Jeremy L. Dillon
WC Monitor
7/10/2015
Dana Bryson will take over as Acting Manager for the Department of Energy’s Carlsbad Field Office (CBFO), DOE announced yesterday. Bryson will replace Joe Franco, who moved to DOE’s Richland Operations Office earlier this year. Bryson has served as deputy manager at the CBFO since late 2013. “Dana has been an integral part of the EM management team for more than two decades and with the Department for more than 30 years and we are confident he is up to the challenges presented by the WIPP recovery project,” said Mark Whitney, Acting Assistant Secretary for the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Office of Environmental Management.
The position had been difficult to fill, according to some officials within DOE, in part, because of Carlsbad’s remote location, as well as the fact that the current oil boom in southeastern New Mexico has driven up housing and hotel prices. “We haven’t been able to hire people quickly enough. It’s been difficult to attract people willing to come to this area. Frankly that’s been a bit of a problem,” DOE Deputy Assistant Secretary for Safety, Security and Quality Programs Jim Hutton said at the hearing in Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board public hearing in Carlsbad two months ago. According to officials, the Carlsbad Field Office is having a tough time filling 22 new full-time positions, many of them in safety and oversight, that were created in response to last year’s incidents at the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant.
Supplemental Ventilation System Delivered
Meanwhile, the Department of Energy announced this week that sections of the new Supplemental Ventilation System (SVS) arrived at the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant this week. The SVS will help support the flow of air into the repository so as to increase the total amount of air supplied to the underground. According to a release, the fan and associated equipment will be transported to the WIPP underground in four pieces where it will be assembled by WIPP personnel. “Once operational, the 151 horsepower electric fan will be positioned near the primary air intake shaft where it will be used to draw approximately 130,000 cubic feet per minute (cfm) of surface air into the underground. Used in conjunction with the Interim Ventilation System (IVS), the SVS will increase the air supplied the underground to approximately 180,000 cfm,” the DOE release said.
