Department of Energy

Companies in the U.S. Energy Department nuclear cleanup sector are still trying to gauge the impact of Fluor’s decision to divest its government contracting business. There are still far more questions than answers among DOE contractors, subcontractors, and workforce, several sources said following the Tuesday announcement from the Texas-based engineering and construction giant. “Nobody really […]

The pace of transuranic waste shipments to the U.S. Energy Department’s Waste Isolation Pilot Plant in New Mexico picked up after a slow start to 2019, although it is still seven shipments behind the 2018 tempo as of the end of August. The underground salt mine site near the city of Carlsbad received 225 shipments […]

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is taking public comment on the proposed five-year recertification of the Energy Department’s Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) in New Mexico as meeting radiation standards for disposal of defense-related transuranic waste. The Energy Department filed the compliance recertification application with the EPA in March. Under the WIPP Land Withdrawal Act, […]

The House Energy and Commerce environment and climate change subcommittee is scheduled Thursday to vote on a bill aimed at advancing establishment of a nuclear waste repository at Yucca Mountain, Nev. The Nuclear Waste Policy Amendments Act of 2019 is among 15 bills scheduled for markup beginning at 10 a.m. Eastern time at 2123 Rayburn […]

Perma-Fix Environmental Services on Tuesday said it had picked up $15 million in new contracts with the Department of Energy and other customers, for nuclear services including demolition and radiological cleanup. The projects cover 18 months of work, both in Canada and the United States, according to a press release. The Atlanta-based nuclear services provider […]

Fluor’s announcement Tuesday that it will sell off its government business unit opens the door for one of its peers to take full or partial ownership of multibillion-dollar contracts for the U.S. Energy Department’s Office of Environmental Management and semiautonomous National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA). The Irving, Texas-based engineering and construction multinational is lead partner […]

The U.S. Energy Department should focus on retired nuclear power plants and some of its own facilities as it plans for the eventual removal and transport of radioactive waste from dozens of sites around the nation, the federal Nuclear Waste Technical Review Board (NWTRB) said this week. That is one of three recommendations in a […]

Nearly a month past its own declared schedule, the U.S. Energy Department’s Office of Environmental Management still has not issued a draft request for proposals (RFP) for further cleanup of the Oak Ridge Site in Tennessee. On July 2, DOE said in a notice on the federal procurement website FedBizOpps that it anticipated issuing the […]

A former Tinder executive, the chairman emeritus of a national whiskey distiller, and the president of the California Institute of Technology are among the eight new members of the Secretary of Energy Advisory Board, Secretary of Energy Rick Perry announced Monday. The board is a sort of think-tank and sounding board for the energy secretary. […]

The U.S. government has paid at least $7.4 billion to nuclear power plant owners for failing to meet its Jan. 31, 1998, deadline to begin taking their spent reactor fuel for disposal, according to the Congressional Research Service (CRS). The date was set in the 1982 Nuclear Waste Policy Act, which put the Department of […]

Texas-based Fluor, a pillar of the U.S. Energy Department’s nuclear operations and cleanup complexes, said Tuesday it will exit the government market as part of a company shakeup following recent hard times. CEO Carlos Hernandez and Executive Chairman Alan Boeckmann announced plans to divest the company’s government services business, as well as the AMECO construction […]

The U.S. Energy Department on Monday formally announced it would demolish the final 18 structures at the former Energy Technology Engineering Center (ETEC) at the Santa Susana Field Laboratory in California. The plan is laid out in a new record of decision for remediation of the DOE-held Area IV and Northern Buffer Zone at Santa […]

A Colorado-based company has won a roughly $2.8 million litigation support contract for the U.S. Energy Department’s Environmental Management Consolidated Business Center. The Cincinnati-based procurement center for the DOE Office of Environmental Management published the award to TLI Solutions on Sept. 19. The contractor will support the EMCBC chief counsel in “simple and complex litigation” […]

The Senate Appropriations Committee wants additional cost information before Congress provides any more funding for the Department of Energy’s planned new landfill at the Oak Ridge Site in Tennessee. “The Committee is disappointed in the lack of progress in issuing the Record of Decision for the new landfill and recommends no funding to continue the […]

A longtime manager at the Department of Energy has been selected to lead fuel cycle and supply chain activities at the Office of Nuclear Energy. “I am pleased to announce that I have selected Andrew Griffith to be the Deputy Assistant Secretary for Fuel Cycle and Supply Chain, NE-4. This reassignment is effective immediately,” according to […]

For the second consecutive year, the Senate appears ready to block any large reorganization of the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board (DNFSB). The Senate Appropriations Committee on Sept. 12 advanced legislation that would prohibit the proposed changes at the nuclear health-and-safety watchdog unless “specifically authorized by law.” The committee’s fiscal 2020 energy and water bill […]

ALEXANDRIA, Va. — U.S. Rep. Chuck Fleischmann (R-Tenn.) on Sept. 12 said he would not seek to succeed Lamar Alexander in the Senate. “I’m not going anywhere,” Fleischmann said during a presentation at the U.S. Energy Department’s National Cleanup Workshop. “I’m staying in the House. I’m not running for the Senate.” After Alexander (R-Tenn.) announced […]

The Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board (DNFSB) says the design of a planned new ventilation system at the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) near Carlsbad, N.M., does not do enough to prevent radiation from a possible underground accident from reaching the surface. The board wants the U.S. Energy Department to respond to the concerns in […]

ALEXANDRIA, Va. – The U.S. Energy Department’s top official at the Hanford Site in Washington state has a full plate these days. That includes preparing for potential turnover of four top contractors and gearing up for operation of the $17 billion Waste Treatment and Immobilization Plant (WTP) by 2023, Brian Vance, who manages both the […]

The legacy cleanup contractor for the U.S. Energy Department’s Los Alamos Nuclear Laboratory in New Mexico is seeking a firm to monitor vapor levels around certain disposal areas. Newport News Nuclear BWXT-Los Alamos (N3B) on Monday issued an updated request for proposals at www.fbo.gov for a subcontractor to collect and report on material disposal area […]

A new federal lawsuit against the U.S. Environmental Protecting Agency (EPA) claims runoff from the Energy Department’s Los Alamos National Laboratory is hurting water quality in Los Alamos County, N.M. The lawsuit was filed Monday in U.S. District Court in New Mexico against the EPA, agency Administrator Andrew Wheeler, and EPA Region 6 Administrator Ken […]

The U.S. Energy Department plans to continue to pay Boeing for access to a federal facility being prepared for remediation within the aerospace giant’s property at the Santa Susana Field Laboratory in Ventura County, Calif. The access agreement with Boeing would otherwise expire Sept. 30. Energy Department Contracting Officer John Blecher on Monday signed off on […]

The Department of Energy’s Savannah River Site is delaying roofing repairs at its H Canyon nuclear materials processing facility, after stating at the start of the year that construction would begin around midsummer. That is because the repairs are not urgent or required by a specific deadline, said Barbara Smoak, spokeswoman for site management contractor […]

ALEXANDRIA, Va. – A draft environmental assessment on commercial disposal of up to 10,000 gallons of radioactive wastewater from the Savannah River Site in South Carolina could be issued for public comment by the end of 2019. The feedback to the draft assessment, under the National Environmental Policy Act of 1969, will help determine if […]

The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission is giving stakeholders an additional 60 days to comment on a document that could lay the groundwork for an update to regulations on disposal of Greater-Than-Class C (GTCC) low-level radioactive waste. The public comment period for the draft regulatory basis had been scheduled to close on Sept. 20. But the […]

ALEXANDRIA, Va. — U.S. Rep. Chuck Fleischmann (R-Tenn.) on Sept. 12 said he would not seek to succeed Lamar Alexander in the Senate. “I’m not going anywhere,” Fleischmann said during a presentation at the U.S. Energy Department’s National Cleanup Workshop. “I’m staying in the House. I’m not running for the Senate.” After Alexander (R-Tenn.) announced […]

By John Stang Appeals were filed Tuesday with the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission over petitions to intervene in the federal licensing of a proposed site in western Texas for temporary storage of used fuel from commercial nuclear reactors. On Aug. 23, an NRC Atomic Safety and Licensing Board ruled that only the Sierra Club has […]

Appeals were filed Tuesday with the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission over which entities should be allowed to intervene legally in the federal licensing of a proposed site in western Texas for temporary storage of used fuel from commercial nuclear reactors. On Aug. 23, an Atomic Safety and Licensing Board ruled that only the Sierra Club […]

The U.S. Energy Department plans to continue to pay Boeing for access to a federal facility being prepared for remediation within the aerospace giant’s property at the Santa Susana Field Laboratory in Ventura County, Calif. The access agreement with Boeing would otherwise expire Sept. 30. Energy Department Contracting Officer John Blecher on Monday signed off on […]

A new federal lawsuit against the U.S. Environmental Protecting Agency (EPA) claims runoff from the Energy Department’s Los Alamos National Laboratory is hurting water quality in Los Alamos County, N.M. The lawsuit was filed Monday in U.S. District Court in New Mexico against the EPA, agency Administrator Andrew Wheeler, and EPA Region 6 Administrator Ken […]