Atkins executive Alan Parker has voluntarily withdrawn his name from consideration as a candidate for the position of Energy Department assistant secretary for environmental management, industry sources said.
Parker, president and project manager for the Atkins-led DOE contractor Mid-America Conversion Services (now providing depleted uranium hexafluoride conversion at facilities in Ohio and Kentucky), was reported in July to be on the White House’s list of potential nominees. But, for personal reasons, he asked to be taken out of the mix, two sources told Weapons Complex Monitor.
Parker could not be reached for comment. The White House and Energy Department did not respond to requests for an update on the effort to fill the “EM-1” position.
It was not immediately clear who now is still being considered to lead the roughly $6 billion annual cleanup of DOE’s nuclear legacy, or when a nomination might be made. The name most publicly linked to the job in recent months was John “Rick” Dearholt, a former DOE contractor at the Oak Ridge Site in Tennessee. Dearholt in March acknowledged he was in the running, but one source said earlier this month he would not be selected.
The Energy Department’s Office of Environmental Management has not had a permanent assistant secretary since Obama-era appointee Monica Regalbuto stepped down following President Donald Trump’s inauguration. Longtime EM hand Sue Cange took over on an acting basis, then was replaced in June by DOE veteran James Owendoff.
One source said the administration does not appear to have a candidate ready for nomination, and that Owendoff would remain in the position for the foreseeable future.
As with other Cabinet agencies, the Trump administration has been slow to fill in top spots at DOE. Energy Secretary Rick Perry was sworn into office on March 2, but it took five months for his deputy, Dan Brouillette, to come on-board. Two energy undersecretary nominees are waiting on Senate confirmation. The administration might then move on to assistant secretaries.
There has been no change in the view that former DOE and National Security Council official Lisa Gordon-Hagerty remains in line to be nominated to lead DOE’s semiautonomous National Nuclear Security Administration, one source noted. Obama holdover Frank Klotz has remained on as head of the agency tasked with sustaining the U.S. nuclear deterrent.
Some significant decisions at DOE are taking longer than usual due to the slow pace of appointments to high-ranking posts at the department, Louis Centofanti, president and CEO of Perma-Fix Environmental Services, said this month during his company’s quarterly earnings call. He indicated this affects both environmental cleanup business awards and approval of certain new Perma-Fix technology.
“It’s hard for the department to make major decisions without guidance,” Centofanti said. The Perma-Fix CEO said he hopes the pace of Trump administration appointments at DOE is picking up.
The contract for legacy nuclear waste management and cleanup of the Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico expires in just over a month, on Sept. 30, but DOE has not announced a new contract award. The work is currently managed by the lab’s management and operations prime, Los Alamos National Security.
There has similarly been no word on the follow-on to the current liquid waste management contract at the Savannah River Site in South Carolina. The current contract, held by Savannah River Remediation, expires on Dec. 31. The new deal could be worth up to $6 billion over 10 years.
A separate industry source cautioned against automatically connecting the situation at the top of the Office of Environmental Management to the slow rollout of the contracts.
At Los Alamos, DOE might be waiting to finish treatment of dozens of nitrate-salt containers before naming a new contractor, the source said. Otherwise, the new cleanup provider might have to take over the work, which involves mixing an inert substance with the waste to ensure the drums do not blow open like the LANL-origin nitrate salt container that spread radioactive material into the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant in February 2014. That incident kept WIPP closed for nearly three years.
As of late July, the lab had processed about one-third of the 60 drums of remediated nitrate salts. Another 29 containers of unremediated waste also must be treated.
At Savannah River, DOE could hold off on announcing the new liquid waste prime until the new melter is installed in the Defense Waste Processing Facility, the source said. The facility is expected to resume operations toward the end of 2017, after the melter is installed.
Another source added that Owendoff appears to have strong support from the administration and is “solidly in charge,” so that the absence of a permanent assistant secretary would not notably slow DOE cleanup activities.
Owendoff, who as of June is also EM’s principal deputy assistant secretary, previously served in the cleanup office from 1995 to 2003 and from 2005 to 2010. His prior roles include acting assistant secretary, principal deputy assistant secretary, and chief operations officer.