Secretary of Energy Chris Wright is logging a lot of miles before Christmas, visiting the Department of Energy’s Hanford Site as well as the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory this week.
Wright is then scheduled to round out his western swing on Monday Dec. 8 with a stopover at Idaho National Laboratory, according to notices released this week by the DOE communications office.
The Thursday schedule showed Wright visiting the Ice Harbor Dam in Burbank, Wash., and answering questions from local reporters. A subsequent press availability was also scheduled Thursday afternoon at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory near the Hanford Site.
At the Pacific Northwest Laboratory, Wright was expected to make remarks on President Donald Trump’s Genesis Mission to accelerate artificial intelligence for military purposes. On its LinkedIn page, Pacific Northwest National Laboratory welcomed Wright and touted its own work on AI.
On Friday, Dec. 5, Secretary Wright was to visit the DOE’s Hanford Site at Richland, Wash. This would mark Wright’s first visit to the former plutonium production site since the Waste Treatment Plant there started solidifying some of the less-radioactive waste into glass. That started Oct. 10.
During one of his Thursday stops, Wright denied press reports from this fall that he considered suspending the startup of the multi-billion dollar Waste Treatment Plant (WTP), according to an article in the Tri-City Herald. Wright said it was “a crazy story” and he is dedicated to cleaning up the Cold War legacy of plutonium production at Hanford. Sen. Patty Murray (D-Wash.) had accused Wright of waffling on WTP.
Finally, on Monday Dec. 8 Wright is set to visit Idaho National Laboratory and “see first-hand the progress the Trump Administration has made in unleashing America’s next nuclear renaissance,” according to one of the DOE media advisories.