Community Global Forum: Todd Wright - Nuclear Energy

Biography

Dr. Todd Wright is the former executive vice president of operations for the Energy and Environment Business Unit for AECOM, an international firm connecting knowledge and experience across the globe to solve complex engineering challenges. He had operations and management responsibility for the Division’s nuclear work with the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), the UK Nuclear Decommission Authority (NDA) and commercial nuclear decommissioning in both the USA and Japan.  In his career, Dr. Wright has worked in essentially every segment of the nuclear fuel cycle.  He was appointed to the South Carolina Nuclear Advisory Council in 2019.

Dr. Wright has 37 years of leadership experience in complex nuclear site operations, major project management, advanced nuclear research and development, and achieving safety performance excellence. He has successfully led complex organizations and managed unprecedented change in highly regulated environments. 

Prior to his AECOM position Dr. Wright served as Managing Director and Chairman of the Board for Sellafield Sites Ltd., one of the world’s most complex nuclear sites.  He led the efforts to bring safety performance at Sellafield Ltd. to the best level in its 60-year history and earning the honor of URS Safe Project of the Year for an unprecedented two consecutive years. Dr. Wright also established a comprehensive change program to transition the 10,000-person workforce to a high-performance organization while delivering 900 million pounds in efficiencies for the UK taxpayer.

He led Sellafield to reprocess over 7000 tons of fuel in the THORP spent fuel reprocessing plant-a first ever milestone.  The high-level waste resulting from reprocessing operations was vitrified (converted to a glass waste form) and the formerly decommissioned Capenhurst fuel enrichment plant site was successfully transitioned to industry.

At the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Savannah River Site, Dr. Wright served as a Laboratory Director and successfully transitioned the laboratory from a site-centered focus and expanded the Laboratory research base to a diverse portfolio of customers. Under his leadership, several innovative initiatives were realized including the construction and establishment of the Center for Hydrogen Research, the only facility of its kind in the US.

Dr. Wright earned his PhD and both Master and Bachelor of Science degree in Mechanical Engineering from Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University. Dr Wright was a recipient of the Order of the Palmetto in 2019, the state of South Carolina’s highest civilian award.