A new leader will direct work with highly radioactive Hanford waste
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- Navarro-ATL named a new general manager of the 222-S Laboratory at Hanford.
- The lab analyzes radioactive waste to support tank cleanup and vitrification efforts.
- Hughey to streamline lab operations while maintaining safety and efficiency.
The Department of Energy contractor that operates a key radioactive waste laboratory at the Hanford nuclear site has named a new leader.
Ray Geimer, the former general manager of Navarro-ATL, was picked in August by DOE as its new manager of the entire Hanford site.
Navarro-ATL has picked Mark Hughey as general manager of the contractor that operates the 222-S Laboratory in central Hanford, according to a message to Navarro-ATL employees Monday from Susana Navarro, president and founder of Navarro.
Hughey served as the contractor’s chief operations officer before taking over as acting general manager earlier this month. He has 38 years of experience in nuclear, environmental management and safety, Navarro said.
“His strategic leadership and unwavering commitment to safety and operational excellence have been instrumental in supporting critical analysis for Hanford projects,” Navarro said in her employee message.
He is committed toward guiding Navarro-ATL toward becoming the ‘Lab of the Future,’ she said.
“He will focus on enhancing efficiency, optimizing processes and ensuring that we continue to deliver exceptional value to taxpayers,” Navarro said.
The 222-S Laboratory operated by Navarro-ATL is one of the few facilities in the nation capable of analyzing samples of highly radioactive waste and is the primary Hanford laboratory for analyzing the site’s radioactive waste samples.
The laboratory studies the physical and chemical characteristics of waste to support emptying waste from Hanford’s 177 underground tanks holding a mix of radioactive and hazardous chemical waste. It also tests for potential threats to groundwater from waste in Hanford soil.
In its latest role it is supporting the Hanford vitrification plant that is required to start turning radioactive waste stored in underground tanks into a stable, but still radioactive, glass form for disposal by Oct. 15.
As the vitrification plant, or Waste Treatment Plant, operates around the clock, 222-S Laboratory staff will characterize tank waste to ensure it is suitable for treatment at the plant.
The 222-S Laboratory has about 400 employees.
It is housed in a 70,000-square-foot facility with several support buildings.
It includes more than 100 pieces of analytical equipment, 156 fume hoods and 11 hot cells, where work is done with radioactive waste samples by operators outside the cells operating equipment inside the cells.
The 580-square-mile Hanford nuclear site is adjacent to Richland in Eastern Washington. It was used from World War II through the Cold War to produce nearly two-thirds of the plutonium for the nation’s nuclear weapons program.
The work left 56 million gallons of radioactive and hazardous chemical waste stored in underground tanks, many of them prone to leaking.