Department of Energy

WASHINGTON — While more than three months have passed since the public comment period closed, the Energy Communities Alliance (ECA) is “trying to keep this conversation going” on reinterpreting what material should be deemed high-level radioactive waste (HLW) by the Department of Energy. That was the word Wednesday from the ECA’s director of nuclear energy […]

Assistant Energy Secretary for Environmental Management Anne Marie White says 90% of remediation at the East Tennessee Technology Park at the Oak Ridge Site in Tennessee should be finished in the upcoming federal budget year. The ETTP site enriched uranium for the U.S. nuclear deterrent, and later for commercial nuclear power plants, from 1945 through […]

Maryland-based Centrus Energy will hold its annual stockholders online meeting at 10 a.m. ET on June 6. “You will be able to participate in the meeting, vote, and submit questions during the meeting by visiting www.virtualshareholdermeeting.com/LEU2019,” and entering a control number mailed to shareholders, Centrus President and CEO Daniel Poneman and Board Chairman Mikel Williams […]

WASHINGTON — While more than three months have passed since the public comment period closed, the Energy Communities Alliance (ECA) is “trying to keep this conversation going” on reinterpreting what material should be deemed high-level radioactive waste (HLW) by the Department of Energy. That was the word Wednesday from the ECA’s director of nuclear energy […]

The winner of the anticipated 10-year, $1 billion paramilitary security contract at the Energy Department’s Savannah River Site in South Carolina must pay for much of its own ammunition and all the dog food. That is among the tidbits in in a third round of questions and answers posted Wednesday on the DOE procurement website. […]

The winner of the anticipated 10-year, $1 billion paramilitary security contract at the Energy Department’s Savannah River Site in South Carolina must pay for much of its own ammunition and all the dog food. That is among the tidbits in in a third round of questions and answers posted Wednesday on the DOE procurement website. […]

WASHINGTON — While more than three months passed since the public comment period closed, the Energy Communities Alliance (ECA) is “trying to keep this conversation going” on reinterpreting what material should be deemed high-level radioactive waste (HLW) by the Department of Energy. That was the word Wednesday from the ECA’s director of nuclear energy policy, […]

Cleanup plans for the Hanford Site in Washington state, along with remediation milestones established under the Tri-Party Agreement, are in “serious jeopardy,” the Hanford Advisory Board said Wednesday in its annual budget advice letter to the Department of Energy. “The HAB views the combined lack of compliant budget appropriations, the unanticipated problems at Hanford, and […]

Used nuclear fuel storage specialist NAC International said this week it had secured a certificate of compliance from the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission for its MAGNATRAN transport cask. The April 5 licensing approval enables the Georgia company to use the cask for transport of its MAGNASTOR spent fuel dry-storage canisters. “Although there are no existing […]

WASHINGTON — The Department of Energy locked Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board (DNFSB) staff out of meetings at at least one defense nuclear site, a member of the independent federal nuclear health-and-safety watchdog said here Tuesday. At a public meeting, board member Joyce Connery said DNFSB staff at a site she did not identify were denied […]

By the end of April, the state of Idaho will have assessed $5.86 million in total penalties against the Department of Energy for failure to start operating the Integrated Waste Treatment Unit (IWTU) at the Idaho National Laboratory years ago. But DOE and contractor Fluor Idaho are doing their third extended test run of the […]

The Department of Energy on Tuesday gave Bechtel National a rating of “satisfactory,” and 47.9% of the maximum performance fee available for 2018, for its work on the Waste Treatment Plant at the Hanford Site in Washington state. That performance evaluation was good for $3.77 million out of a total available $7.87 million in the […]

A key figure in multiple federal lawsuits involving weapon-usable plutonium moved last year to the Nevada National Security Site from the Savannah River Site in South carolina has retired from the Department of Energy, the agency confirmed Tuesday. Henry Allen Gunter left DOE after a long federal career, a spokesperson for DOE’s Environmental Management Office […]

The Energy Department’s Office of Environmental Management is picking up North Wind-led Portsmouth Mission Alliance’s (PMA) 22-month contract option for infrastructure support services at the Portsmouth Site in Ohio. The department on Tuesday announced the extension, valued at an estimated $67 million, one day before the three-year base contract with the North Wind-Swift & Staley […]

Maryland-based Centrus Energy will hold its annual stockholders online meeting at 10 a.m. ET on June 6. “You will be able to participate in the meeting, vote, and submit questions during the meeting by visiting www.virtualshareholdermeeting.com/LEU2019,” and entering a control number mailed to shareholders, Centrus President and CEO Daniel Poneman and Board Chairman Mikel Williams […]

The Department of Energy says it is on schedule to award three prime contracts at the Hanford Site in Washington state in late July and August. “We’re actively in the source selection process now for all of the major contracts at the site other than Bechtel, (which) as you know has a completion contract,” Brian […]

An advocacy group has asked the New Mexico Environment Department to hold public meetings soon on the Energy Department’s plan to build a new underground multi-use shaft into the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant near Carlsbad, N.M. In an April 15 letter to the state agency, Southwest Research and Information Center Administrator Don Hancock said the […]

Registration is open for the annual Bridging Partnerships Small Business Symposium, scheduled for May 15-16 near the Department of Energy’s Hanford Site in Eastern Washington state. The event starts with an optional bus tour of Hanford the morning of May 15. On May 16, talks at the Three Rivers Convention Center in Kennewick will address […]

With the addition of Darcey Bolin as her chief of staff, Assistant Energy Secretary for Environmental Management Anne Marie White filled one of the few remaining openings in her organizational brain trust. Now five of the top six management posts under White are filled with permanent rather than “acting” officials, according to the April 1 […]

The Department of Energy communication functions at the Hanford Site in Washington state have been combined into a single office as the Office of River Protection and Richland Operations Office look for additional opportunities to collaborate more effectively. In February, Brian Vance was named to head both DOE Hanford offices, although they will continue to […]

Assistant Energy Secretary for Environmental Management Anne Marie White says 90% of remediation at the East Tennessee Technology Park at the Oak Ridge Site in Tennessee should be finished in the upcoming federal budget year. The ETTP site enriched uranium for the U.S. nuclear deterrent, and later for commercial nuclear power plants, from 1945 through […]

The Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) last recertification of the Energy Department’s Waste Isolation Pilot Plant in New Mexico lasted more than three years. The protracted review followed the February 2014 underground radiological accident at the DOE transuranic waste disposal site near Carlsbad, N.M., according to April 16 slide presentation by EPA supervisory environmental scientist Thomas […]

The Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) expects in October to solicit bids for design and construction of a facility to treat liquid transuranic waste generated by future production of fissile nuclear-weapon cores, called plutonium pits, according to a recent procurement note. Triad National Security, which since November has managed the New Mexico facility for the National Nuclear […]

The National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) this week revealed new details about its proposed dilute-and-dispose plan to eliminate 34 metric tons of weapon-usable plutonium — including that the agency is close to beginning a yearlong environmental review of its new approach. The agency will release its draft dilute-and-dispose supplemental environmental impact statement “in the very […]

A two-time employee at CH2M is the new chief of staff for Energy Department Assistant Secretary for Environmental Management Anne Marie White. Darcey Bolin took the job in March, according to her LinkedIn profile and a new organizational chart posted April 1 on the Office of Environmental Management website. She has been with the Energy […]

The Department of Energy is seeking another five-year certification from the Environmental Protection Agency for its Waste Isolation Pilot Plant near Carlsbad, N.M. The WIPP Land Withdrawal Act requires EPA recertification every five years to ensure the site’s compliance with federal radioactive waste disposal requirements, according to an executive summary of the application. The package […]

Michael Graham, a principal vice president at Bechtel and general manager of its environmental, nuclear, security and environmental business line, is retiring this month. “After a distinguished, 40-year career, 23 of them with Bechtel, Michael Graham is retiring,” company spokesman Fred deSousa said by email Tuesday. “Michael has held senior environmental leadership roles at many […]

Watchers of the Department of Energy’s defense nuclear waste and weapons budgets will endure two more weeks of added uncertainty about those programs after Congress blew town for an extended spring break without making progress on a deal to avert automatic spending cuts that will kick in on Oct. 1. The House did make an […]

The newly reopened Radioactive Assay Nondestructive Testing (RANT) facility at the Energy Department’s Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico has made its first shipment of transuranic material to the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant in nearly five years. Prior to last week, there had been no TRU waste loading at the facility since May 2014. […]

The Idaho Department of Environmental Quality is reviewing Fluor Idaho’s plan to restart sludge waste repackaging at the site where four drums of radioactive waste overheated and blew off their lids at the Energy Department’s Idaho National Laboratory a year ago. The state agency received formal submittal of the corrective action plan April 11, the […]