new Infrastructure Support Services Contract at the Department of Energy’s Portsmouth Site in Ohio can perhaps take time to watch football and eat turkey over Thanksgiving, as the agency has extended the deadline from Dec. 1 until Dec. 10. The DOE Office of Environmental Management (EM) on Tuesday issued an amendment […]

Rep. Rick Allen (R-Ga.), whose district includes Augusta, a major bedroom community for the Department of Energy’s Savannah River Site in neighboring South Carolina, has tested positive for the coronavirus. “I have been undergoing regular COVID-19 testing and learned today that I have tested positive for COVID-19,” Allen said in a press release posted on […]

Plutonium pits, Cold War liquid waste and stricter policing of the contractor base are among the biggest management challenges for the Department of Energy in fiscal year 2021, the agency’s Inspector General wrote this week in the latest version of an annual report. Pits are new on the Inspector General’s list this year, but liquid […]

The venture that manages the Department of Energy’s Waste Isolation Pilot Plant in New Mexico will have until Dec. 21 to reply to a lawsuit brought last month by the construction contractor it fired this summer after slower-than-anticipated progress on a major new underground ventilation system. The motion for an extension, filed by Nuclear Waste […]

In a recent Federal Register notice, the Department of Energy announced its decision to start groundwater remediation in Area IV of the Santa Susana Field Laboratory in Ventura County, Calif. The DOE said its preferred alternative for most of the area combines treatment and monitored natural attenuation.  The DOE said in its Nov. 10 record […]

The Department of Energy’s enforcement branch has proposed a $580,700 civil penalty against the cleanup contractor at the Idaho National Laboratory in connection with an April 2018 episode where four drums of radioactive sludge overheated and blew off their lids. In a letter dated Nov. 20, Kevin Dressman who directs the enforcement office for DOE’s […]

With more than 337,000 votes in and “only a few remaining ballots to be counted” in California’s 25th congressional district, incumbent Rep. Mike Garcia (R-Calif.) claimed late Friday he has won by a few hundred votes over challenger Christy Smith (D), who called the declaration premature. “After a long tough fight, I am proud to […]

Dallas-based Jacobs, a major Department of Energy contractor, enjoyed revenue growth for both its fourth quarter and the entire fiscal 2020, which ended Oct. 2, the company said Tuesday. Quarterly revenue came in at $3.5 billion slightly up from the $3.4 billion taken in during the same period a year ago. For the year the […]

Even with the Department of Energy missing its groundwater sampling targets for 2020, officials with both the Washington state Department of Ecology and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency are satisfied with catchup efforts, officials said Friday. “Under the circumstances, we think what USDOE doing is OK,” Washington Ecology spokesman Randy Bradbury said in an email, […]

The Department of Energy’s Hanford Site in Washington state saw four more employees test positive for the coronavirus Saturday. That is according to an employee advisory posted on the emergency operations website, for Hanford, currently managed by site services contractor Mission Support Alliance. The unofficial total of cases is now 228 based largely upon bulletins […]