12

Another Trojan Horse Stevan Jovanovic

MEET THE TROJANS

John Lackey can ’ t hear the noise of the hundreds of people cheering in congratulations for him. His thoughts have drowned out the noise. He just received a reward for Best Project Management of a Utility Plant in the United States. The plant is Trojan Nuclear Plant, which was offi cially shut down in 1996. The year is now 2000.

John is about to give a speech in front of hundreds of people. He is expected to give the typical acceptance speech and thank everyone for their hard work and thank the award committee for their recognition. This is not, however, the usual utility plant management story. John is consumed with thoughts of how a common speech could possibly convince the world that a nuclear plant, hav- ing produced zero power in four years, deserves an award praising its project management. The story of a project that involves decommissioning of a nuclear plant cannot be short. This project is also very unique with equally unique circumstances.

The whole project plays out in his mind. His thoughts start from the very beginning . . .

THE SIMPLE TASK

The task sounded simple enough, to shut down a nuclear plant, decommission it, and make the plant, or at least its location, safe for the future. The plant was near a major metropolitan area, which made the fi rst line of reasoning simple; get the dangerous stuff away from the dense population and reduce risk for human harm. Trojan was a large plant — it was the largest and most powerful nuclear plant of its day. It was built on a huge site that supported tons in equipment. Although most people seldom consider decommissioning, as part of managing a power plant, it is actually a necessary part of the plant lifecycle.

As one would expect, most of the equipment was used to handle extremely hazardous nuclear material. Nuclear material stays dangerous for very long peri- ods of time, for thousands of years. The varying degrees of danger involved for

Introduction 13

the different parts of the huge plant ranged from slightly dangerous to extremely poisonous. Every inch of the 600 – acre complex had to be thoroughly examined and a plan had to be made to deal with each and every inch. All of the equipment was hazardous and had to be handled with extreme caution. The project would take years.

TRAINING

Decommissioning of a nuclear reactor is unique in that every single detail of the project must be planned out and reviewed long before any work can begin. Error was unacceptable, especially for a project such as this that would be scrutinized not only by the authorities, but by the general public as well. Nuclear power has always been a hot topic, generating extreme public opinion. The Trojan Nuclear Plant, even during its operating life, was always a source of controversy for people on both sides of the nuclear power debate. Every aspect of its operation, especially bad news, became fodder for the media. Any negative news immedi- ately became front page material. John and his company defi nitely did not want their name associated with negative “ nuclear news. ” The only way to ensure that this did not happen was to be as prepared as possible.

Naturally, the first step was getting up to date on the latest in project man- agement techniques. For this they chose the four – day training course by Scope Management (statement, WBS, process, changes), Cost Management (estimates, earned value, cost baselines), Time Management (jogging line, TAD, milestone charts), and Risk Management (risk events, PI Matrix, Monte Carlo analysis). The course was structured per the PMBOK Guide . Now armed with tools and concepts needed for the work ahead, they felt prepared for any size project.

LEARNING

One of the biggest challenges for this company was the change in mindset from an operating company to a project management company. An operating company does use basic project management techniques but spends much of its time and energy executing operations. Naturally, however, a project management company spends all of its energy on project management. Although the transition from an operating company to a project management company may not sound challeng- ing, there can be diffi culty when a person has spent their entire career focusing on project execution. The tendency for that type of person might be to revert to old ways. On a project this complex, however, skimping on project management could be disastrous.

The first step in decommissioning the plant was to break down the project into smaller projects. These “ smaller ” projects were by no means easy, but were more adaptable for applying and refining their recently acquired project manage- ment skills. They were essentially used as learning blocks and every “ smaller ”

14 CASE STUDIES

project management project was carefully reviewed and each lesson learned was clearly outlined.

One of the projects was the removal of the central reactor. This involved transferring the entire reactor hundreds of miles from the plant location. Such a project had never been attempted before, which means no historical information upon which to rely. The entire decommissioning project had many “ firsts ” and of them all the reactor removal was by far the biggest and most complicated.

The reactor, a concrete and steel maze, was the size of a basketball court and weighed many, many tons. The safest way to remove the reactor was in one piece. The reactor was not originally designed and built, however, with the intent of being picked up and carried around in one piece. It was a system of structures, pipes, and mechanical equipment. Damaging and breaking open any part of the reactor system would have allowed poisonous material to leak out. This was the worst possible scenario and could not be allowed to happen. The project was the pinnacle of the team ’ s project management use. They managed to safely lift the reactor, transfer it to a ship, move it up river (including going through four dam locks), transfer it to a land vehicle, and “ truck it ” to its final destination. They managed every detail of the move. To the great relief of everyone, the move was a success. The team and the company had made their mark in the pages of project management history.

Discussion item

1. What do you learn from this case?

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