Oak Ridge Reservation

While the Department of Energy’s latest environmental review of the problem picked no preferred site for long-term storage of elemental mercury, the feds favor placing the metal in an existing facility that could accept the material quickly. “Because statutory milestone dates have now passed, DOE needs to designate a facility and begin accepting elemental mercury […]

The Department of Energy has issued an enforcement letter to an Amentum-Jacobs joint venture and its subcontractor GEM Technologies over “concerns with improper asbestos exposure monitoring” during cleanup at the Y-12 National Security Complex’s Mouse House. The DOE’s Office of Enforcement, however, plans no additional action against URS-CH2M Oak Ridge (UCOR) or GEM over asbestos […]

The Department of Energy has issued an enforcement letter to an Amentum-Jacobs joint venture and its subcontractor GEM Technologies over “concerns with improper asbestos exposure monitoring” during cleanup at the Y-12 National Security Complex’s Mouse House. The DOE’s Office of Enforcement, however, plans no additional action against URS-CH2M Oak Ridge (UCOR) or GEM over asbestos […]

Six employees at the Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory in Tennessee have settled their lawsuit contesting the COVID-19 vaccination policy implemented by prime contractor UT-Battelle, according to documents filed in federal court this week. U.S. District Judge Charles Atchley Jr. officially closed the books on the case in a single-page order Tuesday, citing […]

Six employees at the Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory in Tennessee have agreed to settle their lawsuit contesting the COVID-19 vaccination policy implemented by prime contractor UT-Battelle, according to a document filed in federal court Monday. In a one-page “mediator’s report to the court” attorney Chadwick Hatmaker of the Knoxville law firm Woolf-McClane, […]

SUMMERLIN, NEV. — The existing low-level hazardous waste landfill at the Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge Site in Tennessee is likely to hit capacity before its replacement is ready in 2029, a manager with prime contractor United Cleanup Oak Ridge said here Thursday. There are probably about five more years left on the existing Environmental […]

SUMMERLIN, NEV. — Started during the Manhattan Project days of the 1940s, nuclear technology continues to figure into plans for re-industrialization of the Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge Site in Tennessee, attendees at the Radwaste Summit heard here Wednesday. Laura Wilkerson, DOE’s acting manager for the Oak Ridge Office of Environmental Management and Kevin Ironside, […]

United Cleanup Oak Ridge this week started work under the Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge Reservation Cleanup Contract, potentially worth up to $8.3 billion over 10 years. The Amentum-led United Cleanup Oak Ridge (UROR) includes partners Jacobs Engineering and Honeywell International with teaming subcontractors RSI EnTech, Strata-G, Longnecker & Associates and Environmental Alternatives. The company […]

United Cleanup Oak Ridge this week started work under the Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge Reservation Cleanup Contract, potentially worth up to $8.3 billion over 10 years. The Amentum-led United Cleanup Oak Ridge (UROR) includes partners Jacobs Engineering and Honeywell International with teaming subcontractors RSI EnTech, Strata-G, Longnecker & Associates and Environmental Alternatives. The company […]

The state of Tennessee kicked off a comment period this week about a long-debated low-level radioactive waste landfill at the Oak Ridge Site, which would replace one expected to reach capacity this decade, a citizens’ advisory board heard Wednesday. The comment period on the planned Environmental Management Disposal Facility (EMDF) began Monday and runs through […]

The state of Tennessee kicked off a comment period this week about a long-debated low-level radioactive waste landfill at the Oak Ridge Site, which would replace one expected to reach capacity this decade, a citizens’ advisory board heard Wednesday. The comment period on the planned Environmental Management Disposal Facility (EMDF) began Monday and runs through […]

The Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board this week added three new resident inspectors to monitor safety at Department of Energy sites in Oak Ridge, Tenn., and Los Alamos, N.M. Clinton Jones is a new resident inspector for DOE’s Y-12 National Security Complex and Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL), the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board (DNFSB) […]

The budget for the Department of Energy’s Office of Environmental Management could swell to almost $8.4 billion by fiscal 2027, according to projections included in President Joe Biden’s detailed justification for the fiscal 2023 request. The DOE requested over $7.6 billion for fiscal 2023, which is relatively flat with fiscal 2022 that ends Sept. 30. […]

After the government won a key legal battle last week, the U.S. Department of Justice said Monday that the Fifth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals should allow it to enforce a presidential executive order requiring federal employees to get vaccinated against COVID-19. On April 7 the New Orleans-based 5th Circuit overturned a nationwide preliminary injunction […]

A lawsuit against the Department of Energy’s prime contractor at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory over a COVID-19 vaccination mandate is on hold pending settlement talks, a federal judge in Tennessee said Monday. U.S. District Judge Charles Atchley Jr. stayed all further proceedings in the case, brought by a half-dozen vaccine holdouts against contractor UT-Battelle, […]

Plaintiffs suing the Department of Energy’s prime contractor at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory in Tennessee over COVID-19 vaccination requirements for employees are interested in settling the case, according to a filing last week in federal court. “Plaintiffs believe that this case is well-situated for settlement discussions,” according to an April 5 status report filed […]

Construction of the 200 Mercury Treatment Facility at the Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge Site in Tennessee is now 40% complete, an agency spokesperson said by email Wednesday. The project includes building a treatment facility, headworks facility, and a 3,000-foot pipeline connecting the two facilities.  “Crews are currently installing floors and walls at the treatment […]

Construction of the 200 Mercury Treatment Facility at the Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge Site in Tennessee is now 40% complete, an agency spokesperson said by email Wednesday. The project includes building a treatment facility, headworks facility, and a 3,000-foot pipeline connecting the two facilities.  “Crews are currently installing floors and walls at the treatment […]

While the Joe Biden administration’s 2023 budget request would trim spending at the Hanford Site in Washington state relative to the omnibus 2022 budget passed in early March, other major cleanup sites would get year-over-year increases if Congress enacts the request. According to a Department of Energy budget in brief published Tuesday, the Richland Operations […]

UCOR, the Amentum-Jacobs partnership in charge of remediation at the Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge Site in Tennessee, earned 98% of total potential fee or $24.7 million, during a seven-month period ended Oct. 31, according to a scorecard released this week. The contractor, being succeeded by a joint venture made up of Amentum, Jacobs and […]

With declining demand for employee vaccination against COVID-19, the occupational medical provider serving the Department of Energy’s Hanford Site in Washington Site will soon be offering only one option, Moderna, for initial inoculations or booster shots. The provider of occupational medical services, HMP Corp. (HMPC), is dropping the Pfizer shot after March 24 and discontinuing […]

UCOR, the Amentum-Jacobs partnership in charge of remediation at the Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge Site in Tennessee, earned 98% of total potential fee or $24.7 million, during a seven-month period ended Oct. 31, according to a scorecard released this week. The contractor, being succeeded by a joint venture made up of Amentum, Jacobs and […]

PHOENIX — After finishing major demolition and remediation last fall of the Y-12 National Security Complex’s Biology center or “mouse house,” the Department of Energy cleanup contractor is “very close” to turning the property back to Y-12 prime Consolidated Nuclear Services, a speaker told the Waste Management Symposia session Wednesday. “It is imminent,” Tommy Morgan, […]

A federal judge in Knoxville overseeing litigation brought by a half-dozen employees refusing vaccination against COVID-19 at the Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory, has called for parties in the case to confer with him by telephone March 25. U.S. District Judge Charles Atchley Jr. issued an order Monday setting the scheduling conference in […]

The Department of Energy last week issued Amentum-led United Cleanup Oak Ridge its 90-day notice-to-proceed on its potential $8.3-billion, long-term Oak Ridge Reservation Cleanup Contract in Tennessee, a DOE spokesperson said this week in an email. The actual transition begins for  United Cleanup Oak Ridge (UCOR), made up of Amentum, Jacobs and Honeywell, on Feb. […]

The Department of Energy last week issued Amentum-led United Cleanup Oak Ridge its 90-day notice-to-proceed on its potential $8.3-billion, long-term Oak Ridge Reservation Cleanup Contract in Tennessee, a DOE spokesperson said in a Tuesday email. The actual transition begins for  United Cleanup Oak Ridge (UCOR), made up of Amentum, Jacobs and Honeywell, on Feb. 28, […]

Expanding on its decision last week to deny a protest of the Department of Energy’s most recent cleanup contract at the Oak Ridge Site, the Government Accountability Office said this week that the agency properly vetted a Veolia-led team’s proposal and took into consideration the team’s relevant past experience with cleanup jobs. The agency’s evaluation […]

Expanding on its decision last week to deny a protest of the Department of Energy’s most recent cleanup contract at the Oak Ridge Site, the Government Accountability Office said Monday that the agency properly vetted a Veolia-led team’s proposal and took into consideration the team’s relevant past experience with cleanup jobs. The agency’s evaluation was […]

Six employees at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory who refused COVID-19 vaccine are assured of their day in court after obtaining a right to sue from a federal agency, the judge in the case confirmed this week. The six plaintiffs filed an amended complaint Jan. 4 against the University of Tennessee- Battelle partnership (UT-Battelle) operating […]

The Government Accountability Office has denied a protest by a group called Oak Ridge Environmental Partners that challenged the Department of Energy’s  $8.3-billion Cleanup Contract issued in October to United Cleanup Oak Ridge, a team led by Amentum and Jacobs, the current incumbents at the Tennessee site. A Government Accountability Office (GAO) notice dated Tuesday […]