Rear Adm. John Mitchell (ret), whose decade-plus, post-Navy career with Bechtel National took him on a tour of senior leadership posts at defense-nuclear sites and Yucca Mountain, died June 1. He was 79.
That is according to a short memorial post online that indicated Mitchell’s final arrangements would be handled by a funeral home in Alexandria, Va., just outside of Washington. The cause of Mitchell’s death was not immediately known to the Weapons Complex Morning Briefing at deadline.
“John served the nation with distinction for more than 40 years, first with the Navy and later with Bechtel. He was a technical expert, an engineer amongst engineers, and an inspirational leader with a memorable way with words,” a Bechtel spokesperson wrote in a statement. “He mentored many colleagues and had a strong followership during his time with us – a sign of a great leader. We wish him ‘fair winds and following seas.’”
In 2006, Mitchell retired from civilian life after a brief stint as deputy director of the Los Alamos National Laboratory. At the time, the Bechtel-led Los Alamos National Security was less than a year into its 12-year run as the lab’s management and operations contractor.
Before Los Alamos, Mitchell was director of Bechtel SAIC, then the Department of Energy’s management and operations contractor for the ill-fated Yucca Mountain project. Mitchell was in the top spot from 2003 to 2006.
In 2005, during his time at Yucca, Mitchell was one of nine witnesses hauled before a congressional oversight committee to explain the discovery — by Bechtel SAIC’s own employee concerns program — that a federal employee with the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) had falsified some scientific data related to the proposed, deep-underground geologic repository for radioactive waste.
Before heading Bechtel’s program to prepare Yucca for its since-rescinded license application with the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, Mitchell worked from 2000 to 2003 for BWXT-Y12 as general manager of the highly enriched uranium plant in Oak Ridge, Tenn.
Prior to Y-12, Mitchell was a project manager at the Nevada National Security Site, then managed by Bechtel Nevada, not far from Yucca Mountain. He came to the former test site in 1996, only two years after joining Bechtel’s San Francisco office, a company spokesperson said in an email on Tuesday.
Mitchell joined Bechtel after 30 years in the Navy. He retired from the service as a rear admiral in 1994, by which time he had worked for multiple years on multiple submarine-based nuclear-weapons programs, including Polaris and Trident.
