DOE OAK RIDGE CLEANUP CHIEF KEY CANDIDATE FOR EM LEADERSHIP ROLE

Mark Whitney, manager of the Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge Office of Environmental Management, has emerged as a key candidate to help fill the senior leadership gaps that currently exist at the DOE Office of Environmental Management’s headquarters, WC Monitor has learned. Currently the top three leadership positions in EM are being held on an acting basis—David Huizenga has headed EM since the summer of 2011 and is now set to return to the National Nuclear Security Administration at some point in the future with the White House having nominated Monica Regalbuto to officially serve as Assistant EM Secretary; Jim Owendoff currently serves as acting Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary; and Jack Craig currently serves as acting Associate Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary.

Whitney has overseen DOE’s cleanup efforts at Oak Ridge since late July 2012, and before that served as acting Principal Assistant Deputy Administrator for Defense Nuclear Nonproliferation in the National Nuclear Security Administration; and as NNSA Assistant Deputy Administrator for Nonproliferation and International Security, among other positions. He largely declined to comment on his future plans yesterday on the sidelines of a House Cleanup Caucus briefing on Oak Ridge. “Monica Regalbuto has been nominated and we’re all very hopeful that that confirmation process proceeds without delay,” Whitney told WC Monitor. “Dave, he’s acting EM-1 right now … and he will be until he moves back to NNSA,” Whitney said, adding, “Right now, I think that’s to be determined—the timing of that.”