POLESTAR TECHNICAL SERVICES - Key Persons
Bill Bailey has 39 years of experience in nuclear operations and nuclear cleanup. In his 16 years at the Department of Energy Hanford site's PUREX plant, Bill was involved in startup, engineering, operations and deactivation, completing PUREX deactivation as the Plant Manager and Project Director. Bill also led the completion of the Hanford site's B Plant deactivation and Waste Encapsulation Storage Facility decoupling. After completing deactivation of the two canyon facilities, Bill was responsible for the excess facilities program in the Hanford 200 and 300 areas and supported the creation of the DOE National Facility Deactivation Initiative until he joined Polestar in 2003.
Bill worked on a number of Polestar projects including a 4-year assignment managing Polestar's United Kingdom business unit. In addition to his UK experience with Polestar, Bill has had key roles in a number of nuclear site proposal efforts including Hanford, Savannah River, Oak Ridge, Sellafield, Dounreay and Canadian Nuclear Labs. While in the UK, Polestar was purchased by WorleyParsons and Bill supported WorleyParsons activities in the UK. In 2011, Bill became General Manager of WorleyParsons Polestar and Director of Nuclear Material and Decommissioning supporting decommissioning activities across all WorleyParsons offices worldwide.
In 2013 Polestar Technical Services, Inc was formed by Kathy Miller, Patty Bailey and Bill. Polestar Technical Services began operations in April 2014 where Bill serves as the Senior Advisor.
Bill has a Bachelor of Science degree in Chemical Engineering from the University of Maine.
Bill Peiffer has over 40 years of diverse experience that encompasses nuclear facility design, startup/commissioning, operation and decommissioning. He has a Bachelor of Science in Chemical Engineering.
Bill is currently supporting the Operations Planning Integration team within the Mission Integration and Waste Feed Delivery Operations organization and is engaged with a range of activities including procurement of operations phase spare parts for DFLAW, conducting DFLAW operations phase optimization studies and providing input to the integrated DFLAW Operations Research Model.
Bill enjoys fly fishing to refresh from the rigors of work.
Job Titles:
- Member of the Polestar Team
Bob joined Polestar in January 2022 as a technical consultant to Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) following a 40-year career in the nuclear and chemical demilitarization industries. Bob's Hanford experience includes being an FFTF reactor operator and supporting multiple facility startup projects with a focus on management policy and technical procedure development. Experience in the chem-demilitarization industry includes supporting equipment development from conceptual design to production equipment fabrication and facility startup testing. Most recently Bob was the Conduct of Operations Subject Matter Expert at the Waste Treatment Plant.
Bob has a history of directing local non-profit organizations, including fund raising for youth safety programs.
Job Titles:
- Member of the Polestar Team
Job Titles:
- Director, Business Development
Dawn Adams is the Director, Business Development and a PMP certified Senior Project Manager for Polestar Technical Services, Inc.
Dawn brings a wealth of experience both domestically and internationally with 35 years of experience in the government and commercial industries. Her experience includes executive roles for previous government contractors, program and project management, as well as business development across a wide array of operational activities. In addition, she managed water treatment projects in Japan supporting the cleanup of the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant.
Dawn recently managed several key projects at the Hanford site, including design and fabrication projects supporting cleanup in the 324 Facility, and design and fabrication of a ventilation system for the REDOX Facility. She earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in Business Administration and a Master of Science degree in Computer Science, both from Washington State University.
Dick Wilde is a senior executive with extensive experience in nuclear weapons testing as well as 30 years of nuclear and hazardous waste cleanup, finally retiring as president of a Hanford company. He has a BS in Physics and an MBA. Dick has spent the last 15 years consulting for multiple DOE contractors and at most DOE sites.
He enjoys golfing but spends too much time consulting to get any good. He and his wife Gigi are presently raising seven kids and grandkids.
Job Titles:
- Chief Operations Officer
- Project Manager
Gary is the Chief Operations Officer and Project Manager with 30 plus years of experience in the nuclear and defense industry. Gary has a history of successful projects including full lifecycle activities associated with highly radioactive and highly complex contaminated facilities from start up to demolition. He has worked projects across the Department of Energy complex as well as international projects including Waste Characterization in Afghanistan and Kuwait and demolition and risk management planning at the Bradwell Nuclear Site in the United Kingdom. Gary is proficient in earned value management and P6 scheduling systems.
Gary holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in Business Administration and a Fundamentals of Decommissioning Certificate, both from Washington State University and has been with Polestar since 2005. Gary is also a certified Project Management Professional.
Jessica Fuller has a BA in Business Administration. She works with the accounting and financial portion of the company. In her free time she is a sports junky and loves to watch anything sport related. She also loves to spend time with family and friends boating, camping and enjoying time together.
Jim has over 35 years of leadership and management experience. Nearly 31 years of this experience is related to federal government procurement and contract administration, primarily supporting Department of Energy funded projects in Richland, WA.
Jim currently supports the administration of Polestar's government, commercial and CAFTA software contracts.
Jim enjoys golfing, reading, and spending time with his wife, Chris, and his daughter, Jaimie.
Karen is a Principal Engineer with 23 years of environmental remediation experience. She brings experience in both the planning and implementation sides of the job. She has developed the regulatory documentation and managed the field work for D&D, mixed waste treatment, and waste disposal projects under CERCLA, RCRA, TSCA, and low-level waste regulations. Karen possesses a BS in Civil Engineering and a Master of Business Administration.
Karen is currently supporting waste management and air permitting tasks with Polestar at the Hanford Site. She looks to continue developing regulatory documentation for other sites within the DOE complex.
Karen's favorite past-time is traveling with her family. She also enjoys home renovation projects and outdoor sports like golf, hiking, and bicycling.
Job Titles:
- Chief Executive Officer
- Co - Owner
- President
- Applied Technology As a Consultant
Kathy Miller is the President, Chief Executive Officer, and co-owner of Polestar Technical Services, Inc. Kathy brings more than 25 years of experience working in various federal and commercial nuclear operating environments from facility operations to deactivation and decommissioning as well as all aspects of business management and operations.
Kathy started her career in the nuclear industry in 1993 at the PUREX Facility at Hanford supporting engineering, work control and operations. PUREX was the first plutonium processing facility to transition from operations through deactivation to long-term surveillance and maintenance. The PUREX Deactivation Project essentially wrote the first chapter of transition and deactivation within the Department of Energy.
In 2000, Kathy led the deactivation planning of the low hazard facilities in the Hanford 300 Area as part of the 300 Area Accelerated Deactivation Project (300 ACP). The 300 ACP was the predecessor of Hanford's River Corridor Project.
In 2002, Kathy joined Polestar Applied Technology as a consultant providing technical services conducting requirements-based assessments, conduct of operations implementation, readiness assessments and leading major change management projects at sites across the DOE complex including Savannah River, Idaho National Lab, Y-12 Nuclear Security Site and the Nevada National Security Site.
Kirk Riedner graduated from the University of Idaho in Chemical Engineering and has 5 years' experience working with the vapors program at the Hanford site. His current project is helping his team with data analysis, analyzing vapor sample data for the Department of Energy throughout the Hanford site. When he's not at work, he spends lots of his time being around family and friends and enjoying the outdoors.
Job Titles:
- Member of the Polestar Team
- Project Administrator
Maisie is a Project Administrator and works with the CAFTA Sales Team as well as helping with various aspects of business management and development. She recently earned a Bachelors degree in International Business and Human Resource Management at Washington State University.
In her free time she enjoys camping, hiking and spending time with friends and family.
Job Titles:
- Architect Project
- IRT CAFTA Accounts Manager
Marina Klein leads the IRT CAFTA Phoenix Architect Project for Polestar. She has been supporting this project for 20+ years either directly for the manufacturer, or indirectly through other previous vendors. Phoenix Architect includes a robust suite of software tools designed for Risk, Reliability and Safety Analysis and its customers include a range of industries primarily Aerospace. These software users rely on the tools for success in their own projects which may include design and maintenance and support of small to major aircraft manufactures. The suite of tools rests on the flagship product, CAFTA which has a long history known as the Industry Leader in Fault Tree Analysis.
Mark is a Cost Engineer with expertise in financial oversight, process improvement, identifying problems, and providing targeted solutions.
He has supported project teams in the field under volatile, emergent, and emergency response projects and is currently serving as a commercial nuclear fleet technical lead responsible for cost reporting database development and analytics.
Mark first began working with Polestar as a contractor in 2005 providing 3D modeling, and technical writing/ editing support, eventually moving into scheduling, cost control, software development, and project management. Mark has been a full-time Polestar employee since 2007.
Mark holds an Associates of Applied Arts Degree in Music and Video Business from the Art Institute of Seattle and is a certified Project Management Professional.
Ryan joined Polestar Technical Services in August of 2020 as a Technical Consultant with over 27 years of environmental, safety, health, and quality (ESH&Q) experience. His experience includes such disciplines as conduct of operations, industrial safety, integrated safety management, emergency preparedness, contractor assurance, and performance assurance; however, his primary area of expertise is in waste management and transportation. He has extensive experience with managing nuclear construction, operation, D&D, and remediation wastes that are generated under the authority of RCRA, CERCLA or RCRA/CERCLA integration. Ryan's waste management and transportation experience spans the width of hazardous, low level, mixed low level, and TRU waste from the point of generations to final treatment and disposal. In addition to supporting the needs of the client, Ryan is also the Health and Safety Representative for Polestar.
Ryan was most recently assigned to the Department of Energy-Office of River Protection supporting day-to-day operations oversight of the Tank Operations Contractor including operations readiness and startup/re-start of the Tank Side Cesium Removal System, Liquid Effluent Retention Facility, 242-A BA Boiler Annex, and 242-A Evaporator.
Ryan spends much of his spare time traveling and exploring local wineries with his wife Jennifer, spending time with his two adult children (Riley and Marley) and chasing fish from Bouy 10 to the upper Hanford Reach of the Columbia River.
Job Titles:
- Senior Administrative Specialist
Samee is a Senior Administrative Specialist and has over 20 years of business experience including administrative office support with 6 years of human resource activities. She currently provides senior administrative support to the executive management for Polestar office locations and functions as the main touchstone for all Polestar employees and subcontractors assigned to Polestar offices and remote locations. Her skills and activities include maintaining company information system, document preparation support, records management, action tracking, timekeeping administrator, office logistics, and coordinator of community and employee events and recognition programs. She leads and trains new hires with onboarding processes and maintains the resume log and training records.
Samee has been with Polestar since March 2008.
Tom is a Principal Technical Consultant with 28 years of experience in the nuclear and environmental engineering fields supporting United States Department of Energy and commercial nuclear power projects. He demonstrates versatility in providing technical expertise in nuclear, environmental, radiological, environmental air quality and project engineering.
Tom has extensive experience with authoring technical documents, calculations, evaluations and use of air dispersion modeling and radiation shielding software. Tom prides himself on being able to work on highly technical projects while also being able to manage projects and teams by using good communication skills.
He has a Bachelor of Science degree in Nuclear Engineering with a Professional Engineering license in the State of Washington in the Environmental discipline.
Wendy Hahn has a Bachelors of Science degree in Chemical Engineering from Northwestern University and a Master of Science degree in Materials Science from Colorado School of Mines.
She has over 40 yrs of experience in Process and Environmental engineering in the nuclear and chemical weapons industries.
Wendy is currently supporting waste profiling and shipping radioactive waste shipments.
Wendy is active in showing her dog, a Belgian Tervuren in conformation and herding. She is also an avid snow skier.