Michael Budney will replace the retiring Jack Craig as manager of the Savannah River Site in South Carolina, the Department of Energy announced Monday.
Budney, a retired Navy captain, will be the top Department of Energy official at a site that employs about 11,000 civil servants and contractors and includes personnel from the agency’s National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA), Office of Environmental Management, and five major contractors.
Most of the Savannah River Site (SRS) budget is consumed by Cold War nuclear-weapon cleanup work managed by the Environmental Management office, but the NNSA produces tritium there for U.S. nuclear warheads. The gas increases the explosive yield of nuclear explosions.
Budney previously served nearly three decades in the Navy, where he was an officer on three surface vessels and four submarines, including two-and-a-half years as commanding officer of the Ohio-class ballistic missile submarine USS Pennsylvania.
Prior to leaving the service, Budney was deputy director of the Nuclear Command Control System Support Staff at U.S. Strategic Command.
Craig is retiring after 32 years of federal service, including 29 years in leadership roles associated with Department of Energy Cold War nuclear cleanup work. He was the top agency official at SRS for the last three years.
