The new year will bring the fifth president in 512 years for Bechtel Hanford Inc., with Mike Hughes succeeding Steve Liedle.

Liedle, Bechtel's president since June 1997, will take over as president and general manager of Bechtel Nevada, lead contractor at the Department of Energy's Nevada Test Site.

Hughes, current Bechtel vice president for operations, and Liedle will assume their new posts Jan. 10. Their transition periods start Jan. 3.

Tom Logan, Bechtel manager for its Hanford decommissioning projects, is being promoted to Hughes' current job.

"We have a really good team here. We'll try to continue our outstanding performance. ... I don't see a lot of change in our team. Tom has a tremendous amount of experience and will provide a lot of continuity on the operations side," Hughes said.

Liedle said: "I'm really proud of what we've been able to do here."

Bechtel's team - which includes subcontractors CH2M Hill Hanford Inc. and Thermo Hanford Inc. - removes contaminated soil from the Columbia River shore area; decontaminates, demolishes and seals off the old plutonium reactors; built and now manages central Hanford's huge landfill for radioactive debris; tackles ground water studies and cleanup; and handles several other decontamination projects.

It employs about 900 people. And the Bechtel team has posted a long string of grades of "outstanding" while at Hanford.

A North Dakota native, Hughes, 47, has worked at Hanford since 1983 with Westinghouse Hanford Co. and UNC Nuclear before joining Bechtel in 1994. He has worked on closing nuclear facilities, environmental cleanup, field engineering and other management duties.

Hughes and Liedle noted Bechtel's environmental restoration work faces uncertainties in the amount of federal cleanup money it receives yearly.

"The competition for dollars is going to be tougher and tougher," Liedle said. "... Mike has been involved with this since the beginning of (Bechtel's tenure at Hanford). He really understands the issues."

Hughes noted Bechtel's contract will be up for renewal in 212 years, and the company wants to hang onto it. "Bechtel plans to stay in this area for a long time," he said.

Liedle is heading to the Nevada Test Site, which is where the federal government exploded atomic bombs - mostly underground - for tests. Those tests ended in the 1980s. The site is 1,350 square miles in size and roughly 65 miles north of Las Vegas.

Bechtel does some environmental restoration, ground water monitoring and decontamination work there and looks after the stockpile of nuclear weapons.

Liedle said accomplishments during Bechtel's tenure include completing construction and now operating the huge central Hanford landfill; demolishing the C Reactor complex and sealing off the reactor core building, plus beginning the same work on two more reactors; setting up five pump-and-treat stations to decontaminate polluted ground water; achieving good momentum on removing contaminated soil from the river shore; and getting a good start on decontaminating and closing the 233-S plutonium concentration facility.

Liedle, 44, has been with Bechtel since 1982 and was one of the corporation's first executives to arrive at Hanford in 1994.

As vice president for operations, Liedle succeeded Mike Little as Bechtel Hanford's president in 1997 when Little retired. At that time, Hughes assumed Liedle's vice president post.

Little succeeded Joe Nemec in late 1996 when Nemec was promoted to Bechtel Environmental Inc. in Oak Ridge. And Nemec succeeded Bechtel Hanford's first president, Ed Keen, who retired in March 1995.