The Department of Energy communication functions at the Hanford Site in Washington state have been combined into a single office as the Office of River Protection and Richland Operations Office look for additional opportunities to collaborate more effectively.
In February, Brian Vance was named to head both DOE Hanford offices, although they will continue to have separate budgets. Congress has ordered the two DOE operations to remain separate at least through 2024.
The Office of River Protection was created by Congress in 1998 to focus attention on operations in Hanford’s tank farms, which hold 56 million gallons of chemical and radioactive waste left by plutonium production at the site. The Richland Operations Office manages the other cleanup operations at Hanford.
Carrie Meyer, who was assigned to lead communications for the Office of River Protection, has been named director of Hanford Site communications. She said in a statement that the communication functions for both Hanford DOE offices had been integrated “to increase efficiency, reduce duplication of functions, and strengthen the consistency of strategic communications, messaging, and stakeholder engagement.”
Ten DOE staffers at Hanford are assigned to communication functions, not counting clerical support. They are divided about evenly between the two offices, but many work at times on projects connected to both offices. No layoffs or transfers are involved in combining the communications operations.
The two offices have been working together more closely in recent years, with Richland Operations Office employees moved across Richland starting in 2016 from the Federal Building to the Stevens Center complex where Office of River Protection employees are based.
The Richland Operations Office has about 220 DOE employees and the Office of River Protection has about 150.
