Mark Brown, deputy manager of Department of Energy nuclear cleanup at the Idaho National Laboratory, will become manager of the field operation earlier than announced, the agency said Thursday.
Brown will assume the Idaho Cleanup Project manager job starting Sunday, March 10, a DOE spokesperson said by email. Connie Flohr will remain on staff serving as a special adviser to the Idaho cleanup manager until her retirement in mid-April.
DOE announced in January Flohr, a longtime agency executive, planned to retire. Flohr will join Navarro Research and Engineering, sources said.
Bidders on a Department of Energy contract, potentially worth $3 billion, for Phase 1B remediation work at the West Valley Demonstration Project in New York state, now have until March 11 to submit proposals.
The prior deadline was March 4. DOE announced the change in a Feb. 29 online procurement notice.
Jacobs-led CH2M Hill-BWXT West Valley is the incumbent. Its contract, valued at less than $1 billion, started in August 2011 and was scheduled to run through February 2025.
The state of New Mexico has hit the Department of Energy with proposed penalties at the Los Alamos National Laboratory, the largest single offense being assessed at more than $350,000,
The Santa Fe New Mexican reported Monday the laboratory had been assessed penalties over hazardous waste storage problems. This is based upon an eight-page notice of violations issued in February. The state announced the violations in a March 1 press release on environmental enforcement actions. DOE is reviewing the violation document, a spokesperson said Friday.
The biggest penalty was assessed failing to make necessary repairs to prevent stormwater runoff where hazardous wastes are stored in Area G. In particular, the New Mexico Environment Department (NMED) document said recent precipitation made contact with pallets beneath standard waste boxes holding mixed waste. This is a violation of a permit condition for Los Alamos National Laboratory, NMED said.
Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.), an advocate of renewing a compensation program for people sickened by radiation exposure stemming from the U.S. nuclear weapons production, brought a local activist on the issue as his guest at the State of the Union address.
In a Monday press release, Hawley said Dawn Chapman, co-founder of Just Moms in St. Louis, would be his guest when President Joe Biden addresses the joint session of congress Thursday night in Washington.
On its website, the Just Moms group describes itself as “dedicated to protecting our families and our futures from further exposures to radioactive and toxic waste from the Manhattan Project era.” The group has also been active in the public debate over radioactive contamination levels around the Jana Elementary School in Florissant, Mo.
Amir Vexler, chief executive officer of Centrus Energy Corp., rang the closing bell at the New York Stock Exchange on Tuesday.
The New York Stock Exchange invited Vexler to ring the bell “to celebrate the launch of the American Centrifuge Plant in Piketon, Ohio, the first U.S.-owned uranium enrichment plant to begin production in 70 years,” according to a press release from the exchange. The exchange also posted a video of the bell-ringing to YouTube.
Vexler took over as CEO in January, when Dan Poneman, the longtime chief executive officer, retired.
