Top Trump official makes unannounced Hanford nuclear site visit

The nation’s brand-new top official for cleanup of the nation’s contaminated nuclear weapons sites is getting a look at Hanford this week in an unpublicized visit.

Tim Walsh is the highest ranking official appointed under the current Trump administration to visit the site in Eastern Washington, and he wasted no time, arriving less than two weeks after being sworn into office.

A statement from the Department of Energy Wednesday confirmed that Walsh, the DOE assistant secretary leading the agency’s Office of Environmental Management, was at Hanford.

The DOE office he leads, the Office of Environmental Management, is responsible for environmental cleanup of the Hanford nuclear site in Eastern Washington and other DOE sites that have done nuclear weapons or nuclear research work.

The DOE statement said Walsh was meeting with Hanford staff “to continue advancing the Hanford mission safely and effectively.”

The DOE statement said the Trump administration is working hard to deliver on its mission of unleashing American energy dominance, despite the federal government shutdown.

So far, Hanford workers have largely remained on the job despite the shutdown.

Walsh was meeting with Hanford leadership on Wednesday after touring Hanford on Tuesday.

There was no plan for him to meet during this visit with officials at the Washington state Department of Ecology, which regulates the Hanford site’s vitrification plant and much of the other work at the nuclear site in Eastern Washington, adjacent to Richland. Hold on Tim Walsh nomination

Walsh was sworn in as assistant secretary leading the DOE Office of Environmental Management on Oct. 23.

Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., had placed a hold on his nomination in September after speaking with Energy Secretary Chris Wright on Sept. 10 about the startup of the Hanford nuclear site’s vitrification plant in Eastern Washington.

Under construction since 2002, the plant was required to begin operating by an Oct. 15 deadline set in federal court for DOE to start turning some of the Hanford site’s 56 million gallons of radioactive waste stored in underground tanks for as long as 80 years into a stable glass form at the vitrification plant.

Murray said that Wright admitted in the Sept. 10 call that the Trump administration was actively stalling progress at the Waste Treatment and Immobilization Plant, or vitrification plant, claiming that moving forward was a safety issue.

Washington state Gov. Bob Ferguson promised a legal battle if DOE missed its Oct. 15 deadline, and ultimately DOE started up the vitrification plant and incorporated waste in a stable glass form, containing its radiation, by the deadline.

Much of the waste planned to be treated at the vitrification plant is in underground tanks, some built as early as World War II, that are prone to leaking waste into the soil above groundwater that moves toward the Columbia River.

The 580-square-mile Hanford site was used from World War II through the Cold War to produce nearly two-thirds of the plutonium for the nation’s nuclear weapons program.

Now, the nation is spending $3 billion a year to clean up radioactive waste and contamination there, including the waste stored in 177 underground tanks until it can be treated and permanently disposed. About Tim Walsh

Walsh, who like the energy secretary is from Colorado, founded a real estate development firm focused on mixed-use communities that he says has built over $2.5 billion of developments.

He served eight years as an officer in the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, including in Turkey, and commanded a company of paratroopers in the 82nd Airborne Division during Desert Shield and Desert Storm.

He earned a bachelor’s in engineering from the U.S. Military Academy at West Point and has a civil engineering and construction management master’s from Stanford University in California.

His DOE online biography said he will lead the DOE cleanup office to revitalize cleanup sites such as Hanford through reindustrialization to bolster energy production, artificial intelligence advancement and manufacturing dominance.

He said in prepared remarks for a Senate confirmation hearing that his strengths are being a strong leader, building cohesive teams and achieving complex goals.

He said he would bring strategic focus, planning and leadership to DOE environmental cleanup work to bring the maximum attention to the most pressing risks.

He also would bring decisive decision-making and disciplined project management to ensure accountability and that results are achieved, he said. He committed to collaboration with Congress, local communities and tribal nations, he said.

Energy Communities Alliance, a nonprofit organization of local governments impacted by Hanford and other DOE projects, supported Walsh to lead the DOE Office of Environmental Management.

This is the first time in more than six years that an appointment has been made for the position, and the alliance has long advocated for a political nominee in the role, believing it allows tough decisions to be reviewed and made to best serve taxpayers and communities, such as the Tri-Cities, that are near DOE sites.

The DOE environmental management program was set up by Congress and the president to have a political leader who is directly accountable to the president, the energy secretary and Congress, it said.