Department of Energy

Quality assurance problems continue to afflict the Waste Treatment Plant (WTP) being built at the Hanford Site in Washington state, the Government Accountability Office (GAO) said in a report Tuesday. “The project has faced persistent challenges, including quality assurance problems that have delayed it by decades and more than tripled its costs, to nearly $17 […]

Four 55-gallon drums of radioactive waste ejected their lids due to excessive pressure on April 11 at the Accelerated Retrieval Project No. 5 (ARP 5) facility, Idaho Site cleanup contractor Flour Idaho confirmed Monday. The Energy Department and the contractor had both indicated last week at least one drum, and possibly more, had been breached. […]

The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission should establish a new classification for radioactive waste – “Class D” – to replace the more nebulous Greater Than Class C designation, according to disposal provider EnergySolutions. “The NRC should designate a new waste category specifically defining what it is. It should not be defined by what it is greater […]

The Department of Energy has not fully analyzed the risk of certain types of accidents at the Idaho National Laboratory’s Integrated Waste Treatment Unit (IWTU), according to the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board (DNFSB). In a March 27 letter to DOE, the DNFSB cited weaknesses in the safety planning conducted for the IWTU: These types […]

The Energy Department could store transuranic waste up to 10 years at the Separations Process Research Unit (SPRU) cleanup site in Schenectady County, N.Y., under a hazardous waste permit it has requested from the state. In early April, DOE submitted the application to the state Department of Environmental Conservation, which expects to issue the draft […]

Officials conducting a National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine study of technology development within the Department of Energy Office of Environmental Management will visit the Hanford Site area in Washington state today and Tuesday. An hourlong overview of Hanford is planned for 7:30 a.m. today at the Red Lion Hotel Richland Hanford House, 802 […]

Washington Closure Hanford and the Department of Justice received a final extension Friday to seal a settlement agreement in a civil lawsuit alleging the former Hanford Site contractor knowingly awarded small business subcontracts to front companies. Judge Sal Mendoza Jr. stayed the case in U.S. District Court in Eastern Washington until a June 8 hearing, […]

The Hanford Site’s occupational medicine services provider earned 91.75 percent of the fee available for fiscal 2017, the Department of Energy announced Friday. Kennewick, Wash.-based HPM Corp., a small, woman-owned business founded in 2001, earned $311,950 of the available $340,000. The contractor’s performance was rated about the same as in fiscal 2016. Then it earned […]

About two months after he left the federal ranks, the former top Department of Energy official at the Savannah River Site in Aiken, S.C., joined Atkins in a new role created for him. Jack Craig, who in February retired as manager of DOE’s Savannah River Site office after three years in that role and over […]

Following a five-month pause, plutonium downblending resumed in mid-March at the Department of Energy’s Savannah River Site in South Carolina. The mission involves dilution of 6 metric tons of nuclear weapon-usable, non-pit plutonium, and not the 34 metric tons of material intended to be processed by Savannah River’s MOX program. Operations began in September 2016, […]

The Department of Energy said Thursday it plans in 15 to 45 days to release a draft request for proposals for the Central Plateau Cleanup Contract for the Hanford Site in Washington state. A presolicitation conference, site tour, and one-on-one sessions are tentatively scheduled for late May or June, DOE said as it released a […]

The Energy Department’s prime contractor for the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) in New Mexico, Nuclear Waste Partnership, is likely to award a contract for construction of the Safety Significant Confinement Ventilation System in May. That should be followed shortly afterward by a groundbreaking, with project completion expected in 2021, DOE Carlsbad Field Office Manager […]

Declining profit margins, in some cases just 2 to 4 percent, are a major reason for the wave of mergers and acquisitions by companies that do business in the Department of Energy’s nuclear cleanup sector, a senior executive with one contractor said last week. Contractors can expect to receive 5 to 7 percent if everything […]

A “bulging drum” of non-radiological waste resulted in a partial evacuation of the Sigma Complex at the Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico on Monday. The Los Alamos Fire Department responded to the Sigma facility, on the main LANL campus, at about 2:30 p.m. Monday, a lab spokesperson said by email. The plastic drum […]

The Energy Communities Alliance got some good news last month when the omnibus budget for fiscal 2018 kept in place existing Payment in Lieu of Taxes (PILT) agreements, ECA Director of Nuclear Energy Programs Kara Colton said Monday. The budget does call for a report on how the Energy Department formulates PILT payments to communities […]

The Ohio Environmental Protection Agency plans to hold the U.S. Energy Department to its promise to dig up and consolidate contamination plumes and waste landfills at the Portsmouth Site in Ohio. That is according to state EPA Director Craig Butler, in an April 6 letter to James Owendoff, principal deputy assistant secretary for DOE’s Office […]

New York state should in early 2019 issue a draft permit for interim storage of transuranic waste at the U.S. Energy Department’s Separations Process Research Unit, a state official said. The state Department of Environmental Conservation will issue the initial document for a 45-day public comment period, spokesman Rick Georgeson said by email. The department […]

The Energy Department’s Idaho National Laboratory suspended transuranic waste shipments to the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) in New Mexico immediately after an April 11 incident in which at least one 55-gallon drum of radioactive waste overheated and ejected its lid. The suspension was precautionary, and shipments resumed on Tuesday, Idaho Site cleanup contractor Fluor […]

The U.S. Department of Justice appears to be running out of patience after failing to reach a settlement agreement by a deadline Friday in a lawsuit with Washington Closure Hanford, a former Hanford Site prime cleanup contractor. The Department of Justice filed a civil lawsuit against Washington Closure, alleging it knowingly awarded small business subcontracts […]

A new list published Tuesday by federal inspectors general called out crumbling Department of Energy nuclear infrastructure as one of the federal government’s top management challenges. “Agencies may be hampered in performing their missions effectively because of breakdowns in essential equipment or hazards posed by unmaintained infrastructure,” the Council of the Inspectors General on Integrity […]

Declining profit margins, in some cases just 2 to 4 percent, are a major reason for the wave of mergers and acquisitions by companies that do business in the Department of Energy’s nuclear cleanup sector, a senior executive with one contractor said last week. These companies might also eye new opportunities in the commercial nuclear […]

A new list published Tuesday by federal inspectors general called out crumbling Department of Energy nuclear infrastructure as one of the federal government’s top management challenges. “Agencies may be hampered in performing their missions effectively because of breakdowns in essential equipment or hazards posed by unmaintained infrastructure,” the Council of the Inspectors General on Integrity […]

The Ohio Environmental Protection Agency plans to hold the U.S. Energy Department to its promise to dig up and consolidate contamination plumes and waste landfills at the Portsmouth Site in Ohio. That is according to state EPA Director Craig Butler, in an April 6 letter to James Owendoff, principal deputy assistant secretary for DOE’s Office […]

The Energy Department’s Idaho National Laboratory suspended transuranic waste shipments to the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) in New Mexico immediately after an April 11 incident in which at least one 55-gallon drum of radioactive waste overheated and ejected its lid. The suspension was precautionary, and shipments resumed on Tuesday, Idaho Site cleanup contractor Fluor […]

President Donald Trump announced Monday he plans to nominate Dan Michael Berkovitz, a former official at the Energy Department Office of Environmental Management (EM), to join the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC). Berkovitz served as EM deputy assistant secretary for planning, policy, and budget from 1995 to 2001, according to his LinkedIn profile. Berkovitz’s other […]

The Energy Department has renewed its Environmental Management Site-Specific Advisory Board (EM SSAB) for a two-year period, through April 11, 2020. The department announced the extension in an April 17 Federal Register notice. The 17-member advisory board provides DOE’s Office of Environmental Management with recommendations on a number of issues concerning specific nuclear cleanup sites. […]

The U.S. Department of Justice appears to be running out of patience after failing to reach a settlement agreement by a deadline Friday in a lawsuit with Washington Closure Hanford, a former Hanford Site prime cleanup contractor. The Department of Justice filed a civil lawsuit against Washington Closure, alleging it knowingly awarded small business subcontracts […]

Whether it’s law enforcement, water lines, or hiring practices, the Energy Department and its cleanup contractors are intertwined with their host communities in many ways. This was the overriding theme from last Thursday’s Energy Communities Alliance (ECA) annual meeting in Washington, D.C. Oak Ridge, Tenn., City Manager Mark Watson once received a permit request to […]

The Energy Communities Alliance got some good news last month when the omnibus budget for fiscal 2018 kept in place existing Payment in Lieu of Taxes (PILT) agreements, ECA Director of Nuclear Energy Programs Kara Colton said Monday. The budget does call for a report on how the Energy Department formulates PILT payments to communities […]

Declining profit margins, in some cases just 2 to 4 percent, are a major reason for the wave of mergers and acquisitions by companies that do business in the Department of Energy’s nuclear cleanup sector, a senior executive with one contractor said Thursday. The reduced margins are due in part to regulatory responsibilities and “claw-back” […]