The Jacobs-led remediation contractor at the West Valley Demonstration Project in western New York state announced this week Jason Casper is its new president and general manager, succeeding the recently-retired John Rendall.
Rendall led CH2M HILL BWXT West Valley since February 2020 and worked with Department of Energy contractor CH2M, now part of Jacobs, since 1988, according to his LinkedIn profile.
Casper comes to the top job at West Valley after being deputy programs manager and chief operating officer for Jacobs-led Four Rivers Nuclear Partnership at the Paducah Site in western Kentucky, the company said in a Monday press release.
Casper was at Four Rivers since October 2021 and before that was a vice president in charge of closing the Plutonium Finishing Plant at the Hanford Site in Washington state, according to his online profile.
Casper has 20 years of experience in hazardous and radioactive waste management, according to the release. “We are pleased to have one of our top project leaders head up this important contract that includes management of one of our most challenging decommissioning projects,” said Jacobs North American Nuclear Senior Vice President and General Manager David Blevins.
Owned by the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority, West Valley is about 35 miles south of Buffalo and was home to a commercial nuclear fuel reprocessing plant between 1966 and 1972. Congress made DOE responsible for cleanup at the site and DOE also funds about 90% of the costs, with the rest being state responsibility.
The CH2M-BWXT environmental prime has a West Valley contract, now valued at nearly $1 billion, which started in August 2011 and is scheduled to run through February 2025. Sometime early this year, DOE could issue a request for proposals for a follow-on contract.