Department of Energy

The former management and operations contractor at the Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico failed to fully overcome setbacks in development of a new radioactive waste facility at the site, according to the Energy Department. In a March 1 report, DOE’s Office of Inspector General cited problems Los Alamos National Security faced with an […]

Local community leaders are urging the Washington state Department of Ecology to expedite completing an environmental impact statement (EIS) and a revised permit for Perma-Fix Northwest in Richland, Wash., near the Hanford Site. The Department of Ecology said at a public meeting Wednesday in Richland on the scope of the EIS that the permit application […]

The Department of Energy does not know yet what action it will take on its proposed reinterpretation of the definition of high-level radioactive waste (HLW), Secretary for Environmental Management Anne Marie White said last week. “We don’t have a real distinct schedule on that. Again, we are trying to take our time and be deliberative,” […]

A case could be made for arranging the transport and temporary storage of U.S. commercial spent nuclear reactor fuel without involving the Department of Energy, according to a senior representative for the nuclear industry trade group. However, key stakeholders aren’t tipping their hands yet regarding their positions on such an approach to resolving the decades-old […]

Local community leaders are urging the Washington state Department of Ecology to expedite completing an environmental impact statement (EIS) and a revised permit for Perma-Fix Northwest in Richland, Wash., near the Hanford Site. The Department of Ecology said at a public meeting Wednesday in Richland on the scope of the EIS that the permit application […]

The Trump administration this week again proposed to fund resumption of licensing for the long-planned, long-delayed Yucca Mountain nuclear waste repository in Nevada. The state’s congressional delegation immediately pushed back against the latest White House budget plan, reminding President Donald Trump that he suggested last fall he would oppose the disposal facility. The Department of […]

The Department of Energy pushed back against a new Government Accountability Office (GAO) recommendation that local agency field offices investigate the ownership of subcontractors on nuclear sites for potential conflicts of interest. Local DOE officials should “independently review subcontractor ownership information as part of DOE consent reviews and assess potential conflicts of interest to ensure […]

The Energy Department and its contractors expect demolition of the X-326 Process Building at the Portsmouth Site in Ohio to begin in July 2020, federal managers said March 7 at the Waste Management Symposia in Phoenix, Ariz. Most deactivation work has been completed at the building built in the 1950s to enrich uranium, first for […]

Las Vegas-based Energy Department subcontractor Longenecker & Associates this week hired a former regulator with the Washington state Department of Ecology. The newly-hired associate, Ron Skinnarland, will work out of Richland, Wash., and report to Longenecker Senior Vice President for Operations Christine Gelles. He joins the company’s regulatory team, which assists with compliance issues on […]

Operations were expected to resume today at the Energy Department’s Waste Isolation Pilot Plant in New Mexico after more than a day of high winds that knocked out power and stranded some workers in an elevator for about three hours. The Carlsbad Current-Argus reported Wednesday 36 miners were stuck in an elevator from roughly 7 […]

The Energy Department will keep the current waste management vendor at the Savannah River Site in South Carolina on the job for an additional 18 months, a move that comes about two weeks after it canceled plans for a new decade-long contract. In a post on a federal procurement website, DOE said Monday it plans […]

Prospective contractors have peppered the Energy Department with questions about two requests for proposals issued in February for the Hanford Site in Washington state. The DOE Office of Environmental Management recently posted 75 questions raised by the contractor community about the potential 10-year, $13 billion Tank Closure Contract. The cleanup office posted another 28 questions […]

The former management and operations contractor at the Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico failed to fully overcome setbacks in development of a new radioactive waste facility at the site, according to the Energy Department. In a March 1 report, DOE’s Office of Inspector General cited problems Los Alamos National Security faced with an […]

The Washington state Department of Ecology has scheduled a meeting for Wednesday as part of its preparation of a supplemental environmental impact statement for Perma-Fix Northwest in the city of Richland, near the Department of Energy’s the Hanford Site. Richland in 1998 conducted the last environmental impact statement (EIS) prepared for the plant, which treats […]

The Energy Department’s Carlsbad Field Office (CBFO) is talking with officials in Washington state about long-term plans for resuming shipments of transuranic waste from the Hanford Site to the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant in New Mexico. It has been eight years since DOE sent waste from the former plutonium production complex to the underground disposal […]

The Trump administration is again proposing to fund resumption of licensing for the long-planned, long-delayed Yucca Mountain nuclear waste repository in Nevada. The Department of Energy and Nuclear Regulatory Commission, respectively the applicant and adjudicator for the license, together requested just over $154 million for the 2020 federal fiscal year. That is down by more […]

The Donald Trump administration has proposed a $6.5 billion budget for the Energy Department’s Office of Environmental Management in fiscal 2020, slightly less than the $6.6 billion requested last year but 11 percent below the $7.2 billion eventually enacted by Congress. In a top-line budget plan issued Monday, senior DOE officials said the request fulfills […]

Columbia, S.C.-based Energy Department subcontractor AVANTech recently hired Mark Ping as its senior vice president of business development for utility services. Ping’s nuclear career spans more than 35 years and includes experience in radioactive water treatment, wet waste processing, and disposal, the company said in a Feb. 19 press release. The company is a provider […]

For the second year in a row, the House of Representatives has approved legislation to reauthorize the West Valley Demonstration Project in New York. The bill, introduced by Rep. Tom Reed (R-N.Y.) and passed by voice vote March 5, is identical to the measure passed in September before Democrats retook control of the House The […]

The U.S. Department of Justice has detailed its complaints about a new Washington state law that makes it easier for Hanford Site personnel to have their workers’ compensation claims approved. The Justice Department filed a motion for summary judgment late on March 1 in U.S. District Court for Eastern Washington state, asking that the court […]

The Ohio Environmental Protection Agency in recent weeks approved the final design for a new On-Site Disposal Cell at the Portsmouth Site in Ohio. The Department of Energy received the approval within the past month or so, Joel Bradburne, deputy manager for DOE’s Portsmouth/Paducah Project Office, said Thursday on the sidelines of the Waste Management […]

The Energy Department on Wednesday issued a final request for proposals for a potential $1 billion, 10-year paramilitary security services contract at the Savannah River Site in South Carolina. The current $990 million contract, held by Centerra-SRS, started in October 2009 and runs through Oct. 7. The latest DOE procurement schedule says the department could […]

PHOENIX, Ariz. – While the Department of Energy and its nuclear cleanup contractors acknowledge they are learning on the job, both sides Wednesday stressed the urgency of meeting deadlines for the first set of solicitations issued under the agency’s overhauled approach to procurement. Requests for proposals are due March 18 for two potential 10-year, multibillion-dollar […]

Operations at a key Savannah River Site waste facility are expected to increase later this year, in unison with the startup of the Salt Waste Processing Facility (SWPF) at the Department of Energy facility in South Carolina. Staffing increases are also expected at the SRS Saltstone Production Facility, which mixes treated salt waste with a cement […]

The Energy Department Office of Environmental Management should focus more on “breakthrough technologies” in nuclear cleanup operations of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine said this week. Such technologies could cut the time needed for environmental remediation jobs, the National Academies said in a report Monday. The DOE Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy (ARPA-E) […]

Registration opens at 9 a.m. March 19 for all of the Department of Energy’s 2019 environmental cleanup tours of the Hanford Site in Washington state. Twenty tours will be offered this year, with all bus seats expected to be claimed in a matter of hours. Registration is only available via the Hanford.gov website. However, a […]

The Department of Energy’s nuclear cleanup office should reconsider what work is deemed “operations” as opposed to “capital asset projects,” the Government Accountability Office said Tuesday. Some operations, such as treatment and storage of radioactive liquid tank waste, should be subject to the higher degree of scrutiny applied to capital projects, the government watchdog said. […]

Department of Energy contractor Fluor Idaho intends in April to resume sludge repackaging at an Idaho National Laboratory fabric filter building where four drums of radioactive waste overheated and ejected their lids about one year earlier. The company informed the Idaho Department of Environmental Quality of its plans on Feb. 28 in a monthly report […]

PHOENIX, Ariz. — Assistant Energy Secretary for Environmental Management Anne Marie White said this week she wishes her office had moved sooner to cancel the procurement for a decade-long liquid waste management contract at the Savannah River Site in South Carolina. As with many government decisions, this one “could have been more timely,” White said in […]

While it has taken initial steps, the U.S. Department of Energy is not collecting the information it needs to attack its $377 billion in environmental liability, the Government Accountability Office (GAO) said Wednesday. Liabilities at the Energy Department, including those of the Office of Environmental Management and the semiautonomous National Nuclear Security Administration, are examined […]