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 budget.
