Ian has more than 30 years of experience in the nuclear industry, including four years as the engineering manager at a successfully operating vitrification facility in the United Kingdom. He has seen vitrification used to safely stabilize more than 5,000 canisters of radioactive waste into a solid glass form, and he is confident that Hanford’s Vit Plant will do the same.

“Hanford is unique because of its size and the amount of waste that needs to be processed, but vitrification is a proven technology,” Ian says. “And we have the right people on this job. We’ve brought people from successfully operating vit plants around the world, and we’re using their knowledge and experience to ensure we meet the scale challenges at Hanford and design and build a safe vit plant.”

Ian’s radioactive waste processing facility experience spans design through operations, including successfully preparing for and meeting the requirements of operational readiness reviews. Before Hanford, he was the chief engineer at a U.S. transuranic waste facility, which he saw from design to an operating facility that was exceeding its expected throughput. Ian is now the technical director and design authority at Hanford’s Vit Plant.

Ian understands that when the Vit Plant is operational, the risk posed by Hanford’s radioactive waste is reduced significantly. “I’m confident we will build a plant that will fulfill its mission and safely vitrify Hanford’s waste ,” Ian says.