Department of Energy

Sen. Dianne Feinstein’s (D-Calif.) latest legislative push to establish a pilot program for interim storage of radioactive waste got stuck in Senate gridlock this week when the big, bipartisan energy bill stalled out amid a fight about climate change. Feinstein’s proposal was one of many amendments being balled up into a legislative package known as […]

PHOENIX – Another company indicated Monday it would be ready to bid on an anticipated procurement from the Department of Energy to design a facility for interim storage of nuclear waste. “We are interested in interim storage,” Rod Baltzer, chief operating officer for Deep Isolation, told RadWaste Monitor. “With our design, we do think you […]

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 […]

Staff at the Nuclear Regulatory Commission on Tuesday preliminarily recommended licensing a facility in New Mexico for temporary storage of spent fuel from U.S. nuclear power plants. The tentative support is provided in the draft environmental impact statement (EIS) for Holtec International’s planned consolidated interim storage facility (CISF) in Lea County, in the state’s southeast. […]

House appropriators got their first crack at acting Environmental Management head Ike White on Wednesday, when they promised the interim cleanup manager that proposed cuts to legacy nuclear waste cleanup will not stand — especially not at the Hanford Site. The script is familiar by now, written at the beginning of the Donald Trump administration’s […]

Interested bidders for the Energy Department’s potential five-year, $250-million support services contract at the Paducah Site in Kentucky have received an additional two weeks to submit a proposal. The agency announced the delayed deadline, from March 19 to April 2, Tuesday on the website for the procurement. On the website’s question-and-answer section for the contract, […]

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 — 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, […]

Sen. Dianne Feinstein’s (D-Calif.) latest legislative push to establish a pilot program for interim storage of radioactive waste got stuck in Senate gridlock this week when the big, bi-partisan energy bill stalled out amid a fight about climate change. Feinstein’s proposal was one of many amendments being balled up into a legislative package known as […]

An Idaho congressman on Tuesday said he believes Congress again will choose to keep a nuclear cleanup program with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, instead of allowing it to be transferred to the Department of Energy. The program is the Formerly Utilized Sites Remedial Action Program (FUSRAP), which manages remediation of properties contaminated from […]

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 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 – Another company indicated Monday it would be prepared to bid on an anticipated procurement from the Department of Energy to design a facility for interim storage of nuclear waste. “We are interested in interim storage,” Rod Baltzer, chief operating officer for Deep Isolation, told Weapons Complex Morning Briefing. “With our design, we do […]

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 […]

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 […]

Prospective bidders for the Energy Department’s potential five-year, $250-million support services contract at the Paducah Site in Kentucky should plan for a 60-day transition from the incumbent. In 30 pages of answers to contractor questions, posted March 5 on the procurement website for DOE’s Office of Environmental Management, the agency noted that some references in […]

While the Department of Energy is not yet restricting travel inside the United States in response to the outbreak of the novel coronavirus (COVID-19), it is encouraging offices to “begin reducing non-essential domestic travel, as appropriate,” according to a Friday memo. “We will look at this issue and provide additional guidance as needed,” the agency […]

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 […]

California Assemblywoman Christy Smith, a Democrat, and Republican Mike Garcia, a former Navy fighter pilot, are expected to face each other in a May 12 runoff to decide who will represent California’s 25th Congressional District until January 2021. Smith and Garcia were the top two vote-getters Tuesday in a crowded primary field to fill the […]

An Energy Department working group is still grappling with recommended changes on management of the payments in lieu of taxes (PILT) program for communities around nuclear facilities, Energy Secretary Dan Brouillette said Feb. 27. During a hearing of the House Appropriations energy and water subcommittee, the secretary promised to personally brief Rep. Mike Simpson (R-Idaho) […]

Jury selection and trial are slated for late June in a $75,000 negligence lawsuit against the management and operations contractor for the Department of Energy’s Savannah River Site in South Carolina. According to a scheduling order filed Friday, Henry Bradley’s case against Savannah River Nuclear Solutions (SRNS) will head to trial on or after June […]

Nuclear cleanup contractors, including those planning to participate in a major waste conference next week, are trying to conduct business as usual while simultaneously grappling with the risk posed by the global coronavirus outbreak. On Thursday afternoon, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission announced it would cancel its annual Regulatory Information Conference, scheduled for March 10-12 just […]

WASHINGTON — At Congress’ direction, the Department of Energy is revising a controversial order that curtailed the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board’s (DNFSB) access to nuclear sites and personnel, Secretary of Energy Dan Brouillette said Thursday. “We’re in the process of revising the order and I will be meeting with the DNFSB and we’ll have […]

The Energy Department’s top nuclear cleanup official at the Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) in New Mexico has called it a career. Doug Hintze’s last day as manager of DOE’s Environmental Management Los Alamos Field Office was Friday, an agency spokesman confirmed Monday. Hintze spent more than 12 years in supervisory positions for the Office […]

Roughly 90 representatives from some of the Energy Department’s major contractors registered for an industry day last week on the potential 15-year, $6.4 billion cleanup contract for the Idaho National Laboratory. The Energy Department issued the draft request for proposals for the award last month. It followed that up with a tour, informational program, and […]

Two key projects at the Energy Department’s Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) in New Mexico are nearing completion. Construction of the North Access Road should be finished by the end of the month, according to Donavan Mager, spokesman for WIPP management and operations contractor Nuclear Waste Partnership. The purpose of the $10 million, 3-mile bypass […]

WASHINGTON — Sen. Patty Murray (D) on Wednesday became the latest lawmaker from Washington state to chastise Energy Secretary Dan Brouillette for the deep budget cuts proposed for the Hanford Site in fiscal 2021. Funding for the two Energy Department offices at Hanford, considered the nation’s most complex and expensive nuclear cleanup, would be slashed […]

WASHINGTON — At Congress’ direction, the Department of Energy is revising a controversial order that curtailed the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board’s (DNFSB) access to nuclear sites and personnel, Secretary of Energy Dan Brouillette said Thursday. “We’re in the process of revising the order and I will be meeting with the DNFSB and we’ll have […]

The $470 million Salt Waste Processing Facility (SWPF) at the Department of Energy’s Savannah River Site in South Carolina is on track to begin operations this month, following completion in February of a readiness assessment, according to builder Parsons. Both the Energy Department and Parsons said via email this week that the agency’s readiness assessment […]

The John Wood Group said Wednesday it expects later this month to complete the sale of its nuclear business to Jacobs, following regulatory approval in the United Kingdom. The U.K. Competition and Markets Authority has signed off on the deal, the Scotland-based energy services multinational said in a brief press release. “Wood and Jacobs continue […]