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 supersized concrete vaults completed at the Savannah River complex, big enough to hold 33 million gallons of grouted, de-contaminated salt solution.
While BWX Technologies-led Savannah River Mission Completion oversaw the SDU 8 development, subcontractors involved in the project included Quality Plus Services, US Fusion & Specialty Construction and DN Tanks, DOE said. Salt waste comes from the site’s underground tanks, which hold high-level radioactive waste left over from plutonium production during the cold war.
The Department of Energy soon plans to be in the market for a provider of technical support services for the Portsmouth Paducah Project Office, business currently held by Oak Ridge, Tenn.-based Pro2Serve, according to a notice issued this week.
The Environmental Management Consolidated Business Center in Cincinnati said Monday in an online notice it will soon issue a request for information seeking capability statements from parties interested in providing technical and administrative support to the Portsmouth Site in Ohio, the Paducah Site in Kentucky and the project office site in Lexington, Ky.
DOE is interested first off in determining if small businesses are capable of handling the scope of the scope of work that includes administrative support, information technology, technical engineering support work, as well as safeguards and security as well as infrastructure and cyber security support.Pro2Serve’s Enterprise Technical Assistance Services has the current $179-million contract. The company started work in March 2020.
Managers from the Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory as well as the environmental remediation contractor for the Oak Ridge Site, have been appointed to the Tennessee Nuclear Energy Advisory Council being created by Gov. Bill Lee (R).
United Cleanup Oak Ridge (UCOR) President and CEO Ken Rueter, was appointed to the panel as well as Jeff Smith, interim director of the Oak Ridge lab, according to a Thursday press release from the governor’s office.
Spectra Tech President Loong Yong was also selected for the panel. The council was appointed by the governor in order to advance the state’s nuclear industry, according to the press release.
President Joe Biden marked National Atomic Veterans Day on Friday with an official White House proclamation.
“The dawn of the nuclear age is familiar to many — the development of new science, but also new risks and destruction, as witnessed by the devastation at Hiroshima and Nagasaki. But the lesser-known story is that of the members of our Armed Forces who participated in nuclear tests from 1945 to 1962 or were exposed to radioactive material at home and abroad — our courageous Atomic Veterans,” Biden wrote in the proclamation. “Today, we remember their service and sacrifice and recommit to ensuring they receive the benefits and care they deserve.”
