Tim Walsh, the new head of the Department of Energy’s $8-billion Office of Environmental Management, made his first visit to DOE’s largest nuclear cleanup site last week, a Washington state newspaper reported.
With little fanfare, Walsh, assistant secretary for Environmental Management (EM), visited the Hanford Site at Richland, Wash., according to a Nov. 5 article in the Tri-City Herald.
The newspaper reported Walsh visited the former plutonium production complex to better acquaint himself with the property and the Waste Treatment Immobilization Plant (WTP). The plant’s Direct-Feed-Low-Activity-Waste (DFLAW) Facility started turning some of the less-radioactive tank waste into a glass form around Oct. 10, complying with an Oct. 15 legal deadline.
The newspaper reported Walsh visited the 586-square-mile site Nov. 4 and Nov. 5. The Office of Environmental Management did not immediately respond to an Exchange Monitor inquiry about the visit.
Walsh was sworn in Oct. 23 after winning Senate confirmation as part of a bloc of President Donald Trump’s nominees a couple of weeks earlier. Walsh, a combat veteran and Colorado real estate developer, is the first confirmed EM-1, as the post is often referred to, since the first Trump administration.
Hanford, home to about 56 million gallons of radioactive sludge held in underground tanks, typically accounts for a third of the Office of Environmental Management budget.