Department of Energy

Deputy Secretary of Energy Mark Menezes is scheduled today to visit two Wisconsin companies that aim to help re-establish the United States’ production capacity for the medical isotope molybdenum-99 (Mo-99). Menezes will tour facilities at SHINE Medical Technologies in Janesville and NorthStar Medical Radioisotopes in Beloit, and meet with executives from both companies, according to […]

The COVID-19 pandemic helped sell the top brass at the Energy Department’s Office of Environmental Management on the value of telecommuting, the No. 2 official there said Wednesday. When the DOE office was forced to roll back on-site work at nuclear remediation operations starting in mid-March, “a lot of people had their doubts” on the […]

A top official with the Energy Department’s Office of Environmental Management declined Wednesday to specify when a new subcontractor might be selected to finish building a new underground ventilation system for the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant in New Mexico. “It is certainly a high-priority for us,” Todd Shrader, DOE’s principal deputy assistant secretary for environmental […]

The top Republican on the House Armed Services Committee (HASC) said Tuesday the final, conferenced version of the fiscal year defense authorization likely won’t be completed until after the Nov. 3 election. Rep. Mac Thornberry (R-Texas), the outgoing HASC ranking member, noted the conference committee will need to particularly work on settling differences between the […]

Longenecker & Associates said Tuesday it has signed an agreement with South Carolina State University in Orangeburg, S.C., which should help students there start careers in the Energy Department’s weapons complex. South Carolina State, founded in 1896, is the only historically black college or university in the United States to offer a bachelor’s degree in […]

Deputy Secretary of Energy Mark Menezes is scheduled Friday to visit two Wisconsin companies that aim to help re-establish the United States’ production capacity for the medical isotope molybdenum-99 (Mo-99). Menezes will tour facilities at SHINE Medical Technologies in Janesville and NorthStar Medical Radioisotopes in Beloit, and meet with executives from both companies, according to […]

Fluor Corp. said Tuesday it has discovered more errors in past financial statements filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission. In addition, the Texas-based Energy Department contractor reported in an SEC filing that a major creditor and trustee, Wells Fargo Bank National Association, last month asserted a “notice of default” against Fluor for failing to […]

The Energy Department on Tuesday issued a request for information (RFI)/sources-sought notice for companies interested in the next decontamination and decommissioning contract at the Portsmouth Site in Piketon, Ohio. The current remediation work is being done by Fluor-BWXT Portsmouth under a $3.8 billion award that started in March 2011 and is currently slated to run […]

The House Energy and Commerce Committee will consider a bill this week that would tighten the secretary of energy’s control over the National Nuclear Security Administration. H.R. 8159, the ‘‘Department of Energy Organization and Management Improvement Act,’’ would make the change by amending the National Nuclear Security Administration Act to say that “Each officer or […]

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission in July continued to keep a tight rein on spending down its balance from the federal fund intended to pay for a nuclear waste disposal facility. The agency used just $335 for unspecified program planning and support, according to its latest monthly spending report to Congress. That left it with an […]

With two of its own fire trucks out of service, the management contractor for the Energy Department’s Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) in New Mexico is leasing vehicles from local communities. One of WIPP’s two fire trucks had problems with braking and shifting into gear and a second vehicle was leaking fluids, according to a […]

Another federal lawsuit has been filed against current and former contractors that have performed either uranium enrichment or environmental operations at the Energy Department’s Portsmouth Site in Pike County Ohio. The class action complaint filed Thursday in U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Ohio seeks almost $10 million in damages for an alleged […]

To settle a lawsuit filed in 2016, the federal government will pay $600 million to South Carolina in recognition of the Department of Energy’s inability to remove several metric tons of plutonium from the state by a legal deadline of 2022, the parties said Monday. The money is expected by the end of September from […]

Analysis of soil samples taken along the route of a planned toll road around the former Rocky Flats nuclear weapons plant show radioactivity levels well within regulatory limits, according to a report from the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment (CDPHE). The agency shared major findings of its 28-page study last month with entities […]

Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board (DNFSB) Chairman Bruce Hamilton is resigning from the panel, effective next week, the agency said Monday. Hamilton submitted his resignation to President Donald Trump, according to a one-paragraph announcement from the agency. The DNFSB said Hamilton will depart on Sept. 12 – just over two months after he was confirmed […]

The superintendent for the Scioto Valley Local School District in Pike County, Ohio, is asking the U.S. Department of Energy to help underwrite the cost of a new building to replace a middle school adjacent to the Portsmouth Site. Zahn’s Corner Middle School has been closed since May 2019, after Northern Arizona University researchers concluded […]

The Energy Department on Monday issued its final request for proposals (RFP) for nationwide low-level and mixed low-level waste treatment services. The agency could award more than one basic ordering agreement (BOAs) for the work, according to the document. The agreements will have a five-year ordering period, and task orders must be completed within six […]

The Amentum-led prime that manages the Energy Department’s Waste Isolation Pilot Plant in New Mexico has terminated a $135 million subcontract for construction of a new ventilation system. Nuclear Waste Partnership (NWP) on Monday announced the dismissal of Critical Applications Alliance (CCA) from the Safety Significant Confinement Ventilation System (SSCVS) project. The contractor said it […]

There are 88 active cases of novel coronavirus 2019 infection within the Energy Department’s Office of Environmental Management complex, an agency official said via email Thursday. That is down significantly from the 149 active COVID-19 cases reported one week earlier, although multiple infections were reported this week at facilities in New Mexico, South, Carolina, and […]

The Energy Department Office of Environmental Management has scheduled a webinar for next week to offer details on its plan to ship some material currently classified as high-level radioactive waste from the Savannah River Site in South Carolina to a facility in West Texas licensed for low-level waste. The online session is set for 11 […]

Stakeholders must finally accept that the long-planned, still-unrealized nuclear waste repository under Yucca Mountain, Nev., is dead and needs to be replaced with a new approach, according to a former senior official with the Department of Energy. “The sooner everyone agrees to pull the plug on Yucca Mountain, the sooner the United States can move […]

Stakeholders must finally accept that the long-planned, still-unrealized nuclear waste repository under Yucca Mountain, Nev., is dead and needs to be replaced with a new approach, according to a former senior official with the Department of Energy. “The sooner everyone agrees to pull the plug on Yucca Mountain, the sooner the United States can move […]

The Energy Department Office of Environmental Management has scheduled a webinar for next week to offer details on its plan to ship some material currently classified as high-level radioactive waste from the Savannah River Site in South Carolina to a facility in West Texas licensed for low-level waste. The online session is set for 11 […]

Amid the COVID-19 pandemic, New Mexico’s members of the U.S. Senate are urging the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to suspend its review of the license application for a spent nuclear fuel storage facility in their state. From Aug. 20 through Wednesday, the federal regulator conducted four webinars on its draft environmental impact statement (EIS) for Holtec […]

The superintendent for the Scioto Valley Local School District in Pike County, Ohio, is asking the U.S. Department of Energy to help underwrite the cost of a new building to replace a middle school adjacent to the Portsmouth Site. Zahn’s Corner Middle School has been closed since May 2019, after Northern Arizona University researchers concluded […]

The Amentum-led prime that manages the Energy Department’s Waste Isolation Pilot Plant in New Mexico has terminated a $135 million subcontract for construction of a new ventilation system. Nuclear Waste Partnership (NWP) on Monday announced the dismissal of Critical Applications Alliance (CCA) from the Safety Significant Confinement Ventilation System (SSCVS) project. The contractor said it […]

The prime contractor for the Energy Department’s Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) in New Mexico has now confirmed a total of 23 COVID-19 cases among its employees, bringing the site-wide count to 28 to date during the pandemic. In a memo sent to employees Monday, President and Project Manager Sean Dunagan said Nuclear Waste Partnership […]

Analysis of soil samples taken along the route of a planned toll road around the former Rocky Flats nuclear weapons plant show radioactivity levels well within regulatory limits, according to a report from the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment (CDPHE). The agency shared major findings of its 28-page study last month with entities […]

The Energy Department on Monday issued its final request for proposals (RFP) for nationwide low-level and mixed low-level waste treatment services. The agency could award more than one basic ordering agreement (BOAs) for the work, according to the document. The agreements will have a five-year ordering period, and task orders must be completed within six […]

The draft solicitation for continuing environmental cleanup of the uranium mill tailings in Utah should be issued by early October, the Energy Department Office of Environmental Management said Aug. 24. The draft request for proposals for the Moab Uranium Mill Tailings Remedial Action (UMTRA) project should hit the streets within 45 days, which translates to […]