Summer is here and it has been a hot and in some cases smoky weather week for some facilities connected with the Department of Energy’s weapons complex.
Workers at a commercially-owned waste disposal facility in West Texas and DOE’s Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) near Carlsbad, N.M., coped with dangerous heat warnings issued by the National Weather Service Monday, with highs well above 100 degrees Fahrenheit, in their localities. Some sites encountered poor air quality from Canadian wildfires.
By Friday, however, temperatures at Andrews County, Texas where Waste Control Specialists (WCS) is located, had fallen into the 90s. Eddy County, where WIPP is located, was forecast to hit 99 degrees. The Portsmouth Site in Ohio had unhealthy air quality levels much of the week as did Washington, D.C., where DOE headquarters is based. By Friday, the air quality had improved substantially near Portsmouth, although the air was still “unhealthy for sensitive groups,” in Washington, according to the website, weather.com. DOE did not order any significant worksite modifications due to the air, a spokesperson said
The Department of Energy intends to award a sole-source contract to a firm with experience working with both college swim teams as well as businesses, to provide “coaching” services to managers at the agency’s Carlsbad, N.M., field office.
The DOE’s Cincinnati-based Environmental Management Consolidated Business Center said in an online procurement notice, it intends to award a firm-fixed-price purchase order to MoonRaker Enterprises, LLC. The procurement involves “leadership development and coaching services to develop the soft-skills for leading, coaching, engaging, and accountability to the front-line supervisors of the Carlsbad Field Office,” according to the notice.
At Exchange Monitor’s request, DOE forwarded a copy of the Moonraker webpage, levelupleadershipcoach.com. The schedule portion of the website shows the business held coaching sessions for DOE in October and November of 2022 as well as the DOE’s Carlsbad office in May. The Carlsbad office oversees the agency’s Waste Isolation Pilot Plant, which disposes of defense-related transuranic waste. The business is headed by Jeff Raker, the author of a business book titled “Now That’s a Great Question,” certified leadership coach and pastor.
Steven Birchfield will replace Greg Wood as the chief financial officer of EnergySolutions in June, the Salt Lake City-based radioactive waste disposal company announced Monday.
Wood was to retire in June, EnergySolutions wrote in a press release announcing the personnel change in the C-suite. Birchfield was most recently executive vice president and chief financial officer of Summit Utilities, Centennial, Colo., a private natural gas distribution company.
Wood has been chief financial officer at EnergySolutions for seven years, the company wrote in its press release.
