Department of Energy

Cleanup funding figures reported for the Savannah River Site in the March 30 edition of Weapons Complex Monitor were for the full environmental management mission at the Department of Energy facility, not solely liquid waste management. A comparison of the site’s funding in this fiscal year and the budget proposal for the next year also […]

The U.S. Energy Department will provide the University of Arkansas with $10 million to complete the environmental remediation of the Southwest Experimental Fast Oxide Reactor (SEFOR). Two members of the state’s congressional delegation, Sen. John Boozman (R) and Rep. Steve Womack (R), announced the funding this week. The money is included in the fiscal 2018 […]

A former employee’s discrimination federal lawsuit against the management and operations contractor for the Energy Department’s Savannah River Site has been dismissed due to a lack of sufficient evidence. Now, Savannah River Nuclear Solutions (SRNS) is trying to recover just over $900 from the former plaintiff to cover costs associated with printing documentation for the […]

Interim storage of transuranic waste at the Separations Process Research Unit (SPRU) cleanup project in upstate New York will not be affected by a cost dispute between the U.S. Energy Department and its contractor, AECOM subsidiary URS. “Transuranic waste treatment, packaging, certification is the responsibility of DOE and is not part of the contract cost […]

Newport News Nuclear BWXT-Los Alamos (N3B) is on schedule at the end of April to take over as the new legacy cleanup contractor for the Energy Department’s Los Alamos Nuclear Laboratory in New Mexico. “We are ready to get started,” Nick Lombardo, president and project manager for the joint venture between Stoller Newport News Nuclear […]

The Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico is taking steps to address a recent series of errors in waste handling that earned it a state penalty, and to keep them from recurring, a spokesman said Wednesday. Among other measures, LANL voluntarily suspended all waste shipments from Dec. 18 through Feb. 28, while it investigated […]

The U.S. Energy Department will provide the University of Arkansas with $10 million to complete the environmental remediation of the Southwest Experimental Fast Oxide Reactor (SEFOR). Two members of the state’s congressional delegation, Sen. John Boozman (R) and Rep. Steve Womack (R), announced the funding this week. The money is included in the fiscal 2018 […]

The U.S. Energy Department has officially supported keeping millions of documents related to licensing of its planned nuclear waste repository at Yucca Mountain, Nev., in their current home in the Nuclear Regulatory Commission’s electronic records database. Other parties, though, said this month that more consideration is necessary before a final decision is made. The Licensing […]

The newly signed $1.3 trillion federal government omnibus spending bill for fiscal 2018 provides a boost for environmental remediation of the Department of Energy’s nuclear facilities at Oak Ridge, Tenn. About $639 million will go toward cleaning up Oak Ridge’s Manhattan Project and Cold War sites—$141 million over 2017’s enacted levels and $125 million more […]

The former head of an advocacy group for communities around the Energy Department’s Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico said Tuesday she has repaid $800 in questioned expenses in an effort to resolve a public dispute that marred the end of her tenure. The contract between Andrea Romero Consulting and the Regional Coalition of […]

In her first official visit to an Energy Department cleanup site since being sworn in last week, Assistant Secretary of Energy for Environmental Management Anne Marie White toured the Paducah Site in Kentucky on Thursday. She was part of a delegation including Energy Secretary Rick Perry and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.). After touring […]

Phil Breidenbach, former president and project manager for the contractor that manages the Energy Department’s Waste Isolation Pilot Plant in New Mexico, has been named chief engineer for the current liquid waste manager at DOE’s Savannah River Site in South Carolina. Breidenbach is a vice president at AECOM, lead partner at Savannah River Remediation, along […]

Phil Breidenbach, former president and project manager for the contractor that manages the Energy Department’s Waste Isolation Pilot Plant in New Mexico, has been named chief engineer for the current liquid waste manager at DOE’s Savannah River Site in South Carolina. Breidenbach is a vice president at AECOM, lead partner at Savannah River Remediation, along […]

The Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico is taking steps to address a recent series of errors in waste handling and keep them from recurring, a spokesman said Wednesday. Among other things, LANL voluntarily suspended all waste shipments from Dec. 18 through Feb. 28, while it investigated how it had mislabeled a container of […]

The former head of an advocacy group for communities around the Energy Department’s Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico said Tuesday she has repaid $800 in questioned expenses in an effort to resolve a public dispute that marred the end of her tenure. The contract between Andrea Romero Consulting and the Regional Coalition of […]

Newport News Nuclear BWXT-Los Alamos (N3B) is on schedule at the end of April to take over as the new legacy cleanup contractor for the Energy Department’s Los Alamos Nuclear Laboratory in New Mexico. “We are ready to get started,” Nick Lombardo, president and project manager for the joint venture between Stoller Newport News Nuclear […]

Interim storage of transuranic waste at the Separations Process Research Unit (SPRU) cleanup project in upstate New York will not be affected by a cost dispute between the U.S. Energy Department and its contractor, AECOM subsidiary URS. “Transuranic waste treatment, packaging, certification is the responsibility of DOE and is not part of the contract cost […]

The newly signed $1.3 trillion government omnibus spending bill for fiscal 2018 provides a boost for environmental remediation of the Department of Energy’s nuclear facilities at Oak Ridge, Tenn. About $639 million will go toward cleaning up Oak Ridge’s Manhattan Project and Cold War sites—$141 million over 2017’s enacted levels and $125 more than the […]

The Energy Department’s Waste Isolation Pilot Plant near Carlsbad, N.M., received 60 shipments of transuranic waste in just over the first two-and-a-half months of 2018, according to the latest publicly available data. Of the shipments received by March 18, 44 came from the Idaho National Laboratory. The remaining 16 were split evenly between the Oak […]

The Department of Energy on Monday opened a new resource center near the Hanford Site to help guide facility workers, former personnel, and their families to the best care and compensation programs for their needs. The center was championed by Sens. Patty Murray and Maria Cantwell (both D-Wash.), who have been concerned about how workers’ […]

Registration will open at 9 a.m. April 10 for the 20 tours planned this year by the Department of Energy to let the public see cleanup at the Hanford Site in Eastern Washington state. The limited public bus tours are popular and all seats sometimes fill within a day, if not hours. Registration is available […]

The New Mexico Environment Department (NMED) plans to penalize the U.S. Energy Department’s Los Alamos National Laboratory for mishandling certain waste earlier this year, a move that could entail a $10,000 daily fine for each instance of noncompliance. “Los Alamos National Laboratory self-reported a violation earlier this year, which involved five stored hazardous waste containers […]

A federal judge has given former Hanford Site contractor Washington Closure Hanford and the Department of Justice a three-week extension to finalize a settlement agreement in a civil lawsuit over alleged subcontracting fraud. Judge Salvador Mendoza Jr. on Monday set a deadline for April 13. If the deadline is not met, a status conference will […]

Rather than reducing schedule delays and expense overruns, the Energy Department’s use of a cost cap at the Separations Process Research Unit (SPRU) cleanup project in upstate New York might have had the opposite effect, DOE’s Office of Inspector General said in an audit released Wednesday. The Energy Department in February 2011 instituted what was […]

The U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of New York has approved the Chapter 11 reorganization plan for Westinghouse Electric, which said the authorization paves the way for its sale to a Canadian asset management company. The reorganization plan was overwhelmingly supported by Westinghouse’s creditors, the company said in a Tuesday news release. Brookfield […]

A U.S. Energy Department official last week defended plans for an on-site waste disposal cell at the Portsmouth Gaseous Diffusion Plant Site in Ohio The disposal cell, intended to hold 2 million cubic yards of waste resulting from decontamination and decommissioning of buildings at Portsmouth, benefits the environment, reduces the amount of land in need […]

The Savannah River Site will receive $637.1 million for liquid waste treatment and cleanup in the current fiscal year – the largest chunk of the $1.31 billion designated for the Department of Energy facility in South Carolina. The amount for liquid waste operations included in the fiscal 2018 omnibus signed last week is $37 million […]

Having already granted one contract extension, the U.S. Energy Department proposes to keep incumbent Savannah River Remediation (SRR) in charge of liquid waste management at the Savannah River Site in South Carolina into 2019. In a March 21 notice on a federal contracts website, DOE announced plans to retain SRR for up to another 10 […]

The Energy Department has proposed extending the Washington River Protection Solutions tank waste management contract at the Hanford Site in Washington state for up to one year. In a notice filed Thursday on a federal business opportunities website, DOE and its Office of River Protection at Hanford announced a proposed contract extension potentially from Oct. […]

Anne Marie White was sworn in Thursday as assistant secretary of energy for environmental management. She went to work Friday as head of the Energy Department’s Office of Environmental Management, an informed source said Friday. “It’s an honor to serve as Assistant Secretary of Energy for EM,” White said in a Friday press release from […]