The Department of Energy’s inspector general questioned $34,796 in unallowable costs paid for 330.5 overtime hours at the Sandia National Laboratories’ badge office in Albuquerque, N.M., according to a report dated April 1 and published this week.
The report detailed the results of an investigation into time card irregularities, which the Inspector General’s office conducted from January 2022 through December 2023.
A late turbine generator for the first Columbia-class ballistic missile submarine is one of the biggest factors in the boat’s delay, the Secretary of the Navy said this week during a congressional hearing.
“One of the most significant challenges specific to Columbia is actually the late delivery of the turbine generator to Columbia by subcontractor Northrop Grumman. That has had a major impact on the delay of the Columbia,” Carlos Del Toro told the House Appropriations defense subcommittee on April 10.
Rep. Cori Bush (D-Mo.) last week called on House of Representatives Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) to bring to set a vote on S.3853, a bill to extend the Radiation Exposure Compensation Reauthorization Act, before it expires June 7.
The Senate has done its job, Bush said, passing the bill by more than a two-thirds margin on Feb. 29. Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) has been a Senate sponsor of renewing and expanding the act, and criticized congressional failure to attach the legislation to critical budget and policy bills.
President Joe Biden (D) has said he will sign the legislation.
Republicans on Wednesday officially selected Rep. Tom Cole (R-Okla.) to serve as the new chair of the powerful House Appropriations Committee.
Cole, a member of the panel’s defense subcommittee, succeeds Rep. Kay Granger (R-Texas), who announced her plans in March to step down as chair of the House Appropriations Committee.
Cole ran unopposed for the Appropriations chairmanship and has been a strong proponent of increased defense spending during his time on the Appropriations defense subcommittee.
The Department of Energy’s recently cited the management and operations contractor for violations that led to the amputation of two fingers from an employee’s right hand, according to documents published by the agency’s Office of Enterprise Assessments’ Office of Enforcement.
DOE proposed a civil penalty of $127,440 for the Fluor-led Savannah River Nuclear Solutions, according to a press release dated April 3. The accident took place on Dec. 1, 2022.
Obituary
Steven Pearson, former project manager for the National Ignition Facility (NIF) at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in Livermore, Calif., died at his home on April 4, according to an obituary posted online. He was 73.
Pearson was project manager from 1999 to 2001, the year the lab finished building the massive nuclear-weapon-experiments facility, according to the obit.
