Department of Energy

ICE Service Group on Monday denied patent infringement claims made in a lawsuit from a competitor, instead accusing the company of “brazen industrial espionage.” Clinton, La.-based PacTec, which makes industrial containment bags used at government and commercial radioactive waste cleanup sites, filed its lawsuit in June in U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of […]

The Department of Energy’s Savannah River Site in South Carolina said it will keep only essential safety and security staff on duty if Hurricane Florence threatens the nearby region inland. The essential staff number fluctuates depending on what is needed at the time, but in recent memory it has been roughly 340 members of the […]

More than 40 companies signed up to attend an industry session last month to learn more about a contract for further cleanup of the Central Plateau at the Department of Energy’s Hanford Site in Washington state. There were more 90 registered participants representing companies including AECOM, Atkins, AVANTech, Bechtel, BWX Technologies, Fluor, Honeywell, Navarro Research […]

The Energy Department’s cleanup office will soon formally post openings for two leadership jobs, Assistant Secretary of Energy for Environmental Management Anne Marie White told Weapons Complex Monitor. This week, the Office of Environmental Management also posted an updated organizational chart on its website, which includes a couple of significant additions to the last revision […]

A research team at the University of Texas at Arlington has received a $567,831 grant from the Department of Energy to study the rock materials that best prevent the escape of radiation from nuclear waste disposal facilities. The researchers led by earth and environmental sciences associate professor Qinhong Hu will examine the movement of fluids […]

Demolition-related work could restart next week at the Hanford Site’s Plutonium Finishing Plant, but contractor CH2M Hill Plateau Remediation Co. has been cleared only to resume lower-hazard operations. Most work has been stopped at the highly radioactively contaminated facility since December, when a spread of radioactive material was discovered for the second time in 2017. […]

Scott Anderson has been promoted to president and general manager of the cleanup contractor for the Department of Energy’s West Valley Demonstration Project in New York state, CH2M Hill BWXT West Valley. Anderson has been the No. 2 executive at the West Valley contractor for three years, serving as senior vice president and general manager. […]

After a suspension of several months, Fluor Idaho is again excavating a tranche of Cold War waste at the Energy Department’s Idaho National Laboratory. The Idaho Cleanup Project contractor voluntarily suspended the work in the lab’s Accelerated Retrieval Project 8 space following an April 11 breach of four drums at the Accelerated Retrieval Project 5 […]

The Energy Department could reissue a multibillion-dollar liquid waste management contract for the Savannah River Site in South Carolina any day now – or it could be weeks away. Two industry sources recently indicated the contract announcement could arrive as soon as today, but a third industry source was more skeptical, saying he had heard […]

President Donald Trump’s signature is the only thing standing between the Energy Department’s nuclear cleanup office and nearly $7.2 billion in funding for fiscal 2019. That would be the highest spending level for DOE’s Office of Environmental Management since fiscal 2005, when it received nearly $7.3 billion. The House of Representatives on Thursday voted 377-20 […]

Contractor Mission Support Alliance has begun a $7.8 million improvement to the water-system infrastructure in the center of the Department of Energy’s Hanford Site in Washington state. Workers are installing about 4 miles of 30-inch pipe to connect the separate water grids of the east and west areas of the nuclear cleanup site. Work is […]

The minibus appropriations bill on its way to President Donald Trump’s desk would block the independent federal Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board from downsizing by about 20 percent, and require the Department of Energy to explain why it has restricted some communications with the federal nuclear safety watchdog. Bill language approved by Congress this week forbids […]

Errors and poor policy have fueled the controversy over reimbursement of expenses at a regional group intended to promote communities around the Energy Department’s Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico. That is the crux of an Aug. 28 analysis by Los Alamos County Manager Harry Burgess, addressing financial irregularities by the Regional Coalition of […]

Former Energy Secretary Samuel Bodman died Sept. 7, news outlets reported. He was 79. Bodman led the Department of Energy from 2005 to 2009 during George W. Bush’x second term in office. During his tenure, Bodman fired Linton Brooks — the second full-time administrator of the National Nuclear Security Administration — following security lapses at […]

The minibus appropriations bill on its way to President Donald Trump’s desk would block the independent federal Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board from downsizing by about 20 percent, and require the Department of Energy to explain why it has restricted some communications with the federal nuclear safety watchdog. Bill language approved by Congress this week forbids […]

The Trump administration is now 0-2 in its efforts to persuade Congress to fund the long-proposed, still-unrealized nuclear waste repository under Yucca Mountain in Nevada. The Senate on Wednesday voted 92-5 in favor of the fiscal 2019 “minibus” appropriations bill covering the Department of Energy, Nuclear Regulatory Commission, and other agencies. The House followed on […]

After a suspension of several months, Fluor Idaho is again excavating a tranche of Cold War waste at the Energy Department’s Idaho National Laboratory. The Idaho Cleanup Project contractor suspended the work in the lab’s Accelerated Retrieval Project 8 space following an April 11 breach of four drums at the close-by Accelerated Retrieval Project 5 […]

The Energy Department could reissue a multibillion-dollar liquid waste management contract for the Savannah River Site in South Carolina early as Friday, two industry sources said. One source said the new award could land this week or it could arrive as late as October. The Energy Department for its part has said in public presentations […]

With funding for cleanup of the Department of Energy’s nuclear complex approaching a decade high, the agency must show what it can do with the extra cash, Energy Undersecretary for Science Paul Dabbar said Wednesday. The House and Senate this week unveiled a compromise version of their DOE-funding legislation for fiscal 2019, which would provide […]

The appropriations package agreed upon by a House-Senate conference committee this week makes it official: The Energy Department will not barter excess government uranium in fiscal 2019 to fund environmental remediation at the Portsmouth Site in Ohio. The multi-agency appropriations bill would provide $841 million for DOE’s Uranium Enrichment Decontamination and Decommissioning Fund, which pays […]

ICE Service Group on Monday denied patent infringement claims made in a lawsuit from a competitor, instead accusing the company of “brazen industrial espionage.” Louisiana-based PacTec, which makes industrial containment bags used at government and commercial radioactive waste cleanup sites, filed its lawsuit in June in U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Tennessee. […]

Safety precautions are already being implemented at the Savannah River Site, a Department of Energy facility near the Georgia-South Carolina border, as Hurricane Florence moves up the coast of Florida toward the Carolinas. For now, operations are running in a normal fashion, since Florence is expected to miss the 310-mile federal property near Aiken, S.C. […]

The management and operations contractor for the Department of Energy’s Savannah River Site in South Carolina is looking to hire nearly 70 engineers in an effort to keep up with demands as more of its workforce becomes eligible for retirement. Savannah River Nuclear Solutions (SRNS) currently has 84 external jobs posted online, ranging from engineer positions to business, […]

The Energy Department’s cleanup office will soon formally post openings for two leadership jobs, Assistant Secretary of Energy for Environmental Management Anne Marie White told Weapons Complex Morning Briefing last week. The Office of Environmental Management will launch the official government hiring process for its principal deputy assistant secretary post, often referred to as EM-2, […]

Congress appears ready to vote this week on the final version of the Department of Energy’s fiscal 2019 budget bill: a proposal that includes more funding than requested for both active nuclear weapons programs and Cold War cleanup. Although they have not scheduled the votes yet, the full House and Senate are set to approve […]

Scott Anderson has been promoted to president and general manager of the cleanup contractor for the Department of Energy’s West Valley Demonstration Project in New York state, CH2M Hill BWXT West Valley. Anderson has been the No. 2 executive at the West Valley contractor for three years, serving as senior vice president and general manager. […]

A wildfire burned an estimated 3,000 acres of the Hanford Site in Washington state early Saturday morning. Mission Support Alliance, the Department of Energy contractor in charge of the Hanford Fire Department, said the blaze was discovered at 3:20 a.m. and was contained at 6:50 a.m. The fire burned across grass and brush in the […]

Contractor Mission Support Alliance has begun a $7.8 million improvement to the water-system infrastructure in the center of the Department of Energy’s Hanford Site in Washington state. Workers are installing about 4 miles of 30-inch pipe to connect the separate water grids of the east and west areas of the nuclear cleanup site. Work is […]

Errors and poor policy have fueled the controversy over reimbursement of expenses at a regional group meant to promote communities around the Energy Department’s Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico. That is the crux of an Aug. 28 analysis by Los Alamos County Manager Harry Burgess, addressing financial irregularities by the Regional Coalition of […]

Former Energy Secretary Samuel Bodman died Friday, news outlets reported. He was 79. Bodman led the Department of Energy from 2005 to 2009 during George W. Bush’x second term in office. During his tenure, Bodman fired Linton Brooks — the second full-time administrator of the National Nuclear Security Administration — following security lapses at the […]