National Ignition Facility wins prestigious 2010 project of the year award

Lynda L Seaver, LLNL, (925) 423-3103, seaver1@llnl.gov Printer-friendly

The National Ignition Facility at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory

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LIVERMORE, CA - Citing groundbreaking technical achievement and exemplary management, the National Ignition Facility (NIF), the first laser expected to achieve fusion ignition in a laboratory setting, has been awarded the Project Management Institute's (PMI's) 2010 Project of the Year. The award, presented Saturday during a special ceremony in Washington, D.C., recognizes the year's most innovative and successful project. "The NIF project was accomplished by a worldwide partnership among governments, academia, and our many industrial partners," said Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory Director George Miller, who attended the awards ceremony. "NIF's success can be attributed to its excellent team of scientists, engineers, technicians and support personnel; to the rigorous application of best-practice project management standards, processes and techniques; and to highly productive teamwork with the National Nuclear Security Administration, the Department of Energy and our partners." "NIF is an engineering and physics marvel, and it could not have been done without the thousands of people who have been a part of this team," added Ed Moses, director of NIF. "This award is a tribute to their hard work, their dedication and their innovation; and I am honored to accept it on their behalf."

Located at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, NIF is the world's largest and most energetic laser, focusing 192 beams on a capsule the size of a pencil eraser. Inside that capsule a fuel pellet, made from isotopes of hydrogen, is heated to temperatures hotter than the sun's core, fusing the hydrogen atoms' nuclei and producing more energy than the laser energy required to spark the reaction. The result is ignition -- the same process that powers the sun and the stars. Funded by the Department of Energy's National Nuclear Security Administration, NIF will be used to assure the safety and security of the nuclear weapons stockpile, provide a path to a carbon-free and virtually limitless source of energy, and expand frontiers in astrophysics, materials science, medicine and basic science. Each year, PMI singles out three finalists from worldwide nominees to recognize the accomplishments of the projects and the involved project teams for superior performance and execution of exemplary project management. One is awarded "Project of the Year." In addition to NIF, 2010 finalists included construction of the monumental Cowboys Stadium, the NFL's superstructure in Dallas, and the Norton Brownsboro Hospital, a facility featuring the latest in healthcare technology, in Louisville, Ky.

From left: Laboratory Director George Miller and Ed Moses, who accepted the Project Management Institutes (PMI's) 2010 Project of the Year award.

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NIF was honored as a facility "pushing beyond the state of the art," bringing together scientists, engineers, construction workers and contractors, vendors, safety technicians, systems managers, administrators and much more to bring the $3.5 billion project together. NIF has been a partnership of governments, academia and industrial collaborators, including the University of Rochester Laboratory for Laser Energetics, Los Alamos National Laboratory, Sandia National Laboratories, General Atomics, the United Kingdom Ministry of Defense and the French Commissariat a l'Energie Atomique.

"The National Ignition Facility is a stellar example of how properly applied project management excellence can bring together global teams to deliver a project of this scale and importance efficiently," said Gregory Balestrero, president and chief executive officer of PMI. "PMI is thrilled to present Dr. Edward Moses and his project team for these outstanding results with the PMI 2010 Project of the Year award." "NIF is an example of what the NNSA labs do best," said NNSA Administrator Tom D'Agostino. "We are bringing together the best minds in science, engineering and technology to solve some of the nation's greatest challenges, and complete one of the largest and most complex projects in history. With NIF, the nation has a critically important asset that supports our national security priorities, pushes the frontiers of science and discovery, and carries the potential for critical advances in energy security. I congratulate Lab Director George Miller and the entire team at Livermore for a job well done." NIF was one of three NNSA projects recognized by DOE for project management excellence last year. NNSA's Scott Samuelson, the NIF project director, received the 2009 DOE Federal Project Director of the Year Award. https://www.llnl.gov/news/newsreleases/2010/Oct/NIF.html

National Ignition Facility (NIF) Winner of Project Management Institute's 2010 Project of The Year Award
NEWTOWN SQUARE, Pa., Oct. 11 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- National Ignition Facility (NIF), a project sponsored by the U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE) National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA), has been honored by Project Management Institute (PMI) as the winner of its prestigious PMI Project of the Year Award. The award recognizes the accomplishments of a project team for superior performance, exemplary project management execution, innovation in the use of project management technology or other processes. The NIF, which was constructed at and led by the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in Livermore, CA, is the world's largest and highest-energy laser. Accomplished by a worldwide collaboration that included representatives from governments, academia and industrial partners, is also the largest scientific construction project completed by the DOE's NNSA. The facility has the goal of achieving self-sustaining nuclear fusion - the process that powers the sun and the stars - in the laboratory for the first time. Fusion power has many of the benefits of long-term renewable energy sources, such as being a sustainable energy supply compared to presently utilized sources and emitting no greenhouse gases. Initiated in 1996 and completed in March 2009, NIF's 192 giant lasers, housed in a ten-story building the size of three football fields, is capable of delivering at least 50 times more energy than any previous laser system. This achievement is a major step toward developing inertial

fusion energy as a clean, safe and virtually unlimited energy source for the future. In order to achieve this, the facility contains more than 3,000 pieces of amplifier glass, 8,000 large optics and 30,000 small optics that have been assembled into 6,206 replaceable units. "We had a firm deadline for construction so equipment could be installed and completed," said Dr. Edward Moses , Principal Associate Director for the NIF and Photon Science Directorate, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory. "It was imperative to have proper processes and standards in place so we could institute a high level of technical and scientific project integration with an international, interdisciplinary consortium of scientists, engineers, vendors and suppliers. We are honored that PMI recognized the hard work, collaboration and dedication of the entire team that worked to create NIF." Through the use of skilled and certified project personnel and the rigorous application of the project management standards, processes, and techniques promulgated by the Project Management Institute as embodied in AProject Management Body of Knowledge(PMBOK) Guide Fourth Edition, the project was completed approximately $2 million under the $3,502 million budget, three weeks ahead of schedule. Since its completion, the NIF has consistently demonstrated outstanding reliability and availability, serving a broad scientific community exploring new technologies in energy production and new frontiers in astrophysics, materials science, and nuclear science. "The National Ignition Facility is a stellar example of how properly applied project management excellence can bring together global teams to deliver a project of this scale and importance efficiently," said Gregory Balestrero , president and chief executive officer of PMI. "PMI is thrilled to present Dr. Edward Moses , principal associate director of NIF & Photon Science Directorate, and his project team for these outstanding results with the PMI 2010 Project of the Year award." Dr. Moses and the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory team, along with Deputy Secretary of Energy, Daniel Poneman , were presented with the 2010 PMI Project of the Year Award on Saturday, 9 October 2010 during the PMI Awards Ceremony at PMI Global Congress in Washington, DC. About Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory Founded in 1952, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory has a mission to ensure national security and to apply science and technology to the important issues of our time. Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory is managed by Lawrence Livermore National Security, LLC, for the U.S. Department of Energy's National Nuclear Security Administration. About Project Management Institute (PMI) PMI is the world's largest project management member association, representing more than half a million practitioners in over 185 countries. As a global thought leader and knowledge resource, PMI advances the profession through its global standards and credentials, collaborative chapters and virtual communities and academic research. When organizations invest in project

management, supported by PMI, executives have confidence their important initiatives deliver expected results, greater business value and competitive advantage. Learn more at www.pmi.org. SOURCE Project Management Institute National Ignition Facility Wins Prestigious 2010 Project of the Year Award Published: November 3, 2010. by Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory LIVERMORE, CA - Citing groundbreaking technical achievement and exemplary management, the National Ignition Facility (NIF), the first laser expected to achieve fusion ignition in a laboratory setting, has been awarded the Project Management Institute's (PMI's) 2010 Project of the Year. The award, presented Saturday during a special ceremony in Washington, D.C., recognizes the year's most innovative and successful project. "The NIF project was accomplished by a worldwide partnership among governments, academia, and our many industrial partners," said Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory Director George Miller, who attended the awards ceremony. "NIF's success can be attributed to its excellent team of scientists, engineers, technicians and support personnel; to the rigorous application of best-practice project management standards, processes and techniques; and to highly productive teamwork with the National Nuclear Security Administration, the Department of Energy and our partners." "NIF is an engineering and physics marvel, and it could not have been done without the thousands of people who have been a part of this team," added Ed Moses, director of NIF. "This award is a tribute to their hard work, their dedication and their innovation; and I am honored to accept it on their behalf." Related Content External link to Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory More news from Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory More Image

From left: Laboratory Director George Miller and Ed Moses, who accepted the Project Management Institutes (PMIs) 2010 Project of the Year award. Credt: Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory

Located at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, NIF is the world's largest and most energetic laser, focusing 192 beams on a capsule the size of a pencil eraser. Inside that capsule a fuel pellet, made from isotopes of hydrogen, is heated to temperatures hotter than the sun's core, fusing the hydrogen atoms' nuclei and producing more energy than the laser energy required to spark the reaction. The result is ignition -- the same process that powers the sun and the stars. Funded by the Department of Energy's National Nuclear Security Administration, NIF will be used to assure the safety and security of the nuclear weapons stockpile, provide a path to a carbon-free and virtually limitless source of energy, and expand frontiers in astrophysics, materials science, medicine and basic science. Each year, PMI singles out three finalists from worldwide nominees to recognize the

accomplishments of the projects and the involved project teams for superior performance and execution of exemplary project management. One is awarded "Project of the Year." In addition to NIF, 2010 finalists included construction of the monumental Cowboys Stadium, the NFL's superstructure in Dallas, and the Norton Brownsboro Hospital, a facility featuring the latest in healthcare technology, in Louisville, Ky. NIF was honored as a facility "pushing beyond the state of the art," bringing together scientists, engineers, construction workers and contractors, vendors, safety technicians, systems managers, administrators and much more to bring the $3.5 billion project together. NIF has been a partnership of governments, academia and industrial collaborators, including the University of Rochester Laboratory for Laser Energetics, Los Alamos National Laboratory, Sandia National Laboratories, General Atomics, the United Kingdom Ministry of Defense and the French Commissariat a l'Energie Atomique. "The National Ignition Facility is a stellar example of how properly applied project management excellence can bring together global teams to deliver a project of this scale and importance efficiently," said Gregory Balestrero, president and chief executive officer of PMI. "PMI is thrilled to present Dr. Edward Moses and his project team for these outstanding results with the PMI 2010 Project of the Year award." "NIF is an example of what the NNSA labs do best," said NNSA Administrator Tom D'Agostino. "We are bringing together the best minds in science, engineering and technology to solve some of the nation's greatest challenges, and complete one of the largest and most complex projects in history. With NIF, the nation has a critically important asset that supports our national security priorities, pushes the frontiers of science and discovery, and carries the potential for critical advances in energy security. I congratulate Lab Director George Miller and the entire team at Livermore for a job well done." NIF was one of three NNSA projects recognized by DOE for project management excellence last year. NNSA's Scott Samuelson, the NIF project director, received the 2009 DOE Federal Project Director of the Year Award. http://www.sciencenewsline.com/articles/2010110313230000.html

National Ignition Facility (NIF) Winner of Project Management Institutes 2010 Project of the Year Award
For release on: 11 October 2010 Glenn R. Boyet PMI

+1 610-356-4600 x1112 Glenn.Boyet@pmi.org Megan Maguire Kelly PMI +1 610-356-4600 x7030 Megan.Kelly@pmi.org NEWTOWN SQUARE, Pa., 11 October 2010 National Ignition Facility (NIF), a project sponsored by the U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE) National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA), has been honored by Project Management Institute (PMI) as the winner of its prestigious PMI Project of the Year Award. The award recognizes the accomplishments of a project team for superior performance, exemplary project management execution, innovation in the use of project management technology or other processes. The NIF, which was constructed at and led by the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in Livermore, CA, is the worlds largest and highest-energy laser. Accomplished by a worldwide collaboration that included representatives from governments, academia and industrial partners, is also the largest scientific construction project completed by the DOEs NNSA. The facility has the goal of achieving self-sustaining nuclear fusion - the process that powers the sun and the stars - in the laboratory for the first time. Fusion power has many of the benefits of long-term renewable energy sources, such as being a sustainable energy supply compared to presently utilized sources and emitting no greenhouse gases. Initiated in 1996 and completed in March 2009, NIF's 192 giant lasers, housed in a ten-story building the size of three football fields, is capable of delivering at least 50 times more energy than any previous laser system. This achievement is a major step toward developing inertial fusion energy as a clean, safe and virtually unlimited energy source for the future. In order to achieve this, the facility contains more than 3,000 pieces of amplifier glass, 8,000 large optics and 30,000 small optics that have been assembled into 6,206 replaceable units. We had a firm deadline for construction so equipment could be installed and completed, said Dr. Edward Moses, Principal Associate Director for the NIF and Photon Science Directorate, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory. It was imperative to have proper processes and standards in place so we could institute a high level of technical and scientific project integration with an international, interdisciplinary consortium of scientists, engineers, vendors and suppliers. We are honored that PMI recognized the hard work, collaboration and dedication of the entire team that worked to create NIF. Through the use of skilled and certified project personnel and the rigorous application of the project management standards, processes, and techniques promulgated by the Project Management Institute as embodied in A Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK) Guide Fourth Edition, the project was completed approximately $2 million under the $3,502 million budget, three weeks ahead of schedule. Since its completion, the NIF has consistently demonstrated outstanding reliability and availability, serving a broad scientific community exploring new technologies in energy production and new frontiers in astrophysics, materials

science, and nuclear science. The National Ignition Facility is a stellar example of how properly applied project management excellence can bring together global teams to deliver a project of this scale and importance efficiently, said Gregory Balestrero, president and chief executive officer of PMI. PMI is thrilled to present Dr. Edward Moses, principal associate director of NIF & Photon Science Directorate, and his project team for these outstanding results with the PMI 2010 Project of the Year award. Dr. Moses and the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory team as well as Deputy Secretary of Energy, Daniel Poneman, were presented with the 2010 PMI Project of the Year Award on Saturday 9 October 2010 during the PMI Awards Ceremony at PMI Global Congress in Washington, DC. About Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory Founded in 1952, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory has a mission to ensure national security and to apply science and technology to the important issues of our time. Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory is managed by Lawrence Livermore National Security, LLC, for the U.S. Department of Energys National Nuclear Security Administration. About Project Management Institute (PMI) PMI is the worlds largest project management member association, representing more than half a million practitioners in over 185 countries. As a global thought leader and knowledge resource, PMI advances the profession through its global standards and credentials, collaborative chapters and virtual communities and academic research. When organizations invest in project management, supported by PMI, executives have confidence their important initiatives deliver expected results, greater business value and competitive advantage. Learn more at www.pmi.org. http://www.pmi.org/About-Us/Press-Releases/National-Ignition-Facility-Winner-of-PMIs-2010Project-of-the-Year-Award.aspx RELATED LINKS http://www.pmi.org http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/national-ignition-facility-nif-winner-of-projectmanagement-institutes-2010-project-of-the-year-award-104703104.html

ssignment 1: 2010 Project of the Year Award

Assignment 1: 2010 Project of the Year Award 2010 PMI Project of the Year Award

Citing groundbreaking technical achievement and exemplary management, the National Ignition Facility (NIF), the first laser expected to achieve fusion ignition in a laboratory setting, has been awarded the Project Management Institute's (PMI's) 2010 Project of the Year (Seaver, Lynda L, n.d.). The Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in Livermore, CA was tasked to build the National Ignition Facility (NIF) by the Department of Energy (DOE). The NIF is a facility to produce intense pressures and temperatures that may, for the first time, simulate in a laboratory the thermonuclear conditions created in nuclear explosions. The NIF project was approved in 1995. Construction The stadium-sized facility was to be 500,000 square feet. They excavated over 210,000 cubic yards of soil, poured 73,000 cubic yards of concrete, and had more than 7,000 workers completed NIF project three week ahead of schedule and $2M dollars under budget. There were many challenges to overcome. One was the target bay which serves as the target point for 192 lasers had to be installed 45 feet below ground. Concrete had to be poured for 18 hours to overcome this challenge. Another challenge occurred 6 months after the ground breaking when heavy rains from El Nino flooded the NIF worksite. It took wet weather construction engineers 3 weeks to restore the project. Then a month later, crews unearthed the remains of 16,000 year old remains of a mammoth. Construction was halted for 4 days until specialists worked to remove and preserver the skeleton. Management Issues By August1999, the project was under severe scrutiny. There were forecasts of massive schedule delays and overruns. The management teams had misidentified the project scope and greatly miscalculated their engineering complexity. This was due to management and inadequate DOE oversight. Troubles started when Lawrence Livermore officials planned, and DOE approved, a NIF budget and a construction cost contingency that were inadequate. The project manager put in charge of NIF had little experience directing large projects and had no control over separately funded laser research and development programs that were

essential for NIFs success which resulted in a poorly integrated management team. When problems started to appear, there were no actions taken to address them. It was more than 6 months before anything was done. To get the project back on track, the team developed new baseline and schedule. New costs and risk management practices were established. A new senior leadership was put in place, and industrial firms were hired as partners. Working together, the team built the worlds largest and highest energy laser and largest optical instrument. The 192 laser beams were built using 60 miles of mirrors, fiber optics, crystals, and light amplifiers. Each laser fired at a tiny target of hydrogen fuel contained in 130 ton target chamber. When the laser hits, the hydrogen would heat up to 180 million degrees Fahrenheit or about 100 million degrees Celsius. Challenged with the need to secure enough potassium dihydrogen phosplate crystals large enough to be cut into plates which will convert infrared laser beams into ultraviolet light, the team turned to Moscow State University in Russia. Scientist from the university helped develop a way to grow the crystals in 2 months compared to the 2 years required to do it. After nearly seven years of testing, the National Nuclear Security Administration approved the facilitys equipment in March 2009. NIF opened 2 months later. Livermore said scientist at the facility set a world record by firing more than one mega jewel of ultraviolet energy into a target the size of a pencil eraser. All objectives were met. Thats about 30 times the amount of energy previously delivered by any laser system. The breakthrough would not have been possible without the coordinated efforts of the NIF project management team. NIF officials called the accomplishment a major milestone that demonstrates the facilitys power and reliability. National Ignition pointed out that the experiment demonstrated the integration of the complex systems required for an ignition campaign. Through the use of skilled and certified project personnel and the rigorous application of the project management standards, processes, and techniques promulgated by the Project Management Institute as embodied in A Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK) Guide Fourth Edition, the project was completed

approximately $2 million under the $3,502 million budget, three weeks ahead of schedule (Hutchinson, D., n.d.). References Seaver, Lynda L. (n.d.). National Ignition Facility Wins Prestigious 2010 Project of the Year Award. Retrieved April 27, 2012, from http://www.llnl.gov/news/newsreleases/2010/Oct/NIF.html Hutchinson, Dwight (n.d.). National Ignition Facility (NIF) Winner of Project Management Institute's 2010 Project of The Year Award. Retrieved April 23, 2012, from http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/national-ignitionfacility-nif-winner-of-project-management-institutes-2010-project-of-theyear-award-104703104.html