Brad Smith has replaced Kim Lebak as president and general manager of the legacy waste cleanup contractor for the Department of Energy’s Los Alamos National Laboratory, and Lebak is heading back to Huntington Ingalls Industries, the corporate parent of the team’s lead partner.
Lebak shared the news herself in letters on June 5 and June 9 to Newport News Nuclear BWXT-Los Alamos (N3B) employees. N3B shared the letters with the Exchange Monitor in response to an inquiry about management changes.
“I will be returning to a corporate role with our parent company, Huntington Ingalls Industries, Inc.,” Lebak wrote. “The more than four years I have spent at N3B, and the amazing team here I’ve gotten to know and work with, has been one of the highlights of my career.”
Smith replacing Lebak at the helm is one of several changes N3B is making after DOE in April picked up a three-year extension that keeps the team in place into April 2026. The cleanup contract that N3B started in April 2018 is currently valued at $1.75 billion.
“This marks a natural transition point to bring on new leadership to help tackle new challenges we may face and ensure our continued success,” Lebak said.
During Lebak’s tenure, N3B ran well enough to win the DOE extension but struggled with safety problems that triggered stop work orders that entailed extra training for employees.
Smith has been with N3B since 2021, having held various management roles, mostly recently acting executive officer, Lebak said.
Effective June 9 Jeff Stevens, a veteran BWX Technologies executive who has worked in top management at Portsmouth Site prime cleanup contractor Flour-BWXT Portsmouth in Ohio, will replace Smith as acting executive officer.
In other changes at the lab, on June 30, Brian Clayman, another Fluor-BWXT cleanup veteran, will become project manager for contact-handled transuranic waste at Los Alamos, N3B said. He replaces Jerry O’ Leary. O’Leary will become senior technical adviser overseeing planning for cleanup of Technical Area-21, including characterization and remediation of legacy waste lines.
Finally, retired fed Robert Edwards assumes the role of acting environment, safety, health and quality manager effective June 30. Edwards retired from the DOE Office of Environmental Management in July 2021 as manager of the Portsmouth-Paducah Project Office.
Editor’s note: Article modified June 26 to correct the scope of O’Leary’s work.
