The Department of Energy is getting closer to renaming its nuclear cleanup branch, the head of what is currently the DOE Office of Environmental Management (EM) told a gathering of industry contractors Wednesday in Washington, D.C.
EM is “soon to be the Office of Nuclear Restoration and Revitalization.” DOE’s Assistant Secretary for Environmental Management Tim Walsh, told the annual meeting of the Energy Facility Contractors Group (EFCOG).
“I think the name has been approved internally, but we will be rolling it out next month,” Walsh said.
The head of EM, Walsh, earlier announced the planned name change in March during the Waste Management Symposia in Phoenix. The pending name change has received mixed reviews from some members of Congress.
We are entering a nuclear renaissance or maybe a nuclear rebirth or whatever you want to tag it,” Walsh said. The EM chief, who has a real estate development background, said he was excited that nuclear cleanup sites will host data centers and small modular reactors in the near future.
“You can’t have nuclear power without a nuclear fuel cycle,” Walsh said, noting that the Portsmouth Site in Ohio and the Paducah Site in Kentucky will be hosting this sort of development.
Walsh did not discuss any details of plans for an upcoming reorganization of the office, he announced earlier in the year.