Department of Energy

The Energy Department believes the Central Bear Creek Valley is the best place within the Oak Ridge Reservation (ORR) in Tennessee to develop a new 2.2-million-cubic yard waste disposal facility – due in part to its geology and groundwater flow conditions. Because the same valley is home to Oak Ridge’s existing Environmental Management Waste Management […]

The Energy Department has retained Centrus Energy to prepare the K-1600 facility at the Oak Ridge Reservation in Tennesseefor demolition. The Rockville, Md.-based nuclear fuel supplier has leased the uranium enrichment plant since 2002. Centrus announced Tuesday it has received a $15 million work authorization for decontamination and decommissioning (D&D) of the plant, one of […]

Idaho Falls-based nuclear medicine specialist International Isotopes on Tuesday said it had been awarded over 12 distinct contracts worth a total of $1.6 million for recovery of radiation sources in the United States and abroad. The Department of Energy issued all the contracts, with the work largely to wrap up within half a year, according […]

The Energy Department has scheduled a public information meeting for 5 p.m. today on the new Environmental Management Disposal Facility planned for the Oak Ridge Site in Tennessee. The Energy Department is proposing a 2.2 million-cubic-yard landfill site on federal land in Bear Creek Valley, according to a notice for the 90-minute meeting at the […]

A newly inked deal has paved the way for Veolia Nuclear Solutions to demonstrate its patented GeoMelt technology to process radioactive waste sent from the Idaho National Laboratory (INL). Under the agreement, announced Sept. 25, INL management and operations contractor Battelle Energy Alliance (BEA) will ship some drums with small amounts of radioactive contaminated sodium […]

Washington River Protection Solutions has been awarded a contract extension of up to a year for management of the radioactive waste storage tanks at the Hanford Site in Washington state. The Department of Energy announced the extension Friday, two days before the expiration of WRPS’ 10-year contract. The contract extension, which will expire Sept. 30, […]

An employee for the Energy Department’s Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico returned to work after suffering cuts from broken glass caused by a chemical reaction, a DOE spokesperson confirmed Friday. “A small chemical reaction occurred on September 14th which was contained in a chemical hood at Technical Area 35. No radioactive material was […]

Two Richland, Wash.-based contractors serving the Energy Department and other federal clients have formed a joint venture to promote a material sorting technology that will be shown off this week. The two small businesses, Federal Engineers & Constructors (FE&C) and ISO-Pacific Remediation Technologies, said Sept. 19 the venture, Innovative Remediation & Integrated Systems LLC (IRIS), […]

Workers at the Hanford Site are preparing to start filling the PUREX Plant’s second waste storage tunnel with concrete-like grout as soon as this week, after the Washington state Department of Ecology on Friday approved the interim stabilization work to prevent collapse. In May 2017, there was a partial collapse of the older and shorter […]

The House of Representatives passed in a voice vote Monday a bill to reauthorize the West Valley Demonstration Project in New York state, legislation approved by the House Energy and Commerce Committee in July. The amended version of the bill would hike the site’s funding to $75 million annually starting immediately through fiscal 2028 and […]

Fluor-BWXT Portsmouth has picked up its second and last option period as cleanup contractor at the Department of Energy’s Portsmouth Site in Ohio. The Energy Department announced the contract extension, valued at about $850 million, on Thursday afternoon, three days before the current 30-month extension was set to expire. The company began work on its […]

A federal judge has scheduled a hearing for Oct. 17 to addressing scheduling and other matters in a former employee’s discrimination lawsuit against the liquid waste manager at the Department of Energy’s Savannah River Site in South Carolina. The hope is to expedite progress in the case filed more than two years ago, according to […]

The Department of Energy has denied a local advisory group’s request to make treated liquid waste at the Savannah River Site in South Carolina eligible for disposal at the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) in New Mexico. The request, submitted in July by the SRS Citizens Advisory Board (CAB), asked the Energy Department to recharacterize […]

Bechtel National is bringing on a new project director for the Waste Treatment Plant at the Department of Energy’s Hanford Site in Washington state, employees were told on Sept. 21. Brian Reilly, who joined the project last December, will be replaced by Valerie McCain. Reilly has been reassigned to the position of project director for […]

When President Donald Trump signed a multiagency appropriations package Sept. 21, it assured the Energy Department’s Office of Environmental Management about $7.2 billion in funding for the 2019 fiscal year starting Oct. 1. The DOE-funding “minibus,” approved by Congress earlier this month, provides the largest budget for the department’s nuclear cleanup office since it received […]

President Donald Trump plans to appoint Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board (DNFSB) acting Chairman Bruce Hamilton to the top position on a permanent basis, the White House said this week. Hamilton, a Navy veteran who spent decades in the nuclear energy industry, joined the board in August 2015 and was elevated to vice chairman in […]

The Department of Energy on Thursday released a draft request for proposals for the Hanford Site Central Plateau Cleanup Contract that takes a new approach to the scope of work at the cleanup job in Washington state. The agency is asking bidders to indicate what environmental cleanup activities they could complete given 10 years, including […]

Less than two months after stepping aside as the No. 2 official in the Energy Department’s nuclear cleanup office, James Owendoff is taking a new job within the agency. Starting next week, Owendoff will be DOE-wide chief risk officer, a senior executive position within the office of the Chief Financial Officer John Vonglis. He formally […]

Parsons could end up sacrificing a significant amount of its fee for delays in startup of the Salt Waste Processing Facility (SWPF) at the Energy Department’s Savannah River Site in South Carolina, a DOE official said Monday. Parsons was expected this week to submit a new cost and schedule update for the facility, SWPF Federal […]

The Energy Department’s Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) near Carlsbad, N.M., expects to start receiving remote-handled transuranic waste from the Argonne National Laboratory in Illinois by the end of this year, DOE Carlsbad Field Office Manager Todd Shrader said recently. “We are about to add a new site, Argonne, this fall,” Shrader said Sept. 12 […]

President Donald Trump on Sept. 21 signed the first congressionally approved “minibus” appropriations bill for fiscal 2019, which cuts out all proposed funding at the Department of Energy and Nuclear Regulatory Commission for licensing a nuclear waste repository under Yucca Mountain in Nevada. The White House made no mention of the matter in statements on […]

President Donald Trump plans to appoint Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board (DNFSB) acting Chairman Bruce Hamilton to the top position on a permanent basis, the White House said Tuesday. Hamilton, a Navy veteran who spent decades in the nuclear energy industry, joined the board in August 2015 and was elevated to vice chairman in the […]

Less than two months after stepping aside as the No. 2 official in the Energy Department’s nuclear cleanup office, James Owendoff is taking a new job within the agency. Starting next week, Owendoff will be DOE-wide chief risk officer, a senior executive position within the office of the Chief Financial Officer John Vonglis. He formally […]

The Department of Energy has denied a local advisory group’s request to make treated liquid waste at the Savannah River Site in South Carolina eligible for disposal at the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) in New Mexico. The request, submitted in July by the SRS Citizens Advisory Board (CAB), asked the Energy Department to recharacterize […]

It could be days or possibly weeks before the Energy Department takes a second stab at issuing a decade-long liquid contract for management of liquid radioactive waste in storage at the Savannah River Site in South Carolina. “It’s always soon,” a source in South Carolina quipped Wednesday to Weapons Complex Morning Briefing. Energy Department officials […]

There was no word Tuesday from either the Energy Department or Fluor-BWXT Portsmouth on any sort of extension for the contractor’s current deal for cleanup of the Portsmouth Site in Ohio. The first of two potential 30-month option periods for the contract is set to expire Sept. 30. The company started work on its potential […]

The House of Representatives passed in voice vote Tuesday a bill to reauthorize the Department of Energy’s West Valley Demonstration Project in New York state, legislation approved by the House Energy and Commerce Committee in July. The amended version of the bill would immediately hike cleanup funding to $75 million annually through fiscal 2028 and […]

The Department of Energy is accepting registrations through Thursday for its next Office of Environmental Management (EM) Business Opportunities Forum, slated for Oct. 4 in Knoxville, Tenn. While there is no fee to attend the event, scheduled from 3:30 to 5:30 p.m. at the Knoxville Convention Center, participants must register in advance with Mary Wilson […]

Parsons could end up sacrificing a significant amount of its fee for delays in startup of the Salt Waste Processing Facility (SWPF) at the Energy Department’s Savannah River Site in South Carolina, a DOE official said Monday. Parsons was expected Monday to submit a new cost and schedule update for the facility, SWPF Federal Project […]

The Energy Department’s Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) near Carlsbad, N.M., expects to start receiving transuranic waste from the Argonne National Laboratory in Illinois by the end of this year, DOE Carlsbad Field Office Manager Todd Shrader said recently. “We are about to add a new site, Argonne, this fall,” Shrader said Sept. 12 at […]