DOE Oak Ridge Office Management in Flux
At least three executive positions – including the top two – are up for grabs at the Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge Office in an unusually unsteady management situation.
The situation was created by losses at the top of the organization, including the death a year ago of Manager Larry Kelly and then the departure of his deputy and successor, Kevin Hall, several months later.
DOE’s Oak Ridge Office has become a hybrid of sorts, holding responsibility for the 33,000-acre federal reservation apart from the DOE research and production plants, operating the Integrated Services Center, and coordination and communication with the other DOE offices in town – Science, Environmental Management, and the National Nuclear Security Administration’s Production Office.
Don Thress, the Oak Ridge Office’s chief legal counsel, is currently the acting manager for ORO.
According to John Shewairy, the assistant manager for administration and former public affairs chief who is currently acting as the deputy manager, Thress will serve as acting manager until the position is filled through the competitive process.
“The selection of the permanent ORO manager rests with the Office of the Deputy Director of Field Operations for the Office of Science. The selection process is ongoing,” Shewairy said via email in response to questions.
As for the deputy position that he currently holds, Shewairy said it will be filled through a competitive process with the “permanent ORO manager making the selection.”
Meanwhile, Shewairy said the role of role of assistant manager for safety and technical services is currently vacant. “However, the competitive process for filling that position is underway, with the advertisement of that position closing Feb. 22,” he said. “There are no other key management position vacancies at ORO.”
An exception of sorts is that Wendy Bryan is currently serving as chief counsel because Thress is the acting manager.
Other leadership positions that are filled at ORO include: chief financial officer, Marcie Bischak; assistant manager for procurement and contracts, Jeff Burgan; and assistant manager for safeguards, security, emergency management, Pauline Douglas.
North Anna Spent Fuel Arrives at ORNL
“Research quantities” of high-burn-up spent nuclear fuel – reportedly about 100 pounds – have arrived at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory in Tennessee, where the highly radioactive material will be tested and studied in one of the lab’s hot-cell facilities.
“ORNL is in receipt of research quantities of high-burn-up commercial fuel from the North Anna Power Station,” Claire Sinclair, a spokeswoman in DOE’s Oak Ridge Office of Science, said in response to questions.
“The research has begun and will involve detailed nondestructive and destructive examination and other analyses,” Sinclair said.
The fuel from a pressurized water reactor at the North Anna nuclear power plant in Virginia will be closely evaluated as part of DOE efforts to build the database on high-burn-up fuels and better prepare it for long-term storage and eventual disposal. “The trend over the years has been to go toward higher burn-up fuel to reduce waste and improve economics,” according to ORNL Director Thom Mason.
The fuel is not experimental, Mason said, but he noted that less is known about the fuels that have become more common in recent years.
A number of activist groups have expressed concern about the project.
Ralph Hutchison, coordinator of the Oak Ridge Environmental Peace Alliance, said Monday he was “deeply disappointed” that the Nuclear Regulatory Commission did not release information on the route that was to be used to transport the highly radioactive spent fuel from North Anna to Oak Ridge. He said the NRC promised that information but never provided it.
