Pantex official set to return

By Jim McBride
jim.mcbride@amarillo.com

Donald Winchell Jr. was named Tuesday as the new Los Alamos manager and takes the helm July 8.

"We are excited to have Don on the NNSA team. The Los Alamos Site Office and its employees are an important part of our nuclear weapons complex," said Tom D'Agostino, NNSA's head of defense programs.

In February, the Energy Department tapped Glenn to manage Los Alamos until a permanent replacement was named. Steve Erhart, Pantex's senior scientific and technical adviser, has managed Pantex for the NNSA since Glenn's departure.

Glenn replaced Ed Wilmot, who left Los Alamos to work in a federal office that will oversee modernization of the nation's nuclear weapons complex.

Glenn's management stint at Los Alamos came on the heels of several security breaches at the lab.

Before moving to Pantex, Glenn was the senior scientific and technical adviser at Los Alamos. He also worked in the weapons program division at the Albuquerque Operations Office and the Reactor Restart Program at the Savannah River Special Project Office.

Glenn is a former Navy submarine nuclear engineer and ballistic missile weapons officer.

Winchell has worked at Los Alamos since August 2004, where he most recently served as a technical staff member and operations support division group leader. Winchell was former vice president and deputy general manager for operations of Johnson Controls Northern New Mexico, a company that performed maintenance and infrastructure work at Los Alamos.

Winchell retired from the Navy after 30 years in 1999. His career includes service on four nuclear attack submarines, including command of the USS Drum.