Now in his second year as second-in-charge at the Department of Energy’s Office of Environmental Management, Jeff Avery wants a laser focus on nuclear cleanup balanced with an eye toward doing “public good” where practical.
During a 20-minute interview with Exchange Monitor on the sidelines of the Waste Management Symposia, Avery touched upon the evolving role of the $8-billion-plus environmental management branch and personnel issues.
Avery became principal deputy assistant secretary for Environmental Management, or EM2, in January 2023 after working 26 years at DOE’s office of Naval Reactors. He joined the cleanup office after working jointly with the branch on a plan for Environmental Management to remediate old naval reactor facilities.
Asked how far Environmental Management should venture from its core role of remediating Cold War and Manhattan Project sites, Avery said there is a balance that should be struck.
“As I said yesterday [during a panel discussion of hot topics at Environmental Management], I think it’s a balance,” Avery said. Already-remediated weapons complex land is being turned over to neighboring municipalities for everything from airports to industrial land, speakers said during the Monday panel discussion.
Then there is DOE’s new Cleanup to Clean Energy program to use underutilized nuclear site lands for carbon-free power.
“We do have a very important cleanup mission and we need to remain laser focused on that mission,” Avery said. “We are also a public body and we exist for public good.”
Avery favors community projects “where they make sense, to support the public good.”
Land reuse and industrialization fold in well with cleanup mission and seem like a natural next step for properties cleaned up by DOE, Avery said. “I don’t draw lines that are too bright between these two initiatives.”
The DOE cleanup office continues to enjoy funding north of $8 billion to remediate nuclear weapons sites. Over the weekend, Congress passed and President Joe Biden signed a final fiscal 2024 spending plan to keep the office at $8.5 billion in the budget yet ending Sept. 30.
On Tuesday, the White House rolled out its fiscal 2025 budget request, which would place Environmental Management funding at $8.3 billion.
“We are super pleased that we have now an appropriation,” Avery said. He views it as an “affirmation of the work that we do overall around the country.”
In addition to dollars, Avery said Environmental Management senior supervisors provide a talent pool to fill key management openings, including two notable field manager posts coming open.
“I think we have tremendous bench strength in the program,” Avery said.
This week Mark Brown deputy manager of cleanup at the Idaho National Laboratory, became the new manager there, as Connie Flohr prepares for her previously announced retirement next month.
DOE is also working through “the normal process” to replace Michael Mikolanis, who will depart as field boss with the Los Alamos National Laboratory office in New Mexico to become the head fed at the National Nuclear Security Administration’s Savannah River Site office.
Effective March 24, Sarah (Ellie) Gilbertson will become the acting manager of the Los Alamos field office.
