Reinhard Knerr, acting manager of the Department of Energy’s Portsmouth Paducah Project Office (PPPO) in Lexington, Ky., is retiring from federal service, he told co-workers in a Tuesday email.
“It is with bittersweet excitement that I am sharing my decision to leave federal service and take a postponed retirement on January 24,” Knerr said in an email viewed by Exchange Monitor. “With almost 25 years of federal services, the bulk of which have been with the Portsmouth Paducah Project Office, this was a particularly difficult decision.”
“Although there are a lot of exciting activities going on including substantial investment and re-utilization of both the Portsmouth and Paducah Sites [in Ohio and Kentucky] to support national security, close the nuclear energy fuel cycle and achieve AI dominance, I was presented an outside opportunity that closely aligns my career and personal goals.”
Knerr said he was “genuinely grateful” for roles that helped fuel his professional growth over time at DOE’s Office of Environmental Management. “The folks in PPPO are some of the hardest working federal employees whose passion and commitment to our mission is unique. I am honored to have been part of PPPO’s overall successes. Thank you.”
The deputy manager for the Portsmouth/Paducah Project Office, Knerr has been acting as the manager since September after longtime PPPO manager Joel Bradburne relocated to Washington, D.C., to temporarily serve as head of Environmental Management prior to Senate confirmation of EM-1 Tim Walsh.
Knerr is also former head of DOE’s Carlsbad Field Office in New Mexico.