Although COVID-19 vaccines are starting to trickle across the U.S. population, it is difficult to say when most cleanup workers at the Department of Energy’s Office of Environmental Management will receive their shots, a senior agency official said Monday at the all-online Waste Management Symposia conference.
Environmental Management (EM)’s Deputy Assistant Secretary Todd Shrader would not hazard a guess, given that “DOE is not a vaccine distributor.” As a result, DOE and its contractors will rely upon local health organizations for COVID-19 vaccinations, he added in response to a question.
Cleanup workers can get vaccinated when it becomes available to them based on state eligibility standards, Shrader said.
Nuclear cleanup workers should remain vigilant against the ongoing pandemic, although the vaccines provide reason for optimism, William (Ike) White, acting assistant secretary of environmental management, said during the online conference. “Like many of you, I’m optimistic we can now see the light at the end of the tunnel, but I want to encourage all of you this morning to remain vigilant in implementing the controls and protocols that have served us well the past year.”
White said that “[m]any of us have been personally impacted, and our family and colleagues are among the more than 500,000 people who passed away in the past year in this country from the pandemic.”
The acting nuclear cleanup chef said new Secretary of Energy Jennifer Granholm, who was confirmed Feb. 26, immediately wanted to make sure that DOE workers don’t grow complacent on DOE safety precautions.
The entire Office of Environmental Management conducted a COVID safety pause or stand-down last Wednesday, Nicole Nelson-Jean, associate principal deputy assistant secretary for field operation said, during a subsequent panel discussion. The session was conducted via Zoom and was evidently held across DOE.
“We are encouraging the workforce to get the COVID vaccine when it is available,” “We are encouraging the workforce to get the COVID vaccine when it is available” to them, Nelson-Jean said.
The DOE’s dramatic increase in telework due to the pandemic has its pluses and minuses, Shrader said. It saves a lot of commute time for workers, and potentially remote work could reduce the amount of office space DOE leases. On the other hand, “you lose the hallway interactions,” when everyone is remote, Shrader said.
Article modified March 9 to correct sixth paragraph.
