Savannah River Remediation (SRR) President Stuart MacVean has resigned after more than four years with the company and over a year as president and project manager. MacVean sent a letter to his employees on Thursday with details on his resignation. He will be replaced by Mark Schmitz, the chief operating officer for the Savannah River Site (SRS) liquid waste contractor, until a permanent successor is named. While he didn’t fully disclose his reasons for leaving, MacVean wrote: “I am excited for the new career I have accepted—an opportunity that promises to bring new challenges and exciting change to my future.”
During his time with SRR, the contractor removed liquid waste from five SRS waste storage tanks and grouted the tanks by filling them with a cement mixture, removing the threat they pose to workers and to the environment. The contractor also filled its 4,000th canister of vitrified waste using the Defense Waste Processing Facility (DWPF), marking the halfway mark in the facility’s work scope. Other accomplishments include taking a proxy salt waste processor past its expected lifetime. The contractor is still using the 8-year-old technology as it waits for the Salt Waste Processing Facility (SWPF) to come online in December 2018. MacVean also lauded the contractor’s management of infrastructure and its construction of Saltstone Disposal Unit 6, the first mega-volume unit constructed at the site, which will allow for more efficient storage of salt waste. “Words cannot do justice in expressing my pride in the SRR Team and all you have accomplished and dealt with in my time here,” MacVean wrote in Thursday’s letter.
It was not immediately known if MacVean intends to stay in the nuclear industry after clocking more than 30 years of experience with positions of increasing responsibility in operations, maintenance, engineering, waste management, emergency management, and other functions, according to the SRR website. Prior to his role as president, MacVean served as the SRR chief operating officer. During that time, the contractor closed four SRS waste tanks.
