Jeremy L. Dillon
RW Monitor
2/28/2014
IN THE INDUSTRY
Mott MacDonald has tapped Andrew Taylor as a projects director in the company’s program and commercial management team. Taylor will work on nuclear decommissioning projects and new nuclear power station construction along with Paul Roberts, the nuclear program director. “Andrew is a great addition to our team and brings with him a wealth of experience. He will be part of our nuclear programs team and will provide technical advice and guidance to our clients to support their goals,” said Shaun Taylor, director of Mott MacDonald’s energy, utilities, and process business.
The Navy’s handling of the cleanup of Treasure Island in San Francisco Bay put residents and developers in harm’s way of exposure to radioactive contaminates, according to an article published by the Center for Investigative Reporting this week. The article, “Treasure Island Cleanup Exposes Navy’s Mishandling of Its Nuclear Past,” written by Matt Smith and Katharine Mieszkowski, chronicles the uncovering of gross mismanagement of radioactive material and the secrecy the Navy used to hide it from citizens. “For 46 years before the base was selected for closure, Treasure Island was home to nuclear war academies that used a variety of radionuclides in their training – including radium, plutonium and cesium-137 – an in-depth review of military and government documents shows,” the article said. “The Navy knew for years that those materials were not always in safe hands. But the Navy did not acknowledge that history publicly, and as a result, cleanup crews and others preparing for redevelopment may have inadvertently spread radioactive material around the island.” The city wants to turn the island into a development project, but with the new information about the radioactivity levels, the city sent letters telling the residents of the island to evacuate because the buildings needed to be torn down, the article said. There is mounting public pressure for the Navy to clean up the mess it created, and remediated the island in a proper manner.
