Morning Briefing - September 12, 2024
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September 11, 2024

Hanford consolidates field offices Oct. 1; advisory board member worries

By ExchangeMonitor

The Department of Energy is bidding adieu to its Office of River Protection and Richland Operations Office in Washington state effective Oct. 1, DOE’s manager for the Hanford Site said Tuesday.

“We are going to be the Hanford Field Office, it’s going to be a new name,” Vance told the Hanford Advisory Board Tuesday evening.

Not everyone on the site’s local advisory board thinks this is a good idea. 

Longtime Hanford Advisory Board member Pam Larsen said Wednesday, during the second day of the board’s meeting, she has reservations.

While it makes sense to flatten bureaucracy, Larsen said, at the same time, having the two separate field offices have probably helped fatten the DOE budget to the current $3 billion level.

“I understand the concept of one Hanford sounds good, but having the two sites helped us get the funding to sustain the cleanup,” Larsen said. “I hope it’s not naïve that we are moving in this direction … We had two sites for a reason. So that worries me.”

In March, Secretary of Energy Jennifer Granholm told the House Appropriations Committee that merging the two offices won’t lessen the importance of solidifying Hanford’s 56 million gallons of liquid waste. Congress set up the separate Office of River Protection in 1998 to quarterback the liquid waste issue at Hanford.

Rep. Dan Newhouse (R-Wash.), whose district includes Hanford, inserted language into a 2018 defense policy bill preserving two separate field offices until fiscal 2025, which starts Oct. 1.

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NEW: Via public records request, I’ve been able to confirm reporting today that a warrant has been issued for DOE deputy asst. secretary of spent fuel and waste disposition Sam Brinton for another luggage theft, this time at Las Vegas’s Harry Reid airport. (cc: @EMPublications)

DOE spent fuel lead Brinton accused of second luggage theft.



by @BenjaminSWeiss, confirming today's reports with warrant from Las Vegas Metro PD.

Waste has been Emplaced! 🚮

We have finally begun emplacing defense-related transuranic (TRU) waste in Panel 8 of #WIPP.

Read more about the waste emplacement here: https://wipp.energy.gov/wipp_news_20221123-2.asp

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