Department of Energy

Tuesday was a good night for congressional incumbents in Nevada, who easily overcame primary challenges. The state’s four members of the House of Representatives all advanced to the Nov. 3 general election, according to unofficials results from the Nevada Secretary of State. Five-term Rep. Dina Titus (D) took home over 86% of the vote against […]

Holtec International President and CEO Kris Singh on Wednesday said the Nuclear Regulatory Commission should not give the public extra time to comment on a key document in licensing his company’s planned facility in southeastern New Mexico for storage of spent fuel from nuclear power plants. In a draft environmental impact statement issued in March, […]

After receiving approval from the Energy Department, the West Valley Demonstration Project in New York state is starting Phase 1 of the return to normal operations as concern over COVID-19 subsides. The “safe and deliberate approach to the phased restart of operations” began Monday, a DOE spokesman said by email Wednesday. Decommissioning and demolition has […]

The Nuclear Regulatory Commissioning said Wednesday it will conduct a technical review of an Energy Department proposal to dispose of certain vitrified low-activity radioactive waste at the Hanford Site in Washington state. Speaking at an online public meeting, NRC Senior Risk Analyst David Esh said the agency is acting in a consulting role as the Energy […]

The Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee on Tuesday voted almost unanimously in favor of Undersecretary of Energy Mark Menezes’ nomination to the No. 2 position at the Department of Energy. In the panel’s voice vote, Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto (D-Nev.) raised the sole objection to advancing Menezes’ nomination as deputy secretary of energy to […]

The Waste Isolation Pilot Plant in New Mexico is ramping up operations that have been reduced for months in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, but there is no set schedule for a return to prior waste emplacement levels, according to the head of the Department of Energy contractor for the facility. “I unfortunately don’t have […]

Tuesday was a good night for congressional incumbents in Nevada, who easily overcame Democratic Party primary challenges. The Associated Press has declared Rep. Susie Lee the winner in the 3rd Congressional District and Rep. Steven Horsford the victor in the 4th District, the Las Vegas Review-Journal reported Wednesday morning. Political handicappers in the state have predicted […]

Many employees of the facilities overseen by the Department of Energy’s Portsmouth-Paducah Project Office (PPPO) are receiving notices this week to report back to their worksites after months away due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The first wave of homebound federal and contract personnel on June 15 will begin reporting back to the three locations overseen […]

The Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board (DNFSB) said the Energy Department might rely too much on its waste acceptance criteria program to keep potentially combustible material out of the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant near Carlsbad, N.M. The DOE’s National Transuranic Program employs the criteria at department facilities around the country to flag hazards in defense-related […]

The Energy Department’s Office of Environmental Management plans to forge a closer working relationship with the Nuclear Waste Technical Review Board (NWTRB), according to a recent document. “We look forward to future opportunities for regular interactions and discussions,” DOE Senior Adviser for Environmental Management William (Ike) White said in a May 29 letter to Nuclear […]

A very small percentage of the Department of Energy’s federal employees were scheduled to report back to work in the Washington region today, even as the agency reported one more  case of COVID-19 among its headquarters workforce. The latest positive case, disclosed Friday in a statement from Secretary of Energy Dan Brouillette, brings the total […]

The Energy Facility Contractors Group (EFCOG) has re-elected Huntington Ingalls Industries nuclear and environmental group President Michael Lempke as chairman of its Board of Directors for another year, according to a Friday statement. Sandra Fairchild, project services and support director of Energy Department Savannah River Site cleanup contractor Savannah River Remediation, was elected vice chair […]

The Energy Department’s Office of Environmental Management will cut contractors some slack when it comes to work deadlines missed because of the COVID-19 pandemic, according to a policy that became official last week. The Energy Department “will continue to evaluate COVID-19 impacts on the ability of contractors to perform required work,” according to the formal […]

Nuclear waste will pile up at the Los Alamos National Laboratory under the National Nuclear Security Administration’s plan to make nuclear-weapon cores there, according to the New Mexico Environment Department. In six pages of comments filed last month about the plan, the state agency also challenged the National Nuclear Security Administration’s (NNSA) March finding that the […]

Mission Support Alliance has issued a request for proposals (RFP) for a subcontractor to build a new water treatment facility on the Central Plateau at the Energy Department’s Hanford Site in Washington state. In a June 2 notice posted on a federal procurement website, the Leidos-led site support services vendor said bids are due by […]

A weekend wildfire on Gable Mountain within the Energy Department’s Hanford Site in Washington state was brought under control within a day, officials said this week The fire was ignited Saturday night by a lightning strike and burned roughly 5,500 acres before being contained by 8 p.m. local time Sunday night, said Reneé Brooks, spokeswoman […]

Some of the Energy Department’s largest nuclear cleanup sites are calling more employees back to the jobsite, but asking them to travel solo to help limit the potential spread of COVID-19. Officials for the Savannah River Site in South Carolina, along with the company building the Waste Treatment Plant at the Hanford Site in Washington […]

Waste disposal sites in up to three states could be the final destination for the Energy Department’s depleted uranium oxide from retired gaseous diffusion plants in Piketon, Ohio, and Paducah, Ky. The DOE Office of Environmental Management said Friday it has published the record of decision (ROD) for disposal of material generated from conversion of […]

The House Armed Services Committee plans to mark up the 2021 National Defense Authorization Act from June 22 to July 1, giving the chamber’s Democratic majority an opportunity to weigh about the dramatic increase proposed for active nuclear weapons programs at the Department of Energy and potential cuts to its nuclear cleanup budget. The annual […]

A federal judge in South Carolina has dismissed the $3.5 million racial discrimination lawsuit filed by a former employee of the security provider at the Energy Department’s Savannah River Site. U.S. District Judge Sherri Lydon ruled May 28 that plaintiff Marcialena Tremble Brown missed the deadline to file her case against her former employer, Centerra-SRS. […]

While some other federal agencies are bringing personnel back into the workplace, there is no timetable for Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board (DNFSB) staff to return to their offices in downtown Washington, D.C. “No date has been set for a return” to board headquarters on Indiana Avenue, DNFSB spokeswoman Tara Tadlock said in a Thursday […]

The Energy Department’s Savannah River Site (SRS) in South Carolina as of Friday has confirmed 23 cases of COVID-19 among its workforce. That is up from 22 reported at the end of last week. Sixteen of those employees have recovered and returned to work, a spokeswoman for the DOE’s SRS operations said by email. Savannah […]

Bechtel National earned $5 million of the potential $7.87 million 2019 fee for ongoing construction on the Waste Treatment Plant at the Hanford Site in Washington state, the Energy Department said Tuesday. By claiming an overall score of “good” and winning roughly 64% of the maximum available fee for the 12 months ended Dec. 31, […]

The Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board (DNFSB) might lose credibility in the eyes of Department of Energy site host communities if it does not explain its opposition to proposed changes to federal nuclear safety standards in plain words, a community interest group said. “It would be in the best interest for sites and communities to […]

The fire chief for the Department of Energy’s Hanford Site in Washington state has died, contractor Mission Support Alliance announced this week. Norbert Kuhman died May 29 at age 63, according to an obituary published Wednesday in the Tri-City Herald newspaper. Kuhman had served in the position since February 2014. Management of the 145-person Hanford Fire […]

Starting Monday, more than half of the Energy Department’s nuclear cleanup sites will be in Phase 1 of a gradual return to normal operations that have been effectively suspended since March during the COVID-19 pandemic. Environmental remediation operations at the Portsmouth Site in Ohio, the Paducah Site in Kentucky, and the Los Alamos National Laboratory […]

With the outcome of the Republican primary still uncertain, Teresa Leger Fernandez has won the Democratic Party nomination to succeed Rep. Ben Ray Luján (D-N.M.) as the House member for the congressional district covering the Energy Department’s Los Alamos National Laboratory. Leger Fernandez, an attorney with deep New Mexico roots and endorsements from national party […]

Some of the United States’ radioactive spent fuel could be recycled for use in advanced nuclear power reactors, but the nation still needs a long-term repository for the waste, according to the head of the industry policy organization. Used nuclear fuel retains 95% of its original energy, Nuclear Energy Institute President and CEO Maria Korsnick […]

Mission Support Alliance has issued a request for proposals (RFP) for a subcontractor to build a new water treatment facility on the Central Plateau at the Energy Department’s Hanford Site in Washington state. In a June 2 notice posted on a federal procurement website, the Leidos-led site support services vendor said bids are due by […]

The fire chief for the Department of Energy’s Hanford Site in Washington state has died, contractor Mission Support Alliance announced this week. Norbert Kuhman had served in the position since February 2014. Management of the 145-person Hanford Fire Department is part of Leidos-led MSA’s contract to provide support services at Hanford. Kuhman spent more than […]