The Senate has lined up a vote next week to confirm Undersecretary of Energy Mark Menezes to the No. 2 position at the Department of Energy.
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) on Thursday filed cloture on Menezes’ nomination as deputy secretary of energy. An initial procedural vote is scheduled for 5:30 p.m. Monday, Politico reported.
Menezes has been one of three Energy Department undersecretaries since November 2017. The White House nominated him as DOE deputy in March. He would succeed Dan Brouillette, who last December became secretary of energy.
As undersecretary of energy, Menezes serves as the department’s lead adviser on energy policy and technologies. Brouillette expanded his portfolio early this year, giving Menezes authority to make decisions on nearly all DOE activities, not including the semiautonomous National Nuclear Security Administration.
The Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee advanced the nomination by a near-unanimous voice vote in June. The holdout was Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto (D-Nev.), who raised concerns about reports that the Trump administration is considering resuming yield producing nuclear-explosive tests. The former Nevada Test Site was used for atmospheric and underground tests for decades before the United States halted the practice in 1992.
Ahead of his nomination, Menezes ruffled a few feathers by telling a House panel in February that the Trump administration’s fiscal 2021 budget plan pointed toward establishing permanent disposal of nuclear waste under Yucca Mountain in Nevada. That came just days after the White House issued the budget proposal that specifically omitted any money to resume federal licensing for the geologic repository, after failed attepts in three prior spending cycles to persuade Congress to appropriate funds for that purpose Instead, the Energy Department is seeking $27.5 million in the budget year beginning Oct. 1 for an Interim Storage and Nuclear Waste Fund Oversight program.
The House of Representatives has supported that funding level in an appropriations package expected to be approved Friday. The Senate has yet to issue any 2021 appropriations bills.
Perma-Fix Environmental Services said Monday it has promoted a longtime manager to the new position of executive vice president of waste treatment operations.
The Board of Directors for the Atlanta-based waste management company approved Richard Grondin’s appointment on July 22, also making him an executive officer, according to a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.
Grondin, 61, has been with Perma-Fix since 2002, in waste-treatment business roles including vice president of technical services, vice president/general manager at the Perma-Fix Northwest Richland Facility in Washington state, and vice president of western operations. He has worked for more than 35 years in the radioactive and hazardous waste management industry, with a focus on startup of facilities for Waste Control Specialists in Texas and other employers, Perma-Fix said.
“In his positions with the Company, Mr. Grondin, together with others, transformed the [Perma-Fix Northwest Richland] facility to a profitable subsidiary after its acquisition by the Company,” the SEC filing says. “Prior to his employment with the Company, he managed the startup of ATG Mixed Waste facility and the startup of WCS facility.”
Asked about the functions of the position, a Perma-Fix spokesman said only that it is “To support our growth initiatives going forward.”
From The Wires
From The Whitehaven News: Borough in Cumbia remains interested in hosting U.K. radioactive waste disposal facility.
From Nuclear Engineering International: Spanish company wins decommissioning contract for two Swedish nuclear power plants.
From WAER: New York state legislation addresses fracking waste.
From World Nuclear News: United Kingdom begins £3.9 million competition for innovation in segregation of radioactive waste.
