Fluor Hanford's sixth president will bring sought-after expertise in commercial practices, but no background in nuclear cleanup, to his new job.

Ron Gallagher, a Fluor Corp. senior vice president for oil and gas production, transportation and refining in North and South America, will replace Dave Van Leuven as Fluor Hanford's president in the second week of November, Fluor announced Thursday.

Van Leuven will stay with Fluor Corp., but his next post has not been determined yet.

The Department of Energy still has to approve Gallagher's appointment. However, in a press release, DOE Hanford Manager Keith Klein said he is looking forward to working with Gallagher.

Gallagher is being brought in because of his project management skills and his knowledge of cutting-edge commercial practices, said Ron Hanson, who leads Fluor Corp.'s DOE-related businesses. Hanson also was Fluor Hanford's president from 1998 to 2001.

"We're responding to the vision from (DOE) to have the best business practices in place," Hanson said.

Fluor, with about 4,100 employees, is in the last stages of two major projects - removing spent nuclear fuel from the K Basins and converting the site's scrap plutonium into safer forms. Both projects are slightly ahead of schedule and are supposed to finish in 2004. Fluor is behind schedule on removing radioactive sludge from the K Basins.

Fluor's contract runs until Sept. 30, 2006. Its remaining major projects include tackling the site's massive ground water contamination problems, plus dealing with huge amounts of radioactive and chemical wastes stored in containers in buildings and in burial trenches.

Fluor is also in charge of shutting down the Fast Flux Test Facility and cleaning up the 300 Area until those projects are transferred to yet-to-be-chosen new contractors, probably in 2004.

Gallagher, 56, joined Fluor Corp. in 1974. He has held senior management positions in North America and Europe, spending the last several years overseeing oil, gas and petrochemical operations.

Gallagher said he has never worked on a nuclear or DOE project.

Hanson said that when Gallagher takes over, the managers under him already have extensive nuclear cleanup experience. Gallagher is supposed to bring a fresh perspective to Fluor's cleanup work.

Van Leuven will stay with Fluor Hanford to help with the transition.

Van Leuven has spent more than 30 years with contractors working with DOE.

He moved to Hanford in 1996 when he was president of Waste Management Hanford, one of Fluor Hanford's original permanent subcontractors. One of Waste Management's jobs was to deal with Hanford's buried and above-ground barrels of radioactive and chemical wastes, which will be one of Fluor's remaining tasks through 2006, and beyond 2006 for a future contractor.