Oak Ridge Reservation

The Energy Department has retained Centrus Energy to prepare the K-1600 facility at the Oak Ridge Reservation in Tennessee for demolition. The Rockville, Md.-based nuclear fuel supplier has leased the uranium enrichment plant since 2002. Centrus announced Tuesday it has received a $15 million work authorization for decontamination and decommissioning (D&D) of the plant, one […]

The Energy Department’s Office of Environmental Management expects to award a trio of big contracts, two of them re-awards following protests by losing bidders, by the end of the year. The department hopes this month to reissue both the liquid waste management contract at the Savannah River Site in South Carolina and a consolidated technical […]

The Energy Department believes the Central Bear Creek Valley is the best place within the Oak Ridge Reservation (ORR) in Tennessee to develop a new 2.2-million-cubic yard waste disposal facility – due in part to its geology and groundwater flow conditions. Because the same valley is home to Oak Ridge’s existing Environmental Management Waste Management […]

The Energy Department has retained Centrus Energy to prepare the K-1600 facility at the Oak Ridge Reservation in Tennesseefor demolition. The Rockville, Md.-based nuclear fuel supplier has leased the uranium enrichment plant since 2002. Centrus announced Tuesday it has received a $15 million work authorization for decontamination and decommissioning (D&D) of the plant, one of […]

The Energy Department has scheduled a public information meeting for 5 p.m. today on the new Environmental Management Disposal Facility planned for the Oak Ridge Site in Tennessee. The Energy Department is proposing a 2.2 million-cubic-yard landfill site on federal land in Bear Creek Valley, according to a notice for the 90-minute meeting at the […]

When President Donald Trump signed a multiagency appropriations package Sept. 21, it assured the Energy Department’s Office of Environmental Management about $7.2 billion in funding for the 2019 fiscal year starting Oct. 1. The DOE-funding “minibus,” approved by Congress earlier this month, provides the largest budget for the department’s nuclear cleanup office since it received […]

When President Trump signed a multiagency appropriations package Friday afternoon, it assured the Energy Department’s Office of Environmental Management about $7.2 billion in funding for the 2019 fiscal year starting Oct. 1. The DOE-funding “minibus,” approved by Congress earlier this month, provides the largest budget for the department’s nuclear cleanup office since it received almost […]

After a pause this summer, the contractor for the Energy Department’s Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) near Carlsbad, N.M., expects during the first week of October to resume salt mining to dig out more disposal space. This will be the first mining in storage Panel 8 since July 22, according to Nuclear Waste Partnership spokesman […]

The Energy Department’s Paducah Site in Kentucky lost power for about three hours Saturday. A failed piece of electrical equipment caused one Tennessee Valley Authority power line to fall into other power lines that morning, Scott Brooks, a spokesman for the federal utility, said by email Wednesday. The TVA system provides electricity to the Paducah […]

The Energy Department on Sept. 12 declined a request to extend the bid proposal deadline for a small business contract to deactivate and tear down low-risk and low-complexity structures for the Oak Ridge Office Environmental Management in Tennessee. In questions posted on the procurement website for the potential $25 million contract, an unidentified stakeholder asked […]

President Donald Trump’s signature is the only thing standing between the Energy Department’s nuclear cleanup office and nearly $7.2 billion in funding for fiscal 2019. That would be the highest spending level for DOE’s Office of Environmental Management since fiscal 2005, when it received nearly $7.3 billion. The House of Representatives on Thursday voted 377-20 […]

The Energy Department last week issued a request for proposals (RFP) for a small business set-aside contract, potentially worth almost $25 million over five years, to tackle low-risk, low-complexity characterization and remediation for the Oak Ridge Office of Environmental Management in Tennessee. The Y-12 National Security Complex, the Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL), and the […]

Los Angeles-based engineering giant AECOM on Monday announced that it has promoted former Department of Energy official Mark Whitney to lead its nuclear and environment business unit, filling the slot vacated by Todd Wright. Wright recently retired as executive vice president and general manager of the AECOM branch, but is staying on at the company […]

The Energy Department last week issued a request for proposals (RFP) for a small business set-aside contract, potentially worth almost $25 million over five years, to tackle low-risk, low-complexity characterization and remediation for the Oak River Office of Environmental Management in Tennessee. The Y-12 National Security Complex, the Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL), and the […]

The Energy Department has extended the contract for the current security provider for the Oak Ridge Reservation in Tennessee through the end of the year. After a bid protest against the follow-on contract, the Energy Department said Aug. 10 it intends to keep Reston, Va.-based National Strategic Protective Services on the job from Sept. 22 […]

The Department of Energy said it has addressed the problem of transuranic waste drums with higher levels of exterior radioactive contamination going from the Oak Ridge Site in Tennessee to the Energy Department’s Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) in New Mexico. A July 6 report from the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board, posted later in […]

The Energy Department’s Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) near Carlsbad, N.M., expects in 2019 to receive the first shipments from 6 metric tons of weapon-usable plutonium being downblended at the Savannah River Site in South Carolina. That was the word Thursday from DOE Carlsbad Field Office Manager Todd Shrader during a “WIPP Town Hall” public […]

AVANTech Inc. of Columbia, S.C., has acquired Mid Columbia Engineering Inc. (MCE), a Richland, Wash., firm that has done work at the nearby Hanford Site. The terms of the transaction were not disclosed. AVANTech plans to continue to expand the Richland manufacturing and service facility and use it to help deliver products and services to […]

Transuranic waste shipments from the Oak Ridge National Laboratory in Tennessee early this month were still arriving at the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant with elevated radiological readings that exceed the New Mexico disposal site’s waste acceptance criteria (WAC), the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board said in a July 6 report. “Although there is no evidence […]

Bob McQuinn, an AECOM senior executive who, among other things, led the prime contractor team for the Energy Department’s Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP), for about a year following a 2014 accident, has announced he will retire at the end of August. McQuinn is vice president of the company’s performance assurance and high-level waste sector. […]

The Energy Department is seeking Nuclear Regulatory Commission approval for a one-time shipment of 2.5 kilograms of spent nuclear fuel material from the Oak Ridge National Laboratory in Tennessee to the Idaho National Laboratory for research purposes. The nuclear regulator said June 26 it had received DOE’s application for approval of a shipment route and […]

Elevated levels of radioactive contamination were found last month on transuranic waste drums awaiting shipment from the Energy Department’s Oak Ridge Site in Tennessee to the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant in New Mexico, according to a recent update from the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board (DNFSB). “The contamination readings were due to the decay of […]

Although RSI EnTech did not win a recently announced successor contract for technical support services at the Energy Department’s Portsmouth Site in Ohio, company President Paul Clay thinks the 97 percent rating on a new performance scorecard demonstrates the firm’s caliber of work. RSI EnTech’s current $51 million, five-year contract at Portsmouth expires at the […]

The Energy Department is seeking Nuclear Regulatory Commission approval for a one-time shipment of 2.5 kilograms of spent nuclear fuel material from the Oak Ridge National Laboratory in Tennessee to the Idaho National Laboratory for research purposes. The nuclear regulator said June 26 it had received DOE’s application for approval of a shipment route and […]

Elevated levels of radioactive contamination were found last month on transuranic waste drums awaiting shipment from the Energy Department’s Oak Ridge Site in Tennessee to the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant in New Mexico, according to a recent update from the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board (DNFSB). “The contamination readings were due to the decay of […]

URS-CH2M Oak Ridge (UCOR), prime cleanup contractor for the Energy Department’s Oak Ridge Site in Tennessee, is tearing down the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA) Incinerator. The demolition project at the East Tennessee Technology Park (ETTP) began June 20 and should be finished this fall, a DOE spokesperson said by email Thursday. When operations began […]

A search committee for the Regional Coalition of LANL Communities (RCLC) in New Mexico last week interviewed candidates to become the organization’s new executive director, and could fill the post this summer. The RCLC board panel expects “to negotiate a contract with the preferred applicant over the next few weeks and plan for the entire […]

URS-CH2M Oak Ridge (UCOR), prime cleanup contractor for the Energy Department’s Oak Ridge Site in Tennessee, earned a total of $6.24 million in fee awards for the first half of 2018, according to a recent performance scorecard. The contractor garnered 100 percent of the potential $2.59 million in objective criteria fee, along with $3.65 million, […]

The Energy Department is advertising for a deputy manager at the Oak Ridge Office of Environmental Management (OREM) in Tennessee. The position has not been filled permanently since Jay Mullis became OREM manager last fall. Mullis had been OREM’s acting manager since October 2016 and deputy manager since February 2015. The Energy Department posted an […]

With both chambers of Congress having now given their blessing to fiscal 2019 spending packages that provide in the neighborhood of $7 billion for Department of Energy nuclear cleanup operations, it is now up to a House-Senate conference committee to decide the exact amount. The conference committee had not been scheduled to start its work […]