James Biggins, a longtime senior manager at the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board (DNFSB) has started a new position as chief of staff and chief counsel at the U.S. Office of Government Ethics.
Biggins joined the Government Ethics office this month, he announced in a LinkedIn post. Biggins has held various key DNFSB posts, including general manager, general counsel and deputy executive director for risk and strategy, according to his online profile. He has been with DNFSB dating back to 2015.
Biggins became a member of the federal government’s Senior Executive Service in September 2016 and has been practicing law for over 25 years, the Office of Government Ethics said in a Sept. 8 press release. Before joining DNFSB, Biggins worked in the legal departments of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission and the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality
A localized ceasefire is allowing workers to begin demining and repairing a power line serving Ukraine’s Russian-controlled Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant, the International Atomic Energy Agency said Sept. 7.
The ceasefire, the seventh brokered by the IAEA for work at the plant, is intended to restore the Ferosplavna-1 line and reduce the facility’s reliance on emergency diesel generators. The plant lost its last remaining external power connection Aug. 20 following military activity, leaving its six reactors dependent on backup generators for essential safety systems.
IAEA Director General Rafael Grossi said at a Board of Governors meeting the diesel supplies had fallen to little more than a week, while cooling pumps were being operated intermittently.
A Huntington Ingalls Industries shipbuilding executive last week told lawmakers how the company plans to improve and accelerate shipbuilding throughout via workforce improvements, adding new shipbuilding infrastructure and reinforcing distributed shipbuilding
“In 2025, throughput in our shipyards increased by 14 percent year over year, with approximately 40 ships at Ingalls and at Newport News in active construction or modernization. Our focus in 2026 is clear: we must build on this momentum and continue delivering ships at greater pace to the U.S. Navy. We are targeting a 15 percent year-over-year throughput increase in 2026,” Eric Chewning, executive vice president for maritime systems and corporate strategy at HII, told members of the House Appropriations Defense subcommittee during a Sept. 4 field hearing in Santa Clarita Calif. He said the first part of the company’s “throughout acceleration strategy” focuses on hiring, training and keeping a modern workforce.
Chewning also said they are working toward workforce improvements via wage increases, a network of vocational schools, in-yard education, HII apprenticeship programs and quality of life investments for shipbuilding employees. “Our shipbuilding workforce has endured in spite of the double-digit attrition driven largely by the inflationary impacts of the post-COVID-19 economy, thanks to support from the Congress and the U.S. Navy,” Chewning added.
Obituary
Thomas Graham, formerly director and general counsel for the Arms Control and Disarmament Agency, died Sept. 3 at 92 at his home in Washington, according to an online obituary.
Graham was a special representative for arms control, nonproliferation and disarmament under President Bill Clinton. During the Clinton administration, he helped secure a permanent extension for the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty. He also studied under Henry Kissinger when he was a professor at Harvard Law School.