Reinhard Knerr, a director at the Energy Department’s Portsmouth-Paducah Project Office (PPPO), will in mid-July become the new permanent manager for the agency’s Carlsbad Field Office in New Mexico.
Knerr is currently federal project director for conversion of depleted uranium hexafluoride (DUF6) at the Portsmouth Site in Ohio and the Paducah Site in Kentucky. His appointment was announced by DOE Tuesday via the Twitter account for the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant, which is overseen by the Carlsbad office.
Knerr has held management and planning roles at the Paducah Site since 2004. In his current position, he recently managed completion of a record of decision for disposing of depleted uranium oxides from the DUF6 conversion plants. Knerr has prior experience with WIPP, where he once served as a transuranic waste certification team leader, according to the release.
He becomes the first permanent manager of the Carlsbad Field Office since Todd Shrader moved on a year ago to take the No. 2 post at DOE Office of Environmental Management headquarters in Washington, D.C.
Greg Sosson, who held the acting manager post since December, is returning to DOE headquarters in Washington, D.C., where he will serve as deputy assistant secretary for safety, security and quality assurance for Environmental Management. After working 28 years in the commercial nuclear power business, Sosson joined DOE headquarters in 2015 as chief of nuclear safety, associate deputy assistant secretary for field operations oversight, and chief safety officer for the cleanup office.
Carlsbad Deputy Manager Kirk Lachman is also on the move, as he will become the agency’s new EM manager for the Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico. That move is effective June 21. A 27-year veteran of DOE, Lachman has held various management roles with both EM and the semiautonomous National Nuclear Security Administration.
