Hanford veteran George Jackson is the new No. 2 at Fluor Hanford, replacing Tom Harper as executive vice president.

Harper, Fluor Hanford's executive vice president for the past eight months, will be assigned to Fluor Corp.'s Environmental and Nuclear Operations Group, to assist that group's leader, Ron Hanson, the company said. Hanson is a former Fluor Hanford president.

Fluor Hanford is the Hanford site's lead contractor with about 4,000 employees.

The moves are part of a general reorganization under new President Ron Gallagher, who replaced Dave Van Leuven in mid-November.

"Though I have not ruled out further organizational changes, adding George to the core leadership team puts Fluor Hanford in an ideal position to literally attack our challenges here at Hanford," Gallagher wrote in a Tuesday memo to employees.

In a news release, Jackson said: "It's not going to be easy because we're entering a new phase of cleanup and doing some work that's never been done before. That's what I like about the job -- coming up with new approaches to get things done."

Jackson worked from 1982 to 1985 in the engineering and design of the Washington Public Power Supply System's Reactor No. 2, which now is Energy Northwest's Columbia Generating Station.

Since 1985, Jackson has held management jobs with Department of Energy contractors, mostly at Hanford, including Rockwell, Westinghouse and Fluor. He also spent a year as chief operating officer for SafeSites of Colorado at DOE's Rocky Flats site.

In the past 3 1/2 years, Jackson has been in charge of converting the Plutonium Finishing Plant's scrap plutonium into safer forms. That project tentatively is expected to finish in February, ahead of the May deadline.

Two other men have been appointed to high-level Fluor Hanford jobs in the past three months.

Tim Carter, who managed all of Fluor Corp.'s safety and health activities in North and South America, became vice president for safety and health in September.

In October, Mike Lackey, who used to be in charge of decommissioning Portland General Electric's Trojan reactor, became Fluor Hanford vice president for deactivation and decommissioning.