Department of Energy

An executive with the Department of Energy’s National Renewable Energy Laboratory in Colorado, Johney Green, will be the new head of the Savannah River National Laboratory in South Carolina, Battelle said last week. Battelle Savannah River Alliance said in a Dec. 13 press release it chose Green, the associate laboratory director for mechanical and thermal […]

The Senate on Monday easily cleared a procedural hurdle to tee up a vote on an annual defense policy bill while the House prepared for a vote on another stopgap budget. The Senate voted 83 to 12 to end debate on a version of the 2025 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) that drew widespread, though […]

The Department of Energy’s landlord contractor at the Hanford Site in Washington state said Friday its recent proposal to unionized guards, locked out since Thanksgiving, is not likely to get much different. The proposal voted down by Hanford Guards Union Local 21 earlier this month represented “our best and final offer,” a spokesperson for Leidos-led […]

Before government types and contractors around the Department of Energy complex clear out for the winter holidays, many still have items to check off their 2024 to-do lists. Here are a few: Dec. 19: Is the deadline for responses to an Office of Environmental Management request for information on Deactivation and Remediation work at the […]

Members of Hanford Guards Union Local 21 voted down the latest contract proposal Dec. 6 from the landlord contractor at the Department of Energy’s Hanford Site in Washington state, as the labor dispute entered a third week. As of Thursday, neither the Hanford Guards Union nor Hanford Mission Integration Solutions (HMIS) reported much headway in […]

Businesses interested in leasing warehouse space for the Department of Energy’s Hanford Site in Washington state now have until Dec. 30 to formally express interest in a deal with the Leidos-led landlord contractor at the nuclear cleanup site. Hanford Mission Integration Solutions (HMIS) initially published an online procurement notice Nov. 23 seeking a lease on […]

As of Dec. 8, the New Mexico Environment Department has 37 pages of emails with comments on the Department of Energy’s plan to define legacy transuranic waste for disposal at DOE’s deep underground disposal site near Carlsbad, N.M. Dec. 8 is roughly mid-way in the public comment period that runs through Jan. 3, on DOE’s […]

With time expiring soon on this congressional session, a longtime federal manager is still awaiting Senate confirmation to the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board. The nomination of William “Ike” White to the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board (DNFSB) was unanimously endorsed by the Senate Armed Services Committee in September. The full Senate has yet to […]

Mission Operations Alliance, a limited liability corporation, has filed a second bid protest with the Government Accountability Office over the Department of Energy’s $2.3-billion award to an Atkins-led group at former uranium enrichment sites in Ohio and Kentucky. The latest bid protest by the Bechtel-led Mission Operations Alliance was filed Dec. 6 with the Government […]

The Department of Energy said Monday it added half a dozen companies to an indefinite-quantity, indefinite contract to supply low-enriched uranium for commercial nuclear power generation. The contract has a total value of $3.4 billion over 10 years. Each company will get at least a task order worth $2 million, DOE said in its solicitation for […]

Concern over farmland damage by elk around the Department of Energy’s Idaho National Laboratory has federal and state authorities considering a plan to widen the hunting boundary around the DOE complex. DOE, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), and the Idaho Department of Environmental Quality are in the midst of a 30-day comment period on […]

Defense Environmental Cleanup, the largest pot of funding for DOE’s Office of Environmental Management, would be authorized for a little more than $7 billion under the defense policy bill. That’s roughly the amount requested by the Biden administration. The bill gives DOE authority to accelerate nuclear cleanup in instances when doing so would benefit modernization […]

The Department of Energy’s legacy cleanup contractor at the Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico is having its final two-year option picked up by DOE’s Office of Environmental Management, the Huntington Ingalls Industries-led venture said Thursday. Newport News Nuclear BWXT-Los Alamos (N3B) said in a press release DOE is picking up its second and […]

The Department of Energy’s landlord contractor at the Portsmouth Site in Ohio last week signed a new contract with United Steelworkers members at the former gaseous diffusion plant, a union representative said Tuesday. A group of about 65 United Steelworkers (USW) Local 689 members ratified a new contract with North Wind Dynamics on Wednesday, Dec. […]

With field work done, a groundwater monitoring study is underway for a new low-level radioactive waste landfill being built at the Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge Site in Tennessee, DOE said Tuesday. Earlier this year, 30 acres were cleared and roads rerouted so subcontractor CTI and Associates can study groundwater at the site of the […]

As of Dec. 1, the New Mexico Environment Department has 27 pages of emails with comments on the Department of Energy’s plan to define legacy transuranic waste for disposal at DOE’s deep underground disposal site near Carlsbad, N.M. Most early comments are from individuals, not organizations, but follow a similar theme. Some commenters say the […]

Mission Operations Alliance, a limited liability corporation, has filed a second bid protest with the Government Accountability Office over the Department of Energy’s $2.3-billion award to an Atkins-led group at former uranium enrichment sites in Ohio and Kentucky. The latest bid protest by the Bechtel-led Mission Operations Alliance was filed Dec. 6 with the Government […]

The Department of Energy said Monday it added half a dozen companies to an indefinite-quantity, indefinite contract to supply low-enriched uranium for commercial nuclear power generation.  The contract has a total value of $3.4 billion over 10 years. Each company will get at least a task order worth $2 million, DOE said in its solicitation […]

The Department of Energy’s landlord contractor at the Portsmouth Site in Ohio last week signed a new contract with United Steelworkers members at the former gaseous diffusion plant, a union representative said Tuesday. A group of about 65 United Steelworkers (USW) Local 689 members ratified a new contract with North Wind Dynamics on Wednesday, Dec. […]

Rep. Brett Guthrie (R-Ky.) will chair the House Energy and Commerce Committee in the 119th session of Congress, beginning in January, the committee announced Monday. The Energy and Commerce committee authorizes and oversees civilian nuclear programs at the Department of Energy. Guthrie has represented Kentucky’s second congressional district since 2009. The western edge of the […]

Concern over farmland damage by elk around the Department of Energy’s Idaho National Laboratory has federal and state authorities considering a plan to widen the hunting boundary around the DOE complex. DOE, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), and the Idaho Department of Environmental Quality are in the midst of a 30-day comment period on […]

EnergySolutions, Salt Lake City, will consider putting nuclear reactors under development at Terrestrial Energy, a Charlotte, N.C., on some of the Utah-based company’s sites, the companies said Wednesday. In a joint press release, the companies said they signed a memorandum of understanding “to collaborate on the siting and deployment of Integral Molten Salt Reactor (IMSR) […]

A lake effect snow warning continues in effect into Saturday morning for the area around the West Valley Demonstration Project nuclear cleanup site in Western New York. New snow accumulations on Friday and into Saturday morning could range from 7 to  15 inches,, according to the forecast for West Valley, N.Y., about 35 miles south […]

The BWX Technologies-led joint venture assuming responsibility for managing liquid waste at the Department of Energy’s Hanford Site in Washington state has scheduled a couple of employee transition meetings for January. The sessions, announced in a Nov. 20 post on the Hanford Tank Waste Operations & Closure (H2C) website, will be set for Jan. 15 […]

Cotter Corporation and other defendants last week asked the full U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit to reconsider whether litigation should be allowed to go forward by two sisters who blame their cancer on St. Louis area radioactive contamination dating to the Manhattan Project. The petition for rehearing was filed Nov. 27 by […]

A federal judge in Washington, D.C., has refused a request by Physicians for Social Responsibility and other groups to fix what they deem a mistake in an earlier ruling concerning a public hiking trail near where the Rocky Flats nuclear weapons plant in Colorado once stood. Physicians for Social Responsibility (PSR) and other plaintiffs asked […]

The Department of Energy’s nuclear weapons complex has entered fiscal 2025 facing more than a half-trillion dollars in environmental liability, the rising threat of cyber-attack and the need to revive plutonium pit production. Those are a few takeaways in a DOE Office of Inspector General (OIG) management challenges report about the department’s Office of Environmental […]

Locked out for more than a week, Hanford Guards Union Local 21 members were to vote Friday on a new contract with the Department of Energy’s landlord for the Hanford Site in Washington state, a union official said Thursday.. Local 21 President Chris Hall told Exchange Monitor via email the union will vote on a […]

Fluor’s longtime chief financial officer and executive vice president Joe Brennan plans to retire July 1, 2025 after more than three decades with the Irving, Texas-based government contractor. Fluor announced Brennan’s planned departure in a Monday press release, adding he will be replaced by the company’s chief accounting officer, John Regan. Regan, currently chief accounting […]

Department of Energy management at the Savannah River Site told a federal safety watchdog last month steps are underway to strengthen oversight by departmental facility representatives at the nuclear complex in South Carolina. The DOE Office of Environmental Management is employing “trending analysis” and improving collaboration and training for its facility representatives at the Savannah […]