The Pantex Plant near Amarillo, Texas, has a new Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board resident inspector as of Monday.
Austin Holloway, a former explosives engineer at the Naval Air Warfare (NAVAIR) Center Weapons Division in China Lake, Calif., took over the position with the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board (DNFSB) on July 31.
As a resident inspector at the Pantex Plant, Holloway will advise the DNFSB on the overall safety conditions of defense nuclear facilities at Pantex and will participate in technical reviews by the board and its staff related to the design, construction, operation, and decommissioning of defense nuclear facilities. He will also act as the board liaison with Pantex Plant management, state and local agencies, the public, and industry officials.
While at NAVAIR in China Lake, Holloway was involved with explosives research, weapons testing, safety recommendations, subsystem recertification, and maturation of new weapon designs. Holloway holds a bachelor of science degree in mining engineering and a master’s of science degree in explosives engineering from Missouri University of Science and Technology in Rolla, Missouri.
Holloway joins Chad Stott, who joined the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board in April, as a resident inspector at Pantex. The site is overseen by DOE’s semiautonomous National Nuclear Security Administration and managed by Consolidated Nuclear Security (CNS), a team of Bechtel National, Lockheed Martin, Orbital ATK — now Northrop Grumman — and SOC.
