With the top two feds at the Department of Energy’s Hanford Site in Washington state leaving, an interim deputy manager, Brian Harkins, has been appointed effective April 3.
The selection of Harkins to serve as the acting deputy was announced in a recent staff memo from DOE Hanford Site Manager Brian Vance.
Harkins replaced deputy manager Brian Stickney on an interim basis after Stickney left federal service March 25, according to Vance. Vance himself recently announced he is leaving the federal government later this month.
Harkins has been Hanford’s assistant manager for mission support since 2022, Vance said in the memo viewed by Exchange Monitor. In the new role, Harkins, “will be responsible for oversight of daily operations, program planning, project execution, budgeting, compliance with the Tri-Party Agreement and consent decree, and safe, environmentally acceptable, and efficient management of the Hanford Site,” Vance went on to say.
“As Brian takes over as acting HFO [Hanford Field Office] deputy manager, Vanessa Turner, who has served as deputy assistant manager since January 2024, will serve as acting assistant manager for mission support,” Vance said.
Hanford has 56 million gallons of liquid radioactive waste left over from decades of plutonium production and stored in underground tanks. The Bechtel-built Waste Treatment and Immobilization Plant is expected to start converting some of the less radioactive waste into a glass-like form in August.
Hanford has roughly 13,000 workers, most employed by contractors, and typically accounts for a third of the DOE Office of Management’s $8-billion budget.
