Ike White Nominated to DNFSB
Congratulations to Ike White, who was Nominated today to be on the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board.
President Biden announced today that he has nominated the current head of the Environmental Management Program to the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board. The nomination is a full circle for Mr White who earlier in his career worked at DNFSB. Read the full press release here, as well as in-full farther down below. Ike must be approved by the Senate for the position. Ike – congratulations on the nomination!
Ike has done a great job as the leader of the EM program. He is the longest serving person in the position – 5 years next month. He has worked closely with the local, state and tribal governments during his tenure as well as the unions, the contracting community, and the Hill. He has brought a stability to the job and the budget for the program has increased (as has the work) for each year that he has been in the role. ECA will look forward to working with him in his new role after the nomination process is complete.
William Isaac White, Nominee to be a Member of the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board
William Isaac (“Ike”) White has led the U.S. Department of Energy’s Office of Environmental Management since June 2019. He provides leadership for the safe cleanup of the environmental legacy brought about from five decades of nuclear weapons development and government-sponsored nuclear energy research.
Under his leadership, the Office of Environmental Management made major progress in liquid waste treatment systems, including beginning operations at the Salt Waste Processing Facility at the Savannah River Site, completing construction of the facilities supporting the Direct Feed Low-Activity Waste Treatment approach, and beginning the first large-scale treatment of radioactive and chemical tank waste at the Tank-Side Cesium Removal System at Hanford. Additionally, at Oak Ridge, demolition was completed at the East Tennessee Technology Park, making it the first site in the world to remove an entire uranium enrichment complex. At the Portsmouth Site, demolition of X-326 uranium process building, a two-story structure covering 56 acres was a critical achievement in the cleanup and transformation of the Gaseous Diffusion Plant.
Prior to his current role, White served as the Chief of Staff and Associate Principal Deputy Administrator for the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) where he served as the primary point of contact within the Office of the Administrator for field office managers, providing leadership and coordination on operational and technical issues. Previously, White was the Deputy Associate Administrator for Safety and Health where he enabled the NNSA mission in the areas of nuclear and occupational safety, directly supporting the Administrator and senior managers throughout the NNSA enterprise. Earlier in his career, White served in a variety of leadership and technical positions in NNSA and at the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board focused on nuclear safety and operations.
White has a Bachelor of Science in Electrical Engineering from the University of Mississippi and a Master of Science in Engineering from the University of California, Berkeley.