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Jack Craig Looks Back on 29 Years in Cleanup

Jack Craig is retiring as manager of the Savannah River Operations Office.

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AIKEN, S.C. – DOE Savannah River Operations Office Manager Jack Craig retires Feb. 28 after 32 years of federal service, including 29 years of leadership in the environmental cleanup program. EM Update spoke with Craig about his accomplishments, opportunities for success at Savannah River Site (SRS), his tenure at EM headquarters, and plans for retirement.

What are some of your proudest accomplishments during your lengthy career in EM? How would you assess the state of the EM program today?

I have been fortunate over my career to have worked on some interesting and challenging projects along with some great people. There are four different and distinct projects and assignments that stand out:

• Working at Fernald in the early days of the EM program and later as director where we successfully completed site cleanup and closure ahead of schedule and under budget. Later during this timeframe I was also able to play a role in the completion of the Rocky Flats and Mound projects.
• Creation and standup of the EM Consolidated Business Center (EMCBC) in 2004, where we were able to staff the organization with competent business and technical staff and improve overall EM acquisition and business processes.
• Working on overall EM budget development, Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) recovery, and EM Los Alamos National Laboratory work scope as Acting Associate Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary at EM headquarters in 2014.
• Serving as the manager of SRS at a time when great progress was made in the liquid high-level waste (HLW) program, Salt Waste Processing Facility (SWPF) construction, nuclear materials processing, and expansion of the work at Savannah River National Laboratory (SRNL). 

The EM program today is in a great position to address the many challenges that exist. The continued focus on major risks such as liquid HLW should see dramatic progress over the next few years with the ramp-up at SRS, with SWPF becoming operational, and the startup of low-activity waste vitrification facilities at Hanford. Great progress has been made at WIPP, and over the next few years improvements will be made to facility infrastructure and ventilation, leading to increase both in the receipt of transuranic waste and in disposal capacity. These and other successes will help drive confidence in the overall program which should lead to stable or increased resources and funding.

What do you see as the next opportunities for major successes at Savannah River? What are you most proud to have accomplished there?

I’ll point to three areas that are great opportunities for near-term success:

• The liquid HLW program at SRS has closed eight liquid HLW tanks, operated the Defense Waste Processing Facility for 20 years, producing over 4,000 HLW glass canisters, and is disposing low-activity waste grout in the site’s Saltstone Facilities. Over the next three years, SWPF will become operational and ramp up treatment capabilities by over five times the current capacity, leading to the accelerated cleanup and closure of the remaining 43 liquid HLW tanks.
• The nuclear materials program has an opportunity to fully utilize H Canyon and K Area to ramp up spent nuclear fuel (SNF) processing, DOE’s only current capability to treat, remove, and dispose of SNF, and to downblend excess plutonium for disposal at WIPP.
• Expand SRNL’s ability to provide world-class research and development and engineering solutions to address challenges across the department and within other federal agencies.

I am proud that the areas outlined above, along with the other environmental stewardship and national security missions at SRS, have met or exceeded our mission goals in a safe manner. We have been able to accomplish these goals with a great workforce, an effective working relationship with our regulators, and with outstanding collaboration and support of the community. 

During your tenure in EM, you held leadership positions at both EM headquarters and in the field. How did your experiences in one help you in the other?

In my experience, I’ve learned if EM is to be successful there must be alignment of mission, priorities, and goals between the field and headquarters. One of my priorities as a field manager has always been developing effective communication and alignment with my counterparts at headquarters. This has led to better understanding and support in the budget process and in decision-making for projects or contract issues. Having spent most of my career in the field, it was valuable for me to spend 2014 in EM headquarters to better understand challenges from a different point of view, but also to reinforce the importance of alignment between headquarters leadership and field management. My time in headquarters made me a better field manager and helped me develop relationships with other headquarters staff organizations outside of EM which sometimes have roles in decision-making.

You were instrumental in the creation of two EM field offices — EMCBC and the EM Los Alamos Field Office. How would you assess how those entities are functioning today and how they are aiding EM in carrying out its mission? 

In 2004, I was asked by EM management to create an office — the EMCBC — to:

• Centralize business functions for the EM program, with a focus on improving efficiency and developing expertise primarily in contracting and acquisition, but also in business support functions such as cost estimating, financial management, and legal contracts support.
• Develop necessary technical and business functions to provide line management for the completion of the three large closure sites — Rocky Flats, Fernald, and Mound — and for the oversight of ongoing work at EM small sites, including the West Valley Demonstration Project, Brookhaven National Laboratory, Energy Technology Engineering Center, Moab, and Separations Process Research Unit.

I believe over the last 13 to 14 years the EMCBC has been a success as measured by the successful closure site and project completions, and the improvements in EM acquisitions. The ability to have the competent federal resources in the acquisition and support areas, the standardization of the procurement process, and better communication, through industry days and draft requests for proposals, has led to more efficient new EM acquisitions. I believe the improved efficiency has been noted by industry and has also streamlined the DOE selection process.  

The creation of the EM Los Alamos Office was the result of the WIPP events in early 2014, but also a desire to have major EM work in the complex report to the DOE Assistant Secretary of Environmental Management through line management. Many people were involved in its creation, including Christine Gelles, and the office is now being led by one of EM’s most capable field managers, Doug Hintze. The first step was to separate the EM work at Los Alamos into a scope of work and contract separate from the National Nuclear Security Administration activities with the incumbent contractor. This was completed prior to the establishment of the new EM office. Then, this new scope of work was the subject of a new competitive EM contract. With the recent award of the new contract for the EM work at Los Alamos and with oversight from the new EM Los Alamos Office, I believe safe and steady progress will be made in the upcoming years.

What are you most looking forward to in retirement from federal service?

I look forward to spending more time with my family and playing more golf. I plan to stay in touch with the EM program because it has been part of my life the last 29 years and I look forward to seeing some great program successes over the next few years.