Archive

Department of Energy

The U.S. Department of Energy oversees the nation’s nuclear weapons complex, environmental cleanup program, and national laboratory system. Coverage here tracks DOE budget requests, contract awards, policy decisions, regulatory action, and leadership changes across the agency’s defense and civilian nuclear missions.

  • Companies Big and Small Eye FUSRAP Contract

    Representatives of more than 40 companies attended the June 24 industry pre-proposal conference for the upcoming contract for cleanup of the Luckey Site in Ohio under the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers’ Formerly Utilized Sites Remedial Action Program (FUSRAP). The Army Corps on June 26 posted the attendance list, along with the first tranche of […]

  • Brouillette, Lawmakers Balk at Increased Defense Role in Energy Budget

    Nuclear spending debates in Congress often pit active weapons programs against the remediation of shuttered Manhattan Project and Cold War production sites, but this year’s proceeding has lawmakers on both sides of the aisle on guard against a provision they say could permanently subordinate legacy environmental programs to the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA). Sen. […]

  • Oak Ridge Cleanup Contractor UCOR Earns 94% of Fee

    The cleanup contractor for the Oak Ridge Site in Tennessee earned 94%, or $10.4 million, of a potential $11 million fee for its work during the six-month period ended March 31, the Energy Department said in a new performance scorecard. In the process, URS-CH2M Oak Ridge (UCOR) earned kudos from the DOE Office of Environmental […]

  • South Carolina Congressman Seeks More Funding for Savannah River Site

    Rep. Joe Wilson (R-S.C.) said last week he favors increasing funding for the Department of Energy’s Savannah River Site in South Carolina by more than $51 million above the Donald Trump administration’s fiscal 2021 budget request, mostly to finance improvements at the H Canyon complex. Wilson noted that H Canyon is the only hardened nuclear […]

  • Navarro Scores Big on Award Fee Document

    Navarro Research and Engineering earned roughly 93% of its total potential fee for its environmental work at the Energy Department’s Nevada National Nuclear Site (NNSS) over a 16-month period ended Jan. 31. That’s the crux of a recently published fee performance scorecard from the DOE Office of Environmental Management. Oak-Ridge, Tenn.-based Navarro earned about $1.13 […]

  • Energy Dept. Plans to Extend Paducah Support Contract by 6 Months

    The Energy Department intends to retain Swift & Staley for up to six more months as the infrastructure support services provider at the Paducah Site in Kentucky. Paducah-based Swift & Staley’s $192 million contract dates to December 2015 and is set to expire in September 2020. As the firm’s initial three-year base period was expiring […]

  • DOE Awards Set of 9 Nationwide Decommissioning and Removal Contracts

    The Energy Department Office of Environmental Management on Wednesday announced a set of nine contracts to provide nationwide deactivation, decommissioning, and removal (DD&R) services for excess facilities. The indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity contracts have a 10-year ordering period and collectively have a maximum value of $3 billion, the Energy Department said in a press release. Winners of the […]

  • Decision Expected Soon From DOE on Retaining WIPP Contractor

    The Energy Department Office of Environmental Management is expected to decide soon whether to keep Nuclear Waste Partnership in place as the prime contractor for the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) in New Mexico. The joint partnership between Amentum (formerly AECOM Management Services) and BWX Technologies is working under the first option of its $2.4 […]

  • Hanford Remobilization to Remain in Phase 1 for Coming Week

    The Energy Department’s Hanford Site in Washington state will continue in Phase 1 of restart operations next week, Manager Brian Vance announced Thursday as the facility moves toward more normal work levels while simultaneously trying to avoid the spread of COVID-19. However, there will be a “marginal increase” in on-site staffing at the Waste Treatment […]

  • Wrap Up: Small Firm Lands $4M Support Contract at Oak Ridge

    A Knoxville, Tenn.-based firm has landed a four-year, $4 million contract to provide business and administrative support to the Energy Department Office of Environmental Management at the Oak Ridge Site. The award to Management Solutions LLC, a woman-owned small business, was announced Tuesday by the Environmental Management office for the Tennessee facility. The contract will […]

  • Decision Due Soon From DOE on Retaining WIPP Contractor

    The Energy Department Office of Environmental Management is expected to decide soon whether to keep Nuclear Waste Partnership in place as the prime contractor for the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) in New Mexico. The joint partnership between Amentum (formerly AECOM Management Services) and BWX Technologies is working under the first option of its $2.4 […]

  • Energy Dept. Inks Support Contract for Oak Ridge

    A Knoxville, Tenn.-based firm has landed a four-year, $4 million contract to provide business and administrative support to the Energy Department Office of Environmental Management at the Oak Ridge Site. The award to Management Solutions LLC, a woman-owned small business, was announced Tuesday by the Environmental Management office for the Tennessee facility. The contract will […]

  • Oak Ridge Cleanup Contractor Earns 94% of Fee

    The cleanup contractor for the Oak Ridge Site in Tennessee earned 94%, or $10.4 million, of a potential $11 million fee for its work during the six-month period ended March 31, the Energy Department said in a new performance scorecard. In the process, URS-CH2M Oak Ridge (UCOR) earned kudos from the DOE Office of Environmental […]

  • Effort to Stop New WIPP Shaft Moves to New Mexico Supreme Court

    The Southwest Research and Information Center (SRIC) this week appealed to the New Mexico Supreme Court in an effort to halt construction of a new underground shaft at the Energy Department’s Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP). The case was filed with the state’s high court Monday after the New Mexico Court of Appeals on June […]

  • Navarro Scores Well on Award Fee Document

    Navarro Research and Engineering earned 90% of its available fee – not including any incentive fee — for its environmental work at the Energy Department’s Nevada National Nuclear Site (NNSS) over a 16-month period ended Jan. 31. That’s the crux of a recently published fee performance scorecard from the DOE Office of Environmental Management. Oak-Ridge, […]

  • Decision Due Soon From DOE on Retaining WIPP Contractor

    The Energy Department Office of Environmental Management is expected to decide soon whether to keep Nuclear Waste Partnership in place as the prime contractor for the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) in New Mexico. The joint partnership between Amentum (formerly AECOM Management Services) and BWX Technologies is working under the first option of its $2.4 […]

  • Thornberry Sees Bipartisan Support For HASC’s NDAA

    The top Republican on the House Armed Services Committee anticipates bipartisan support for the panel’s version of the next defense authorization bill, while adding he wants to see provisions for the Pentagon’s chief management officer and troop movement from Germany addressed at Wednesday’s markup hearing. “I am hopeful, I would say very hopeful, that at […]

  • Energy Dept. to Extend Paducah Support Contract by 6 Months

    The Energy Department intends to retain Swift & Staley for up to six more months as the infrastructure support services provider at the Paducah Site in Kentucky. Paducah-based Swift & Staley’s $192 million contract dates to December 2015 and is set to expire in September 2020. As the firm’s initial three-year base period was expiring […]

  • DOE Headquarters Employee Tested Positive for COVID-19 in Germantown Right Before Reopening

    An employee at the Germantown, Md., branch of Department of Energy headquarters tested positive for COVID-19 just days before that building advanced to Phase 1 of the agency’s remobilization plan. As far as DOE’s contact tracing showed Friday, nobody who was in close contact with the infected Germantown worker became sick, according to a statement from […]

  • South Carolina Congressman Seeks More Funding for Savannah River Site

    Rep. Joe Wilson (R-S.C.) said last week he favors increasing funding for the Department of Energy’s Savannah River Site in South Carolina by more than $51 million above the Donald Trump administration’s fiscal 2021 budget request, mostly to finance improvements at the H Canyon complex. Wilson noted that H Canyon as the only hardened nuclear […]

  • House Armed Services Chairman Would Restore Hanford Funding in NDAA

    The chairman’s mark for the House of Representatives’ fiscal 2021 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) would add about $700 million to the top line for the Trump administration’s $5 billion request for defense environmental cleanup operations managed by the Department of Energy. House Armed Services Committee Chairman Adam Smith (D-Wash.) released his mark over the […]

  • Half of Fluor Idaho Workforce Back On-Site

    Half of the 1,800-person cleanup workforce at the Idaho National Laboratory is back on-site after months of reduced operations due to the COVID-19 pandemic, according to contractor Fluor Idaho. An additional 30% are still teleworking, a company spokesperson said by email Thursday. The Fluor Idaho representative did not immediately say if the rest are collecting paid […]

  • Isotek Inks $254-Million Deal for Continued U-233 Work at Oak Ridge

    Oak Ridge-Tenn.-based Isotek Systems has inked a $254 million contract modification with the Energy Department to continue disposing of uranium-233 (U-233) through 2024 at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL). Isotek has overseen the inventory of U-233 since October 2003, removing the material from Oak Ridge National Laboratory Building 3019. The 1940’s era building is […]

  • All DOE Nuclear Cleanup Sites Now in Phase 1 or Phase 2 of Restart

    All 16 nuclear cleanup sites overseen by the Energy Department Office of Environmental Management have at least initiated Phase 1 remobilization operations, after on-site work was drastically scaled back this spring in an effort to reduce the potential spread of COVID-19 among the workforce. In addition, Phase 2 is now underway at the Idaho National […]

  • WIPP Contractor Claims 83% of Potential Fee

    The Energy Department contractor for the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant near Carlsbad, N.M., earned 83%, or $14.3 million, of a potential $17.3 million fee for its work during fiscal 2019. The DOE fee scorecard for the period from Oct. 1, 2018, through Sept. 30, 2019, was recently posted online for Nuclear Waste Partnership, a joint […]

  • Centerra Yanks GAO Protest Stemming From SRS Procurement

    Centerra Group, the incumbent provider of paramilitary security at the Energy Department’s Savannah River Site in South Carolina, has withdrawn a Government Accountability Office (GAO) protest over procurement of a follow-on contract. Centerra filed the protest May 8, but then withdrew it on June 9, according to a notice posted on the GAO website. The […]

  • Wrap Up: NRC Issues Plan for Review of Hanford Waste Disposal

    The Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) has formally accepted for review an Energy Department proposal to dispose of vitrified low-activity waste inside the fence at the Hanford Site in Washington state. The Energy Department on April 23 filed its draft Waste Incidental to Reprocessing (WIR) evaluation with the NRC, which in this case is serving as […]

  • Energy Dept. to Issue Nationwide Waste Treatment RFP by August

    The Energy Department expects by mid-August to issue a request for proposals (RFP) for treatment of low-level and mixed-level radioactive wastes, according to procurement documents published June 18. The DOE Office of Environmental Management said an RFP should be issued within 15 to 60 days of publication of the notice. The agency plans to issue […]

  • New Mexico Cites ‘Widespread’ Contamination Problem at Road Near Los Alamos Lab

    Radioactive contamination is more widespread than first thought along a road outside the Energy Department’s Los Alamos National Laboratory, according to the New Mexico Environment Department (NMED). The area is part of a tract of land, which includes the site of a planned housing development, transferred from LANL to Los Alamos County a few years […]

  • Inspector General Finds DOE Pace Lagging for Key Paducah Cleanup Job

    The Energy Department is lagging behind schedule for deactivation and demolition of the C-400 complex at the Paducah Site in Kentucky, the DOE Inspector General’s Office said in an audit report released Tuesday. The 134,000-square-foot C-400 building was chiefly employed to clean equipment used in uranium enrichment at the former Paducah Gaseous Diffusion Plant. A […]