Environment and Planning

Ernest Moniz, the new secretary of the U.S. Department of Energy visits Hanford Nuclear Reservation in southeast Washington on Wednesday. Among the issues he will have to deal with are the leaking underground tanks of radioactive waste and the troubled waste treatment plant.

From his resume, it appears Moniz isn’t short on brainpower. He’s been on the faculty of MIT since 1973. Secretary Moniz received a Bachelor of Science degree summa cum laude in physics from Boston College and a doctorate in theoretical physics from Stanford University.

Washington Governor Jay Inslee and the state attorney general say they’re quote ‘extremely disappointed’ that the U.S. Department of Energy may miss several key deadlines for cleanup at the Hanford Nuclear Reservation.

The two milestones that may be missed are: completing waste retrieval from two of Hanford’s aging single-shell tanks and finishing up construction on the Low Activity Waste Facility, one of the key parts of Hanford’s Waste Treatment Plant.

The US Fish and Wildlife Service wants to completely remove federal protections of gray wolves. Agency leaders announced the proposal Friday. The move would turn over gray wolf management to states. U.S. Fish and Wildlife Director Dan Ashe says gray wolves have recovered dramatically over the past decade.

"To see a species rebound from a century-long campaign of human persecution to flourish on the landscape again, is something we're all extraordinarily lucky to witness in our lifetimes,” Ashe told reporters in a conference call.