John (Jay) Mullis finished his federal career last week as the Department of Energy’s manager for nuclear cleanup at the Oak Ridge Site in Tennessee, with deputy Eric Olds stepping in as the acting boss.
The transition was confirmed via email Monday by a spokesperson for DOE. Exchange Monitor first reported the Mullis retirement plans in February.
Mullis has been manager of the nuclear cleanup office at Oak Ridge since November 2017. For a little more than a year of that span, though, he was detailed to the Office of Environmental Management Washington, D.C., office as head of regulatory and policy issues. According to his DOE online bio, Mullis’s federal career lasted more than 30 years and included nine years with the Naval Nuclear Propulsion Program.
Like Mullis, Olds is a longtime fed, having worked with DOE more than 31 years, according to his department bio.
Prior to coming to the Oak Ridge Environmental Management office, Olds was communications director for the Office of Environmental Management, working out of Washington, D.C. headquarters. He has also been acting chief of staff for the $8-billion nuclear cleanup office. Likewise, Olds has served in the past as chief of staff or communications director at the operations offices for the Hanford Site in Richland, Wash.