White House Looks to Fill Vacancy on Defense Board

Jessie Roberson to be Renominated as Vice-Chair of Defense Board

Mike Nartker
WC Monitor
6/6/2014

The Obama Administration has tapped an official at the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to fill an open vacancy on the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board. The Administration announced late this week its intent to nominate Daniel Santos  to the Board as the official replacement for Kenneth Mossman, who passed away early this year. Santos is currently a Senior Technical Advisor at the NRC, a position he has held since 2007, according to a White House release. Since 2011, he has served at the NRC as the Chairman of the Multinational Design Evaluation Program in the Digital Instrumentation and Controls Group. Prior to joining the NRC, Santos served in a number of positions at the Naval Nuclear Propulsion Headquarters in the Instrumentation and Control Division from 1997 to 2007, including Deputy Manager from 2004 to 2007 and Senior Engineer from 2002 to 2004. 

The White House also announced late this week its intent to re-nominate Jessie Roberson to serve on the DNFSB and to again designate her as Vice Chair. Roberson’s current term on the Board began in 2010, according to the White House. She also previously served on the DNFSB from 2000 to 2001. In 2007, Roberson was the Senior Vice President for Environmental Affairs at Atlantic Sea Harbor Group/Safe Harbor Energy. From 2006 to 2007, she served as the Director of the Nuclear Services Division at CH2M Hill. She was the Director of Nuclear Regulatory Programs at Exelon Corporation from 2004 to 2006. From 2001 to 2004, Roberson served as Assistant Secretary of Energy for Environmental Management.

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Reindustrialization becoming larger focus of DOE EM’s future, Walsh says

Tim Walsh

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.

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