Department of Energy

Los Angeles-based AECOM has promoted longtime manager Ron Hahn to the newly created job of executive vice president of business development for the company’s Management Services group. Hahn, who most recently served as executive vice president for critical infrastructure protection strategies, is now responsible for generating growth in AECOM’s federal government business line, including the […]

Oral arguments scheduled later this month on petitions for interventions and hearings in the license application for a planned spent nuclear fuel storage facility in southeastern New Mexico will not be livestreamed, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission board adjudicating the requests ruled. Eighteen entities have claimed standing to intervene in Holtec International’s request for a 40-year […]

The 115th Congress ended Thursday without a Senate vote on confirmation of the White House nominee for assistant energy secretary for nuclear energy. That means Rita Baranwal would have to again be nominated and go through the confirmation process if she is to assume leadership of the Department of Energy’s nuclear power and waste missions. […]

Los Angeles-based AECOM has promoted longtime manager Ron Hahn to the newly created job of executive vice president of business development for the company’s Management Services group. Hahn, who most recently served as executive vice president for critical infrastructure protection strategies, is now responsible for generating growth in AECOM’s federal government business line, including the […]

The Energy Department’s Office of Environmental Management announced Monday it would split the previously single Tank Waste Cleanup Contract at the Hanford Site in Washington state into two solicitations. Priority will be given to a contract emphasizing closure of radioactive-waste storage tanks and “feed delivery” to the Waste Treatment Plant that Bechtel is building at […]

New Mexico Environment Department Secretary Butch Tongate has allowed the U.S. Energy Department to change the way it counts material volume at the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) near Carlsbad so vacant spaces between container drums are no longer recorded as waste. Tongate took the position favored by DOE and its prime contractor for WIPP, […]

The Energy Department has awarded a potential seven-year, $152 million contract for occupational medical services at the Hanford Site in Washington state to incumbent vendor HPM Corp. of Kennewick, Wash. The contract includes a three-year base, followed by a pair of two-year option periods, DOE said in a Monday press release. The release did not […]

Contractor Fluor-BWXT Portsmouth (FBP) said Monday it plans a voluntary separation program for up to 75 of its estimated 1,500 employees at the Energy Department’s Portsmouth Site in Ohio. The voluntary separation package is being offered to a mix of union and salaried workers, said Fluor-BWXT spokesman Jack Williams. Workers who exercise this option will […]

A trio of contractors enjoyed significant fees in their latest performance scorecards from the Department of Energy. The AECOM-led URS-CH2M Oak Ridge (UCOR) earned 96 percent of its potential fee from April 1 through Sept. 30 of this year for its remediation at the Oak Ridge Site in Tennessee. AECOM-led Washington River Protection Solutions (WRPS) […]

The Energy Department on Tuesday issued its final environmental impact statement (EIS) for tearing down buildings and cleaning up soil and groundwater on its portion of the 2,850-acre Santa Susana Field Laboratory (SSFL) in Ventura County, Calif. The EIS for Area IV and the Northern Buffer Zone is one of the last steps prior to […]

The Energy Department has chosen agency veteran Laura Wilkerson as deputy manager at the Oak Ridge Office of Environmental Management (OREM) in Tennessee. Wilkerson has been at DOE for 25 years and was previously director of OREM’s Planning and Execution Division, which helps coordinate remediation at the East Tennessee Technology Park, the Y-12 National Security […]

The federal government’s nuclear health-and-safety watchdog has raised concerns about whether an exhaust tunnel at the Savannah River Site’s nuclear materials processing facility can withstand the impact of an earthquake. The concern is related to two ongoing issues at the facility that have not yet been remedied, the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board (DNFSB) said […]

Stakeholders now have through Jan. 9 to weigh in on the proposed new 2.2-million-cubic yard-landfill to eventually replace the existing facility at the Energy Department’s Oak Ridge Site in Tennessee. An Energy Department spokesman confirmed by email the public comment deadline has been extended from Dec. 10. This marks the second extension — DOE had […]

WASHINGTON — The White House has someone in mind to fill a vacancy on the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board (DNFSB), the acting head of the independent nuclear-health-and-safety watchdog said in a public meeting here Thursday. Acting Chairman Bruce Hamilton would not identify the potential nominee. The DNFSB has been without a fifth board member since […]

A New Mexico hearing officer has endorsed the Energy Department’s request to revise how transuranic waste “volume” is calculated at the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) under the 1992 WIPP Land Withdrawal Act. The Dec. 10 report by state Hearing Officer Max Shepherd is now before New Mexico Environment Department (NMED) Secretary Butch Tongate, who […]

Barring a last-minute announcement from the Department of Energy, 2018 will end much like it started: With many major contractors waiting to see who will win a multibillion-dollar, 10-year contract for liquid waste management at the Savannah River Site in South Carolina. The most recent procurement schedule for DOE’s Office of Environmental Management, from Nov. […]

The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission has approved leaving problem waste from the Energy Department’s Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) at the Waste Control Specialists (WCS) disposal facility in Texas for up to two more years, and Texas regulators are expected to follow suit. The head of NRC’s Office of Nuclear Material Safety and Safeguards, Marc […]

Sen. Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.) on Monday announced he will leave the Senate after 2020. Alexander chairs the Senate Appropriations energy and water subcommittee, in which capacity he is the gatekeeper for upper chamber funding of the Department of Energy and its semiautonomous National Nuclear Security Administration. He has held the gavel there since 2015. The […]

The nominee for the top nuclear energy position at the Department of Energy could get another trip through the Senate confirmation process for Christmas, according to a spokesperson for Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.). Asked whether there was any chance that Rita Baranwal might be allowed a confirmation vote as assistant energy secretary for nuclear energy […]

Sen. Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.), the Senate’s lead appropriator for the Department of Energy and Nuclear Regulatory Commisson, announced this week that he will leave the Senate after 2020. Alexander chairs the Senate Appropriations energy and water subcommittee, in which capacity he is the gatekeeper for upper chamber funding of a host of programs incluidng management […]

The federal government’s nuclear health-and-safety watchdog has raised concerns about whether an exhaust tunnel at the Savannah River Site’s nuclear materials processing facility can withstand the impact of an earthquake. The concern is related to two ongoing issues at the facility that have not yet been remedied, the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board (DNFSB) said […]

Smoke and ash from the recent Woolsey Fire did not spread radiation or contamination from the Santa Susana Field Laboratory (SSFL) in Ventura County to neighboring communities, two California agencies said Wednesday. In an interim report, the state Department of Toxic Substances Control (DTSC) and Environmental Protection Agency said field inspections and computer simulations turned […]

The U.S. Senate late Wednesday approved a short-term appropriations bill to keep all federal agencies operating through Feb. 8, but once again left the Yucca Mountain radioactive waste repository in Nevada unfunded following an apparent push by supporters of the long-delayed project. Senators passed the latest continuing resolution by voice vote just after 10 p.m. […]

The Energy Department has chosen agency veteran Laura Wilkerson as deputy manager at the Oak Ridge Office of Environmental Management (OREM) in Tennessee. Wilkerson has been at DOE for 25 years and was previously director of OREM’s Planning and Execution Division, which helps coordinate remediation at the East Tennessee Technology Park, the Y-12 National Security […]

Albuquerque, N.M.-based Energy Department contractor Strategic Management Solutions Inc. has promoted longtime executive David O’Flynn to president effective Jan. 1. O’Flynn, currently senior vice president at SMSI, is a veteran of project management, construction, engineering, and nuclear infrastructure work across the Energy Department and National Nuclear Security Administration complex, the company said in a Wednesday […]

A New Mexico hearing officer has endorsed the Energy Department’s request to revise how transuranic waste “volume” is calculated at the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) under the 1992 WIPP Land Withdrawal Act. The Dec. 10 report by state Hearing Officer Max Shepherd is now before New Mexico Environment Department (NMED) Secretary Butch Tongate, who […]

The Energy Department on Tuesday issued its final environmental impact statement (EIS) for tearing down buildings and cleaning up soil and groundwater on its portion of the 2,850-acre Santa Susana Field Laboratory (SSFL) in Ventura County, Calif. The EIS for Area IV and the Northern Buffer Zone is one of the last steps prior to […]

Contractor Fluor-BWXT Portsmouth (FBP) said Tuesday it informed labor unions at the Energy Department’s Portsmouth Site in Ohio before announcing a voluntary separation program to trim about 75 people from the cleanup workforce. Company spokesman Jack Williams took issue with comments made in a Tuesday article of Weapons Complex Morning Briefing by United Steelworkers (USW) […]

Contractor Fluor-BWXT Portsmouth (FBP) said Monday it plans a voluntary separation program for up to 75 of its estimated 1,500 employees at the Energy Department’s Portsmouth Site in Ohio. The voluntary separation package is being offered to a mix of union and salaried workers, said Fluor-BWXT spokesman Jack Williams. Workers who exercise this option will […]

Leaving problem waste from the Energy Department’s Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) at the Waste Control Specialists (WCS) site in Texas for two more years should not cause any significant environmental risks, according to Nuclear Regulatory Commission. With the current extension to a 2014 order set to expire in days, the NRC is publishing an […]