The Washington River Protection Solutions’ (WRPS) project to empty a Hanford Site double-shell waste tank with an interior leak has been named the 2017 Project of the Year by the Project Management Institute.
“Washington River Protection Solutions was able to establish and follow sound project management practices that allowed its challenging and potentially dangerous project to be completed successfully,” said Project Management Institute President and CEO Mark Langley in a press release.
The project’s success resulted from the organization’s strong budget process and a planning process that was supported by a comprehensive project schedule and a firm change request process, the institute said in a statement.
The Project Management Institute considered international nominations for the award based on performance of project management practices, organizational results, and positive impacts on society of projects costing more than $100 million. Along with Hanford Tank AY-102 project, the other finalists were the opening of a large diamond mine in Canada’s Northwest Territory and the extension of the underground light rail system in Seattle.
Double-shell tanks are used to hold waste emptied from Hanford’s leak-prone single-shell tanks until the site’s 56 million gallons of radioactive and chemical waste can be treated for disposal.
Tank AY-102 was the first of 28 double-shell tanks to be built at Hanford and went into service in 1970. It was taken out of service in 2012 following discovery of a leak from the inner shell into the space between the shells. No waste is believed to have breached the outer shell of the tank.
The project emptied 725,000 gallons of nuclear waste ahead of schedule and $8.7 million under the $107.3 million base budget, plus a residual management reserve of $2.8 million.
Washington River Protection Solutions spent two years preparing for the work, including upgrading infrastructure on Tank AY-102 and the tank where the waste was transferred, double-shell Tank AP-102.
The contractor used two technologies to empty the tank, starting with two sluicers that sprayed high-pressure liquid to mobilize the waste and pump it out. Those were replaced, as planned, part way through the project with four extended-reach sluicers that could access more areas around the 22 vertical ventilation pipes within the tank. Waste retrieval began in March 2016 and was completed on Feb. 15 of this year to beat a March 4 deadline set in a settlement agreement between DOE, WRPS, and the Washington state Department of Ecology.
“The work we do at Hanford is difficult and hazardous, making it imperative that safety is at the forefront of everything we do,” said Doug Greenwell, WRPS retrieval manager. “Our union workers are highly trained, highly skilled and dedicated to completing the job safely. … It’s fitting and deserving that their work, supported by our skilled engineers, project managers and safety, radcon and IH staff, is being recognized with this prestigious award.”
WRPS also received one of two Project Management Institute Excellence Awards for North American projects. It was honored for its work to design, fabricate, and install a new ventilation system for the eight tanks in Hanford’s AP Tank Farm. The AP Tank Farm was picked as the staging point for all tank waste that will be transferred to the Waste Treatment Plant for vitrification. The ventilation upgrade progressed from an installation concept in 2014 to a fully operable system by September 2016.
Washington River Protection Solutions, a partnership of AECOM and Atkins, holds a $5.6 billion contract through the end of fiscal 2018 to manage waste left by decades of plutonium production at Hanford for U.S. nuclear weapons.
