A U.S. Department of Energy nuclear cleanup manager at the Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico has been placed on administration leave, though the cause has not been made clear.
The Los Alamos Reporter reported Wednesday that DOE Office of Environmental Management employee David Rhodes is on leave pending an unspecified investigation.
“The New Mexico Environment Department was informed by DOE-EM on Monday that Mr. Rhodes had been placed on leave,” NMED spokeswoman Maddy Hayden said in a Thursday email. “No additional information was given.”
It was not immediately clear if Rhodes works directly with NMED.
His LinkedIn online profile identifies Rhodes as a supervisor for environmental remediation and decommissioning projects who joined the Energy Department in March 2008. His duties include supervising and training a team of federal project directors and project controls support staff, according to the online profile.
When joint committees of the DOE’s Northern New Mexico Citizens’ Advisory Board met Wednesday, board Chair Stan Riveles said department Completion of Project Delivery Director Dave Nickless would take over from Rhodes as the deputy designated federal officer for the board, according to the Los Alamos Reporter.
Scott Kovac, operations and research director for the advocacy group Nuclear Watch New Mexico, said by email he learned of Rhodes’ situation during this week’s board meeting. Rhodes has given many presentations to the advisory board over the years, Kovac said.
Rhodes also served as a member of the Environmental Management team that helped select Newport News Nuclear BWXT Los Alamos (N3B) as the new legacy remediation vendor, Kovac said. N3B took over legacy cleanup from Los Alamos National Security in April 2018.
The Energy Department did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
