Bill Tindal retired as chief executive officer of Consolidated Nuclear Security, the Bechtel National-led management contractor for the National Nuclear Security Administration’s two main nuclear-weapons production sites, a company spokesperson confirmed Wednesday.
“We shared with employees yesterday that Bill has retired,” the spokesperson said.
Gene Sievers, site manager for Y-12 National Security Complex, is now the interim CEO, said the spokesperson, who declined to say why Tindal left the job. Consolidated Nuclear Security (CNS) will manage Y-12 and the Pantex Plant in Amarillo, Texas, until at least Sept. 30, 2024.
Colby Yeary, the chief operating officer and the next-highest-ranking person in the corporate hierarchy, will remain in his job, the spokesperson said.
Sievers, like Tindal, is based at Y-12 in Oak Ridge, Tenn., the National Nuclear Security Administration’s (NNSA) hub for uranium processing and nuclear-weapon secondary stage production. Yeary is based at the Pantex, NNSA’s main assembly-disassembly site for nuclear weapons undergoing routine maintenance and life-extensions.
Sievers has been at Y-12 since 2013, when a BWX Technologies subsidiary was managing. Prior to that, he had a 27-year career in the nuclear Navy as a submarine officer.
After seeming like a lock to lose the combined management contract it started work on in 2014, CNS will be on the job at the Y-12 and Pantex until at least Sept. 30, 2024 and possibly until Sept. 30, 2025. CNS might even manage Y-12 until Sept. 30, 2027, under options the NNSA added to the existing prime contract earlier this year after scrapping a controversial and allegedly tained follow-on competition that resulted in an award to a Fluor-Amentum partnership.
