Department of Energy

The U.S. Senate will vote Dec. 2, its first day back in Washington after Thanksgiving holiday break, on Dan Brouillette’s nomination to head the U.S. Department of Energy. The floor vote should occur around 5:30 p.m. ET that day, according to a Thursday Twitter post by the Senate’s Republican majority staff. Earlier Thursday, the Senate […]

Weapons Complex Monitor will not be published on Nov. 29 in observance of the Thanksgiving Day holiday. Look for the next issue in your inbox on Friday, Dec. 6.

An employee of the Savannah River Site’s liquid waste contractor believes he has lost out on tens of thousands of dollars in salary by being wrongfully demoted in favor of younger, less-experienced employees. In a lawsuit filed on Oct. 21 in U.S. District Court, Jeffery Risher, 59, alleged he and several other workers were subjected […]

CH2M Hill Plateau Remediation must stop work in radiologically contaminated areas of Building 324 at the Hanford Site in Washington state until it gets a handle on troubling incidents of contamination, according to a recent order from the U.S. Energy Department. The DOE’s Richland Operations Office “expects that workers at Hanford are protected from personnel […]

The U.S. Energy Department has formally signed a six-month extension for the incumbent support services vendor at the Hanford Site in Washington state. “We have received notice this morning that extends our period of performance six month, through May 25, 2020,” Rae Moss, a spokeswoman for Leidos-led Mission Support Alliance (MSA), said in a Thursday […]

AECOM said Friday that CEO and Chairman Michael Burke plans to retire by next year, either once his successor is found or ahead of the company’s 2020 yearly shareholders meeting scheduled for March. Burke will be the last executive to hold the dual title, the Los Angeles-based infrastructure and engineering multinational said in a press […]

The U.S. Energy Department has roughly 6,500 cubic meters of transuranic waste yet to be shipped from the Idaho National Laboratory to the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) in New Mexico, an agency spokesperson said by email Nov. 15. That is about 10% of the 65,000 cubic meters of transuranic waste supposed to move from […]

President Donald Trump on Thursday signed another stopgap spending bill that will keep the federal government running nearly three months into the 2020 budget year. Major news organizations reported the president signed the agreement after the Senate earlier in the day voted 74-20 to pass a House amendment that extends the current continuing resolution to […]

California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) has set a March 3, 2020, primary followed by a May 12 special election to replace U.S. Rep. Katie Hill (D-Calif.), who resigned on Nov. 1 after being targeted for investigation by the House Ethics Committee. Hill, who represented the state’s 25th Congressional District that adjoins the Santa Susana Field […]

The U.S. Senate will vote Dec. 2, its first day back in Washington after Thanksgiving holiday break, on Dan Brouillette’s nomination to head the U.S. Department of Energy. The floor vote should occur around 5:30 p.m. ET that day, according to a Thursday Twitter post by the Senate’s Republican majority staff. Earlier Thursday, the Senate […]

The Senate Armed Services Committee on Tuesday advanced three of the four Trump administration nominations for the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board (DNFSB). The nominees approved on voice vote were: Bruce Hamilton, current DNFSB chairman; current board member Jessie Hill Roberson; and Thomas Summers, former vice commander of the 91st Missile Wing at Minot Air […]

Nuclear contractor UniTech Services Group, which provides laundry services for radioactive clothing in North America and Europe, has hired industry veteran Kevin Bumpus as business development manager for government accounts. Bumpus has 36 years in the nuclear business, including management experience in facilities and operations, and helped support key U.S. Energy Department initiatives, the company […]

Bechtel National has failed to sufficiently review the costs of subcontractors supporting construction of the $17 billion Waste Treatment Plant at the U.S. Energy Department’s Hanford Site in Washington state, according to a recent agency audit. Between December 2000 and June 2018, Bechtel paid nearly $2 billion for 392 subcontracts with flexible prices, such as […]

A board of the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission on Monday reversed a prior order to allow the Sierra Club to argue one case against licensing of a facility in West Texas for temporary storage of spent fuel from nuclear power plants. The NRC Atomic Safety and Licensing Board (ASLB) also rejected the environmental organization’s motion […]

WASHINGTON, D.C.  – The head of the U.S. Energy Department’s Office of Nuclear Energy on Monday said she was committed to studying the potential use of advanced reactors in recycling radioactive spent fuel from nuclear power plants. Assistant Energy Secretary for Nuclear Energy Rita Baranwal, though, said that storage and permanent disposal of that waste […]

A House of Representatives committee on Wednesday passed a bill intended to advance centralized storage and permanent disposal of the nation’s nuclear waste, while the long-promised Senate version of the legislation was finally filed. The effectively identical iterations of the Nuclear Waste Policy Amendments Act of 2019 contain a set of measures to assist the […]

The U.S. Senate will vote Dec. 2, its first day back in Washington after Thanksgiving holiday break, on Dan Brouillette’s nomination to head the U.S. Department of Energy. The floor vote should occur around 5:30 p.m. ET that day, according to a Thursday Twitter post by the Senate’s Republican majority staff. Earlier Thursday, the Senate […]

The Senate Armed Services Committee on Tuesday advanced three of the four Trump administration nominations for the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board (DNFSB). The nominees approved on voice vote were: Bruce Hamilton, current DNFSB chairman; current board member Jessie Hill Roberson; and Thomas Summers, former vice commander of the 91st Missile Wing at Minot Air […]

The Senate Armed Services Committee on Tuesday advanced three of the four Trump administration nominations for the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board (DNFSB). The nominees approved on voice vote were: Bruce Hamilton, current DNFSB chairman; current board member Jesse Hill Roberson; and nominee Thomas Summers, former vice commander of the 91st Missile Wing at Minot […]

CH2M Hill Plateau Remediation must suspend work in radiologically contaminated areas of Building 324 at the Hanford Site in Washington state until it gets a handle on certain “negative trend,” according to a recent order from the U.S. Energy Department. The DOE’s Richland Operations Office “expects that workers at Hanford are protected from personnel radiological […]

A House committee on Wednesday passed a bill intended to advance centralized storage and permanent disposal of the nation’s nuclear waste, while the long-promised Senate version of the legislation was finally filed. Rep. Jerry McNerney’s (D-Calif.) Nuclear Waste Policy Amendments Act of 2019 contains a set of measures to assist the Department of Energy in […]

The U.S. Senate is expected to vote at 11:30 a.m. today to extend stopgap funding for fiscal 2020 and avoid a shutdown of the federal government. A series of three votes are expected on the continuing resolution that would keep the government open until Dec. 20, according to the official Twitter feed for Republican Senate […]

The nomination of Deputy Energy Secretary Dan Brouillette to become energy secretary easily cleared the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee on Tuesday by a 16-4 vote. The full Senate has not yet scheduled a vote on the nomination, a source said. The previously announced resignation of Energy Secretary Rick Perry takes effect Dec. 1. […]

The U.S. Energy Department has yet to actually issue its announced six-month extension for the incumbent support services vendor at the Hanford Site in Washington state. Last month, DOE’s Office of Environmental Management signaled it plans to keep Leidos-led Mission Support Alliance (MSA) on the job after its current extension expires Monday. That next extension […]

The House Energy and Commerce Committee pushed back by at least one day its review of legislation intended to jump-start centralized storage and ultimately disposal of radioactive waste now dispersed around the country. The Nuclear Waste Policy Amendments Act of 2019, from Rep. Jerry McNerney (D-Calif.), was one of 18 bills scheduled for markup on […]

The U.S. Energy Department has roughly 6,500 cubic meters of transuranic waste yet to be shipped from the Idaho National Laboratory to the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) in New Mexico, an agency spokesperson said by email Friday. That is about 10% of the 65,000 cubic meters of transuranic waste supposed to move from the […]

California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) has set a March 3, 2020, primary followed by a May 12 special election to replace U.S. Rep. Katie Hill (D-Calif.), who resigned on Nov. 1 after being targeted for investigation by the House Ethics Committee. Hill, who represented the state’s 25th Congressional District that adjoins the Santa Susana Field […]

WASHINGTON, D.C.  – The head of the U.S. Energy Department’s Office of Nuclear Energy on Monday said she was committed to studying the potential use of advanced reactors in recycling radioactive spent fuel. Assistant Energy Secretary for Nuclear Energy Rita Baranwal, though, said that storage and permanent disposal of the nation’s nuclear waste also remain […]

Bechtel National has failed to sufficiently review the costs of subcontractors supporting construction of the $17 billion Waste Treatment Plant at the U.S. Energy Department’s Hanford Site in Washington state, according to a recent agency audit. Between December 2000 and June 2018, Bechtel paid nearly $2 billion for 392 subcontracts with flexible prices, such as […]

Nuclear contractor UniTech Services Group, which provides laundry services for radioactive clothing in North America and Europe, has hired industry veteran Kevin Bumpus as business development manager for government accounts. Bumpus has 36 years in the nuclear business, including management experience in facilities and operations, and helped support key U.S. Energy Department initiatives, the company […]