[Congressional Record Volume 157, Number 107 (Monday, July 18, 2011)]
[Senate]
[Pages S4638-S4639]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                         ADDITIONAL STATEMENTS

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              TRIBUTE TO ASSISTANT SECRETARY INES R. TRIAY

 Mrs. MURRAY. Mr. President, it is with great privilege that 
today I honor and express my thanks to Dr. Ines Triay, Assistant 
Secretary for Environmental Management at the Department of Energy for 
her service to our country.
  The Environmental Management Program at DOE has consistently been a 
priority for me during my tenure in the Senate, as Washington State is 
home to the Hanford Nuclear Reservation. As a part of the Manhattan 
Project, Hanford produced plutonium from 1944 until 1987, and the 
efforts of Hanford workers and the Tri-Cities community helped end 
World War II.
  Today, under the leadership of Dr. Triay, Hanford workers are 
involved in an environmental cleanup project of enormous scale 
necessitated by the processes required to transform raw uranium into 
plutonium for bombs. These processes generated billions of gallons of 
liquid waste and millions of tons of solid waste which must now be 
cleaned up, removed, or remediated. Dr. Triay and her staff have worked 
closely with both the Richland Operations Office and the Office of 
River Protection to ensure cleanup efforts at Hanford continue to move 
forward in a meaningful and timely fashion.
  Ines has devoted her career to the safe and timely cleanup of 
radioactive waste and facilities from our Nation's Cold War nuclear 
weapon production and research sites. Ines, a Cuban-born

[[Page S4639]]

immigrant who earned her Ph.D. in chemistry, has worked at DOE for 24 
years, rising from her position as a scientist at Los Alamos National 
Laboratory to Assistant Secretary for Environmental Management, a 
Presidentially nominated, Senate-confirmed position. During her tenure 
as Assistant Secretary, she has led the largest, most diverse, and 
technically complex environmental cleanup program in the world.
  One of Ines' greatest successes came after Congress invested $6 
billion in the Environmental Management Program. Ines led the effort to 
accelerate important cleanup projects to reduce the Environmental 
Management footprint across the country. The success of this investment 
has been, by all measures, incredible--Ines and her team were able to 
reduce the footprint of the entire Environmental Management complex by 
50 percent.
  For the past several years, I have worked closely with Ines and I 
have seen firsthand her commitment to making sure the federal 
government meets its obligations to protect the health of our 
communities at Hanford and around the country. Her professionalism, 
passion and knowledge has contributed significantly to the successes of 
the Environmental Management Program in recent years, and I will miss 
working with her and her staff on a daily basis.
  On behalf of all Washingtonians, and on behalf of our country, I 
thank Ines for her dedication to the mission of the Environmental 
Management Program, for her passion and expertise, and for her 
commitment to the safety and well-being of the people working at 
Hanford and at Environmental Management sites around the country. Ines 
will be difficult to replace. I congratulate Dr. Triay on all of her 
successes as Assistant Secretary for Environmental Management and wish 
her the best of luck moving forward.

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