PNNL

At the end of 2021, the Department of Energy (DOE) announced the recipients of the Secretary’s Honor Awards, which recognize federal and contractor employees for service and contributions to DOE's mission and for their creativity, drive, and commitment to projects that have significant and lasting impacts on the nation. The following award-winning teams included Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) staff members: Advanced Computer Tools to Identify Classified Information (ACTICI) Program, Lovelace Biomedical Research Institute (LBRI) Material Removal, Tritium Modernization Program (TMP), and Nuclear Waste Management Cloud Project.

The ACTICI Program seeks to develop and deploy computer tools for DOE and the government to identify classified information in text documents and improve the productivity, accuracy, and consistency of the classification decision-making process. Paula Bachelor, Wendy Cowley, Corey Fallon, and Lauren Phillips were on this team.

DOE recognized the LBRI Material Removal team's exceptional efforts for the safe and secure removal of radioactive materials from the LBRI in Albuquerque, New Mexico, and shipment to Los Alamos National Laboratory under a time-constrained schedule during the COVID-19 pandemic. Harold Adkins, Nathan Barrett, Jim Fort, Laurie Hay, Brian Koeppel, Diana Love, Lucas Mackey, Pete Sakalaukus, and Tony Savino were on this team.

Support for the TMP significantly increased the nation's ability to produce tritium to sustain the nuclear deterrent. The achievements of the TMP expanded the tritium production capacities and capabilities with ever-increasing flexibility and resiliency while continuing to make sure supply exceeds demand. Ed Love, Robert Montgomery, Richard Pagh, Dean Paxton, Randall Storms, Jeff Venarsky, and Gary Wolfram were on this team.

Nuclear Waste Management Cloud Project worked to create a cloud-based information management infrastructure embedded with the nuclear waste management processes that meet quality assurance and Nuclear Regulatory Commission regulatory requirements. Nick DiNunzio was a member of this team.