Washington Closure Hanford has named Scott Sax, an experienced Hanford leader, as its new president and project director. Sax will start work next week and replace Carol Johnson, who is retiring after a 30-year career in the nuclear industry. Sax spent more than a decade at Hanford before leaving about two years ago to serve as director of spent fuel management at the Sellafield project. He’s familiar with Hanford river corridor cleanup after working as director of Washington Closure’s operations programs from 2006-2008. He left in 2008 to join Washington River Protection Solutions as chief operating officer and then led its single-shell tank retrieval organization. His earlier experience at Hanford included work on the Plutonium Finishing Plant and K Basins projects. “I’m glad to be home,” he said.
Among the challenges Washington Closure will face under his leadership is completion of Hanford’s first environmental cleanup closure contract, which expires at the end of fiscal 2015. Washington Closure expects to have 698 workers in December, down about 150 over the last year. The workforce reduction will accelerate in the coming year, with the workforce expected to be at about 380 workers in December 2014. “I think morale is at a very realistic level,” Sax said. “Carol has done a fantastic job focusing people and building trust.” Washington Closure also has some high-hazard technical projects ahead of it, and workers will need to remain focused to continue the contractor’s excellent safety record, Sax said. Those include lifting the Plutonium Recycle Test Reactor and the 340 Vault, each weighing an estimated 1,100 tons, from below ground and cleanup of the 324 Building, which sits on top of a spill of concentrated cesium and strontium.
