EM Assistant Secretary for Environmental Management Anne White recently visited the EM Los Alamos Field Office to view progress in EM’s cleanup work at the site. Courtesy photo

EM-LA NEWS

Department of Energy Assistant Secretary for EM Anne White recently visited the Los Alamos National Laboratory and wrote the following report on her experience:

I’m particularly excited to be writing this trip report because with my visit to Los Alamos, I can now say I’ve been to all of our major EM cleanup sites as Assistant Secretary for Environmental Management. As I said when I met with the EM Los Alamos Field Office (EM-LA) employees, I saved the best for last! I worked at Los Alamos for several years, and lived in Nambé, so it was great to be back at my old stomping grounds to see the progress that EM is making at the site, visit with some old friends and colleagues, and of course, eat some green chile. Los Alamos is a great example of a site where we can make some significant cleanup progress and get “done done” to reduce our overall environmental liability.

I started the day with Ray Martinez from the Pueblo of San Ildefonso. Ray and I had a good discussion on EM’s work with the Pueblos on STEM (science, technology, engineering, and math) initiatives, and discussed the possibility of expanding these efforts in the future. I look forward to working with Ray and the other Pueblos to make that a reality.

Next, I headed “up the hill” to the Pueblo Complex where I met with members of our EM-LA staff. I especially enjoyed my lunch with the early career professionals from EM-LA and its contractor, N3B. From my discussions with them, I could tell they are engaged in the mission at Los Alamos, and they are enthusiastic about getting work done at the site.

 Even though the site had four inches of snow the day before I arrived, EM-LA Manager Doug Hintze and his team still took me out to see some of the great progress we are making there. At Area G, I got to see two awesome women, Stephanie Griego and Ellen Gammon, running the show. I’m so proud of the work being done at Area G, and I’m very encouraged they have gotten out their first shipment to the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant. They even gave me one of the T-shirts they had made to commemorate the shipment! At TA-21, I really felt at home and my old friend Duane Parsons and I discussed what has changed since we worked there together.