The Senate has confirmed Ines R. Triay, a long-time Dept. of Energy environmental official, to be the department's assistant secretary for environmental management. In that post, Triay will be in charge of the department's massive effort to clean up former nuclear-weapons facilities at more than 100 sites across the country.

TRIAY

Triay, whom the Senate approved on May 20, has spent 24 years working in DOE environmental programs, rising in 2007 to be principal deputy assistant secretary for "EM," the program's senior career post. Last November, she was named acting assistant secretary.

One of her challenges will be to manage the $6 billion that the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act provides for DOE environmental cleanup, on top of the program's regular $5.6-billion appropriation for fiscal 2009.

Triay worked for 14 years at DOE's Los Alamos National Laboratory and later DOE's Carlsbad, N.M., field office before moving to the department's headquarters.

Triay was born in Cuba, came to the U.S. at age three and was raised in Puerto Rico. She has a Ph.D. in physical chemistry from the University of Miami in Florida.