Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz will make two high-profile public appearances this week as he prepares to leave office in a matter of days.
Moniz will offer comments during the formal reopening at the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant near Carlsbad, N.M., which last week conducted its first emplacement of Energy Department transuranic waste in nearly three years, after shutting down in February 2014 following an underground fire and subsequent, unrelated radiation release.
Also present will be New Mexico Gov. Susana Martinez (R), U.S. Sen. Martin Heinrick (D-N.M.), and U.S. Reps. Steve Pearce (R-N.M.) and Michelle Lujan Grisham (D-N.M.). The event begins at 9:45 a.m. Mountain time.
WIPP personnel are first moving into the underground mine the waste that was stranded above ground at the site at the time of the accidents. Waste shipments from other DOE facilities could resume by May.
On Wednesday, Moniz will be at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C., for a presentation and question-and-answer period focused on the DOE’s national laboratories.
The energy secretary “will discuss how an increased focus on science and research and development has informed better policymaking and technology solutions, and how to protect the independence and integrity of scientists at the Department of Energy and its 17 National Labs,” according to a National Press Club press release. “Moniz will unveil a new report on the laboratories’ work and policies intended to encourage and empower scientists to innovate new energy solutions, make new scientific discoveries, support private industry and deliver for the American people.”
That event, open to National Press Club members and credentialed reporters, is scheduled to begin at 11 a.m.
The Trump administration takes office on Friday, Jan. 20. President-elect Donald Trump has selected former Texas Gov. Rick Perry as his energy secretary nominee. Perry, during his first campaign for president, famously forgot in a 2011 GOP debate that DOE was one of the federal agencies he wanted to eliminate.
