A senior official at the Office of River Protection (ORP) at the Hanford Site in Washington state will early next year become deputy manager of the Richland Operations Office (RL) at the Department of Energy facility, according to an announcement Wednesday.
Tom Fletcher currently is the DOE assistant manager for start-up, commissioning, and integration of Hanford’s Waste Treatment Plant. He will fill the spot vacated by Doug Shoop, who was promoted to RL manager in July.
“Tom is a recognized leader and a familiar face at RL, and his assignment to the deputy position is consistent with DOE’s initiatives and the president’s executive order on strengthening the senior executive service, both of which call for developing the next generation of senior leaders for key positions within the federal government,” said Shoop and ORP Manager Kevin Smith in a joint announcement Wednesday.
Fletcher previously served as assistant manager for the Hanford tank farms. He began work at the DOE site in 2006 as project controls officers for groundwater and soil remediation at RL. Previously he worked for the Army Corps of Engineers and was the co-leader for the Richland Life-Cycle Cost Baseline, which became the basis for the Hanford contracts now held by Mission Support Alliance and CH2M Hill Plateau Remediation Co.
The Richland Operations Office oversees environmental cleanup of the Central Plateau and River Corridor at Hanford, a former plutonium production site. The Office of River Protection is charged with oversight of the facility’s waste tank farms and Waste Treatment Plant, among other facilities.
DOE leaders at the site also announced that Paul Detwiler has been picked as Hanford chief counsel, filling the position opened by Bob Carosino’s retirement in May. Detwiler starts work at Hanford in early 2017. He has served as the chief counsel of the National Engineering Technology Laboratory since 2009. Since joining DOE in 1994, he has served as the special assistant to DOE’s general counsel, acting manager of the DOE Carlsbad Field Office, and deputy general counsel of the National Nuclear Security Administration.
