NNSA and SRNS Personnel Recognized for Contributions to NNSA Security
Tuesday, August 3rd, 2021
Two Savannah River Site (SRS) personnel – one from the National Nuclear Security Administration - Savannah River Field Office (NNSA-SRFO) and one from Savannah River Nuclear Solutions (SRNS) – have been recognized as members of the National Nuclear Security Administration’s (NNSA’s) 2020 Security Team of the Year. Matthew Melton, Manager of SRNS’ NNSA Programs Safeguards & Security, and George Klipa, Security Engineer for NNSA-SRFO, are among the 23 members of the Design Basis Threat (DBT) Implementation team, made up of contractors and federal personnel from every site in the Nuclear Security Enterprise, plus the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Office of Security Policy.
The award recognizes the contributions the members of the NNSA DBT Implementation team make each day to the nuclear security mission. The team protects some of the country’s most vital strategic assets and information and, through their award-winning work, have significantly influenced the way NNSA assesses risk and thereby made great strides in advancing U.S. national security objectives.
“I commend the team’s work to complete the rigorous analysis required to facilitate a comprehensive understanding of NNSA’s security performance relative to the DBT,” said Jeff Johnson, Associate Administrator for the NNSA's Office of Defense Nuclear Security and Chief of Defense Nuclear Security.
An Army veteran, Melton has worked at SRS for more than 38 years, beginning his SRS career with the Site protective force before moving to maintenance management then back to security work. Biannually, he works with the U.S. Department of Defense’s Defense Threat Reduction Agency as the Lead Adversary Controller on joint service nuclear surety exercises. He has been part of the NNSA Operations and Programs Security team for 12 years, being named to his current position in 2020.
Klipa, who served in the Navy on board a nuclear-powered guided missile cruiser, has 30 years of program and project management experience both at SRS and at the DOE Headquarters in Washington, DC, where he worked as the subject matter expert in areas such as radioactive waste, nuclear materials and spent fuel disposition, and deactivation of large nuclear facilities.
He is responsible for Physical Security, Protective Force and Vulnerability Assessment oversight for SRS’ Tritium Facilities and the Savannah River Plutonium Processing Facility project. Before joining NNSA-SRFO 10 years ago, he was the DOE-Savannah River Program Manager for the Office of Laboratory Oversight, responsible for overseeing the National, Homeland and Energy Security activities conducted by the Savannah River National Laboratory.
Established by Congress in 2000, NNSA is a semi-autonomous agency within the U.S. Department of Energy responsible for enhancing national security through the military application of nuclear science. NNSA maintains and enhances the safety, security, and effectiveness of the U.S. nuclear weapons stockpile; works to reduce the global danger from weapons of mass destruction; provides the U.S. Navy with safe and militarily effective nuclear propulsion; and responds to nuclear and radiological emergencies in the U.S. and abroad.
Savannah River Nuclear Solutions, a Fluor Corporation-led company with Newport News Nuclear and Honeywell, is responsible for the management and operations of the Department of Energy’s Savannah River Site, located near Aiken, South Carolina
