The Secretary of Energy recognized three National Nuclear Security Administration projects that demonstrated significant results in completing projects under budget and ahead of schedule, the agency announced this week.
The Secretary’s Project Management Achievement Awards at the NNSA went to the Exascale Class Computing Cooling Equipment project at the Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico; the Expand Electrical Distribution System project at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in California; and the Uranium Processing Facility Substation Subproject at the Y-12 National Security Complex in Oak Ridge, Tenn.
Tremors from a magnitude 4.2 earthquake near Capulin, N.M., this week were felt in Los Alamos County, according to the local Los Alamos Reporter.
According to the U.S. Geological Survey, part of the Interior Department, the quake hit at about 9:30 a.m. Mountain time on Monday. Those who felt the quake may inform the U.S. Geological Survey and provide details of the experience.
The New Mexico Environment Department (NMED) approved a technical report about the Sandia National Laboratories’ shuttered mixed waste disposal facility outside of Albuquerque, acknowledging that the public appears safe from waste buried there between 1959 and 1988, the state agency wrote in a press release.
DOE has to report on Sandia’s Mixed Waste Landfill every five years. The state and federal agencies monitor the site and “[i]f contaminant concentrations increase or new contaminants are discovered near the capped disposal facility, NMED will require DOE to take further action.”
The Los Alamos County Council this week appointed Steve Lynne as its new county manager effective Thursday, replacing the recently-retired Harry Burgess.
Lynne has been deputy county manager since 2012 and has worked in various county posts, including chief financial officer and budget officer, since 1996. In his early years with the county Lynne served as the financial information liaison with the Department of Energy’s Los Alamos National Laboratory.
Burgess retired at the end of May following 10 years as Los Alamos county manager and, before that serving six years as city administrator for Carlsbad, N.M., near DOE’s Waste Isolation Pilot Plant.
The chief of nuclear security at the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) was ordained a permanent deacon at a Mass recently by the auxiliary archbishop of the diocese of Washington, according to a report in the Catholic standard.
Retired marine Jeffrey Johnson has since 2014 been director of the Defense Nuclear Security office at NNSA headquarters in Washington. The office is responsible for guarding nuclear weapon sites and materials. In the Catholic church, deacons assist priests in administering sacraments and celebrating Mass. Deacons may marry but priests may not.
