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Spencer named President of Washington Closure Hanford

01.30.2007

Charles G. Spencer, a 25-year veteran of Washington Group International and the nuclear industry, has been named President of Washington Closure Hanford.

“Today, the important work on Hanford’s River Corridor Closure Project is at a critical period of transition as we move into a more complex and hazardous nuclear decommissioning and cleanup environment,” said E. Preston Rahe Jr., president of Energy & Environment for Washington Group.

“Chuck Spencer is one of our most proven executives and foremost experts in disciplined conduct of operations in hazardous work environments and is the right person as the project shifts into a new technical phase,” Rahe said.

Before being named president of Washington Closure, Spencer was Senior Vice President for management and operations for Washington Group’s Energy and Environment Business Unit, responsible for Washington Group operations at the Idaho National Laboratory, Los Alamos National Laboratory, Waste Isolation Pilot Project and other project operations.

He also served as chairman of the Board of Governors for Washington TRU Solutions and on the Operations Subcommittee to the Battelle Energy Alliance Board of Governors at the Idaho National Laboratory. He was also on the Los Alamos National Security Board of Governors’ Integration Committee at the Los Alamos National Laboratory.Previously, he was the vice president and general manager for Defense Programs at the Washington Savannah River Company near Aiken, SC. There he had responsibility for servicing all active nuclear weapons through the production and processing of tritium and testing of gas boost systems.

He was also responsible for managing the Savannah River Site’s development of the conceptual design of the $2-4 billion Modern Pit Facility for future plutonium trigger manufacturing for the nation’s stockpile.

Spencer replaces Patrick L. Pettiette who was brought in 19 months ago to mobilize the new project and get it up and running, said Rahe.

“Pat Pettiette is an accomplished major project executive, having successfully initiated complex major engineering and construction projects literally around the world,” Rahe said. “Our goal from the start was to have Pat mobilize our efforts here to get our team off to the best start possible – something he’s done by beating his targets for schedule, budget and safety.”

Pettiette was instrumental in developing Washington Group’s business strategy to deal with emerging international energy markets and has been reassigned to the corporation to make him available as those markets emerge.

“I would like to thank Pat for his leadership and for the performance of the entire River Corridor team in achieving these important objectives,” Rahe said.

Rahe cited a number of significant achievements since inception of the River Corridor project. Project employees worked without a lost time accident (2.5 million hours) since the project began in August 2005. The project is tied for first in safety performance in the U.S. Department of Energy complex. The project is running ahead of schedule and under budget. The project team has awarded 85 percent of its subcontracts to small businesses, exceeding its goal of 65 percent.

Washington Closure manages the River Corridor Closure Project on the 586-square-mile Hanford Site for the U.S. Department of Energy’s Richland Operations Office. Washington Closure is a limited liability company owned by Washington Group, Bechtel National and CH2M Hill.