Department of Energy

WASHINGTON —Secretary of Energy Dan Brouillette on Tuesday would not commit to supporting a congressional rewrite of the 1982 Nuclear Waste Policy Act to exclude mandatory construction of a permanent nuclear waste repository at Yucca Mountain in Nevada. “If we were to consider a repeal of the 1987 amendment that designated Yucca Mountain as the […]

The Department of Energy plans to take bids on the design of a facility for interim storage of used reactor fuel from nuclear power plants, a senior official said Tuesday. Assistant Secretary for Nuclear Energy Rita Baranwal discussed the upcoming procurement in a hearing on the Energy Department’s latest budget proposal before the House Appropriations […]

Sen. Patty Murray (D-Wash.) on Thursday chastised Energy Secretary Dan Brouillette for the deep budget cuts in fiscal 2021 proposed by the White House for the Hanford Site in Washington state. The former plutonium-producing site, considered the nation’s most complex nuclear cleanup, would see its total spending slashed from $2.6 billion enacted by Congress in […]

Secretary of Energy Dan Brouillette said Wednesday he is ready to work with two key Senate appropriators to establish a pilot program for temporary storage of spent fuel from U.S. nuclear power plants. Senate Appropriations energy and water subcommittee Chairman Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.) noted he and panel Ranking Member Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) have proposed the […]

Soil samples taken since last summer along a right-of-way for a stretch of highway near the former Rocky Flats nuclear weapons plant have not detected any high levels of radiative contamination, a Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment (CDPHE) said this week. The Jefferson Parkway Public Highway Authority conducted more sampling along the route […]

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 […]

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 […]

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. A couple of hours after the polls closed in California, they are the top two vote-getters in […]

WASHINGTON — The annual tradition of legislative outrage over proposed reductions to nuclear cleanup spending continued in a blunt and unvarnished way here Tuesday, when Sen. Martin Heinrich (D-N.M.) told Secretary of Energy Dan Brouillette that the agency’s 2021 budget proposal “frankly sucks.” Heinrich was one of several vocally dissatisified legislators as Brouillette appeared before […]

WASHINGTON — The Department of Energy is revising a controversial order that curtailed the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board’s access to defense nuclear sites and personnel, and the agency plans to brief the board  this month, the Secretary of Energy told lawmakers here Tuesday. “It’s being revised,”Secretary of Energy Dan Brouillette said of Order 140.1 […]

The Department of Energy plans to take bids on the design of a facility for interim storage of used reactor fuel from nuclear power plants, a senior official said Tuesday. Assistant Secretary for Nuclear Energy Rita Baranwal discussed the upcoming procurement in a hearing on the new DOE budget proposal before the House Appropriations energy […]

WASHINGTON —Secretary of Energy Dan Brouillette on Tuesday would not commit to supporting a congressional rewrite of the 1982 Nuclear Waste Policy Act to exclude construction of a permanent nuclear waste repository at Yucca Mountain in Nevada. “If we were to consider a repeal of the 1987 amendment that designated Yucca Montain as the nation’s sole nuclear […]

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 […]

The Energy Department, together with the Environmental Protection Agency, and the Idaho Department of Environmental Quality, have launched a site-wide five-year review of cleanup at the Idaho National Laboratory. Five-year reviews gauge the effectiveness of remediation efforts as required by the Superfund law, the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act (CERCLA), Fluor Idaho said […]

The Department of Energy wants just a little bit less money in fiscal 2021 than it has now for research and development related to used nuclear fuel. The agency’s Office of Nuclear Energy asked for $60 million for the line item within its total budget request of nearly $1.2 billion. If approved by Congress, that […]

Organizers of the Waste Management Symposia in Phoenix are still holding the annual gathering next week despite public concerns over coronavirus (COVID-19), a spokeswoman said this morning. After a Monday meeting of the WMS executive management team, the decision was made to go ahead with the event – with added precautions to safeguard the health […]

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 […]

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 […]

Voters in California’s 25th Congressional District will begin to determine Tuesday who might succeed former U.S. Rep. Katie Hill (D) and represent an area adjacent to a major nuclear cleanup site. The district, which includes parts of Los Angeles and Ventura counties, has been without a congressional representative since Hill resigned Nov. 1 rather than […]

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 Thursday. During a hearing of the House Appropriations energy and water subcommittee, the secretary promised to personally brief Rep. Mike Simpson (R-Idaho) on […]

As the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) seeks a larger-than-expected budget increase for 2021, another branch of the Department of Energy is seeking much less funding for cleanup of excess nuclear-weapon production sites The Office of Environmental Management (EM) is requesting about $200 million for remediation at NNSA-owned facilities in the budget year beginning Oct. 1, […]

As the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) seeks a larger-than-expected budget increase for 2021, another branch of the Department of Energy is seeking much less funding for cleanup of excess nuclear-weapon production sites The Office of Environmental Management (EM) is requesting about $200 million for remediation at NNSA-owned facilities in the budget year beginning Oct. 1, […]

Rep. Dan Newhouse (R-Wash.) on Thursday expressed dismay at the dramatically reduced level of money the Energy Department’s Hanford Site in Washington state would receive under the White House latest budget request. The agency has a moral and legal obligation to clean up 56 million gallons of liquid waste, generated by decades of plutonium production […]

While remediation is nearly complete at a couple of the 16 sites overseen by the Energy Department’s Office of Environmental Management, other cleanup efforts could last late into this century, according a roundup included in the Donald Trump administration’s budget request for fiscal 2021. The Energy Department announced in June 2019 that demolition of facilities […]

Liquid waste management at the Department of Energy’s Savannah River Site in South Carolina is in line to receive $1.05 billion in fiscal 2021, including a significant spike in spending on treatment activities that would cover the soon-to-be-operational Salt Waste Processing Facility (SWPF). The $1.05 billion, if approved by Congress, would be a $144.7 million […]

Amentum, the Maryland-based successor to AECOM’s Management Services branch, announced a pair of executive promotions this week. Tom Foster, president and project manager at the Savannah River Remediation joint venture in South Carolina, on Wednesday was named chief operating officer for Amentum’s Nuclear & Environment business unit. On Thursday, the company said it is promoting […]

Operations at the Moab Uranium Mill Tailings Remedial Action (UMTRA) project in Utah resumed within just a few days earlier this month after a truck overturned while carrying a load of waste, an Energy Department spokesperson confirmed Tuesday. A truck carrying a container of uranium mill tailings rolled onto its side while rounding a corner […]

The Energy Department Office of Environmental Management is taking resumes for the permanent job of managing the Hanford Site in Washington state, a post currently held by Brian Vance. In addition, Environmental Management soon seek applicants to replace Jeff Griffin, the associate principal deputy assistant secretary for field operations, who is leaving DOE to join […]

Nuclear remediation sites overseen by the Energy Department’s Office of Environmental Management would receive another small bump in funding for safeguards and security in fiscal 2021, according to budget tables released by the Donald Trump administration early Monday. The proposal for $321 million in the budget year beginning Oct. 1 is a step up from […]

While BWX Technologies lost out on a multibillion-dollar remediation contract at the Hanford Site in Washington state, President and CEO Rex Geveden said Tuesday he is optimistic about a “robust” pipeline of potential Energy Department projects. “Unfortunately, we were not awarded the Hanford Central Plateau Cleanup contract,” Geveden said during the Lynchburg, Va.-based company’s quarterly […]