Ty Blackford, who was CEO of the Jacobs subsidiary formerly in charge of cleanup at the Central Plateau of the Hanford Site in Washington state, is leading transition efforts for the Jacobs-led joint venture scheduled to take over remediation for the Department of Energy’s Idaho National Laboratory by Jan. 1.
That is according to a DOE document that lays out some key aspects of the transition that started Friday, Oct. 1, for the Idaho Environmental Coalition: a team of Jacobs and North Wind Portage with subcontractors Navarro Research and Engineering, Oak Ridge Technologies and Spectra Tech. The team won the potential 10-year, $6.4-billion contract in June.
Blackford is former president and CEO of CH2M Hill Plateau Remediation and he is listed on his LinkedIn profile as vice president program management for Jacobs North American Nuclear. The transition document shows Blackford will be program manager for both the Integrated Waste Treatment Unit, a long-delayed 53,000-square-foot facility that will treat 900,000 gallons of liquid radioactive and hazardous waste stored in underground tanks, as well as development of a 10-year strategic “end state” cleanup plan.
Other key people involved with the transition include Bill Kirby as liquid waste and fuels manager, Michael Johnson as a subject matter expert and Colin Jones as transition manager. Kirby is a former president at Four Rivers Nuclear, the remediation contractor at the Paducah Site in Kentucky, according to his LinkedIn Profile.
Other key staff assisting on the 10-year cleanup task order are business manager Jack MacRae, essential missions manager Connie Simiele and one other Idaho Environmental person to be approved by DOE, according to the document.
A Jacobs spokesperson did not respond to a request for comment Friday. .
Spectra Tech is something of an incumbent given it already holds an expiring $53-million contract to oversee spent fuel from the Fort St. Vrain nuclear reactor in Colorado. Idaho Environmental Coalition as a whole, however, will be replacing Fluor Idaho, which holds the $2.2-billion Idaho Cleanup Core contract due to expire Dec. 31.
Fluor has held the contract, which includes treating, packaging and shipping transuranic waste to the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant in New Mexico, as well as protecting a regional water aquifer since June 2016.
