Mr. Wachtel graduated from the University of Wisconsin – Madison in 1989 with a Bachelor’s Degree in Nuclear Engineering. Following a short term supporting radiological materials transportation at DOE’s Hanford site, Steve moved to criticality safety at Rocky Flats. Over the next twelve years, he supported plutonium and uranium operations at Rocky Flats, the Paducah Gaseous Diffusion Plant, and Hanford’s Plutonium Finishing Plant. Work projects included criticality safety support for plutonium inventory and waste management, uranium enrichment facilities, and decommissioning efforts of plutonium facilities.

In 2003 Mr. Wachtel completed a Master’s degree in Engineering Professional Practice (with emphasis on project and engineering management) through the University of Wisconsin – Madison while supporting the beginning phases of decommissioning at Hanford’s Plutonium Finishing Plant.

More recently, Steve has been involved with safety management program development efforts in support of dynamic experiments involving special nuclear materials at Los Alamos National Laboratory and the Nevada Test Site. Programs included Material Control and Accountability, Training, Conduct of Operations, and Configuration Management / Change Control. Other safety-related projects included Unresolved Safety Question program development, hazards identification procedure development, and failure modes and effects analysis.

Mr. Wachtel returned to criticality safety analysis supporting uranium reactor fuel fabrication efforts at the Columbia Fuel Fabrication Facility.