Department of Energy

Fluor Chairman and CEO David Seaton on Thursday lauded two Department of Energy contract extensions for programs led by the company and expressed optimism about winning more business during the fourth quarter. The Fluor-led Savannah River Nuclear Solutions team, which manages the Savannah River Site in South Carolina, received a 12-month contract extension from in […]

The congressional district that covers the Energy Department’s Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) will have new representation in January after incumbent Rep. Steve Pearce stepped aside to run for New Mexico governor. Pearce is facing off against a colleague in Congress, Rep. Michelle Lujan Grisham (D-N.M.), to succeed term-limited governor Susana Martinez, a Republican. Pearce, […]

The head of the Department of Energy’s Office of Environmental Management will attend a Nov. 28 public hearing about a controversial agency order the independent Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board (DNFSB) fears will limit its access to defense-nuclear sites across the country. Anne Marie White, assistant secretary for environmental management, accepted the invitation on or […]

Workers at the Hanford Site on Wednesday resumed stabilizing the second PUREX Plant radioactive waste storage tunnel with concrete-like grout to prevent its possible collapse. The project was suspended for several days after an Oct. 26 incident in which steam was spotted coming from a small building attached to the tunnel, leading to a precautionary […]

The Energy Department said this week it is reviewing a new baseline laying out an updated cost and schedule for completion of the Salt Waste Processing Facility (SWPF) at the Savannah River Site in South Carolina. The agency has not released details of the baseline submitted in June by SWPF contractor Parsons or said when […]

Contractors and other observers are still waiting to see who will be selected as permanent second in command for the U.S. Energy Department’s Office of Environmental Management (EM). “We are all waiting on an EM-2” to be named, one industry source said Monday, using the common term for the principal deputy assistant secretary to the […]

Computer Sciences Corp. (CSC) has agreed to pay $389,355 to settle a civil lawsuit related to its former work as the prime medical services provider for the Department of Energy’s Hanford Site in Washington state. The lawsuit, filed in U.S. District Court for Eastern Washington and joined this week by the Department of Justice, claimed […]

Lynchburg, Va.-based BWX Technologies has selected executive David Brown to head a joint venture, BWSR LLC, focused on decommissioning and tearing down facilities at Naval Nuclear Laboratory sites. As president of BWSR, Brown will lead the 250-person BWXT Technical Services Group-APTIM Federal Services team that provides cleanup at sites under contract to Fluor Marine Propulsion […]

Lynchburg, Va.-based BWX Technologies has named David Brown to lead a joint venture, BWSR LLC, focused on decommissioning and tearing down facilities at Naval Nuclear Laboratory sites. Brown will lead the 250-person BWXT Technical Services Group-APTIM Federal Services team that provides cleanup at sites under contract to Fluor Marine Propulsion in Idaho, Pennsylvania, and New […]

The state of Idaho has now assessed the Energy Department $4.77 million in penalties for its failure to start treating sodium-bearing waste at the Idaho National Laboratory. Fluor Idaho has estimated it could be well into 2019 before it begins operation of DOE’s Integrated Waste Treatment Unit (IWTU), Natalie Creed, hazardous waste unit manager at […]

The Energy Department contractor at the West Valley Demonstration Project near Buffalo, N.Y., recently finished shipping the last of the site’s legacy low-level radioactive waste for disposal. Contractor CH2M HILL BWXT West Valley (CHBWV) finished the shipments on Sept. 6, a spokesman said by email. Legacy waste in this context means material predating the 2011 […]

Contractors and other observers are still waiting to see who will be selected as permanent second in command for the U.S. Energy Department’s Office of Environmental Management (EM). “We are all waiting on an EM-2” to be named, one industry source said Monday, using the common term for the principal deputy assistant secretary to the […]

The Energy Department must address concerns about potential water contamination before the Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation (TDEC) is ready to sign off on a new waste disposal landfill at the Oak Ridge Reservation. “To gain the state’s support, DOE may need to revise the landfill design, because groundwater near the land surface could […]

The Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board has invited the head of the Department of Energy’s Environmental Management office to a Nov. 28 public hearing about a controversial order the board fears will limit its access to defense-nuclear sites across the country. And, the independent federal safety watchdog said, Assistant Secretary for Environmental Management (EM) Anne […]

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission on Monday denied two groups’ petitions for dismissal of license applications for interim spent fuel storage facilities in Texas and New Mexico. “The NRC’s regulations allow interested persons to file petitions to intervene and requests for hearing in which they can raise concerns regarding a particular license application. These regulations do […]

Democratic Party lawmakers from Nevada are urging President Donald Trump to follow through on his apparent pledge to re-evaluate plans for the Yucca Mountain nuclear waste repository, after Energy Secretary Rick Perry said the administration continues to support the project. “These contradictory remarks from Secretary Perry underline why the White House must follow through on […]

Comments are due to the Energy Department by 5 p.m. Eastern time Thursday on the request for information (RFI)/sources sought notice for the West Valley Demonstration Project in New York state. The agency issued the RFI on Oct. 10 as part of its market research for a future draft request for proposals for the cleanup […]

The Energy Department on Thursday posted 13 pages of additional questions and answers from prospective bidders on the potential $6 billion, decade-long Hanford Site Mission Essential Services Contract. For the most part, the agency declined to elaborate on the final request for proposals, issued Sept. 20, for the “landlord” contract at the former plutonium production […]

No airborne radioactive particles were detected after steam was spotted Friday morning coming from a small building linked to the second PUREX Plant waste storage tunnel at the Hanford Site in Washington state. The steam was not expected in that location, and more than 500 workers in the 200 East Area at the center of […]

Fluor, the Dallas-based engineering, procurement, and construction company, has scheduled its next quarterly earnings conference call for 5:30 p.m. Thursday. The company’s third-quarter earnings report will be released shortly after the stock market closes at 4 p.m. The Department of Energy contractor held a preliminary earnings call Oct. 10 in which it discussed its ongoing woes […]

The Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board (DNFSB) voted against submission of a preliminary fiscal 2020 budget request to the White House Office of Management and Budget after three of the four board members questioned whether the document reflected the agency’s funding and staffing needs, according to a recently published voting decision. On Oct. 17, the DNFSB […]

Cleanup contractor Fluor Idaho should have taken greater precautions in repackaging sludge prior to an April 11 incident in which four drums of the radioactive waste overheated and blew off their lids at a building inside the Energy Department’s Idaho National Laboratory. That is the crux of a report Thursday from the company, and overseen […]

The contractor that manages the Department of Energy’s Savannah River Site in South Carolina performed well during its emergency response drills earlier this year, but needs to improve its response in several areas, according to a new agency report. In a detailed assessment of the SRS Emergency Management Exercise Program, DOE’s Office of Enterprise Assessments […]

Six workers reported smelling a suspicious odor Wednesday outside the U waste storage tank farm at the Hanford Site in Washington state, bringing the number of workers reporting possible chemical vapors so far this year to 20. However, just five have requested medical evaluations. That number is down significantly from the more than 50 workers […]

Bechtel National expects in the next few months to fill up to 300 jobs at the Waste Treatment Plant it is building at the Department of Energy’s Hanford Site in Washington state. The hiring comes as the contractor continues to shift from primarily construction to preparations for waste processing by a federal court-enforced deadline of […]

Despite its unusual circumstances, the 10-year contract for legacy cleanup at the Energy Department’s Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) in New Mexico is off to a good start for Newport News Nuclear BWXT-Los Alamos (N3B). The contractor has about 500 employees at the lab, but fewer than 100 came over in April from prior environmental […]

Department of Energy Office of Project Management Director Paul Bosco joins the Office of Environmental Management on Monday as its associate principal deputy assistant secretary for corporate affairs. “In this new role, Paul will lead all business services for EM including contract and project management, resource management, and internal and external communications,” according to a […]

The Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board has concerns about the Department of Energy’s proposed change to nuclear safety management rules governing the agency and its contractors. The proposed rule, published in the Aug. 8 Federal Register, does not spell out certain bedrock nuclear safety principles such as “defense in depth” and the “hierarchy of controls,” […]

The Energy Department’s Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) in New Mexico last year shipped 5,058,687 kilograms of low-level radioactive waste off-site for disposal at federal and commercial properties. Operations at storied nuclear weapons laboratory generate low-level radioactive waste, transuranic waste, mixed low-level waste, and mixed transuranic waste, according to the 2017 Annual Site Environmental Report […]

The Department of Energy and its regulators for the Hanford Site in Washington state have scheduled what amounts to the first in-person State of the Site meeting since 2014 after being prodded by a local advisory group. The meeting, called the Hanford Regional Dialogue, is scheduled for 6 p.m. Nov. 1 at the Best Western […]