NEW RICHLAND OPERATIONS MANAGER ANNOUNCED

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: Media Contact: July 9, 2010 Colleen French, 509-539-0210
The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) today named Matthew S. McCormick Manager of the Richland Operations Office (DOE-RL) at the Hanford Site in southeast Washington State. In this role, he will continue the momentum of cleanup along the Columbia River, further implement the Department’s strategy for shrinking the footprint of active cleanup operations from 586 square miles to 10 square miles in ten years, oversee groundwater protection remedies that will stop the migration of contaminants into the Columbia River, and dispose of hazardous waste and facilities across the Hanford Site.

“Matt's extensive experience in nuclear project management will be critical in continuing the success of the cleanup along the Columbia River and across the Hanford Site. Matt’s strength is his breadth of project management experience – reducing risk at some of DOE’s highest-hazard facilities – combined with his drive to push for better and smarter approaches to complex cleanup challenges,” said Dr. Ines Triay, DOE’s Assistant Secretary of Energy for Environmental Management. “He has been a leader not only in helping shape and implement footprint reduction at the Hanford Site, but also in putting together the strategy and regulatory support for how to complete cleanup of the Central Plateau. He has worked alongside Dave Brockman for years at DOE’s Hanford and Rocky Flats sites, and is uniquely qualified to continue Richland’s momentum and successes.”

McCormick has more than 20 years of experience as a nuclear project executive in the public sector. He was responsible for overhauling and refueling naval nuclear reactors, managing Environment, Safety and Health programs at DOE Headquarters, and overseeing nuclear operations and cleanup projects at DOE’s Savannah River Site near Aiken, S.C., and Rocky Flats Site near Denver, Colo. He was named Assistant Manager for the Central Plateau at DOE-RL in 2003 and was responsible for oversight of cleanup and closure activities in the central part of the Hanford Site. McCormick has a bachelor’s degree in Civil Engineering from Montana State University.

His accomplishments and experience include:

• Leading the elimination of one of Hanford’s top risks by completing the stabilization and packaging of 20 tons of plutonium-bearing material and all shipments of weapons-grade plutonium from Hanford’s Plutonium Finishing Plant to the Savannah River Site, S.C.;

•Leading the implementation of groundwater remediation actions that have increased Hanford’s treatment capacity from less than 10 million gallons of groundwater per month to more than 50 million gallons per month and initiated the design and construction of new facilities that will stop the migration of contaminants into the Columbia River;

• Leading the development of a strategy for cleanup of Hanford’s Central Plateau by working closely with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Washington and Oregon states, area Tribal Nations, and Hanford stakeholders; and

• Being part of the management team that led the transition from nuclear weapons production to cleanup and closure at Rocky Flats. This included the development and implementation of a closure contract that accelerated cleanup at the site. DOE’s Richland Operations Office is responsible for cleanup of the 586-square-mile Hanford Site with the exception of underground tank waste and construction of the Waste Treatment Plant (managed by the DOE Office of River Protection). The office has about 270 federal employees and receives approximately $1 billion in funding each year for cleanup. DOE-RL also received and is managing $1.635 billion in funding under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act for additional cleanup projects to be completed by September 30, 2011.

In the first two decades of cleanup, RL has completed half of the cleanup activities along the Columbia River, moved all of the site’s 2,300 tons of spent nuclear fuel to dry storage away from the river, shipped all of the weapons grade plutonium once stored at the Plutonium Finishing Plant off the site, demolished nearly 500 of 1,433 excess facilities, remediated more than 500 of 1,650 waste sites, placed five former plutonium production reactors in interim safe storage, and treated 4.4 billion gallons of contaminated groundwater. Challenges at the site include completing cleanup of the 220-square-mile area along the Columbia River, known as the River Corridor, by 2015; retrieving, treating, and shipping solid radioactive waste; placing the last three defunct plutonium production reactors in interim safe storage; and reducing the active cleanup footprint to 75 square miles or less by 2015 and to 10 square miles by 2020.