Portsmouth Gaseous Diffusion Plant

The 2024 budget for the Department of Energy’s Hanford Site in Washington state would grow to an unprecedented $3 billion or so from $2.7 billion this year, if President Joe Biden’s fiscal 2024 budget request became law. Overall, however, the administration’s budget request would keep funding at the DOE Office of Environmental Management about flat […]

The Department of Energy’s Office of Environmental Management would, after helping prop up the Uranium Enrichment Decontamination and Decommissioning Fund again in fiscal 2024, effectively stay flat at $8.3 billion, according to White House budget request details released this week. The Republican-controlled House Appropriations Committee has scheduled a hearing on the DOE spending request next […]

Uranium broker and enrichment-technology developer Centrus Energy Corp., Bethesda, Md., took a hit on the bottom line for 2022, though its core operations reported good health and revenue was nearly level year-over-year. Centrus’ net income fell 70% to about $52 million for 2022, according to the company’s Wednesday 10-K filing with the Securities & Exchange […]

The Atkins-led contractor overseeing depleting uranium conversion at gaseous diffusion plants in Kentucky and Ohio needs a more focused and formal approach to “safety culture,” the Department of Energy’s auditing branch said in a recent assessment. The DOE Office of Enterprise Assessments report was released this month for Mid-America Conversion Services, the joint venture of […]

The Atkins-led contractor overseeing depleting uranium conversion at gaseous diffusion plants in Kentucky and Ohio needs a more focused and formal approach to “safety culture,” the Department of Energy’s auditing branch said in a recent assessment. The DOE Office of Enterprise Assessments report was released this month for Mid-America Conversion Services, the joint venture of […]

This week’s news that Reinhard Knerr will leave his job as manager of the Department of Energy’s Carlsbad Field Office to take a deputy manager post at the Portsmouth-Paducah Project Office was unusual but not shocking, industry sources said Thursday. Knerr is the second permanent Carlsbad Field Office manager since the spring of 2019. Deputy […]

By the end of this month, the manager of the Department of Energy’s Carlsbad Field Office in New Mexico will leave to become deputy manager of the Portsmouth-Paducah Project Office in Lexington, Ky., an agency executive said Tuesday. Carlsbad manager Reinhard Knerr, responsible for overseeing the agency’s Waste Isolation Pilot Plant since July 2020, is […]

By the end of this month, the manager of the Department of Energy’s Carlsbad Field Office in New Mexico will leave to become deputy manager of the Portsmouth-Paducah Project Office in Lexington, Ky., an agency executive said Tuesday. Carlsbad manager Reinhard Knerr, responsible for overseeing the agency’s Waste Isolation Pilot Plant since July 2020, is […]

Lynchburg, Va., -based BWX Technologies said Wednesday it has promoted Ronald (Chip) Whitford, Jr., to a senior vice president post succeeding Thomas McCabe, who will retire from the nuclear company this summer. Separately, the company has promoted Omar Meguid to chief digital officer, a new executive role that reports directly to CEO Rex Geveden, according […]

Atkins-led Mid-America Conversion Services earned 93% of its overall fee and roughly three-quarters of its subjective fee during fiscal 2022 under its depleted uranium hexafluoride contract at gaseous diffusion plants in Ohio and Kentucky, the Department of Energy said. The contractor won $1.7 million out of a potential $2.3 million or 74% of its subjective […]

The Department of Energy’s Fluor-led cleanup contractor for the Portsmouth Site in Ohio pocketed 93%, or $14 million, of $15 million in overall available fees in the second half of fiscal 2022, according to a scorecard released by the agency Dec. 28. Fluor‐BWXT Portsmouth took home all of the available $10.54 million in performance-based fees […]

The fiscal 2023 omnibus budget that the 117th Congress passed just before adjourning before Christmas includes $20 million for replacement of a middle school that closed in May 2019 due to concern over radiological contamination from the Department of Energy’s adjacent Portsmouth Site in Piketon, Ohio. The $20 million toward replacement of the Zahns Corner […]

The fiscal 2023 omnibus budget that the 117th Congress passed just before adjourning before Christmas includes $20 million for replacement of a middle school that closed in May 2019 due to concern over radiological contamination from the Department of Energy’s adjacent Portsmouth Site in Piketon, Ohio. The $20 million toward replacement of the Zahns Corner […]

Atkins-led Mid-America Conversion Services earned 93% of its overall fee and roughly three-quarters of its subjective fee during fiscal 2022 under its depleted uranium hexafluoride contract at gaseous diffusion plants in Ohio and Kentucky, the Department of Energy said. The contractor won $1.7 million out of a potential $2.3 million or 74% of its subjective […]

The Department of Energy’s Fluor-led cleanup contractor for the Portsmouth Site in Ohio pocketed 93%, or $14 million, of $15 million in overall available fees in the second half of fiscal 2022, according to a scorecard released by the agency Dec. 28. Fluor‐BWXT Portsmouth took home all of the available $10.54 million in performance-based fees […]

Barring some legal reversal, a Bechtel affiliate and subcontractor Los Alamos Technical Associates should take the reins at the Department of Energy’s Waste Isolation Pilot Plant in New Mexico around Feb. 9.  Also, as of the day before Thanksgiving, three major opportunities for new business remained across the old weapons complex and three contractors awaited […]

Depleted uranium hexafluoride conversion operations are going slower and costing more than the Department of Energy expected only a few years ago, according to an audit by the agency’s Office of Inspector General. When DOE brought its first depleted uranium hexafluoride (DUF6) conversion plant online in 2010, it still thought converting 800,000 metric tons of […]

A federal magistrate judge in Ohio Thursday declined to force a resident near the Department of Energy’s Portsmouth Site to turn over information she collected over time with her own private air monitors. That is according to an online notice of an order from U.S. Magistrate Judge Elizabeth Preston Deavers filed “without prejudice,” meaning it […]

Earnings rose at BWX Technologies, Lynchburg, Va., in the third quarter, which the nuclear contractor attributed during a Monday earnings report to growth throughout its naval, weapons cleanup and commercial power lines. Net earnings for the 2022 third quarter were $61.6 million, or $0.67 a share, up from $60.2 million, or $0.63 a share, in […]

Plaintiffs suing current and past Department of Energy contractors at the Portsmouth Site in Pike County, Ohio asked a U.S. District Court this week to force a resident near the nuclear site to turn over information she collected over time with her own private air monitors. Attorneys for Ursula McGlone and several other residents living […]

While most workers surveyed at the Department of Energy Portsmouth Site believe management is looking out for their safety most of the time, many lack confidence in radiation measurements and worry about chemical hazards at the former gaseous diffusion plant. Those are a couple of takeaways from a report done for the United Steelworkers Union […]

The depleted uranium hexafluoride conversion plants at the Department of Energy’s Portsmouth Site in Ohio and the Paducah Site in Kentucky, both back in service after extended outages, are benefiting from backup sources of hydrogen, the federal agency said Tuesday. The Paducah facility in western Kentucky was the first to restart conversion of depleted uranium […]

Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.), who chairs the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, pledged last week to seek funds for possible replacement of a middle school closed three years ago after public disclosure of radioactive contamination on the campus near the Department of Energy’s Portsmouth Site in Ohio. Manchin, who also sits on the Senate […]

The depleted uranium hexafluoride conversion plants at the Department of Energy’s Portsmouth Site in Ohio and the Paducah Site in Kentucky, both back in service after extended outages, are benefiting from backup sources of hydrogen, the federal agency said Tuesday. The Paducah facility in western Kentucky was the first to restart conversion of depleted uranium […]

While most workers surveyed at the Department of Energy Portsmouth Site believe management is looking out for their safety most of the time, many lack confidence in radiation measurements and worry about chemical hazards at the former gaseous diffusion plant. Those are a couple of takeaways from a report done for the United Steelworkers Union […]

Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.), who chairs the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, pledged last week to seek funds for possible replacement of a middle school closed three years ago after public disclosure of radioactive contamination on the campus near the Department of Energy’s Portsmouth Site in Ohio. Manchin, who also sits on the Senate […]

The Department of Energy’s Portsmouth Site in Pike County, Ohio, which as of last month was the last nuclear cleanup property with indoor mask restrictions, no longer has a high local transmission rate for COVID-19. The transmission rate in the county surrounding the former gaseous diffusion plant is now medium, according to figures updated Friday […]

The two partners in Fluor-BWXT Portsmouth, the incumbent cleanup team at the Department of Energy Portsmouth Site in Ohio, are rivals in pursuit of the new Decontamination & Decommissioning Contract, industry sources said this week. BWX Technologies is leading a team along with Jacobs and APTIM that is vying for the follow-on Portsmouth decommissioning contract, […]

The Department of Energy’s nuclear cleanup office said last week it is again issuing a five-year, $2.5-million grant to Ohio University to further redevelopment work at the Portsmouth Site in Pike County, Ohio. Since 2016, the university has received $8.2 million from the DOE Office of Environmental Management to advance stakeholder cleanup information and evaluate […]

The Department of Energy’s Office of Environmental Management should bring in an outside entity to gauge the effectiveness of the overhauled procurement strategy implemented in 2019 to improve its multi-billion-dollar nuclear cleanup operation, the Government Accountability Office said Wednesday. The head of DOE’s Office of Environmental Management (EM) should also develop specific performance goals for […]