WASHINGTON, DC – The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) today announced that the Project Management Institute (PMI) has awarded its 2006 Project of the Year to DOE’s Rocky Flats Environmental Technology Site.  The award was presented to DOE contractor Kaiser-Hill, LLC during the PMI Global Congress Dinner 2006 on Saturday, October 21st, 2006 in Seattle, Washington.

“It is a great honor for the Department of Energy’s Rocky Flats safe cleanup and closure effort to be recognized with this prestigious award,” James Rispoli, Assistant Secretary of Energy for Environmental Management.  “As the largest DOE nuclear weapons facility cleanup project completed to date, we are applying what we learned at Rocky Flats to more than a dozen other sites expected to safely close in the next three years.”

DOE and Kaiser-Hill successfully partnered in a 10-year effort to complete the largest, most complex environmental cleanup project in United States history and converted an environmental liability into a community asset, completing the project nearly fifty years and $30 billion below initial estimates.  The majority of the 6,200-acre site will be transferred to the Interior Department in the coming years and will become a national wildlife refuge.  DOE has closed five sites including Rocky Flats in Fiscal Year (FY) 2006 and is on track to safely turnover an additional 12 between FY2007-FY2009.

“Kaiser-Hill performed a first-class job for the government, and the public-private partnership between DOE and Kaiser-Hill paved the way for our success,” DOE Rocky Flats Project Office Manager Frazer Lockhart said. “We faced countless challenges on this first-of-its-kind project and this award is a tribute our joint efforts.”

A key element in the successful project was a unique, incentive-driven contract between DOE and Kaiser-Hill that rewarded schedule and cost savings while maintaining outstanding safety and protection of human health and the environment.

The Rocky Flats Closure Project was an enormous undertaking led by DOE contractor Kaiser-Hill that included the following accomplishments:

• Removed more than 21 tons of weapons-useable nuclear materials
• Decontaminated and demolished 800 structures, comprising more than 3 million square feet
• Drained 30,000 liters of plutonium solutions
• Dismantled and removed more than 1,450 contaminated production glove boxes and 700 tanks
• Stabilized and packaged 100 tons of high-content plutonium residue
• Performed environmental cleanup actions at 130 sites
• Dispositioned millions of classified items and excess property
• Safely shipped more than 600,000 cubic meters of radioactive waste – enough to fill a string of railcars 90 miles long

The PMI Project of the Year is one of the world’s most prestigious project management awards, which recognizes and honors the accomplishments of the winning project team for superior and exemplary project management.  With nearly 220,000 members in more than 150 countries, PMI is the leading membership association for the project management profession.  PMI is actively engaged in advocacy for the profession, setting professional standards, conducting research and providing access to a wealth of information and resources.

Media contact(s):
Megan Barnett, (202) 586-4940