Scott Sax, top contractor boss for Central Plateau cleanup at the Department of Energy’s Hanford Site in Washington state is retiring in May and will be succeeded by the head of another Amentum-led Hanford joint venture, the company said Monday.
Sax, president and project manager for Central Plateau Cleanup Co., is retiring effective May 16 after about 40 years in the nuclear business, Amentum said in a press release. The company said Sax will be replaced by John Eschenberg, president and project manager of Washington River Protection Solutions (WRPS), which oversees Hanford’s underground waste tanks.
Sax has been the top executive at Central Plateau Cleanup since the Amentum-led team, with partners Fluor and Atkins, began work on its potentially 10-year, $10 billion contract in January 2021, replacing a Jacobs-led joint venture. Central Plateau Cleanup won the contract in December 2019.
The DOE has not decided yet if Central Plateau Cleanup will have its feet cut incrementally as a result of having a top executive leave this early in the contract period, an agency spokesperson said late Thursday.
“The department has not made any decisions regarding contractor fee in response to Mr. Sax’ retirement announcement,” the spokesperson said. “There is a contract clause to that effect, however the contractor may request a waiver of a reduction in earned fee for consideration by DOE, if desired.”
Previously, Sax led the Amentum effort at Hanford’s Waste Treatment Plant, served as president of Washington Closure Hanford, and was chief operating officer at WRPS, the Hanford tank operations contractor, the company said. He has also headed up Amentum’s spent fuel management at the Sellafield nuclear site in the United Kingdom.
Sax’s “larger-than-life personality, genuine concern for his people and track record of getting the job done are the real measures of what have made him a success,” Amentum’s president of Environment & Energy Mark Whitney, said in the release.
Eschenberg has logged 30 years of experience in highly regulated defense, commercial and government settings, Amentum said in the release. Before joining Maryland-based Amentum, Eschenberg was director of capital projects and infrastructure for PricewaterhouseCoopers, leading the financial firm’s advisory efforts for new nuclear plant construction in the United States and internationally. He was an adviser for capital projects connected to nuclear plant decommissioning and was a senior federal executive in DOE, according to an online biography.
Eschenberg will be replaced at WRPS effective April 18 by Wes Bryan, previously Amentum’s project director for the Defense Waste Processing Facility and saltstone production at the Savannah River Site in South Carolina, the company said. Bryan has already started to transition to WRPS and Eschenberg will start his move to Central Plateau Cleanup leadership in mid-April, an Amentum spokesperson said.
News of the Amentum management changes at Hanford comes a week before PAE chief executive John Heller was scheduled to succeed Amentum CEO John Vollmer who is retiring but will remain on as the company’s chairman.
