The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit has ordered final briefs by July 18 in a COVID-19 vaccination lawsuit brought by a former employee against the Department of Energy’s environmental prime at the Oak Ridge Site in Tennessee.
The Cincinnati-based federal appeals court said May 31 it “has determined that oral argument is not required,” in the case brought by former employee Yolonda Riggs against UCOR, an Amentum-Jacobs partnership, according to the online document.
The appeals court will decide the lawsuit based upon written briefs, according to the online order. Riggs, a former radiation technician at Oak Ridge fired by UCOR in early 2022 after refusing to be vaccinated against COVID-19, earlier brought the wrongful termination lawsuit in the U.S. District Court in Eastern Tennessee. Among other things, UCOR argues as a federal contract it has sovereign immunity from the Riggs lawsuit.
The Government Accountability Office said in a June 21 report the National Nuclear Security Administration’s May 2023 diversity report for management contractors generally provides workforce diversity data sought by the fiscal 2021 National Defense Authorization Act, but is lacking in certain areas.
The National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) report fails to explore why there was a smaller percentage increase in black or African American contractor employees from 2019 to 2022 than either their white counterparts or other minority populations, according to the Government Accountability Office (GAO).
Black contractor employment rose 6.6% compared to a 9.5% rise in the number of white employees, the GAO report said. The percentage increase for other minority workers, including Native American, Asian American and Latino/Hispanic groups was up anywhere from 14.8 to 32.1%, according to GAO. NNSA’s overall prime contractor headcount swelled to 59,400 in fiscal 2022 from 52,500 in fiscal 2019, according to the report. Almost 42,000 of the latest tally are white.
Mark Peters, an experienced national lab executive, will succeed Jason Providakes as president and CEO of MITRE, a Virginia-based non-profit research organization, the organization said in a Thursday press release.
Peters is an expert in nuclear fuel cycle technology, waste management, and national security, and is currently executive vice president for laboratory operations at Battelle Memorial Institute, according to the release. Previously, Peters was the director of the Department of Energy’s Idaho National Laboratory and president of Battelle Energy Alliance. Peters becomes the new MITRE CEO effective Sept. 3.
“Mark has a clear record of success building collaborative partnerships with industry, academia, and other partners,” Providakes said in the release. “Because of that, he will continue to advance MITRE’s technical expertise and unbiased outlook across government.”
