Project Management Institute
Columbia River Basin Chapter

Columbia River Basin Chapter of the Project Management Institute Announces Winner of the 2010 Project-of-the-Year Award

On Tuesday, March 2,2010 at the Red Lion Hotel in Richland, the Columbia River Basin Chapter (CRBC) of the Project Management Institute (PMI) announced that the Slightly Irradiated Fuels (SIF) Interim Disposition Project submitted by CH2M HILL Plateau Remediation Company was the winner of the local 2010 Project-of-the-Year Award. The award was presented by the local chapter Marketing Vice President, Rhonda Nissen, to Steve Norton and Marie Bachand, Slightly Irradiated Fuels (SIF) Interim Disposition Project Co-Managers. This year’s award was the 16th consecutive annual award presented by the local chapter.

The winning project involved six sub-projects focused on handing and securely storing slightly irradiated fuels previously stored at the Plutonium Finishing Plant located on the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Hanford Nuclear Site. Each of the six sub-projects involved design and construction of key infrastructure components.

Completion of the full SIF project was critical not only to the safe disposition of slightly irradiated fuels, but failing to complete the project within a fast-tracked 17-month schedule would have jeopardized scheduled decontamination and decommissioning of the DOE Plutonium Finishing Plant.

The winning project was one of four nominated to be considered for “Project of the Year.” Others included:

* The Washington River Protection Solutions “Single-Shell Tank 241-C-110
Waste Retrieval and Transfer to Double-Shell Tank 241-AN-106” project

* The Mission Support Alliance, LLC “Hammer Recovery Act Training Project”

* The CH2M HILL Plateau Remediation Company “Plutonium Finishing Plant Project to De-Inventory Nuclear Materials” project


Congratulations to all the projects on your success. The Columbia River Basin PMI Chapter Project of the Year Award was established in 1994 to recognize project management excellence in multiple industries. The Chapter was chartered in 1994 as the first chapter in the Mid Columbia Basin area, serving a geographic area ranging from Moses Lake to Hermiston, and Yakima to Walla Walla.