An executive at American Demolition and Nuclear Decommissioning, John (Rick) Dearholt has died, the head of a Knoxville-based nuclear trade organization confirmed by phone Tuesday morning.
A memorial service for Dearholt, a longtime board member for the Energy, Technology & Environmental Business Association, is set for Friday June 21, said the executive director of the association, Elizabeth Harm.
Dearholt, director of federal programs for New York state-based American DND, died over the weekend, Harm said in a phone conversation with Exchange Monitor. He was apparently in his 60s, various industry sources said by email. According to social media posts, a memorial service is set for Friday afternoon, June 21, at the Rothchild Catering and Conference Center in Knoxville. Sources said Dearholt apparently suffered a heart attack while on a family trip. During the early days of the Donald Trump administration, Dearholt’s name was floated as a candidate to head the Department of Energy’s Office of Environmental Management.
Shalanda Baker, who heads the Department of Energy’s Office of Energy Justice and Equity, will leave DOE at the end of June, a DOE spokesperson said Wednesday.
Baker joined DOE in January 2021, first as the deputy director of Energy Justice and adviser to the secretary on equity, the DOE spokesperson said in an email to Exchange Monitor. Since June 2022, Baker has been DOE’s director of the Office of Energy Justice and Equity. “Her [Baker’s] efforts to advance President Biden’s Justice40 initiative have transformed the Department’s work in underserved and overburdened communities across America,” the DOE spokesperson said. The DOE statement did not mention Baker’s future plans.
Prior to her appointment with DOE, Baker was a professor of law, public policy and urban affairs at Northeastern University. She was the co-founder and co-director of the Initiative for Energy Justice. She is a former U.S. Air Force officer.
At some point, the National Nuclear Security Administration might consider locating a small modular reactor at the Department of Energy’s Savannah River Site in South Carolina, an agency field manager told the Radwaste Summit last week in Louisville, Ky.
Michael Mikolanis, the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) field office manager at the site, stressed he was not “breaking news” and no decisions have been made. However, Mikolanis said Savannah River’s 310-square-mile footprint has room to accommodate new missions. New nuclear development on weapons complex sites, has been mentioned by feds and contractors since Secretary of Energy Jennifer Granholm announced the Cleanup to Clean Energy program in July 2023.
NNSA currently relies upon the Tennessee Valley Authority’s Watts Bar nuclear plant to produce some tritium for U.S. nuclear weapons, Mikolanis went on to say. The idea of a small modular reactor at Savannah River, was one of the topics Mikolanis touched upon during his June 4 presentation.
