James Garza is the Assistant Manager for the Office of WIPP at the Carlsbad Field Office (CBFO).
The CBFO provides federal oversight operations at the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP), the nation’s only geological repository for defense related nuclear materials. He has 30 years of nuclear industry experience within the DOE complex. Selected as the Assistant Manager for the Office of WIPP in February 2018, he is responsible for all operations associated with WIPP that included: conduct of operations, industrial hygiene, radiological controls, fire protection, nuclear safety, technical safety requirements, configuration management, ISMS, industrial safety, OSHA, quality assurance, environmental compliance, criticality safety, contractor assurance, training and the Mine Safety and Health Administration. He arrived at CBFO as the Facility Oversight Division Director, in 2015.
Previously, Mr. Garza worked at the Advanced Test Reactor (ATR) at the Idaho National Laboratory (INL) in Operations and Training from 1988 till 2006. Mr. Garza was a Shift Supervisor (SS) of one of the ATR operating crews and also held the positions of Outage Coordinator, Emergency Action Manager, Lead Nuclear Simulator Instructor and Nuclear Training Supervisor for Operations and Technical staff.
Mr. Garza joined the Department of Energy in November of 2006 as a Facility Representative (FR) and FR Work Lead and performed oversight at all EM facilities at the INL. In 2012 and 2013, he was selected as the Idaho DOE-EM Facility Representative of the Year. In 2014 Mr. Garza was hired as the Senior Facility Representative at the Advanced Test Reactor.
Mr. Garza goes by Ed to all who know him. He holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Chemistry from Texas Tech University. He is a rabid Texas Tech football fan, a former trainer of Arabian show horses, a single digit handicap golfer and an expert skier.