Reinhard Knerr is the Deputy Manager of the U.S. Department of Energy's Portsmouth/Paducah Project Office (PPPO) in Lexington, Kentucky. In this role, he assists the PPPO Manager in overseeing the deactivation and demolition of DOE’s former gaseous diffusion plant (GDP) facilities at the Portsmouth, Ohio and Paducah, Kentucky sites. Part of DOE's Office of Environmental Management (EM), PPPO also oversees the Depleted Uranium Hexafluoride (DUF6) Conversion Project facilities at both GDP sites.
Mr. Knerr returned to PPPO on January 29, 2023 after serving from July 2020 as EM’s Carlsbad Field Office Manager. At PPPO, he was previously the DUF6 Federal Project Director and held both leadership and strategic planning roles at the Paducah Site starting in 2004. At Paducah, he managed environmental remediation work at the site, returning the former gaseous diffusion plant from a commercial enrichment company back to DOE and initiating several utility and infrastructure optimization projects.
Since joining DOE in 2001, Mr. Knerr has also served as the transuranic waste certification team leader at the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant, and led a project team of DOE waste management experts in resolving multiple complex-wide radioactive waste management issues.
His background includes radioactive and hazardous waste management, nuclear criticality safety, nuclear safety, transuranic waste characterization and certification, nuclear facility decontamination and decommissioning, environmental regulations, project management, strategic planning, and baseline management. Mr. Knerr also has over nine years’ experience as a nuclear criticality safety engineer supporting contractor operations at DOE's Pantex Plant, Portsmouth Gaseous Diffusion Plant, and Y-12 Plant.
He holds a Bachelor of Science degree in nuclear engineering from Penn State University.