The Department of Energy Thursday told employees in areas with bad air quality resulting from Canadian wildfires they could check with their bosses about telecommuting or alternate schedule options.
“As much of the country experiences dangerous air quality conditions from the ongoing Canadian wildfires, the department is committed to protecting the health and wellbeing of our federal workforce, particularly those employees with high-risk medical conditions when dangerous air quality conditions are present,” according to an email distributed to DOE employees. Workers can alto tap annual leave “on a day when the air quality is threatening to an employee’s health and welfare,” according to the email.
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s airnow website and guidance on the situation from the U.S. Office of Personnel Management are other resources available for employees to check, according to the email. Air travel in much of the East Coast has also been disrupted according to multiple national news reports.
The Department of Energy and its prime environmental contractor at the Oak Ridge Site in Tennessee have teamed up with Tennessee Tech University to grow the College of Engineering there.
It is part of an ongoing effort by the DOE Office of Environmental Management in Oak Ridge and contractor United Cleanup Oak Ridge to bolster a young pipeline of engineers and related nuclear workers in the region, according to a DOE press release. Tennessee Tech, located about 85 miles west of Oak Ridge, has about 10,000 students and 30% of those are enrolled in engineering programs.
“They want to live in Tennessee once they graduate, even if they’re not native Tennesseans,” said Lori Mann Bruce, the university’s provost and vice president for academic affairs.
Las Vegas-based subcontractor Longenecker & Associates has selected Jason Hatfield, a 20-year manager at Bechtel National, to become its senior vice president for operations.
Hatfield was most recently Bechtel’s mission assurance manager at the Waste Treatment and Immobilization Plant, Longenecker said in a Thursday June 1 press release. He officially starts the newly-created senior vice president position at Longenecker on June 19.
Hatfield’s prior experience includes stints as manager of startup and operations for Bechtel’s nuclear, security and environmental business unit; deputy project manager for the Uranium Processing Facility at the Y-12 National Security Complex in Oak Ridge, Tenn.; and chief of staff for Consolidated Nuclear Security, at Y-12, according to the release.
