Oak Ridge Reservation

Major National Nuclear Security Administration projects to modernize nuclear-weapons production infrastructure shot $2 billion past estimated budgets and are collectively overdue by nearly a decade, according to a recent report by the Government Accountability Office.  The overruns have several causes, the Government Accountability Office (GAO) said in the first of what will become biennial reports […]

A community organization focused on reindustrialization around the Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge Site in Tennessee will close up shop within two years, the group said last week. The Community Reuse Organization of East Tennessee (CROET) is starting the “orderly, planned closing of the CROET Corporation and its affiliate organization, Heritage Center, LLC,” CROET announced […]

Consolidated Nuclear Security, which operates the Y-12 National Security Site in Oak Ridge, Tenn., is seeking contractors to undertake a sweeping utilities upgrade at the site. For the Utility Upgrades and Equipment Project (UUEP), Consolidated Nuclear Security (CNS) wants a contractor to perform site demolition and preparation and installation of new utilities. CNS wants a […]

The Department of Energy, contractor United Cleanup Oak Ridge and various state and local officials broke ground Wednesday on a new $550-million low-level radioactive waste landfill at the Oak Ridge Site in Tennessee, DOE said in a press release. The new Environmental Management Disposal Facility will provide onsite disposal of debris generated as DOE continues […]

Stephen Streiffer, who is currently the interim director of a national laboratory in California, will become the new director of the Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory in Tennessee in October, Battelle announced last week. Streiffer is currently the interim head of SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory, formerly known as the Stanford Linear Accelerator Center, […]

Consolidated Nuclear Security, which operates the Y-12 National Security Site in Oak Ridge, Tenn., is seeking contractors to undertake a sweeping utilities upgrade at the site. For the Utility Upgrades and Equipment Project (UUEP), Consolidated Nuclear Security (CNS) wants a contractor to perform site demolition and preparation and installation of new utilities. CNS wants a […]

Aptim Federal Services of Baton Rouge, La., has been awarded a $68-million Department of Energy task order to take down the former Ion Beam Facility at the Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) in New Mexico, DOE said in a Thursday press release. The task order, announced by the DOE Office of Environmental Management, is to […]

A public hearing is set Aug. 8 on the environmental assessment for an Oak Ridge City airport on land conveyed to the locality by the Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge Site in Tennessee. The hearing under the National Environmental Policy Act is scheduled for 6 p.m. Eastern Time at the DoubleTree Hotel located at 215 […]

Oak Ridge, Tenn., City Council last week held video interviews with a half-dozen candidates to be city manager for the municipality, population 31,000, which borders the Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge Site. Zoom interviews with candidates to succeed City Manager Mark Watson, who retired on May 5, occurred July 17-18, according to a post on […]

A public hearing is set Aug. 8 on the environmental assessment for an Oak Ridge City airport on land conveyed to the locality by the Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge Site in Tennessee. The hearing under the National Environmental Policy Act is scheduled for 6 p.m. Eastern Time at the DoubleTree Hotel located at 215 […]

Nearly $19 billion is included in the Senate Appropriations Committee’s 2024 spending bill for National Nuclear Security Administration nuclear-weapon programs, with funding boosts for planned facilities that will process plutonium and uranium for refurbished nuclear weapons. The Appropriations Committee began marking up the Energy And Water Development Fiscal Year 2024 Appropriations Bill Thursday morning. The […]

The Department of Energy greelit operation of Saltstone Disposal Unit No. 8 at the Savannah River Site near Aiken, S.C., the agency said this week. The DOE Office of Environmental Management said in a Tuesday news release that authorization has been granted for Saltstone Disposal Unit 8 (SDU 8). It is the latest of the […]

The GOP-controlled House Appropriations Committee on Thursday approved a fiscal 2024 energy and water development spending bill that would keep funds for the Department of Energy’s Cold War and Manhattan Project cleanup at roughly $8.3 billion. The final committee vote was 34-to-24. The full House had not scheduled the bill for a vote at deadline […]

The Department of Energy favors continued reliance on Mother Nature, with monitoring and other steps, to clean up groundwater within large chunks of the former uranium enrichment property at the Oak Ridge Site in Tennessee, a federal advisory committee heard last Wednesday. Largely leaving the contamination alone and checking it regularly to “attenuate” or reduce […]

The Department of Energy favors continued reliance on Mother Nature, with monitoring and other steps, to clean up groundwater within large chunks of the former uranium enrichment property at the Oak Ridge Site in Tennessee, a federal advisory committee heard last Wednesday. Largely leaving the contamination alone and checking it regularly to “attenuate” or reduce […]

Civilian nuclear weapons programs would get a little more funding than requested in fiscal year 2024 if a bill sent to the House Appropriations Committee this week becomes law. The House Appropriations energy and water development subcommittee’s version of the Department of Energy’s fiscal 2024 spending bill would provide $48.8 billion overall for the agency, […]

One major COVID-19-related lawsuit in the Department of Energy’s weapons complex ended this week when an appeals court ruled there was nothing much to resolve while another, on the other side of the country, is restarting.  A case involving DOE’s COVID-19 vaccination policy at the Hanford Site in Washington state is effectively over, a panel […]

A House Appropriations panel led by a lawmaker with a local interest in the Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge Site in Tennessee would keep nuclear cleanup spending roughly $8.3 billion in fiscal 2024, according to a draft budget bill released Wednesday. That is about flat compared with the 2023 appropriation, and while numbers don’t change […]

The five remaining plaintiffs who sued, and then seemingly settled, a lawsuit over the Oak Ridge National Laboratory’s COVID-19 vaccination policy decided to stick with suing the lab. “The parties wish to report to the Court that they were unable to resolve this case through mediation,” and will resume active litigation, lawyers for the lab […]

SUMMERLIN, NEV. — Amentum-led United Cleanup Oak Ridge will break ground this summer on a new low-level radioactive waste landfill at the Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge Site, U.S. Rep. Chuck Fleischmann (R-Tenn.) told Exchange Monitor’s Radwaste Summit here Tuesday. “I’m proud to announce that on Aug. 2 in Oak Ridge we are going to […]

SUMMERLIN, NEV. — Amentum-led United Cleanup Oak Ridge will break ground this summer on a new low-level radioactive waste landfill at the Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge Site, U.S. Rep. Chuck Fleischmann (R-Tenn.) told Exchange Monitor’s Radwaste Summit here Tuesday. “I’m proud to announce that on Aug. 2 in Oak Ridge we are going to […]

The bipartisan debt ceiling bill, which President Joe Biden (D) signed into law on Saturday, passed the Senate Thursday with 63 affirmative votes, but it drew a lot of Republican opposition, including from members representing Department of Energy weapons complex states. Senators who voted no included Sen. Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.), Sen. Mike Crapo (R-Idaho), Sen. […]

Department of Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm and National Nuclear Security Administration head Jill Hruby are too legit to quit. In mid-May, the pair hosted former rapper and “science enthusiast” MC Hammer at the National Ignition Facility (NIF) in Livermore California.  Hruby included a photo of the three of them, along with Kim Budil, director of […]

A member of the House Appropriations Committee, Rep. Chris Stewart (R-Utah) announced plans this week to leave Congress in order to attend to his ill wife. Stewart did not reveal details of the health issues facing his wife but could resign soon, The Salt Lake Tribune reported Tuesday. “I can say with pride that I […]

A company seeking to build a small modular demonstration reactor at the Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge Site has received a qualified endorsement from a Nuclear Regulatory Commission advisory panel. Kairos Power said Thursday via Twitter the Nuclear Regulatory Commission’s (NRC) Advisory Committee on Reactor Safeguards has recommended issuance of the construction permit for the […]

Oklo, a California-based developer of small modular reactors, announced plans to build two new nuclear units near the Department of Energy’s Portsmouth Site in Ohio, according to a May 18 press release. Oklo’s commercial power plants will provide up to 30 megawatts of non-carbon emitting electric power, and more than 50 megawatts of heating, with […]

The Department of Energy’s Cincinnati-based Environmental Management Consolidated Business Center is in the market for small companies to support upcoming procurements in the weapons complex. The Environmental Management Consolidated Business Center (EMCBC) on Tuesday published a combined sources sought and request for information for small businesses designated as an Indian Tribe or Alaska Native Corporation […]

The prime contractor for the Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory in Tennessee has made its “last, best and final’ offer to settle with a handful of employees who sued over COVID-19 vaccination policy, according to recently-filed federal court papers. UT-Battelle, the University of Tennessee-Battelle venture that runs the Oak Ridge lab for DOE, […]

Oak Ridge, Tenn., City Council is expected to discuss its ongoing search for a new city manager during a regular meeting Tuesday following the May 5 retirement of Mark Watson, 68. Watson is retiring after holding the Oak Ridge post for more than a dozen years. Watson has served as a city manager in four […]

In its latest effort to expand and diversify its pipeline of future workers, the Department of Energy’s Office of Environmental Management said it is making up to $24.5 million in federal money available to its Minority Serving Institutions Partnership Program. The funding opportunity announcement should result in multiple financial assistance awards ranging from 12-36 months, […]