Mike Nartker
WC Monitor
6/6/2014
Monica Regalbuto, the White House’s choice for the next head of the Department of Energy’s cleanup program, is soon set to get an early start in the senior management of the Department’s Office of Environmental Management. Effective June 16, Regalbuto will serve as Associate Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary, where she will be responsible for EM’s various mission units, according to a message current DOE cleanup chief David Huizenga sent to employees late this week. Regalbuto will replace Jack Craig, who has held the position in an acting capacity since late last year. Rather than return to the EM Consolidated Business Center, where he served as Director, Craig will remain at EM headquarters for “the foreseeable future” to “continue to provide expert guidance,” Huizenga said.
Regalbuto currently serves as Deputy Assistant Secretary for Fuel Cycle Technologies in DOE’s Office of Nuclear Energy, but she is no stranger to DOE’s cleanup efforts, having previously served as a Senior Program Manager with EM’s former Office of Waste Processing. The Obama Administration officially nominated Regalbuto to serve as Assistant EM Secretary this spring. If confirmed by the Senate, she would fill a position that has been officially vacant since early July 2011, when Ines Triay stepped down. Since then, EM has been headed by David Huizenga, who is set to return at some point in the future to the National Nuclear Security Administration in the position of Principal Assistant Deputy Administrator for Defense Nuclear Nonproliferation.
Nominee’s Remarks Prompted Concerns in S.C.
The Senate Armed Services Committee has scheduled a hearing June 19 to consider Regalbuto’s nomination, along with four pending Department of Defense nominees. During a hearing the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee held on her nomination last month, Regalbuto raised some eyebrows when she suggested that Hanford may be a higher priority than the Savannah River Site. When questioned about DOE’s cleanup priorities, Regalbuto said the Department’s “number one” priority is restarting operations at the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant, which has been shutdown since February because of two incidents, one involving a radiological release. Regalbuto went on to say, “Our number two priority is the work at Hanford. Hanford is one of the largest sites and as such a lot of work still needs to be done. We are working with the state to assess a staged approach that will allow us to move forward. The number three priority is to continue the great work that we have been doing in the state of South Carolina at the Savannah River Site. Savannah River is the only working site that produces glass today in this country, and it is critically important that we continue to work on those issues.”
Among those who questioned Regalbuto’s comments was Karen Patterson, Chair of the South Carolina Governor’s Nuclear Advisory Council. “Now we have confirmation of our past perception—rather than prioritization based on risk, life cycle costs considerations, ‘foot-print reduction’ and other legitimate explanations, future funding will be based on location,” she said in a written response to WC Monitor after Regalbuto’s appearance before the Senate energy panel. “We understand that money is finite, and limited, but it defies logic that DOE would put a lower priority on the SRS, which has old, leaking radioactive waste tanks, some of which are sitting in the water table, and a successful process to vitrify those wastes,” Patterson said.
