Due to winter weather, onsite employees at the Department of Energy’s Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico were allowed to come in late a couple of days this week, according to the lab webpage.
Workers were allowed to report to work later than normal on Tuesday and Wednesday, due to snowy weather. The Wednesday meeting of the DOE’s Northern New Mexico Citizens Advisory Board for Los Alamos was also canceled, according to a Tuesday evening email from DOE.
According to the National Weather Service website, scattered snow showers are expected to continue today in Los Alamos with the daytime high reaching 32 degrees Fahrenheit. After a cold weekend, there is another chance of snow on Monday.
Some citizens groups in New Mexico could formally ask the state Environment Department next week for more time to comment upon the 10-year permit renewal for the Department of Energy’s Waste Isolation Pilot Plant.
The New Mexico Legislature began its 60-day session on Tuesday Jan. 17. “Many people participate in the session, so we’re asking for an extension of time to provide informed public comments on the long permit – it’s over 1,100 pages,” Joni Arends, executive director of Santa Fe-based Concerned Citizens for Nuclear Safety, said in a Thursday email to ExchangeMonitor.
The comment period on the draft state permit for the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant near Carlsbad, started on Dec. 20 and is currently scheduled to end Feb. 18, barring an extension. The state is seeking to exert more control over operation and plans for eventual closure of the nation’s deep geological disposal site for defense-related transuranic waste.
Jeff Avery started this week as the No. 2 Department of Energy Office of Environmental Management executive. A longtime federal hand, Avery comes to the cleanup office from a management post with the DOE Office of Naval Reactors. Avery is listed in the office’s latest organizational chart, dated Jan. 15.
Prior to becoming second-in-command at the nuclear cleanup office, Avery worked at Naval Reactors for about 26 years in various program management, policy, and technical roles, according to his bio.
Rep. Chuck Fleischmann (R-Tenn.) will chair the appropriations subcommittee that writes the first draft of the Department of Energy’s annual spending bill, the full committee confirmed this week.
Fleischmann takes the gavel of the House Appropriations energy and water subcommittee from Rep. Mike Simpson (R-Idaho), who now will chair the House Appropriations interior and environment subcommittee. The announcements were part of a slate of appointments published Monday by the Appropriations Committee, chaired by Rep. Kay Granger (R-Texas).