Department of Energy

The Energy Department’s Office of Environmental Management (EM) last month promoted Betsy Connell to associate principal deputy assistant secretary for the Office of Regulatory and Policy Affairs, deleting the “acting” from her title. Connell has been running the office on an interim basis since November. She took over for Mark Gilbertson, who became principal deputy […]

PHOENIX, Ariz. — The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission in the next couple months should issue a draft regulatory basis for a potential rulemaking on disposal of Greater-Than-Class C low-level radioactive waste, a senior official said Monday. “That’s probably our No. 1 priority right now,” given stakeholder interest on the matter, according to John Tappert, director […]

Lawmakers from Nevada this week reintroduced two pieces of legislation intended to make it much more difficult, if not outright impossible, for the federal government to build a nuclear waste repository in their state. The bills dropped just days before the White House is due to roll out its budget request for fiscal 2020. Issue […]

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 […]

The Energy Department Office of Environmental Management should focus more on “breakthrough technologies” in nuclear cleanup operations, 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) should […]

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 […]

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 Energy Department 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 contracts […]

PHOENIX, Ariz. — With the Energy Department’s nuclear cleanup office implementing its end-state contracting model, don’t expect many traditional management and operations contracts in the future. “M&Os are probably going to be a thing of the past,” Assistant Energy Secretary for Environmental Management Anne Marie White said on the sidelines of the 2019 Waste Management […]

Members of Nevada’s delegation to Congress on Tuesday reintroduced legislation that would require the Department of Energy to obtain consent from state, local, and tribal governments before building a nuclear waste repository in a given state. The lawmakers left no doubt that their primary intent is to prevent DOE from building the repository at Yucca […]

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. […]

Brian Stickney as of this week is the new assistant manager for safety and environment for the Department of Energy Richland Operations Office at the Hanford Site in Washington state. Stickney had been the deputy assistant manager for safety and environment since August 2016 and served as manager in an acting capacity for eight months, […]

PHOENIX, Ariz. — The head of the Energy Department’s Office of Environmental Management said Monday she intends for the new end-state contracting approach to halt “ever-extending site closure dates” for cleanup of Cold War-era nuclear sites. The Energy Department cannot “simply keep treading water,” but must drive these sites toward completion, Assistant Secretary of Energy […]

The Energy Department’s Office of Environmental Management (EM) last month promoted Betsy Connell to associate principal deputy assistant secretary for the Office of Regulatory and Policy Affairs, deleting the “acting” from her title. Connell has been running the office on an interim basis since November. She took over for Mark Gilbertson, who became principal deputy […]

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 mayor of Piketon, Ohio, says February flooding in the area reinforces his point that the Department of Energy should not build the planned On-Site Disposal Cell for waste from ongoing cleanup at the Portsmouth Site. Heavy rains forced the Pike County Board of Commissioners to declare a state of emergency Feb. 11 due to […]

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 […]

Retirees of former Hanford Site contractor Lockheed Martin Services Inc. have petitioned the full U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit to hear their appeal of a U.S. Court of Federal Claims decision in a class action lawsuit against the Department of Energy. In early February, a three-judge panel of the appeals court upheld […]

The U.S. Department of Energy could do a better job of monitoring how its contractors spend billions of dollars in federal money, the Government Accountability Office said Tuesday. A new GAO report recommends DOE entities, including the Office of Environmental Management and the semiautonomous National Nuclear Security Administration, put more emphasis on how management and […]

The Department of Energy on Tuesday formally canceled the liquid waste management procurement for the Savannah River Site in South Carolina, citing “significant changes” to requirements at the facility and its own acquisition strategy. That is the crux of a one-page letter sent to the three bidders on what could have amounted to a decade-long […]

The latest procurement schedule from the Energy Department’s Office of Environmental Management indicates draft requests for proposals for major work at the Oak Ridge Site in Tennessee and the West Valley Demonstration Project in New York could be issued this spring. A draft RFP for a new Idaho Cleanup Project contract could go out this […]

A Department of Energy official acknowledged on Feb. 21 that the Idaho National Laboratory missed its Dec. 31, 2018, deadline to move defense-related transuranic waste to the federal disposal facility in New Mexico. Under a 1995 settlement between DOE, Idaho, and the U.S. Navy over in-state nuclear waste storage, the Energy Department was supposed to […]

Department of Energy contractor CH2M HILL BWXT West Valley (CHBWV) has removed virtually all the waste generated from demolition of the vitrification plant at the West Valley Demonstration Project in New York state. About 460 containers of debris have been sent from the site at the town of Ashford to off-site facilities, the Energy Department […]

Todd Wright, who retired last August as vice president and general manager of AECOM’s Aiken, S.C.-based nuclear and environment business, has received South Carolina’s highest civilian award. South Carolina Gov. Henry McMaster (R) formally inducted Wright into the Order of the Palmetto during a ceremony in the governor’s office last week. The award is given […]

The U.S. Department of Energy will likely need an updated strategy sooner than anticipated for temporary storage of treated radioactive liquid waste at the Savannah River Site in South Carolina, according to the DOE Inspector General’s Office. The department’s Office of Environmental Management (EM) did not properly assess the reliability of its strategy to store […]

While the Energy Communities Alliance (ECA) hopes the Department of Energy will readjust its classification of high-level radioactive waste, it has not forgotten the federal agency still owes Congress a report on the issue. The ECA asked the House and Senate Armed Services committees on Tuesday to “attempt to require” compliance with a provision of the […]

BWX Technologies, of Lynchburg, Va., said Monday it capped 2018 with better than 50-percent earnings growth after clinching more nuclear naval, environmental cleanup, and uranium downblending work from the Department of Energy. Company-wide net earnings came in at over $225 million in 2018, up more than 50 percent from just under $150 million in 2017. […]

The management and operations contractor for the Department of Energy’s Savannah River Site could be headed to trial near the end of the year over a federal negligence lawsuit filed in November by a site employee. A scheduling order filed Monday in U.S. District Court for South Carolina outlines tasks that must be completed by […]

By John Stang A bill that would ease the acceptance and storage of depleted uranium in Utah now awaits signature from Gov. Gary Herbert (R). But so far, Herbert has not indicated whether he will sign it or reject the legislation — or when that decision would be made. The governor has until March 11 to […]

By John Stang A federal judge ordered the U.S. government to pay more than $103 million to the owners of three retired nuclear power plants for failing to meet its legal mandate to remove spent nuclear fuel from the properties. U.S. Court of Federal Claims Senior Judge Nancy Firestone ruled on Feb. 21 that the […]