Energy Secretary Chris Wright on Tuesday said the agency is staying the course on cleaning up the sprawling Hanford site in Washington — a decommissioned nuclear production complex — following the firing of a top employee overseeing the effort.
Wright said the department is continuing to test facilities at the complex to process low- and high-level waste, one of the largest nuclear cleanup efforts in the nation.
The secretary’s statement alluded to reporting from POLITICO’s E&E News about the firing Monday of Roger Jarrell from his position as principal deputy assistant secretary of DOE’s Office of Environmental Management.
DOE, when firing Jarrell, cited Wright’s desire to go in a “different direction” on the Hanford cleanup in Washington state, according to a person with knowledge of the event, granted anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to the press.
