Department of Energy

By John Stang Coming off a strong 2019, Perma-Fix Environmental Services anticipates taking a significant revenue hit in the second quarter of 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The Atlanta-based radioactive waste management specialist expects the novel coronavirus 2019 to affect its customers, slowing their on-site work and shipments to Perma-Fix’s waste processing plants In […]

The Department of Energy is still preparing a report to Congress on “innovative options” for meeting its legal requirement to dispose of tens of thousands of tons of U.S. nuclear waste. “The Department is currently working on the report, and we’ll follow up once it’s public,” a spokesperson said by email Monday. The spokesperson did […]

PHOENIX – Two Nevada officials with distinctly different opinions on the Yucca Mountain nuclear waste repository last week offered distinctly different views on what the Trump administration’s latest budget might mean for the future of the always-embattled project. In February, the White House issued a fiscal 2021 spending plan that included nothing to resume licensing […]

As part of a much larger spending request, the White House has requested $28 million in emergency 2020 funding to help the Department of Energy telework during the COVID-19 pandemic. The DOE share will pay “for additional information technology requirements and telework support, also including increased cybersecurity costs, in response to coronavirus,” according to a […]

The Department of Energy hopes in April to start construction of the Tank-Side Cesium Removal (TSCR) system at the Hanford Site in Washington state, a vendor said Wednesday. Tank waste management contractor Washington River Protection Solutions and DOE’s Office of River Protection are requesting temporary authorizations from the Washington state Department of Ecology to start […]

The Energy Department’s Savannah River Site in South Carolina said Wednesday it is activating its Infectious Disease Response Team to help navigate the COVID-19 crisis. The team will operate around the clock and will hold “daily leadership calls” in an effort to limit potential impact of the novel coronavirus on the 310-square-mile, 11,000-employee federal installation. […]

Los Alamos County, N.M., is calling on the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) to take responsibility for remediation of radioactive waste discovered last month off the property of the Los Alamos National Laboratory. Debris contaminated by uranium and plutonium was discovered Feb. 14 by a county contractor doing sewer line excavation for a planned low-income […]

Almost a year after a middle school outside the Energy Department’s Portsmouth Site in Ohio went on summer break early due to concern over levels of radioactive contaminants on campus, an independent contractor will start on-site air and soil sampling. The project is scheduled to start in April, the top official at the DOE Office of […]

Three employees at the Energy Department’s Hanford Site in Washington state are undergoing testing for novel coronavirus 2019 disease (COVID-19), according to updates posted Tuesday on an employee advisory website. It was not clear from the post if the three included the employee of Hanford services contractor Mission Support Alliance who last Thursday was scheduled […]

President Donald Trump will nominate a familiar face, Joyce Connery, to serve a new term on the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board (DNFSB), the White House said Tuesday morning. If confirmed by the Senate, Connery would serve a term expiring Oct. 18, 2025, according to the intent to nominate announcement. Initially nominated by President Barack […]

The Energy Department Office of Environmental Management has kicked off market research for a new contract to operate depleted uranium hexafluoride (DUF6) conversion facilities at the Portsmouth Site in Ohio and the Paducah Site in Kentucky. The Environmental Management Consolidated Business Center issued the request for information (RFI)/sources sought notice Monday. The Energy Department is […]

The Department of Energy is still preparing a report to Congress on “innovative options” for meeting its legal requirement to dispose of tens of thousands of tons of U.S. nuclear waste. “The Department is currently working on the report, and we’ll follow up once it’s public,” a spokesperson said by email Monday. The spokesperson did […]

The Energy Department Office of Environmental Management could tap the brakes on a trio of major procurements due to the ongoing national emergency surrounding the 2019 novel coronavirus (COVID-19). Due to travel restrictions and other uncertainty spawned by the outbreak, the Environmental Management Consolidated Business Center (EMCBC) said in a special notice Saturday it might […]

An office building used by one of the main contractors for the Department of Energy’s Hanford Site in Washington state has been disinfected after an employee was tested for the 2019 novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19), according to a weekend posting on a Hanford website. The office building at 3170 George Washington Way “has been disinfected […]

Idaho continues to assess $6,000 in daily penalties against the Department of Energy for failure to treat 900,000 gallons of sodium-bearing liquid radioactive waste at the Idaho National Laboratory, and the total is approaching $7.8 million, a state official said last week. The penalties will continue until the lab’s the Integrated Waste Treatment Unit (IWTU) […]

There were no documented cases of COVID-19 among Department of Energy federal or contractor personnel at deadline Friday for Nuclear Security & Deterrence Monitor, although one contractor was being tested for the disease. This person works for Mission Support Alliance, of Richland, Wash., the site-wide support services contractor for the sprawling, remote Hanford Site in […]

PHOENIX — Demolition of the X-326 Process Building at the Department of Energy’s Portsmouth Site in Ohio should begin this fall, managers said here Wednesday. Cleanup contractor Fluor-BWXT finished deactivating the facility, disconnecting the utilities and making the structure “cold and dark,” in 2019, DOE Portsmouth Site Lead Jeff Bettinger said at the Waste Management […]

PHOENIX — By the end of 2020, the Energy Department’s Office of Environmental Management expects to start operation of facilities in Idaho and South Carolina that will convert radioactive tank waste into stable forms for eventual disposal, agency officials said here Monday. The Salt Waste Processing Facility (SWPF) at the Savannah River Site in South […]

PHOENIX — The Department of Energy manager for the Savannah River Site said Tuesday he would not be surprised if the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) one day assumes ownership of the operations contract for the South Carolina complex. The semiautonomous DOE nuclear-weapon steward is already funding more of the work at Savannah River, SRS […]

PHOENIX –The Energy Department’s Office of Environmental Management is still drafting its response to a Texas state agency on plans for removal of potentially combustible drums of radioactive material from Waste Control Specialists (WCS) in Andrews County. The Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ) wants a federal plan by the end of this month for removal […]

President Donald Trump on Thursday formally nominated Undersecretary of Energy Mark Menezes to the No. 2 position at the Department of Energy. If confirmed by the Senate, Menezes would assume the DOE deputy secretary position left vacant in December when Dan Brouillette was sworn in as secretary of energy. “Congratulations to my friend and colleague […]

The liquid waste management contractor at the Department of Energy’s Savannah River Site in South Carolina will pay more than $267,000 to a former employee in attorney’s fees, after already paying nearly $1.8 million in her discrimination lawsuit. Savannah River Remediation (SRR) did not file any objections or responses to Adrienne Saulsberry’s Feb. 6 motion […]

Interested bidders for the Energy Department’s potential five-year, $250-million support services contract at the Paducah Site in Kentucky are getting an additional two weeks, until April 2, to submit a proposal. The prior deadline was March 19 and DOE announced the extra time Tuesday on the Paducah procurement website. At least one bidder in a […]

A worker a the Energy Department’s Hanford Site in Washington state is being tested for 2019 novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19), according to a statement distributed Thursday evening to staff at the former plutonium complex. The office building on George Washington Way in the city of Richland, where the employee of support services contractor Mission Support […]

House appropriators told the head of the Energy Department’s nuclear cleanup office on Wednesday that the budget cut proposed for fiscal 2021 will not stand, especially not at the Hanford Site in Washington state. The script is familiar by now, written at the beginning of the Donald Trump administration’s first term and played out already […]

PHOENIX — As time goes by, the Energy Department’s Waste Isolation Pilot Plant in New Mexico could increasingly dispose of transuranic material from the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA), a top nuclear cleanup official said here Monday. The Idaho National Laboratory is far and away the No. 1 shipper of defense-related transuranic waste to the […]

PHOENIX – The Energy Department’s Office of Environmental Management (EM) is no longer producing a public roundup of solicitation timelines for cleanup jobs within the nuclear weapons complex, a procurement official said here Tuesday. “We no longer have a procurement schedule on the website,” Norbert Doyle, EM deputy assistant secretary for acquisition and program management, […]

A heavy equipment accident last summer indicates the prime contractor for the Energy Department’s Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) near Carlsbad, N.M., needs to strengthen its safety oversight of subcontractors, according to a March 4 enforcement letter from DOE’s Office of Enterprise Assessments (EA). In July 2019, a backhoe operated by an employee for subcontractor […]

The Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board (DNFSB) posted an open hearing that was scheduled for next week in Aiken, S.C., about the future of the Savannah River Site. The independent federal nuclear health and safety watchdog temporarily called off the event because of witness availability, and has not rescheduled it yet, a board spokesperson said […]

The Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board (DNFSB) posted an open hearing that was scheduled for next week in Aiken, S.C., about the future of the Savannah River Site. The independent federal nuclear health and safety watchdog temporarily called off the event because of witness availability, and has not rescheduled it yet, a board spokesperson said […]