The Department of Energy says it will take 60 more days, until mid-September, for it to prepare a report and briefing addressing Defense Nuclear Facilities Board concerns about continuous monitoring for a new ventilation system at the agency’s deep-underground transuranic waste disposal site in New Mexico.
The Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board (DNFSB) said in a May letter that it wanted DOE to brief the board on the continuous air monitor system for the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant’s (WIPP) Safety Significant Confinement Ventilation System by July 14. The ventilation system is intended to significantly improve underground airflow.
In a July 3 reply letter recently posted on the DNFSB website, DOE said it will have a written response ready by Sept. 12. “The additional 60 days will afford DOE sufficient time to assess the letter and report to and coordinate documentation amidst ongoing work at WIPP,” according to the letter signed by Secretary of Energy Jennifer Granholm.
Top officials from the Department of Energy’s Office of Environmental Management and National Nuclear Security Administration will hold a joint town hall-style public meeting July 22 not far from the Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico.
National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) administrator Jill Hruby and Environmental Management’s senior adviser Candice Robertson will be featured speakers at the event set for 6 p.m. Mountain Time at the Hilton Santa Fe Buffalo Thunder, DOE announced Monday.
The session will be moderated by Los Alamos County deputy manager Linda Matteson and New Mexico Natural Resources Trustee Maggie Hart Stebbins. Hruby and Robertson will give an overview of DOE’s national security and environmental cleanup priorities, then lead a question-and-answer session.
The Amentum-Atkins partnership in charge of radioactive tank waste operations at the Department of Energy’s Hanford Site in Washington state is shopping for a small business to assist with regulatory documents and closure plans for single-shell tank farms.
Washington River Protection Solutions (WRPS) issued a request for proposals in an online notice Tuesday for a small business that meets a $19-million size standard to help with document work potentially through September 2029. No dollar figure was listed for the work, which WRPS hopes to award in mid-September.
WRPS asks interested parties to file a notification of intent to bid by July 15. That will be followed by an online pre-proposal conference on July 18. Solicitation questions should be submitted by July 24 and proposals are due by 12:00 p.m. Pacific Time on Aug. 7. The prime wants offerors to submit a proposal to prepare regulatory documents and closure plans for single-shell tank farms and waste management areas.
State emergency management coordinators in South Carolina will receive a $2.4-million grant from the Department of Energy to enhance emergency preparedness at DOE’s Savannah River Site, the federal agency announced July 5.
The five-year grant to the South Carolina Emergency Management Division runs from July 5, 2024, through June 30, 2029, according to a DOE press release. The grant provides funds for Aiken, Allendale and Barnwell counties, which surround the 310-square Savannah River Site, to help maintain off-site emergency preparedness plans, training and operations support, DOE said. The grant was announced by DOE’s Cincinnati-based Environmental Management Consolidated Business Center.
The financial assistance should help assure the health and safety of Savannah River Site’s neighbors are protected in the event of any incident at the nuclear site, DOE said.
The U.S. Department of Labor has set a July 18 information session in Lisle, Ill., for current and former nuclear weapons workers and survivors covered by the Energy Employees Occupational Illness Compensation Program Act.
Presentations were scheduled for at 9:00 a.m. Central Time at the Sheraton Lisle Naperville, 3000 Warrenville Road, Lisle, Ill., according to a July 8 press release.
“Event attendees can file their claims or obtain information about existing claims,” Compensation Director Rachel Pond said in the press release. Labor Department representatives will be on hand to answer questions and assist with claims. Registration is not required for the event. The program provides lump sum compensation and medical benefits to workers made ill as the result of working in the nuclear weapons industry, according to the press release.
Richland, Wash., where the Department of Energy’s Hanford Site is based, will continue to see daytime highs near 100-degrees Fahrenheit through next Thursday, according to the National Weather Service.
According to the forecast, the daytime highs should remain at 100 degrees or more over the weekend before slipping to 99 degrees on Monday and Tuesday before possibly hitting 100 again by mid-week, according to the National Weather Service.
The local fire danger is “very high,” according to the Hanford.gov website.
