Department of Energy
The U.S. Department of Energy oversees the nation’s nuclear weapons complex, environmental cleanup program, and national laboratory system. Coverage here tracks DOE budget requests, contract awards, policy decisions, regulatory action, and leadership changes across the agency’s defense and civilian nuclear missions.
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Transuranic Waste
New Mexico Could Rule Soon on Calibrating Waste Volume at WIPP
The New Mexico Environment Department (NMED) plans to rule by June 1 on a proposal from the U.S. Energy Department to modify the method used to calculate the volume of transuranic waste being disposed of at the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP). The Energy Department and site contractor Nuclear Waste Partnership filed the application Jan. […]
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Uranium Enrichment & Fuel Cycle
Centrus Revenue Rises as Legal Fight With DOE Ends
Centrus Energy reaped far more revenue in the first quarter of 2018 than it did during the same period of 2017, but still reported a net loss during for its latest earnings period. The Rockville, Md.-based uranium fuel provider reported $35.7 million in revenue for the first three months of 2018 compared to $7.2 million […]
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High-Level & Tank Waste
Hanford Developing Strategy for Closing C Farm Waste Tanks
The Department of Energy on June 4 will start taking comments on a draft evaluation on the strategy for closing the 16 tanks in the C Farm radioactive waste storage area. The announcement of the draft evaluation indicates DOE is interested in landfill closure of the single-shell tanks, likely by filling them with grout and […]
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Interim Storage & Waste Disposal
House Readies for Debate on Yucca Bill
The House of Representatives on Wednesday took the final step needed for floor debate today of legislation intended to push forward the long-delayed construction of a radioactive waste repository at Yucca Mountain, Nev. In a nearly party-line vote of 224-184-1, with Republican lawmakers almost uniformly in support and all but three voting Democrats in opposition, […]
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Contracts & Procurement
AECOM Reports $4.8 Billion in Quarterly Revenue
AECOM reported Tuesday that its quarterly revenue was up both company-wide and for its business branch that counts the Department of Energy among its government customers. The Los Angeles-based engineering and infrastructure specialist reported $4.8 billion in quarterly revenue, up 8.2 percent from the $4.4 billion recorded during the first three months of 2017. After […]
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Contracts & Procurement
CH2M Merger, Increased Federal Spending Has Jacobs Upbeat
Jacobs Engineering hopes to sign more long-term government contracts following its December purchase of CH2M, Chairman and CEO Steve Demetriou said Tuesday. “We recently commenced work on the management and operations contract with the Department of Energy at the Nevada National Security Site, an example of one of these multiyear contracts,” Demetriou said during the […]
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Interim Storage & Waste Disposal
NRC Nuclear Waste Fund Balance Down to $464K
The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission at the end of March had $464,544 remaining in its available balance from the fund that pays for its licensing activities for the planned Yucca Mountain radioactive waste repository in Nevada, according to the latest update to Congress. The agency spent $42,506 of its Nuclear Waste Fund carryover during the […]
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Vitrification & Grout
Expressions of Interest Sought for Concrete Testing at SRS Saltstone Unit
An Energy Department contractor at the Savannah River Site (SRS) in South Carolina is seeking expressions of interest from subcontractors potentially interested in conducting concrete testing at Saltstone Disposal Unit (SDU) 7. Savannah River Remediation said in a May 8 post on a federal contracting website it is seeking responses by June 15. The AECOM-led […]
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Budget & Policy
Garrish Appointed Acting General Counsel for DOE
Department of Energy veteran Theodore Garrish has become the agency’s acting general counsel — a position he has held before. Garrish, whose name appeared without announcement in the general counsel spot on a Department of Energy organization chart, was already the agency’s assistant secretary for international affairs. The Senate confirmed him for the post in April. It was […]
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Budget & Policy
House NDAA Would Require DOE to Quickly Call Congress About Hanford Contaminant Releases
The House’s version of the 2019 National Defense Authorization Act would require the Department of Energy’s Environmental Management office to notify Congress within two days if more workers are contaminated by radioactive material at the Hanford site in Washington state. The bill also would require the Environmental Management (EM) office to provide a report to […]
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Cleanup & Remediation
DOE Makes Another Amendment to Outfall 200 RFP
The Energy Department indicated May 7 it has made another revision to the request for proposals (RFP) package for the Outfall 200 Mercury Treatment Facility at the Y-12 National Security Complex in Oak Ridge, Tenn. This latest amendment concerns the level of experience needed for the contractor installing micropiles” at the site for the mercury […]
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Budget & Policy
House Subcommittee Passes 2019 DOE Budget Bill; Full Committee Markup TBD
The House Appropriations energy and water development subcommittee approved a roughly $36-billion Department of Energy budget bill Monday, which heads to the full committee for a markup that had not been scheduled at deadline for Weapons Complex Morning Briefing. The Department of Energy (DOE) would receive a 5-percent budget raise over all from 2018, if […]
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Cleanup & Remediation
BWXT Not Expecting Resolution of Savannah River Waste Deal Before September
It will probably be late September before there is resolution of the dispute over the final liquid-waste management contract for the Energy Department’s Savannah River Site in South Carolina, a BWX Technologies official said Monday. The situation has dragged on longer than expected, David Black, senior vice president and chief financial officer, said during the […]
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Transuranic Waste
WIPP Closing in on 100 Shipments for 2018
The Department of Energy’s Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) near Carlsbad, N.M., has received 93 shipments of transuranic waste so far in 2018. The shipment total works out to an average of 5.8 shipments per week to the underground disposal site in the 16 weeks between Jan. 1 and April 20 — the latest date […]
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Budget & Policy
Congress Marking Up DOE Budget, NDAA This Week
Congressional panels will mark up Department of Energy budget legislation this week, beginning with the House’s first draft of the agency’s 2019 budget Monday evening. The House Appropriations Energy and Water development subcommittee is scheduled to mark up its version of the agency’s 2019 budget Monday at 5:30 p.m. in Washington. Then, on Wednesday, the […]
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Contracts & Procurement
AECOM, Jacobs to Present Earnings on Tuesday
Two major Energy Department contractors, Dallas-based Jacobs and Los Angeles-based AECOM, will report quarterly earnings and brief financial analysts on Tuesday. Jacobs executives will discuss earnings, for the quarter ended March 31, during a conference call with financial analysts on Tuesday at 10 a.m. Eastern time. AECOM will hold its conference call at 12 noon […]
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Contracts & Procurement
BWXT Q1 Revenue Increases About 7 Percent Over 2017
Lynchburg, Va.-based BWX Technologies saw its first quarter 2018 revenue rise 6.8 percent, to $457 million, from $428 million in the first three months of 2017. BWXT issued its quarterly earnings after the markets closed on Friday. Company officials will discuss the results today at 9 a.m. Eastern time during its regular earnings call with […]
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Cleanup & Remediation
Hanford Tank Contractor WRPS Issues RFI
Washington River Protection Solutions (WRPS), the tank management contractor for the Energy Department’s Hanford Site in Washington state, has issued a request for information (RFI) for subcontractors interested in doing construction work inside the tank farm. WRPS expects to issue a formal request for proposals (RFP) during the final quarter of fiscal 2018, which ends […]
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Cleanup & Remediation
DOE Faces Class-Action Lawsuit on Hanford Pensions
A new class action lawsuit was filed Monday on behalf of Hanford Site workers whose pension benefits were reduced when they were transferred from contractors and subcontractors at the Department of Energy facility to six “enterprise companies” in 1996. Attorney Douglas McKinley, of Kennewick, Wash., filed the lawsuit in the U.S. Court of Federal Claims […]
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Cleanup & Remediation
Tech Development for DOE Cleanup Should Emphasize Risk Reduction, Oregon Says
A National Academies committee studying technology development needed across the Department of Energy environmental management complex should focus on technologies that can provide final and lasting reductions in long-term risk, according to the Oregon Department of Energy. The fiscal 2017 DOE appropriations bill directed the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine to study technologies […]
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Contracts & Procurement
LANL Regional Coalition Seeking New Director
The Board of Directors for the Regional Coalition of LANL Communities (RCLC) voted April 27 to advertise for a new executive director to succeed Andrea Romero, whose contract was not renewed at the end of February following a public dispute over expense reimbursements. Los Alamos County, N.M., is preparing the necessary advertisement, County Manager Harry […]
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Cleanup & Remediation
Centrus Seeks Final NRC OK for Portsmouth Cascade Decommissioning Project
Centrus Energy is asking the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) to amend its nuclear material license at the Energy Department’s Portsmouth Site in Ohio. The application was filed as the company is closing out decommissioning of its American Centrifuge uranium enrichment demonstration project. In a May 1 Federal Register notice, the NRC is seeking comments on […]
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Cleanup & Remediation
DOE Cleanup Chief Lauds Hanford Worker Center
The new Hanford Workforce Engagement Center could serve as a model across the Department of Energy nuclear cleanup complex, said Anne White, the new DOE assistant secretary for environmental management. Sworn in little more than a month ago, she made her second visit to the Hanford Site in Eastern Washington this week and spoke at […]
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Cleanup & Remediation
DNFSB Cites Fire Protection Gaps at Savannah River Waste Facility
The Energy Department needs to address some shortcomings in fire protection at the Solid Waste Management Facility (SWMF) at the Savannah River Site in South Carolina, the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board (DNFSB) said recently. There is no comprehensive fire-detection system covering the entirety of the facility, which is staffed only four days per week […]
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Cleanup & Remediation
Government Business Was Bright Spot in Lousy Quarter for Fluor
The government sector was one of the few bright spots early this year in what Fluor Chairman and CEO David Seaton described Thursday as “a disastrous quarter.” “I think we have a good brand in that market and are continuing to bid those projects and being successful,” Seaton said of the company’s business with the […]
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Cleanup & Remediation
Wrap Up: No Public Meeting Yet on Proposed PUREX Tunnel Changes
The Washington state Department of Ecology has postponed, for now, a second public meeting to seek input on management of waste storage tunnels at the PUREX Plant at the Hanford Site in Washington state, after the older of the two tunnels was found to be partially collapsed last May. Since then work crews had by […]
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Transuranic Waste
Fluor Idaho, State Continue to Study Waste Drum Breach
The Energy Department and cleanup contractor Fluor Idaho are still in the early stages of the investigation of an April 11 breach of four drums of radioactive waste at the Idaho Site, a state official said this week. “They have made several re-entries and are in the process of collecting samples but it will likely […]
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High-Level & Tank Waste
Lawmaker Receptive to Offering DOE Grout Option at Hanford
At least one member of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform said last week he supports giving the Hanford Site in Washington state the ability to pursue lower-cost options for disposal of millions of tons of radioactive waste. Rep. Steve Russell (R-Okla.) said he favors giving the Energy Department extra flexibility at Hanford […]
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Cleanup & Remediation
Parsons Rejects DOE Claims of SRS Waste Facility Mismanagement
Parsons has asked Energy Department officials to retract a notice of concern that claimed significant mismanagement in the company’s work to start up the multibillion-dollar Salt Waste Processing Facility (SWPF) at the Savannah River Site in South Carolina. In an April 6 letter obtained by Weapons Complex Monitor, Parsons SWPF project manager Frank Sheppard said the March […]
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Transuranic Waste
N3B Completes Transition, Becomes Legacy Cleanup Contractor at Los Alamos
Newport News Nuclear BWXT-Los Alamos (N3B) became the new contractor in charge of legacy nuclear cleanup at the Energy Department’s Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) in New Mexico effective Monday morning. The contractor just finished a 90-day transition that has included hiring staff, inspecting cleanup areas and setting up new policy and business procedures, the […]








