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‘We Want to Get Things Done,’ DOE Officials Tell Waste Management Conference

Jim Colgary, chief of staff to Deputy Energy Secretary Dan Brouillette, speaks during this year’s Waste Management Symposia.

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PHOENIX – DOE is carrying out its cleanup program with a “completion mindset,” senior Department and EM officials said here last week, outlining a variety of initiatives underway to continue making significant progress.

   “We need to get things done…We want to get things done,” Jim Colgary, chief of staff to Deputy Energy Secretary Dan Brouillette, said during his plenary address at this year's Waste Management Symposia. “Even if it's small victories, let's get it done.”

   Colgary noted a number of visits to EM sites by top DOE leadership in their first year at the Department, including Hanford, Oak Ridge, Portsmouth, Savannah River Site, and Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP). These trips were “eye opening,” Colgary said, adding they have provided an opportunity to see the “incredible work” being done at EM sites and to learn more about the challenges facing the Department's cleanup program. Colgary also praised the workers at EM sites for their work and safety ethic.

   “It takes a special worker to be able to work in this environment,” he said.

   Colgary said he is excited about the anticipated benefits of the Department's decision to place EM under the authority of DOE Under Secretary for Science Paul Dabbar, saying the new organizational structure would further boost cleanup momentum.

   “Paul is the right man at the right time in history to get this done,” Colgary said.

   Anne White, who was recently confirmed by the U.S. Senate to serve as EM Assistant Secretary, also supports a completion approach to cleanup, Colgary said, adding, “I can’t wait to see Anne entrenched in her job.”

   Colgary praised Jim Owendoff, EM principal deputy assistant secretary, who has been heading the DOE cleanup program for the past year.

   “As acting assistant secretary, he has done an exemplary job of putting DOE on a path to achieving the cleanup mission sooner, safer, and at less cost to the taxpayers,” Colgary said.  

   Dae Chung, acting EM associate deputy principal secretary for field operations, highlighted a number of planned accomplishments across the complex expected to be realized over the coming year during remarks at the EM “Hot Topics” panel. These include completion of integrated systems testing at the Idaho Integrated Waste Treatment Unit; continued progress on facilities at the Hanford Waste Treatment and Immobilization Plant necessary for the direct feed low activity waste approach to tank waste treatment; and continued progress toward achieving 250 or more shipments of transuranic waste to WIPP.

   In his plenary remarks, Colgary stressed the Department will place “a higher expectation” on the contractors responsible for performing work in the field to better ensure success.

   “We need these results today,” he said.