PNNL

Under Secretary Paul Dabbar and Chief of Staff Kristen Ellis toured Pacific Northwest National Laboratory on February 6-8, 2018. During their tour, they met with Dr. Sue Clark, Director of the Interfacial Dynamics in Radioactive Environments and Materials (IDREAM) Energy Frontier Research Center. Clark discussed research accomplishments related to interfacial chemistry in radioactive wastes, which is the focus of IDREAM. These accomplishments support exploration of alternative approaches for radioactive waste processing that may reduce the overall costs of legacy waste cleanup at the Hanford Site, Washington State. These alternative approaches are tested in hot cells at the Radiochemical Processing Laboratory, and are answering tough, fundamental questions vital to removing and vitrifying nuclear waste.

Dabbar serves as the Department of Energy's principal advisor on basic research and energy technologies. As part of his portfolio, Dabbar oversees the Office of Science and its national laboratories. Before his confirmation as Under Secretary, he worked in operations, finance, and strategy roles in the energy sector. A graduate of the U.S. Naval Academy and Columbia University, he served as a nuclear submarine officer at Mare Island, California, and Pearl Harbor, Hawaii.

The IDREAM Energy Frontier Research Center is funded by the Department of Energy, Office of Science, Basic Energy Sciences.