b'C HAPTER T WENT Y -F IVEM ISSIN : F U T U R E O Opportunity knocks for future engineers.Editorial headline,iNewsD between Idaho governors and DOE over cent of the INEL budget was directed tothe storage of TRU waste and spent waste management, cleaning up, dis-irk Kempthorne nuclear fuel had captured most of the mantling obsolete buildings, and decon-felt that INELs future rested on the headlines in Idaho after 1988, much tamination. 3environment. As a United States sena- else had been afoot at the laboratory intor from Idaho in 1993 he proposed the last two decades of the 20th Watkins appointed Augustine Pitrolo tothat INEL change its name again by century. 2 succeed Don Ofte, who became eligibleadding to it the word environmental. to retire from federal service and did soHe said, the plain fact is that the INEL Not long after President George Bush in 1989. In June 1989, the Federalis now, will be, and must always be, appointed Admiral James Watkins as Bureau of Investigation had raided theknown as an environmental lab. INEL secretary of DOE in 1989, Watkins said Rocky Flats plant in Colorado, suspect-should be recognized as the leader in he felt that protecting the environ- ing that its managers had engaged insolving tough environmental prob- ment.is not at all inconsistent with criminal negligence of national environ-lems. But it took time for the name- advancing both energy security and mental laws. Reacting to thisand tochange proposal to become off ical.what he regarded as the managerialiUntil 1997, the name continued as mess of DOEs organizational struc-INEL, but then Site letterhead changed tureWatkins felt that DOEs fieldto Idaho National Engineering and offices had to surrender a great deal ofEnvironmental Laboratory policy-making autonomy in the(INEEL), and the new logo interest of more centralizedassumed the environmental control and implementa-colors of green and tan. 1 tion from Headquarters.Organizational chartsAnd indeed, the mission of changed, and once morethe INEEL into the 21st century was national security needs. DOE funds an ex-Navy nuclear engineer attemptedgoing to involveat the very leasta committed to environmental cleanup to impact the work and the culture ofgreat variety of interaction with the began to rise. By January 1992, some of DOE and its labs. 4environment. The industrial and nuclear that funding was reflected in anhistory of the Site had left its mark on employment level at the INEL of Pitrolos responsibility was to assurethe desert, and the time had arrived to 12,700 people. In 1992 DOEs environ- that the INEL was in compliance withremediate or remove what DOE chose mental restoration and waste manage- environmental regulations and to helpto call the environmental legacy of ment budget request increased by Watkins achieve a disciplined responsethe Cold War. Although the struggle twenty-five percent. By 1995, sixty per- to DOE Headquarters initiatives. He set2 4 4'