Joshua Vajda, an employee of Oak Ridge Office of Environmental Management (OREM) contractor UCOR, recently earned a top honor from the American Nuclear Society for contributions that benefit U.S. Department of Energy Office of Environmental Management (EM) sites nationwide.
Office of Environmental Management
July 30, 2024
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Joshua Vajda, right, receives the 2024 American Nuclear Society Special Award from H.M. Hashemian, chair of the society’s Honors and Awards Committee.
OAK RIDGE, Tenn. – Joshua Vajda, an employee of Oak Ridge Office of Environmental Management (OREM) contractor UCOR, recently earned a top honor from the American Nuclear Society for contributions that benefit U.S. Department of Energy Office of Environmental Management (EM) sites nationwide.
The American Nuclear Society Special Award recognizes an individual for contributions in research or developing understanding in an important area. This year the organization focused on accomplishments advancing peaceful applications of nuclear technology and addressing future challenges.
The society is celebrating its 70th anniversary this year, coinciding with the 70th anniversary of the “Atoms for Peace” speech given by former President Dwight D. Eisenhower.
Vajda was recognized for furthering regulatory aspects of the nuclear fuel cycle and for his leadership in nuclear deactivation and decommissioning efforts. Those efforts support national nonproliferation, nuclear waste cleanup and environmental sustainability.
From left, Caridad Estrada Cardona, John Woods, Joshua Vajda and Shawn Cameron are pictured before performing work inside the Oak Ridge Research Reactor at Oak Ridge National Laboratory. Vajda provided valuable hands-on experience to the summer interns.
Vajda supported EM’s Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) as the technical lead and regulatory expert. Vajda’s most significant contribution led to the latest publication of the WIPP waste acceptance criteria, which allowed shipments of downblended surplus plutonium from the Savannah River Site (SRS) to commence in January 2023.
Through his years-long involvement with various groups and national laboratories, Vajda developed technical information specific to transportation, safety analysis and criticality. He incorporated this complex data into waste acceptance criteria requirements in a way that allowed SRS to implement those requirements at the working level.
From 2015 until 2023, Vajda was active in public involvement strategies in New Mexico, communicating the waste acceptance criteria project status at WIPP to local stakeholders.
He also served as a consulting engineer at General Fusion in Canada, where he helped develop engineering design for the potential construction of a fusion prototype power plant.
“Joshua delivers outstanding technical results for UCOR, and I’m very pleased to see that his peers have recognized his talents with this award,” said Eric Abelquist, UCOR’s chief technology officer.
In Oak Ridge, Vajda is responsible for deactivation and demolition engineering activities supporting OREM’s cleanup at Oak Ridge National Laboratory, including the recently demolished Low Intensity Test Reactor and ongoing work at the Oak Ridge Research Reactor.
-Contributor: Ella Stewart
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