DOE cleanup office removes ‘acting’ from Olds, Deshong field manager titles

The acting heads of two major Department of Energy nuclear cleanup offices, one in Tennessee and the other in South Carolina, are “acting” managers no longer. 

After acting as the DOE’s top remediation boss at the Savannah River Site since February, longtime DOE hand Edwin Deshong, III was promoted June 1 to head of the Environmental Management field office.

Similarly, another DOE supervisor of 30-plus years, Eric Olds, has been appointed the permanent manager of the Oak Ridge Site in Tennessee, DOE confirmed this week.  Olds has been acting manager at Oak Ridge Office of Environmental Management since March after prior field boss Jay Mullis retired from DOE and would take a job with United Cleanup Oak Ridge. 

As manager, Olds oversees remediation at the Y-12 National Security Complex, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, and the former gaseous diffusion plant grounds now known as the East Tennessee Technology Park, according to his online bio. 

Olds became deputy manager at Oak Ridge in 2024, after serving over the years in various posts at DOE EM headquarters in Washington, D.C., as well as at the Hanford Site in Washington state. He once worked in public affairs at the Yucca Mountain Project in Nevada. Olds holds both a bachelor’s and a master’s degree from University of Nevada-Las Vegas. 

DOE’s Office of Environmental Management (EM) announced Tuesday Deshong is getting the Savannah River field office job permanently.

Deshong, who has had a 33-year career at DOE, had been deputy manager since December 2022. Deshong then stepped into EM’s top role at Savannah River on an acting basis after longtime field office manager Mike Budney left DOE. Budney left the department in connection with President Donald Trump’s efforts to shrink the size of the federal workforce.

While deputy manager at Savannah River, Deshong played a central role in the Oct. 1, 2024 handover of EM’s landlord duties at the site to the National Nuclear Security Administration, according to an EM press release.

Deshong holds degrees from South Carolina State University and the University of Maryland. According to the release, his prior DOE posts include chief engineer for the Savannah River Operations Office and assistant manager for programs and senior facility representative for the NNSA at Savannah River.

“I am honored to be chosen to lead the Savannah River Operations Office at this important time when SRS is achieving real progress, including accelerating the liquid waste mission and achieving significant milestones empowering our community.” Deshong said in the release.

The department still needs to appoint a permanent field office manager at the Hanford Site in Washington state after Brian Vance left this spring.