Department of Energy

A magnitude 2.8 earthquake hit an area near the Department of Energy’s Hanford Site in Washington State on Saturday, according to federal data. The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) said the quake hit about 2.5 miles south of Richland, Wash., which is itself about 15 miles south by road from Hanford’s southern gate. It was a […]

Kathryn Huff will leave the Department of Energy on May 3, only days before what would have concluded her third year at the top of the Office of Nuclear Energy. Huff shared the news in an email, which the Exchange Monitor saw on Monday. Her departure was first reported by Politico. Mike Goff, Huff’s deputy, will become acting […]

The Legacy Mine Cleanup Bill, co-sponsored by Sens. Mark Kelly (D-Ariz.) and Cynthia Lummis (R-Wyo.), passed the Senate Monday in a voice vote. The legislation would make permanent a special Western office with the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to help coordinate reclamation of abandoned hardrock mines, including legacy uranium sites, according to online data on […]

A New Mexico resident is suing the Department of Energy’s Sandia National Laboratories for slander, defamation, violation of the Freedom of Information Act and — causing the breakup of his 28-year marriage. William Gardner, who is representing himself, filed the action against DOE and Sandia last month. Gardner claims DOE falsely accused him of criminal […]

Republican Jerrod Sessler, who is again mounting a primary challenge to Rep. Dan Newhouse (R-Wash.), picked up an expected albeit influential endorsement Friday from former president and presumptive GOP 2024 presidential nominee Donald Trump. Newhouse, who has used his House Appropriations Committee post to push for greater nuclear cleanup funding for the Department of Energy’s […]

The Department of Energy has approved its latest jumbo-sized saltstone disposal unit for operation at the Savannah River Site in South Carolina, the agency said Tuesday. Saltstone Disposal Unit 9 (SDU 9) is the fourth such mega unit built at Savannah River to hold up to 33 million gallons of saltstone, DOE said in a […]

The Department of Energy’s Waste Isolation Pilot Plant in New Mexico, coming out of a maintenance outage, received 23 shipments of transuranic waste during the last half of March, according to online data. Because of the extended maintenance outage, which kept the underground salt mine offline all of February, shipment only resumed March 15. The […]

After more than three years and one near-settlement, the final plaintiff suing the Department of Energy prime managing the Oak Ridge National Laboratory in Tennessee has settled her case in federal court over COVID-19 vaccination policy. On Friday, U.S. District Judge Charles Atchley formally dismissed the case by plaintiff Jessica Bilyeu after Bilyeu notified the […]

Federal and state agencies could soon provide details about a new conceptual agreement for cleanup at the Department of Energy’s Hanford Site in Washington state, Sen. Maria Cantwell (D-Wash.), said Tuesday. Cantwell spoke during a Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee hearing on DOE’s fiscal 2025 budget request. The conceptual agreement, announced in May 2023, […]

Strategic Management Solutions, a small contractor for the Department of Energy and its National Nuclear Security Administration, has been acquired by a Louisiana-based private equity management firm led by a former Shaw Group executive. The purchase of Strategic Management Solutions, LLC (SMSI) was announced Tuesday in a press release by Bernhard Capital Partners. The buyer […]

Local officials in Western Kentucky said Wednesday the Department of Energy is picking up its remaining two-year option on its Deactivation and Remediation Contract with Jacobs-led Four River Nuclear Partnership at the Paducah Site. Four Rivers, a joint venture that also includes Fluor and BWX Technologies, currently has a $1.7-billion contract that started in June […]

An expert review team led by Inés Triay, a former head of the Department of Energy’s nuclear cleanup branch, hopes to have most of its research done by this fall on a chromium plume at the Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico. “We think we can finish this endeavor by the end of the […]

The Department of Energy has issued its final request for qualifications for clean energy projects on 9,000 acres of land above its underground disposal site for transuranic waste in New Mexico. Responses to the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) request for qualifications for carbon-free energy projects of at least 200 megawatts are due by 11:59 […]

The Department of Energy Thursday published its justification to extend the incumbent decommissioning contractor at the Portsmouth Site in Ohio until Sept. 30. The move to extend Fluor-BWXT Portsmouth six months from April 1 to Sept. 30 was expected. The agency announced its intention just after Christmas. DOE published its justification for extending the incumbent […]

Local officials in Western Kentucky said Wednesday the Department of Energy is picking up its remaining two-year option on its Deactivation and Remediation Contract with Jacobs-led Four River Nuclear Partnership at the Paducah Site. Four Rivers, a joint venture that also includes Fluor and BWX Technologies, currently has a $1.7-billion contract that started in June […]

The Department of Energy has approved its latest jumbo-sized saltstone disposal unit for operation at the Savannah River Site in South Carolina, the agency said Tuesday. Saltstone Disposal Unit 9 (SDU 9) is the fourth such mega unit built at Savannah River to hold up to 33 million gallons of saltstone, DOE said in a […]

Federal and state agencies could soon provide details about a new conceptual agreement for cleanup at the Department of Energy’s Hanford Site in Washington state, Sen. Maria Cantwell (D-Wash.), said Tuesday. Cantwell spoke during a Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee hearing on DOE’s fiscal 2025 budget request. The conceptual agreement, announced in May 2023, […]

In a Tuesday hearing, Sen. John Barrasso (R-Wyo.) requested, but did not get, a promise from the Secretary of Energy that President Joe Biden (D) would follow rules in a House-passed bill if his administration bans imports of Russian uranium. “If the administration does impose its own ban on Russian uranium imports, will you commit […]

After more than three years and one near-settlement, the final plaintiff suing the Department of Energy prime managing the Oak Ridge National Laboratory in Tennessee has settled her case in federal court over COVID-19 vaccination policy. On Friday, U.S. District Judge Charles Atchley formally dismissed the case by plaintiff Jessica Bilyeu after Bilyeu notified the […]

The Legacy Mine Cleanup Bill, co-sponsored by Sens. Mark Kelly (D-Ariz.) and Cynthia Lummis (R-Wyo.), passed the Senate Monday in a voice vote. The legislation would make permanent a special Western office with the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to help coordinate reclamation of abandoned hardrock mines, including legacy uranium sites, according to online data on […]

The Department of Energy announced April 11 in a Federal Register notice it is renewing the Environmental Management Site-Specific Advisory Board for two more years. The board, set up under the Federal Advisory Committee Act, offers local advice on nuclear cleanup-related issues to DOE’s assistant secretary for environmental management. The renewal was effective April 8, […]

Tennessee-based Boston Government Services said Monday it has hired a Leidos executive, Darrell Graddy, as chief strategy officer. Graddy spent eight years in Leidos involved in business development and project management and also spent 30 years in management roles at Lockheed Martin, Boston Government Services said in the press release. According to the release, Graddy […]

The Department of Energy’s Waste Isolation Pilot Plant in New Mexico, coming out of a maintenance outage, received 23 shipments of transuranic waste during the last half of March, according to online data. Because of the extended maintenance outage, which kept the underground salt mine offline all of February, shipment only resumed March 15. The […]

Inés Triay, one-time head of the Department of Energy’s nuclear cleanup branch, will discuss the hexavalent chromium plume at the Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico this week. Triay, currently interim dean of the College of Engineering and Computing at Florida International University, is leading an expert review team on the longstanding chromium plume […]

Kathryn Huff will leave the Department of Energy on May 3, only days before what would have concluded her third year at the top of the Office of Nuclear Energy. Huff shared the news in an email, which the Exchange Monitor saw on Monday. Her departure was first reported by Politico. Mike Goff, Huff’s deputy, […]

A New Mexico resident is suing the Department of Energy’s Sandia National Laboratories for slander, defamation, violation of the Freedom of Information Act and — causing the breakup of his 28-year marriage. William Gardner, who is representing himself, filed the action against DOE and Sandia last month. Gardner claims DOE falsely accused him of criminal […]

Republican Jerrod Sessler, who is again mounting a primary challenge to Rep. Dan Newhouse (R-Wash.), picked up an expected albeit influential endorsement Friday from former president and presumptive GOP 2024 presidential nominee Donald Trump. Newhouse, who has used his House Appropriations Committee post to push for greater nuclear cleanup funding for the Department of Energy’s […]

The Department of Energy plans to use Aptim, one of nine companies selected in a national solicitation in 2020, as its decommissioning and demolition contractor for Building 281 at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in California. DOE published a justification for not doing additional competitive bidding for the work, worth up to $22.1 million, in […]

The Department of Energy’s prime contractor for the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant is asking the New Mexico Environment Department for certain permit modifications, including approval of four new shielded containers suitable for carrying remote-handled transuranic waste. DOE and Bechtel’s Salado Isolation Mining Contractors filed the Hazardous Waste Facility Permit modification document with the state March […]

The Department of Energy is giving bidders on the $2.9-billion Portsmouth / Paducah Project Office (PPPO) Operations and Site Mission Support contract until April 17 to tweak their proposals, sources tell Exchange Monitor. The contract will cover running depleted uranium hexafluoride conversion plants in Ohio and Kentucky, among other things. April 17 is the deadline […]