Marines board a KC-130 aircraft. Henry Mutka, a military veteran and engineer with the Oak Ridge Office of Environmental Management.
Marines board a KC-130 aircraft. Henry Mutka, a military veteran and engineer with the Oak Ridge Office of Environmental Management.

OAK RIDGE, Tenn. – It’s 5:30 a.m. As most employees’ alarm clocks are repeating their dreaded sound, Henry Mutka is already in the office starting a pot of coffee to begin his day at DOE’s Oak Ridge Office of Environmental Management (OREM).

While Mutka’s surroundings have changed considerably since he served in the U.S. Marine Corps, his wake-up time and focus on keeping people safe remain the same.

In his previous role in the Marine Corps, Mutka served as a powerplant mechanic on the KC-130. It’s a large, four-propeller military aircraft used to provide multi-mission tactical and transport support. He oversaw repair and maintenance of engines, propellers, and fuel systems, keeping aircraft ready for missions.

After seven years with the Marines, Mutka began working as a national service officer with the nonprofit Disabled American Veterans organization, where he assisted veterans in receiving benefits and health care.

He then pursued a career in engineering, a field familiar to him after his time in the military. After finishing his degree in mechanical engineering, Mutka joined OREM’s engineering branch in October 2018.

Instead of performing maintenance on multi-million dollar planes, Mutka is now responsible for the challenging task of overseeing maintenance on numerous aging facilities at DOE’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL).

"There is so much variation in this job from day to day. We are working to keep everything safe and clean until we can take them down safely in the years ahead,” he said of the aging facilities.

After serving in the U.S. Marine Corps, Henry Mutka earned a mechanical engineering degree and joined DOE’s Oak Ridge Office of Environmental Management in 2018. He is pictured here with infrastructure he helps oversee at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory
After serving in the U.S. Marine Corps, Henry Mutka earned a mechanical engineering degree and joined DOE’s Oak Ridge Office of Environmental Management in 2018. He is pictured here with infrastructure he helps oversee at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory

Oak Ridge is home to many excess contaminated facilities, and the most high-risk facilities of any DOE site. ORNL has 127 excess contaminated buildings and 33 high-risk buildings.

Mutka provides oversight to projects that are placing buildings in safe standby mode until they are decommissioned — such as the Molten Salt Reactor Experiment — and ensures maintenance is performed properly on facilities vital to ongoing missions at the lab, such as the liquid and gaseous waste operations.

Mutka also serves as a ventilation subject-matter expert, ensuring safe operations continue in sensitive facilities, such as the Transuranic Waste Processing Center’s Process Building ventilation system.

Mutka has found the perfect fit working with Oak Ridge’s EM program.

“I love it. It’s the best job I’ve ever had,” he said.