Oak Ridge Reservation

After ordering a temporary halt to a few COVID-19 vaccine-related firings at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory last week, a federal judge was scheduled to hear arguments next week about whether to extend the firing moratorium, according to court papers. U.S. District Judge Charles Atchley in the Eastern District of Tennessee issued a temporary restraining […]

Mark Gilbertson, one of the top supervisors at the Department of Energy’s nuclear cleanup branch, is calling it a career at the end of the month, the agency said Tuesday. Gilbertson, currently associate principal deputy assistant secretary for regulatory and policy affairs, is retiring after 25 years at the DOE Office of Environmental Management (EM) […]

The Department of Energy will solicit more public input this fall on plans for a new low-level waste landfill, the Environmental Management Disposal Facility project, at the Oak Ridge Site in Tennessee, before issuing an updated draft of its record of decision in December, according to an agency spokesperson. The DOE Office of Environmental Management […]

Vaccination holdouts at two of the first Department of Energy contractors to mandate COVID-19 vaccinations filed lawsuits against their employers, pleas are being made to elected officials on behalf of those who don’t want the shot and labor unions are wrangling with management at nuclear sites about mandate implementation. Those are a few highlights from […]

As of Sept. 30, the Department of Energy’s Office of Environmental Management has recorded more than 6,900 cases of COVID-19 and dozens of fatalities within the weapons complex since the pandemic began, according to data provided Friday by a spokesperson. The number of deaths is now 41 among federal and contractor employees in the DOE […]

The Department of Energy should award a new long-term contract for cleanup of the Oak Ridge Site in Tennessee by the end of the year, agency officials said at an annual conference sponsored by the Energy Technology and Environmental Business Association Wednesday. Angela Watmore, the acting deputy assistant secretary for acquisition and project management for […]

The Department of Energy should award a new long-term contract for cleanup of the Oak Ridge Site in Tennessee by the end of the year, agency officials told an annual conference sponsored by the Energy Technology and Environmental Business Association Wednesday. Angela Watmore, the acting deputy assistant secretary for acquisition and project management for the […]

Barry Goss, who founded Professional Project Services, or Pro2Serve, 25 years ago, is stepping down next week as the CEO although he will remain as a non-executive chairman of the board, the federal government contractor said in a Thursday press release. Mark DeGraff, a 20-year Pro2Serve employee, was to succeed Goss as CEO on Monday. […]

A second draft of the Department of Energy’s Record of Decision to build a new on-site landfill for low-level radioactive waste at the Oak Ridge Site in Tennessee is now expected in mid-October, the agency said late recently. Originally slated to appear this week, publication of the updated draft has been pushed back until mid-October […]

Construction of a plant to treat mercury-laden water stemming from building demolition at the Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge Site in Tennessee is more than a third complete, an agency spokesperson said Tuesday. Construction of the Outfall 200 Mercury Treatment Facility by a joint venture of Louisiana-based APTIM and Idaho-based North Wind is about 35% […]

Construction of a plant to treat mercury-laden water stemming from building demolition at the Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge Site in Tennessee is more than a third complete, an agency spokesperson said Tuesday. Construction of the Outfall 200 Mercury Treatment Facility by a joint venture of Louisiana-based APTIM and Idaho-based North Wind is about 35% […]

After recording one of its busier months in more than a year, shipments of transuranic waste to the Department of Energy’s underground disposal site near Carlsbad, N.M., declined in August. Data available Monday on the DOE’s public website for the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) show only seven shipments during August, with the most recent […]

A second draft of the Department of Energy’s Record of Decision to build a new on-site landfill for low-level radioactive waste at the Oak Ridge Site in Tennessee is now expected in mid-October, the agency said late last week. Originally slated to appear this week, publication of the updated draft has been pushed back until […]

Preliminary figures show the liquid waste cleanup contractor at the Department of Energy’s Savannah River Site in South Carolina has roughly two-thirds of its workforce vaccinated against COVID-19, a spokesman said Friday. The numbers are not final because DOE certification of vaccination forms were not due until Friday, a spokesman for Amentum-led Savannah River Remediation […]

Six weeks after telling unvaccinated feds and contractors to wear masks and be tested regularly for COVID-19, President Joe Biden Thursday took things a step further and said such workers must either take the vaccine or find another job.   “If you want to work with the federal government, do business with us, get vaccinated,” Biden […]

Given the shrinking chances of Congress agreeing on fiscal year 2022 appropriations by the end of the month, the Joe Biden administration on Tuesday requested that any continuing resolution Congress passes to extend 2021 budgets protect the short-term operations of the Department of Energy’s uranium enrichment cleanups. As Weapons Complex Monitor has reported, the government […]

A federal court mediation deadline of Sept. 16 has been set for a long time worker at the Department of Energy’s Savannah River Site in South Carolina who sued operations contractor Savannah River Nuclear Solutions last year under the Americans With Disabilities Act. Attorneys for Richard Lusby, who initially filed his case in a South […]

Given the shrinking chances of Congress agreeing on fiscal year 2022 appropriations by the end of the month, the Joe Biden administration on Tuesday requested that any continuing resolution Congress passes to extend 2021 budgets protect the short-term operations of the Department of Energy’s uranium enrichment cleanups. As Weapons Complex Morning Briefing has reported, the […]

The Amentum-Jacobs joint venture in charge of remediating the Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge Site in Tennessee said Tuesday it will make vaccination against COVID-19 a condition of employment for its 2,000 workers. That makes the team the third DOE nuclear-site contract to mandate the vaccine, after contractors at the Savannah River Site in South […]

There have been 29 deaths from COVID-19 across the Department of Energy’s nuclear cleanup enterprise, 6,141 confirmed cases since the pandemic began and at least two prime contractors at major federal sites that say they will order employees to get vaccinated. Those are a few of the pre-Labor Day developments confirmed by Weapons Complex Monitor […]

For the second review period in a row UCOR, the Amentum-Jacobs cleanup team at the Oak Ridge Site in Tennessee, is pocketing 98% of its potential fee from the Department of Energy. The contractor earned 100% of its almost $7.9 million potential fee for the first half of fiscal 2021, from Oct. 1, 2020 through […]

For the second review period in a row UCOR, the Amentum-Jacobs cleanup team at the Oak Ridge Site in Tennessee, is pocketing 98% of its potential fee from the Department of Energy. The contractor earned 100% of its almost $7.9 million potential fee for the first half of fiscal 2021, from Oct. 1, 2020 through […]

An unused spent fuel storage canister that arrived at Oak Ridge National Laboratory Wednesday will be used to investigate long-term storage solutions for the nation’s nuclear waste, according to a press release. The 22-ton empty canister will boost a research team at the Tennessee-based Oak Ridge (ORNL) that is “​​investigating methods to help the nation […]

An unused spent fuel storage canister once intended for use at the San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station arrived at Oak Ridge National Laboratory on Wednesday to become part of an investigation into long-term storage solutions for the nation’s nuclear waste, the lab said. An Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) research team in Oak Ridge, Tenn., […]

The Senate Appropriations Committee approved 25-to-five on Wednesday a fiscal year 2022 spending bill for the Department of Energy and other agencies with roughly $7.7-billion for Department of Energy nuclear weapons cleanup. The committee’s plan for DOE’s Office of Environmental Management (EM) office, which oversees cleanup of 16 Cold War and Manhattan Project nuclear sites, […]

Earnings fell at BWX Technologies, Lynchburg, Va., in the second quarter, which the Department of Energy contractor and maker of nuclear submarine reactors and components attributed to non-recurring costs such as commercializing a line of medical isotopes, plus higher interest rates. Net income for the second quarter ended June 30 was $59.4 million or $0.62 […]

A roughly $1-trillion infrastructure bill negotiated by a bipartisan group of senators could provide Superfund sites with more than $3 billion for cleanup over the next five years. The Bipartisan Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act would increase federal investment in projects including roads, bridges and broadband —and quicken cleanup of environmental contamination through $3.5 billion […]

A roughly $1-trillion infrastructure bill negotiated by a bipartisan group of senators could provide Superfund sites with more than $3 billion for cleanup over the next five years. The Bipartisan Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act would increase federal investment in projects including roads, bridges and broadband —and quicken cleanup of environmental contamination through $3.5 billion […]

The Department of Energy’s Waste Isolation Pilot Plant near Carlsbad, N.M., received 26 shipments of transuranic waste during June, according to its public website. Eight were received from the Oak Ridge Site in Tennessee but the rest traveled from the Idaho National Laboratory. During the first half of 2021 the underground disposal site had at […]

The Department of Energy this week publicly released its long-delayed draft Record of Decision for a proposed new landfill to handle low-level radioactive waste from building demolition at the Oak Ridge Site in Tennessee. The 350-page draft on the Environmental Management Disposal Facility, dated June 22, now will undergo a 60-day review, by the Tennessee […]