Department of Energy

Rep. Dan Newhouse (R-Wash.), whose congressional district includes the Department of Energy’s Hanford Site near Richland, Wash., will keep a seat on the House Appropriations energy and water development subcommittee. The same goes for Rep. Chuck Fleischmann (R-Tenn.), whose district includes the Oak Ridge Site and the Y-12 National Security Complex, in Tennessee. The panel […]

The last big segment of the Southwest Experimental Fast-Oxide Reactor (SEFOR) has been uprooted from its Arkansas home and shipped to the Nevada Nuclear Security Site for disposal. The reactor vessel and remaining components from the 20-megawatt, sodium-cooled test reactor arrived at the NNSS on Dec. 13, according to a January report to the Department […]

The Energy Department has awarded a 10-month, $4.8 million task order to Tennessee-based Aerostar Perma-Fix TRU Services for test bed initiative (TBI) work at the Hanford Site in Washington state. The DOE Office of Environmental Management announced the cost-plus-fixed-fee task order under an indefinite delivery/indefinite quantity (IDIQ) contract that involves off-site treatment and disposal of […]

Hanford Site cleanup contractor CH2M Hill Plateau Remediation Co. received just 80 percent of its available fee for fiscal 2018, after the Department of Energy called it out for the second year in a row over its performance at the Plutonium Finishing Plant demolition. CH2M is responsible for environmental remediation in Hanford’s Central Plateau, plus […]

While deactivation of the Main Plant Process Building at the West Valley Demonstration Project in New York is nearly finished, demolition will be done under a successor to the current site cleanup contract held by CH2M HILL BWXT West Valley (CHBWV). The demolition was previously expected to start under the current CHBWV contract. The news […]

The Department of Energy has initiated a major addition to the liquid waste mission at the Department of Savannah River Site in South Carolina, starting with a nine-month trial run. Officials at the 310-square-mile facility near Aiken, S.C., said the tank closure cesium removal (TCCR) mission should process hundreds of thousands of gallons of salt waste […]

Nuclear Waste Partnership, the Energy Department’s prime contractor for the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) near Carlsbad, N.M., is ready to start measuring underground waste volume through a new method recently approved by the state. Effective Jan. 20, the contractor will no longer calculate waste, under the 1992 WIPP Land Disposal Act, based on the […]

The Department of Energy has determined that its current operating plans for the Waste Treatment Plant at the Hanford Site do not require a supplement to a comprehensive 2012 supplemental environmental impact statement (EIS) on radioactive tank waste at the Washington state cleanup complex. The agency concluded in a new analysis that altered plans for […]

The incumbent management and operations contractor and the vendor in charge of liquid waste at the Energy Department’s Savannah River Site in South Carolina both received at least 90 percent of their potential fee in new performance evaluations. Fluor-led site prime Savannah River Nuclear Solutions (SRNS) and AECOM-led Savannah River Remediation both received “excellent” overall […]

Governors from 22 western states and territories last week called on the new Congress to advance a solution to the long impasse over disposal of U.S. radioactive waste. Radioactive waste management was among the many issues for state and federal cooperation included in the Western Governors’ Association’s priorities list, mailed Jan. 14 to the leaders […]

ALEXANDRIA, Va. — The Trump administration is likely in its fiscal 2020 federal budget plan to again seek funding for licensing the radioactive waste repository at Yucca Mountain in Nevada, nuclear industry representatives said here Tuesday. Whether Congress will appropriate any money remains in question. “I think the budget request for the next fiscal year […]

ALEXANDRIA, Va. — The White House has received a list of candidates for positions on the federal Nuclear Waste Technical Review Board (NWTRB), but there was no word this week on when they might be appointed. Nine of the current 10 members of the independent advisory agency are serving past the expiration of their terms […]

The Energy Department has questioned the way Fluor Idaho followed up on a summer 2018 glove box accident in which a worker suffered a puncture wound at the Idaho National Laboratory’s Advanced Mixed Waste Treatment Project (AMWTP). The DOE Office of Enterprise Assessments (EA) said the company’s root cause analysis found “management failed to recognize […]

The Department of Energy has issued Waste Control Specialists (WCS) a “request for task proposal” for long-term storage and management of elemental mercury. In a Jan. 17 notice, DOE’s Environmental Management Consolidated Business Center said the Dallas-based operator of a waste disposal complex in West Texas is the only vendor capable of providing the required, […]

The Department of Energy schedule for demolition of the Plutonium Finishing Plant at the Hanford Site in Washington state has slipped again. The long-retired plant could be down to slab on grade by mid-September, according to the latest projection. In December, Hanford officials said staff turnover had slowed work but that as employees become familiar […]

Despite delays in startup, the Savannah River Site’s $2.3 billion Salt Waste Processing Facility (SWPF) is meeting all of its safety and functionality requirements, with no suggested areas of improvement, according to a new review from the U.S. Department of Energy. The DOE Office of Enterprise Assessments (EA) on Tuesday released five reports on safety […]

Mission Support Alliance (MSA) has been awarded its largest fee since it began providing site-wide services at the Department of Energy’s Hanford Site in 2009. The DOE scorecard for fiscal 2018, released Thursday, showed Mission Support Alliance took home almost $21 million of the potential $22.2 million for its work at the DOE cleanup site […]

The cleanup contractor for the Department of Energy’s Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico has extended the deadline for proposals from subcontractors interested in providing off-site environmental analysis. In an updated notice posted Jan. 22 on FedBizOpps.gov, Newport News Nuclear BWXT-Los Alamos (N3B) said the deadline had been pushed back from Jan. 21 to […]

The Department of Energy last week completed cleanup of the 618-10 Burial Ground, one of the most hazardous radioactive waste dumps in the Columbia River Corridor at the Hanford Site in Washington state. The last step involved replanting vegetation across about 120 acres. “It’s nice to see the area match the surrounding terrain and get […]

The U.S. Energy Department on Jan. 17 issued an updated draft request for proposals for the Hanford Site Central Plateau Cleanup Contract, which serves as a model for the agency’s end-state procurement approach for environmental remediation. The DOE Office of Environmental Management issued the revision to better align the document with a special notice issued […]

The Energy Department Office of Environmental Management on Jan. 18 released the key sections of a draft request for proposals (RFP) for the next Tank Closure Contract at the Hanford Site in Washington state. In particular, the agency is looking for industry feedback on its master indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity (IDIQ) contract option, which it has suggested for […]

New Mexico-based Strategic Management Solutions is expected to receive a contract extension of up to nine months to provide technical support for conversion of depleted uranium hexafluoride (DUF6) at the Energy Department’s Portsmouth Site in Ohio and Paducah Site in Kentucky. The Energy Department Portsmouth/Paducah Project Office (PPPO) in Lexington, Ky., announced the prospective sole-source […]

Fluor Idaho has told local officials in eastern Idaho it could in June or July start paring the workforce for the Advanced Mixed Waste Treatment Project (AMWTP) at the Department of Energy’s Idaho National Laboratory. Roughly 200 workers could be let go at that point at the facility, which employs about 650 people, Dana Kirkham, […]

The cleanup contractor for the Department of Energy’s Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico has extended the deadline for proposals from subcontractors interested in providing off-site environmental analysis. In an updated notice posted Jan. 22 on FedBizOpps.gov, Newport News Nuclear BWXT-Los Alamos (N3B) said the deadline had been pushed back from Jan. 21 to […]

Despite delays in startup, the Savannah River Site’s $2.3 billion Salt Waste Processing Facility (SWPF) is meeting all of its safety and functionality requirements, with no suggested areas of improvement, according to a new review from the U.S. Department of Energy. The DOE Office of Enterprise Assessments (EA) on Tuesday released five reports on safety […]

The Energy Department Office of Environmental Management on Friday released the key sections of a draft request for proposals (RFP) for the next Tank Closure Contract at the Hanford Site in Washington state. In particular, the agency is looking for industry feedback on its master indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity (IDIQ) contract option, which it has suggested for the […]

The U.S. Energy Department has not selected Waste Control Specialists in Texas to provide long-term storage of elemental mercury, as indicated in a Wednesday article in Weapons Complex Morning Briefing. While DOE has identified WCS as the sole capable source, no selection will be made until a record of decision is issued.

ALEXANDRIA, Va. — Nearly all of the members of the federal Nuclear Waste Technical Review Board (NWTRB) are serving on expired terms, and it was unclear this week when the situation might be resolved. Nine of the current 10 members remain on the scientific advisory board past the end of their terms and one spot is […]

The Department of Energy has issued Waste Control Specialists (WCS) a “request for task proposal” for long-term storage and management of elemental mercury. In a Jan. 17 notice, DOE’s Environmental Management Consolidated Business Center said the Dallas-based operator of a waste disposal complex in West Texas is the only vendor capable of providing the required, […]

New Mexico-based Strategic Management Solutions is expected to receive a contract extension of up to nine months to provide technical support for conversion of depleted uranium hexafluoride (DUF6) at the Energy Department’s Portsmouth Site in Ohio and Paducah Site in Kentucky. The Energy Department Portsmouth/Paducah Project Office (PPPO) in Lexington, Ky., announced the prospective sole-source […]