Jessica Kunkle, a longtime hand around the Department of Energy’s weapons complex, started her new assignment overseeing the Los Alamos National Laboratory field office in New Mexico for DOE’s Office of Environmental Management.
Kunkle, a 15-year-veteran of DOE’s National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA), officially started as Environmental Management field boss in Los Alamos on Monday, a DOE spokesperson confirmed via email to Exchange Monitor.
Kunkle, a Los Alamos native who most recently was deputy administrator with NNSA’s Office of Infrastructure Lifecycle Management in Washington, takes over from acting field office manager Ellie Gilbertson. Gilbertson is the full-time deputy manager.
Environmental Management turned to Kunkle, who moved over from NNSA, after the cleanup office’s most recent permanent Los Alamos manager, Michael Mikolanis, left to become NNSA field office manager for the Savannah River Site in South Carolina.
As part of her job, Kunkle will oversee the work of legacy nuclear cleanup contractor Newport News Nuclear BWXT Los Alamos.
