Richard Tighe has been named president and chief executive officer of Consolidated Nuclear Security LLC. That company manages and operates the Pantex Plant in Amarillo, Texas, and the Y-12 National Security Complex in Oak Ridge, Tennessee. The Oak Ridge site was one of the United States’ first nuclear plants. Workers there contributed to the construction of the atomic bombs that were used to end World War II.

Tighe began his new job on Tuesday.

“My career in the national security field has helped prepare me for this important and exciting role and I’m eager to get to work and help the patriots at Pantex and Y-12 continue to deliver on the important national security mission the nation trusts us to perform,” he said in a written statement.

Tighe came to Consolidated Nuclear Security from National Aeropsace Solutions, a contractor for the U.S. Air Force Arnold Engineering Development Complex at Arnold Air Force Base near Tullahoma, Tennessee. He was the president and general manager of that company.

He previously worked for Bechtel in various capacities. He worked for Lockheed Martin at the Nevada Test Site for more than a decade, eventually becoming the assistant general manager for high hazard test and evaluation.

Tighe earned a bachelor’s degree in physics from Loras College in Dubuque. He then earned a doctorate degree in experimental nuclear physics from the University of Notre Dame in in South Bend, Indiana. He was a post-doctroal fellow in nuclear sciences at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory at the University of California, Berkeley.