A high ranking official in the Department of Energy’s Environmental Management (EM) office says leadership across DOE sites remains strong, following the departure of several agency officials departing under the federal Deferred Resignation Program (DRP).
“With respect to staffing levels, certainly there’s been a number of people who chose to take the DRP program. But one thing I’m very proud of at EM is that good key leaders train their replacements and we have qualified people that are stepping into new roles,” said Gregory Sosson, the associate principal deputy assistant secretary for EM.
Sosson spoke briefly about employment concerns and recent changes at Wednesday’s EM Site-Specific Advisory Board (SSAB) Chairs meeting. The board is made up of leaders of citizens boards that closely follow waste treatment and other missions at their local DOE facilities.
Filling in for Acting Assistant Secretary Roger Jarrell, who was unable to attend, Sosson deferred several questions, but still spoke positively about EM’s standing despite ongoing changes. Since President Donald Trump took office in January, several high-ranking EM officials have retired under the DRP program, including Candice Robertson, the federal manager who was leading the nuclear cleanup program. Others include site managers at the Hanford Site in Washington state, the Savannah River Site in South Carolina and the Oak Ridge Site in Tennessee.
“We do have admittedly more junior people now, but I’m very proud of how we’ve worked as a team and we’re already assessing where we’ll fill gaps and how we’ll support each other,” Sosson added.
Board members expressed that turnover caused by federal action has had a trickle-down effect. For example, Miya Burke, a SSAB board member who serves on the local citizens board for Hanford, said the changes have resulted in the local board getting three different Deputy Designated Federal Officer (DDFO) in the past three months. DDFOs conduct day-to-day operations for SSAB local advisory boards
“There’s been a lot of feeling of upheaval to be honest,” she said. “But we’re hoping to be getting to a better place and have a DDFO who will ensure we can continue to have meetings.”
Sosson said he recognizes that the period of transition isn’t easy and that he welcomes ideas from the SSAB. “I hear loud and clear the need for the board to communicate these things, and I’ll be taking that feedback with me,” he said. “We want to work safer and more efficiently, and we’re all rolling up our sleeves to figure out how to make that happen.”
Wednesday’s meeting also included brief updates on missions across the DOE complex. Examples include the Savannah River Site’s goal of ticking liquid waste treatment up to 9 million gallons per year, and the Idaho National Lab’s continued treatment of 900,000 gallons of liquid waste.
Article amended at 11:35 a.m. Eastern Time on April 29 to correct headline.
