KNOXVILLE, Tenn. – With one year under his belt as Department of Energy Assistant Secretary for Environmental Management (EM), Tim Walsh remains bullish about tapping remediated land at government nuclear installations for redevelopment.
Walsh, joined by the principal deputy assistant secretary, or EM-2, Joel Bradburne, kicked off the Energy Technology and Environmental Business Association’s (ETEBA) annual conference here Wednesday morning. The EM leadership reiterated the $8-billion cleanup office’s recent increased focus on revitalizing local economies.
Walsh envisions getting the bulk of cleanup at Cold War and Manhattan Project Sites largely done by 2040. Walsh has previously discussed the 2040 timeline for several site cleanups. DOE is also in the process of rebranding EM as the Office of Nuclear Restoration and Revitalization, Walsh has said.
Since Walsh took over DOE EM in last October, Walsh said Secretary of Energy Chris Wright has made the EM boss, who has a development background, the department’s point person for artificial intelligence (AI) data centers on federal land.
DOE has selected the Portsmouth Site in Ohio, the Savannah River Site in South Carolina and the Paducah Site in Kentucky as locations for proposed data centers.
“I attribute much of what’s going on to the leadership of Assistant Secretary Tim Walsh and the team he’s assembled,” Bradburne said. “He is the man on the mission…we’ve turned it [DOE EM] out from just kind of cleanup to cleanup with a purpose, and not just a purpose, but an expedited and expeditious purpose as well.”
Walsh told the audience here that he envisions the agency moving from purely remediation to remediation to reindustrialization of these sites. Walsh said Oak Ridge, Tenn. has been a prime example of how these cleaned up sites have led to economic development and new business, especially for the nuclear sector.
Much land around the Oak Ridge Site, 30 minutes from Knoxville, has been acquired by nuclear companies, such as Kairos Power, Orano USA and Oklo, for projects for both the front end and back end of the nuclear cycle.
“It’s just fantastic to see a former site that that once helped us win World War II, led to the end of the Cold War, and then maintains our peace and security throughout the world with Y-12 and Oak Ridge National Lab right here doing amazing things they do for our weapons production and national security,” Walsh said.
“Just seeing how we’re bringing that former site back to life for the American people and for the prosperity and security of Tennessee,” Walsh finished.
