BY MAIRE O’NEILL
maire@losalamosreporter.com
A spokesperson for Newport News Nuclear BWXT Los Alamos (N3B) declined to comment this week on a lawsuit filed against the company initially by two former employees, chief of staff and past human resources director Tashia Owens and Edward Martinez, a senior radiation control technician in January. The suit was expanded May 6 to include seven additional former employees.
N3B is the legacy waste cleanup contractor to Department of Energy Environmental Management at Los Alamos National Laboratory. Also named are HII Nuclear and BWXT Technical Services Group.
The civil lawsuit, filed in January by Santa Fe attorney Trent A. Howell, in U.S. District Court, seeks monetary damages under federal and state law for the 2025 terminations of Owens and Martinez allegedly after they each questioned N3B’s compliance with legal standards on federal acquisition, contracting, employment, and Environment, Safety, and Health. The initial complaint alleges N3B also terminated Owens and Martinez in conspicuous timing with DOE’s “deep dive” on N3B work under its DOE contract since mid-2022 “including whether N3B properly bid and billed DOE under the legacy cleanup contract. The case also contains claims under New Mexico Common Law of Wrongful Termination. View the Complaint here.
On May 6, Howell filed an amended complaint for False Claims Act retaliation, witness deterrence. negligence per se, wrongful retaliatory discharge, and punitive damages, adding seven additional plaintiffs: Brenda Bowlby, Maria Sandoval, Jolene Garduño, Adam Barras, Alexandria Sanchez, Miles Majure-Barkley, and Brian Caldwell. View the First Amended Complaint here.
Department of Energy
On January 20, 2026, we filed Tashia Owen & Edward Martinez v. Newport News Nuclear BWXT-Los Alamos, LLC, Huntington Ingalls Industries, Inc., and BWX Technologies, Inc., an action against the primary Legacy Hazardous Waste Cleanup contractor(s) at Los Alamos National Laboratory, under the Federal False Claims Act and the New Mexico common law of Wrongful Discharge, in the United States District Court for the District of New Mexico. View the Complaint here.
On May 6, 2026, we filed a First Amended Complaint for False Claims Act Retaliation, Section 1985(2) Witness Deterrence, Negligence Per Se, Wrongful/Retaliatory Discharge, and Punitive Damages, adding seven Plaintiffs: Brenda Bowlby, Maria Sandoval, Jolene Garduño, Adam Barras, Alexandria Sanchez, Miles Majure-Barkley, and Brian Caldwell. View the First Amended Complaint here.