Department of Energy

A small plane crashed Sunday afternoon at the base of Rattlesnake Mountain on property owned by the Energy Department’s Hanford Site in Washington state. There were no injuries. The plane’s two occupants said they were flying to view the elk herd in the area, according to a Facebook post from the Benton County Sheriff’s Office. […]

The West Valley Demonstration Project in New York has entered the next phase of the Energy Department’s operational restart program after a period of reduced operations due to COVID-19, an agency spokesperson said by email Monday. Under Phase 2, which the upstate facility reached last Wednesday, on-site staffing levels will be about 60% of the […]

The House Appropriations Committee on Sunday expressed skepticism about the Department of Energy’s approach to management of nuclear waste, even as it seems likely to approve the funding request for the upcoming budget year. In the fiscal 2021 energy and water development bill released last week, the Democrat-led panel met the department’s $27.5 million request: […]

There remains no need to transfer management of the Formerly Utilized Sites Remedial Action Program (FUSRAP) from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to the Department of Energy, the House Appropriations Committee said Sunday. The Trump administration proposed relocating the 46-year-old cleanup program in budget requests both for the current fiscal 2020 and for the […]

A trio of major Energy Department nuclear cleanup sites targeted for fiscal 2021 funding cuts by the White House would be restored at least to current levels in the House of Representatives, according to newly released details of a committee spending package. The House Appropriations Committee on Sunday released the detailed legislative report for its […]

The House Appropriations energy and water development subcommittee needed just 30 minutes Tuesday to advance its latest funding bill for consideration by the full committee. The proposal would provide Energy Department nuclear cleanup with $7.46 billion for fiscal 2021, roughly equal to the amount appropriated for fiscal 2020, which ends Sept. 30, and an increase […]

The Senate last week reappointed the three serving members on the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board (DNFSB) and filled one of its vacant positions. The Senate on July 2 by voice vote approved the nominations of Thomas Summers, Joyce Connery, Jessie Hill Roberson, and Bruce Hamilton, according to the website Congress.gov. Summers is the only […]

The Energy Department has delayed publication of a draft record of decision (ROD) for a new 2.2-million-cubic yard landfill for the Oak Ridge Site in Tennessee by up to six months. Energy Department Office of Environmental Management officials at Oak Ridge agreed in April, after consulting with state and federal regulators, to push back publication […]

A key part of the selection process for a new Idaho Cleanup Project contractor should happen in-person next month in Idaho Falls, according to the Department of Energy. Barring an uptick in COVID-19 cases near the Idaho National Laboratory, vendors vying for the $6.4 billion remediation award should be ready for oral presentations at the […]

The Energy Department last week said it plans up to yearlong extensions to existing contracts at the Hanford Site in Washington state for management of underground tank waste and laboratory testing services. Washington River Protection Solutions’ (WRPS) long-term contract, now valued at about $7.8 billion, could be extended to Sept. 30, 2021, according to a […]

Three nuclear cleanup sites have received approval from the Energy Department to bring back more staff who have been at home for months during the COVID-19 pandemic. The Energy Department announced the status change for the Portsmouth Site in Ohio, the Paducah Site in Kentucky, and the West Valley Demonstration Project in New York in […]

The Senate last week adopted language that would scale back, but not eliminate, some of the new oversight and influence the chamber’s Armed Services Committee proposed to give the Pentagon over civilian nuclear weapons budgets via the fiscal 2021 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA). On July 2, the Senate unanimously adopted an amendment from Sens. […]

Navarro Research and Engineering faces no challenges to Energy Department contract it won last month for a potential 10-year, $350 million contract to continue providing environmental services at the Nevada National Security Site. The Energy Department awarded the contract to the incumbent on June 17. The window for protest to the Government Accountability Office (GAO) […]

The Portsmouth Site in Ohio and the Paducah Site in Kentucky have received approval from the Energy Department to bring back additional personnel who have largely been off-site for months during the COVID-19 pandemic. “Your commitment to enhanced safety and deliberate restart of planned project activities has paved the way for moving to Phase 2 […]

The Senate has approved the nominations of Thomas Summers and Joyce Connery to seats on the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board (DNFSB). The Senate approved the two by voice vote on July 2, according to the website Congress.gov. That came after both were nominated in May and then reported out of the Senate Armed Services […]

The Energy Department has delayed publication of a draft record of decision (ROD) for a new 2.2-million-cubic yard landfill for the Oak Ridge Site in Tennessee by up to six months. Energy Department Office of Environmental Management officials at Oak Ridge agreed in April, after consulting with state and federal regulators, to push back publication […]

The Savannah River Site in South Carolina as of Wednesday had confirmed 70 cases of COVID-19 among its workforce, the most known within the facilities of the Department of Energy nuclear complex. The Energy Department this week recorded the first COVID-19-related death among the site’s 11,000-person workers. Officials said Monday that an employee of operations […]

The House Appropriations energy and water development subcommittee needed just 30 minutes Tuesday to advance its latest funding bill for consideration by the full committee. Subcommittee members proposed no amendments to the $49.6 billion appropriations legislation covering the Department of Energy and other agencies, but did air complaints on matters including the level of nuclear-weapon […]

A spending plan advanced by the House Appropriations energy and water development subcommittee Tuesday would provide $50 million for the Energy Department’s Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) to clean up recently discovered contamination along a nearby public road. The money for investigation and remediation of an area along DP Road in Los Alamos County would […]

Although they withstood bid protests in April, winners of two multibillion-dollar contracts at the Hanford Site in Washington state still have not received Department of Energy notices to proceed to the jobs. Neither Hanford/s new support services contractor, nor the new contractor for cleanup of the Central Plateau, have gotten the go-ahead yet, an agency […]

Navarro Research and Engineering faces no challenges to Energy Department contract it won last month for a potential 10-year, $350 million contract to continue providing environmental services at the Nevada National Security Site. The Energy Department awarded the contract to the incumbent on June 17. The window for protest to the Government Accountability Office (GAO) […]

A House Appropriations panel on Monday followed through with its promise not to grant a $20-billion budget request for civilian nuclear weapons programs in a fiscal 2021 spending bill that would also forbid preparation for a nuclear yield-test, limit Pentagon influence on Department of Energy budgets, and potentially slow development of a proposed new nuclear […]

The Energy Department last week said it plans up to yearlong extensions to existing contracts at the Hanford Site in Washington state for management of underground tank waste and laboratory testing services. Washington River Protection Solutions’ (WRPS) long-term contract, now valued at about $7.8 billion, could be extended to Sept. 30, 2021, according to a […]

The House Appropriations Committee indicated Monday it plans to fund the Energy Department’s Office of Environmental Management at $7.46 million for fiscal 2021. The nuclear cleanup funding is roughly equal to the amount appropriated for fiscal 2020, which ends Sept. 30, and an increase of $1.4 billion from the request submitted in February by the […]

The Energy Department confirmed Monday that an employee of the prime contractor for the Savannah River Site in South Carolina has died as a result of COVID-19. “I regret to inform you that we have lost a member of the SRNS [Savannah River Nuclear Solutions] team to a COVID-related death,” SRNS President and CEO Stuart […]

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission would receive its full budget request for the upcoming 2021 federal fiscal year via the House Appropriations energy and water development legislation unveiled Monday. That covers $849.9 million for the core operations at the federal regulator, plus just under $13.5 million for the NRC Inspector General’s Office. That would be good […]

A key part of the selection process for a new Idaho Cleanup Project contractor should happen in-person next month in Idaho Falls, according to the Department of Energy. Barring an uptick in COVID-19 cases near the Idaho National Laboratory, vendors vying for the $6.4 billion remediation award should be ready for oral presentations at the […]

Management at the Energy Department’s Hanford Site in Washington state confirmed two more cases of COVID-19 over the three-day July 4 holiday weekend. The online posts on the Energy Department website for the nuclear cleanup site did not provide any details on the infected individuals – such as whether they are federal employees or work […]

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission in May spent $2,859 from its remaining Nuclear Waste Fund balance, breaking its streak of using next-to-nothing from the account intended to pay for the repository under Yucca Mountain, Nev. Since early 2019, the regulator had each month spent a few hundred dollars on unspecified program planning and support. It applied […]

The House Armed Services Committee gave a more than $700 million potential boost to nuclear cleanup funding at the Department of Energy just before midnight Wednesday, unanimously passing its version of the fiscal 2021 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA). The chairman’s mark that provided the framework for the defense policy bill would authorize the addition to […]