Meet Dan Dilday, nuclear waste operations manager

Dan Dilday is a familiar face at the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Argonne National Laboratory. As a nuclear waste operations manager, he is responsible for overseeing regulated waste services.

When asked about his role, Dilday smiled.

“Waste management may not sound sexy,” he said, ​“but it’s rewarding!”

“I want to help the next generation of innovators grow their competence and their confidence to solve the problems of the future.” — Dan Dilday, nuclear waste operations manager at Argonne

Dilday has been in the radioactive waste business since 1985. He’s worked at various facilities within the U.S. and abroad. In 1987, he applied for a position at Argonne.

“I didn’t get it,” Dilday admitted. ​“It wasn’t my time.”

In the mid-2000s, after supporting defense operations overseas and a clean-up project at the DOE’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory, he finally joined Argonne as a contractor.

“Suffice it to say,” he concluded, ​“I fell in love.”

At Argonne, Dilday enjoyed an outstanding work-life balance. He no longer had to choose between having family time and growing his career through impactful and enriching professional experiences. He helped solve very complex deactivation and decommissioning (D&D) and waste challenges while growing closer with his team.

“The work-life balance at Argonne allows for meaningful contribution to the lab’s mission, without sacrificing family time,” said Dilday. ​“This drives me to do my best for my family, my country and the broader lab community.”

Argonne accelerates the science and technology that drive U.S. prosperity and security. Argonne staff are thinkers, builders, problem-solvers and caretakers — every person and every role contributes to the laboratory’s impact on the world.

“After all,” he added, ​“We Are Argonne starts with ​‘we.’”

The sense of teamwork, a Core Value at Argonne, has carried Dilday through many challenges.

He faced one of the greatest professional challenges when his supervisor asked him to leave his long-time waste management role to manage operations for the Building 350 Legacy D&D Project. The project scope included the relocation, removal or disposition of over 24,000 discreet nuclear or radioactive items and the clean-out of multiple radioactively contaminated laboratories for repurposing. Completing the clean-up of Building 350 was part of a larger endeavor to transition the New Brunswick Laboratory building to UChicago at Argonne for re-use within the larger Argonne mission.

“I hesitantly accepted,” Dilday recalled. ​“I say ​‘hesitantly’ because some folks described the project with words like ​‘overwhelming’ and even ​‘impossible.’ It was a big commitment.”

The project required rethinking technical and operational approaches and protecting the team’s morale by focusing on what was possible, rather than what wasn’t. Fortunately, Dilday’s team had a can-do attitude, determined to succeed and redefine the possible.

Despite a multitude of technical and operational challenges, the project was safely and successfully completed ahead of schedule and within budget. The project turned over 44,000 square feet of newly cleaned-out laboratory, office, storage and high bay space to the laboratory. Building 350 was well-positioned to serve as a radiological facility for current and future science programs.

Reflecting on the project’s success, Dilday said, ​“I’m so glad I took on the project because it inspired me to be more creative, perhaps even contrarian to what’s considered ​‘the only way’ to do things. Creativity, after all, is the springboard of innovation.”

The lessons his team learned in Building 350 later helped them plan site support activities for the recent upgrade of the Advanced Photon Source, a DOE Office of Science user facility at Argonne. The innovative thinking his team practiced will continue to help them support new mission needs.

During the last couple of years, Dilday has focused more on mentorship.

“My generation experienced the cold war, the post-cold war cleanup, nuclear power accident planning and decommissioning, modular reactor testing and construction and now, advances in artificial intelligence,” he explained. ​“I’m trying to convey those unique experiences through storytelling. I want to help the next generation of innovators grow their competence and their confidence to solve the problems of the future.”

Dilday encourages young people to consider careers in waste management. The work is rewarding because it addresses tangible problems that impact real people, he said.

“There’s always a challenge or problem to solve,” he added. ​“Having something interesting, something that encourages creativity and something meaningful to do to achieve a larger vision … there’s no better job than that.”