Archive

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.

  • SRS shoring up field rep safety oversight program, DNFSB told

    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 […]

  • Judge rejects request to fiddle with Rocky Flats hiking trail decision

    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 […]

  • Longtime Fluor CFO to retire, top accountant being promoted

    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 […]

  • West Valley working despite lake effect snow warning

    Like their beloved Buffalo Bills, workers for the Department of Energy and its cleanup contractor at the West Valley Demonstration Project in Western New York are not easily derailed by possible lake effect snow. “The snow was cleared last night and this morning; and we are operating under normal work hours,” a site spokesperson said […]

  • GAO says more work needed on DOE procurements

    When it comes to overseeing billions of dollars’ worth of federal contracts, the Department of Energy, and its two nuclear weapons complex offices, still has work to do, a congressional watchdog agency said in a Thursday report. The Government Accountability Office (GAO) report said DOE, its National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) and its Office of […]

  • GAO to rule on PPPO challenge by late February; no word on West Valley transition

    The Government Accountability Office plans to rule by Feb. 27 on a bid protest of a potentially $2.3-billion contract for the Department of Energy’s Portsmouth/Paducah Project Office. The deadline shown in the online notice reflects the Government Accountability Office (GAO) 100-day time period for deciding contract protests. Elsewhere, there had been as of deadline for […]

  • Steelworkers local prez upbeat on Portsmouth nickel

    A local union leader is optimistic that plans for a nickel recovery facility at the Department of Energy’s Portsmouth Site in Piketon, Ohio will go ahead, even though a chief congressional backer lost his reelection bid. Last month, Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio) announced the Department of Energy was entering a partnership with contractor Leidos and […]

  • GAO says more work needed on DOE procurements

    When it comes to overseeing billions of dollars’ worth of federal contracts, the Department of Energy, and its two nuclear weapons complex offices, still has work to do, a congressional watchdog agency said in a Thursday report. The Government Accountability Office (GAO) report said DOE, its National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) and its Office of […]

  • Most SRS WIPP shipments in fiscal 24 resulted from downblend program

    More than half of the transuranic waste shipments hauled away from the Department of Energy’s Savannah River Site in fiscal 2024 came from plutonium downblending, a DOE spokesperson said last week. In response to an inquiry from Exchange Monitor, the spokesperson said via email that 35 of the 59 transuranic waste shipments sent to DOE’s  […]

  • Without new contract, Hanford guards stop work pre-Thanksgiving

    News outlets in Washington state reported Tuesday members of Hanford Guards Union Local 21, which provides an armed protective force for the Department of Energy’s Hanford Site, would stop work Wednesday before Thanksgiving due to expiration of their labor contract extension. The Tri-City Herald reported the guards’ union members were “locked out” due to expiration […]

  • GOP challenger concedes race against House appropriator Kaptur

    Derek Merrin (R) a member of the Ohio legislature has formally conceded his race in Ohio’s 9th congressional district against Marcy Kaptur (D-Ohio), a member of the House Appropriations Committee and one of the longest serving incumbents in congress. “The vote is we came about 2,300 votes short” after the provisional votes were counted in […]

  • Hanford ‘weeks’ away from putting simulant waste into treatment plant

    The Waste Treatment and Immobilization Plant at the Hanford site will begin processing non-radioactive simulant waste in ‘a few weeks,’ a site spokesperson said Monday. The non-radioactive simulant, which is still chemically hazardous, is a stand-in for the liquid radioactive waste the facility was built to solidify, according to the site. Processing the non-radioactive liquid […]

  • DOE starts market research on next Paducah cleanup deal

    On the Monday before Thanksgiving, the Department of Energy kicked off its market research into the next environmental cleanup contract at the Paducah Site in Kentucky. DOE’s Office of Environmental Management published online a request for information/sources sought notice at the Paducah Gaseous Diffusion Plant complex in Western Kentucky. Responses to the Paducah Deactivation and […]

  • Steelworkers local prez upbeat on Portsmouth nickel

    A local union leader is optimistic that plans for a nickel recovery facility at the Department of Energy’s Portsmouth Site in Piketon, Ohio will go ahead, even though a chief congressional backer lost his reelection bid. Last month, Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio) announced the Department of Energy was entering a partnership with contractor Leidos and […]

  • GAO says more work needed on DOE procurements

    When it comes to overseeing billions of dollars’ worth of federal contracts, the Department of Energy, and its two nuclear weapons complex offices, still has work to do, a congressional watchdog agency said in a Thursday report. The Government Accountability Office (GAO) report said DOE, its National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) and its Office of […]

  • Wrap up: SRS center nearly done; AP dubs Kaptur winner in Ohio; NGA chart looks at radwaste terms; Ex-fed joins HII

    The Advanced Manufacturing Collaborative project being built at the University of South Carolina-Aiken is 85% complete, the top nuclear cleanup official for the Department of Energy’s Savannah River Site told a federal advisory board Monday. “It will be open for operation come the summer of 2025,” Michael Budney, who leads the Department of Energy’s Office […]

  • WIPP handles 29 shipments in October, down slightly from 2023 pace

    The Department of Energy’s Waste Isolation Pilot Plant near Carlsbad, N.M., received 29 shipments of defense-related transuranic waste during October, according to figures posted on the facility’s public website. There were 24 shipments from the Idaho National Laboratory, four from the Savannah River Site in South Carolina and one from the Los Alamos National Laboratory […]

  • Trump plans to nominate fossil exec, nuclear-startup board member to head DOE

    Multiple national news organizations reported Saturday President-elect Donald Trump intends to nominate Chris Wright, CEO and founder of Liberty Energy, a Denver-based oilfield services company, to be the next secretary of energy. According to his Liberty biography, Wright is a self-described “tech nerd” who previously founded Pinnacle Technologies in the 1990s, a company involved in […]

  • Trump plans to nominate fossil exec, nuclear-startup board member to head DOE

    Multiple national news organizations reported last week that President-elect Donald Trump intends to nominate Chris Wright, CEO and founder of Liberty Energy, a Denver-based oilfield services company, to be the next secretary of energy. According to his Liberty biography, Wright is a self-described “tech nerd” who previously founded Pinnacle Technologies in the 1990s, a company involved […]

  • DOE spent fuel official says industry should back independent waste agency

    A bill that would create a nuclear waste agency outside the Department of Energy has “good bones” and could be a rallying point for the nuclear industry, a federal official said Wednesday. The bill, filed Sept. 24 by Reps. Mike Levin (D-Calif.) and August Pfleuger (R-Texas), is the latest legislative pitch to remove management of spent […]

  • Helene complicated EM’s final days as Savannah River landlord

    Hurricane Helene gave the Department of Energy’s Office of Environmental Management one last emergency to deal with at the Savannah River Site in South Carolina before turning over control of the property to the National Nuclear Security Administration, a cleanup manager said Monday. Hurricane Helene “made for an interesting final weekend” before the cleanup office […]

  • GAO urges DOE to seek waivers on drinking water remediation standards

    To contain the multibillion-dollar costs of cleaning up contaminated groundwater, the Department of Energy planned to implement recommendations from the Government Accountability Office by April 2027. Candice Trummel, senior advisor for DOE’s Office of Environmental Management, informed the Government Accountability Office (GAO) of the decision in a letter appended to a GAO report released this […]

  • Jacobs highlights ownership stake in new, public Amentum

    Dallas-based Jacobs Solutions this week praised the Sept. 27 completion of the spinoff of its government contracting and cyber-intelligence businesses, which leaves Jacobs and its shareholders as key owners of the new publicly-traded Amentum Holdings. The September transition, known as a Reverse Morris Trust transaction, where some assets are moved to a third party, in […]

  • Trump plans to nominate fossil exec, nuclear-startup board member to head DOE

    Multiple national news organizations reported Saturday President-elect Donald Trump intends to nominate Chris Wright, CEO and founder of Liberty Energy, a Denver-based oilfield services company, to be the next secretary of energy. According to his Liberty biography, Wright is a self-described “tech nerd” who previously founded Pinnacle Technologies in the 1990s, a company involved in […]

  • Boston Government Services appoints senior biz vp

    Oak Ridge, Tenn.,-based Boston Government Services has hired Bernie Boucher as its senior vice president for business development, the company said this week. After spending 21 years in the U.S. Army, Boucher was most recently a vice president with CACI International in Reston, Va. Boucher has also worked in a business development post with Northrop […]

  • Bid protest filed in Portsmouth/Paducah ops, DUF6 award

    At least one protest was filed over the Department of Energy’s decision this month to award an Atkins-led team $2.3 billion of work at the agency’s Portsmouth and Paducah sites. A limited liability corporation called Mission Operations Alliance filed a bid protest Tuesday with the Government Accountability Office (GAO), according to an online notice. Two […]

  • Anti-nuclear advocacy group seeks partial relief from Rocky Flats order

    Having lost its request for an injunction blocking public access to a hiking trail on property once part of the Rocky Flats nuclear weapons plant in Colorado, Physicians for Social Responsibility wants a federal court to revise part of its earlier order. The plaintiffs assert U.S. District Judge Timothy Kelly was premature in approving “the […]

  • WCS again tapped for DOE elemental mercury storage

    Waste Control Specialists of Andrews, Texas has been awarded a Department of Energy contract worth up to $17.8 million over five years for long-term management and storage of elemental mercury. DOE’s Office of Environmental Management said in a Thursday press release Waste Control Specialists (WCS) will provide DOE with a lease-hold interest in a container […]

  • Washington Ecology, DOE agree to new steps on leaking tanks

    Feds and state regulators at the Department of Energy’s Hanford Site in Washington state have agreed on new steps to address leaking tanks of radioactive waste, including a new presumed leaker acknowledged in August. The steps include more leak detection and reconsidering the date for emptying a leaky tank. The deal announced this week between […]

  • DOE spent fuel official says industry should back independent waste agency

    A bill that would create a nuclear waste agency outside the Department of Energy has “good bones” and could be a rallying point for the nuclear industry, a federal official said Wednesday. The bill, filed Sept. 24 by Reps. Mike Levin (D-Calif.) and August Pfleuger (R-Texas), is the latest legislative pitch to remove management of […]