Department of Energy

The advocacy group Nuclear Watch New Mexico wants New Mexico Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham (D) to renegotiate a 2016 consent order with the U.S. Department of Energy on cleanup of the Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL). The organization in June urged Grisham to have the New Mexico Environment Department (NMED) revisit the deal reached with […]

Leidos Chairman and CEO Roger Krone predicted Tuesday the Energy Department could award a new contract for landlord services at the Hanford Site “within a couple of weeks.” There had been speculation it would be out this week, Krone said during the company’s quarterly earnings call, responding to a Wall Street analysts’ question on potential […]

The U.S. Energy Department’s nuclear cleanup office on Wednesday awarded a trio of small-business contracts that together could be worth over $62 million. The largest of the deals, a potential $49.5 million indefinite-delivery, indefinite-quantity (ID/IQ) contract awarded to Oak Ridge, Tenn.-based BTP Services, is for technical support services throughout the Office of Environmental Management (EM) […]

“All options are on the table” at Fluor after the company’s $555 million loss in the second quarter of 2019, CEO Carlos Hernandez said Thursday. The government contractor is becoming more selective about what projects it bids on, and will consider asset sales and staff reductions, Hernandez said during a teleconference call with Wall Street […]

The U.S. Senate on Thursday passed a budget caps deal that officially set defense funding toplines for the next two years, essentially doing away with future budget cuts via sequestration. H.R. 3877 sets the defense spending topline at $738 billion in fiscal 2020 and at $741.5 billion in fiscal 2021. The 2020 level is significantly […]

The Sheep Fire, which burned more than 112,000 acres, is the largest blaze ever at the Energy Department’s Idaho National Laboratory, a spokeswoman confirmed Tuesday. It eclipsed the old record set by the Jefferson Fire, which in 2010 burned almost 109,000 acres, including 79,000 acres within the INL property, according to laboratory spokeswoman Sarah Neumann. […]

Legislation introduced Wednesday in the U.S. Senate would authorize $200 million in annual spending by the Department of Energy for nuclear fuel cycle research and development focused on storage and disposal of the nation’s radioactive waste. The Nuclear Energy Renewal Act of 2019, from Sens. Chris Coons (D-Del.) and Martha McSally (R-Ariz.), primarily includes measures […]

Longtime Department of Energy manager Ed McGinnis has left the agency’s Office of Nuclear Energy to take a position at the White House, a source said Monday. McGinnis had served as principal deputy assistant secretary for nuclear energy from May 2017, leading the office until Rita Baranwal was sworn in as assistant secretary for nuclear […]

Leidos Chairman and CEO Roger Krone predicted Tuesday the Energy Department could award a new contract for landlord services at the Hanford Site “within a couple of weeks.” There had been speculation it would be out this week, Krone said during the company’s quarterly earnings call, responding to a Wall Street analysts’ question on potential […]

The U.S. Energy Department’s nuclear cleanup office on Wednesday awarded a trio of small-business contracts that together could be worth over $62 million. The largest of the deals, a potential $49.5 million indefinite-delivery, indefinite-quantity (ID/IQ) contract awarded to Oak Ridge, Tenn.-based BTP Services, is for technical support services throughout the Office of Environmental Management (EM) […]

Washington River Protection Solutions, the radioactive waste tank management contractor for the Energy Department’s Hanford Site in Washington state, is seeking a subcontractor to fabricate three drop-deck trailers for moving vitrified waste. The solicitation for the firm-fixed-price subcontract was posted July 22 in the federal procurement website www.fbo.gov. Bids are due by 9 a.m. PT on […]

The Sheep Fire, which burned more than 112,000 acres, is the largest blaze ever at the Energy Department’s Idaho National Laboratory, a spokeswoman confirmed Tuesday. It eclipsed the old record set by the Jefferson Fire, which in 2010 burned almost 109,000 acres, including 79,000 acres within the INL property, according to laboratory spokeswoman Sarah Neumann. […]

The advocacy group Nuclear Watch New Mexico wants New Mexico Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham (D) to renegotiate a 2016 consent order with the U.S. Department of Energy on cleanup of the Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL). The organization in June urged Grisham to have the New Mexico Environment Department revisit the deal reached with the […]

Longtime Department of Energy manager Ed McGinnis has left the agency’s Office of Nuclear Energy to take a position at the White House, a source said Monday. McGinnis served as principal deputy assistant secretary for nuclear energy from May 2017, effectively leading the office until Rita Baranwal was sworn in as assistant secretary for nuclear […]

The Energy Communities Alliance says the U.S. Energy Department’s reinterpretation of the definition for high-level radioactive waste (HLW) could expedite disposal of such material now held at four nuclear cleanup sites. The ECA said it “can reasonably interpret that the waste streams to which this interpretation may apply” are the canisters of waste that have […]

The AECOM-led contractor in charge of liquid waste management at the Department of Energy’s Savannah River Site earned $28.57 million of a potential $30.28 million for its latest fee period. That represents better than 94% of the possible fee, according to the DOE performance scorecard. During the period from June 1, 2018, through March 31 […]

An unidentified Energy Department nuclear facility needs to remedy shortcomings in its cybersecurity program, according to DOE’s Office of Inspector General. “Furthermore, we found that limited cybersecurity resources at the site impacted the ability of the site to ensure that all security controls were fully implemented,” the Energy Department IG said in the memo dated […]

Executives from Fluor, one of the larger contractors in the Energy Department’s nuclear weapons complex, are scheduled to discuss second-quarter earnings at 5:30 p.m. Eastern time Thursday. The financial numbers for the quarter ending June 30 will be posted after the market closes on Thursday. The call with Wall Street analysts will be webcast. Fluor […]

Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Andrew Wheeler is expected to rule in August on a dispute over waste discharge standards at the Energy Department’s Oak Ridge Site in Tennessee. Mary Walker, administrator for EPA Region 4, said in March the new on-site waste landfill planned at Oak Ridge lacks adequate protections against discharges of contaminated wastewater […]

In a federal discrimination lawsuit seeking $3.5 million, an African-American woman formerly employed by the Savannah River Site’s security contractor says she was terminated for accidentally leaving her gun in a bathroom, while a white employee kept her job after making the same error. In the complaint, filed Monday in U.S. District Court for South […]

An air tunnel at a degrading Savannah River Site nuclear materials processing facility should be able to withstand an earthquake, according to a detailed analysis for the Department of Energy, despite concerns raised two years ago by a federal safety board. Savannah River Nuclear Solutions (SRNS), management and operations contractor for the 310-square-mile DOE facility […]

The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission on Monday opened a public comment period on a new finding that most Greater-Than-Class C (GTCC) low-level radioactive waste could be disposed of via near-surface facilities. Stakeholders have until Sept. 20 to submit comments on the draft regulatory basis issued last week by NRC staff, according to a filing in […]

Three industry sources said recently Fluor’s government services group, if not the entire company, could be an acquisition target for another player in the nuclear cleanup industry, Jacobs Engineering. Such a deal could further consolidate Jacobs’ hold on the business of environmental remediation for the U.S. Department of Energy, following its December 2017 purchase of […]

Conclusions drawn by Northern Arizona University (NAU) researchers and the Department of Energy provide opposing views of whether a middle school near the Portsmouth Site in Ohio is safe for students to attend this fall. Local officials, citing analysis by NAU, said Thursday dust samples taken over Memorial Day weekend at Zahn’s Corner Middle School […]

The Donald Trump administration could already be planning for a new permanent head for the Department of Energy’s nuclear cleanup office. While Energy Department senior adviser William (Ike) White is apt to stay in charge of the Office of Environmental Management for a number months, names of potential successors to Assistant Secretary for Environmental Management Anne […]

The Department of Energy on Monday issued a request for proposals for the next Nevada Environmental Program Services contract, which could be worth up to $350 million over 10 years. Navarro Research and Engineering holds the current $80 million contract, which began in March 2015 and runs through January 2020. The RFP for the indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity […]

The U.S. Department of Energy and the Washington state Department of Ecology are taking public comments through Sept. 16 on a proposed change to the dangerous waste permit for the Hanford Site. If approved, the state permit modification would allow DOE to connect a backup waste transfer line from the Waste Treatment and Immobilization Plant’s […]

The House of Representatives on Thursday passed a two-year, $2.7 trillion budget agreement on a 284-149 vote, a move that would allow the federal government to keep borrowing money. The new federal budget caps deal provides $2.5 billion more in base defense spending than the 2020 budget the House of Representatives has already approved. The […]

The Sheep Fire at the Energy Department’s Idaho National Laboratory (INL) is contained enough to allow the emergency response to be scaled back, officials said Thursday afternoon. Firefighting crews will continue to keep an eye on the blaze there are no remaining hot spots, according to an update posted on the INL website. Fire officials expect […]

City officials from Oak Ridge, Tenn., want to meet with Energy Department representatives before the federal agency issues a draft record of decision in August for a new 2.2-million-cubic yard landfill planned for the Oak Ridge Site. City Manager Mark Watson made the request in a July 12 letter to Jay Mullis, manager of DOE’s […]