Jun 27, 2007

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.

11 comments:

Anonymous said...

There's so much inbreeding within the DOE complex it's a miracle managers still have a functioning brain. Wait a minute! Could it be that maybe they don't?

Anonymous said...

Geez. More Navy brass.

Anonymous said...

Hey, why not? After all, that Nanos thing worked out so well...

Gussie Fink-Nottle said...

Oh, yeah. And let's not forget the Foley thing and the Linton (Belly Button) Brooks thing, while we're at it.

Fear not, I fully expect the Navy to continue in the style we've become accustomed to in furthering their proud tradition at LANL.

--Gussie

Anonymous said...

another Navy nuke...great.

Anonymous said...

Hey 7:30pm - Nothin' wrong with that! If we would have been doing just a "little" bit of Rickover navy nuke things we may not be where we are now. Ya know - configuration management, engineering processes, formality of ops, procedures and drawings. Just little things.

Anonymous said...

7:45:

Are you proud of how your fellow Navy puke, Nanos, conducted himself during his short tenure at LANL?

Is your name Stradling?

Formality of ops, procedures... Stradling used to wet himself over those on the original blog.

Anonymous said...

Stadling is probable wetting today over the fantastic job LANS is doing (not!).

Anonymous said...

Augustus Finknottle:

Are you going to vote for Newt Gingrich?

Gussie Fink-Nottle said...

No.

Anonymous said...

"Hey 7:30pm - Nothin' wrong with that! If we would have been doing just a "little" bit of Rickover navy nuke things we may not be where we are now. Ya know - configuration management, engineering processes, formality of ops, procedures and drawings. Just little things."

I agree. However, just because you pilot a nuclear submarine, does not mean you are qualified to run hazardous and/or nuclear facilities. Ain't even close!