NS&D Monitor
1/23/2015
IN CONGRESS
Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman John McCain (R-Ariz.) told reporters on Jan. 22 that Defense Secretary nominee Ash Carter will appear before his committee for his confirmation hearing Feb. 4, then will return a month later to testify about the next defense spending plan. McCain was cited in a DefenseNews article as saying that Carter—not Hagel—will also appear on Capitol Hill to defend the White House’s upcoming 2016 defense budget request. “It’s going to be Carter, so we’re going to delay it some,” McCain was quoted as saying.
IN THE AIR FORCE
2nd Lt. Nicole Dalmazzi, who triggered a widespread probe into cheating among the Air Force missileer force when she was investigated for drug use, was found guilty of drug use on Jan. 21 during a court-martial at McChord AFB, Wash., according to a Jan. 21 article in the Great Falls Tribune. She has since been dismissed from the Air Force and will serve one month at Chouteau County (Mont.) Detention Center. Dalmazzi was commissioned through Air Force ROTC and started active duty in 2012, and was assigned to the 12th Missile Squadron at Malmstrom. She told the court she took ecstasy pills on five occasions between January 2013 and February 2014. Dalmazzi’s charge resulted from an Air Force Office of Special Investigation probe that discovered missileers were cheating on monthly proficiency tests. No cheating charges were brought against Dalmazzi.
IN THE NRC
Nuclear Regulatory Commission officials in Atlanta have selected Chad Huffman as the Senior Resident Inspector for the Mixed Oxide Fuel Fabrication Facility under construction at the Savannah River Site. Huffman worked in the NRC’s Resident Inspector development program in the Region II office in Atlanta, when he participated in construction inspections at Watts Bar Unit 2 in Tennessee as well as Vogtle Units 3 and 4 near Waynesboro, Ga., has worked as an engineer at a nuclear utility and has also held various positions in residential and commercial construction, according to a statement released by the NRC.
