Christenson named federal project director
Christenson named federal project director for Highly Enriched Uranium Materials Facility
Thurs, 20 November 2008
Dale Christenson has been named Federal Project Director for the Highly Enriched Uranium Materials Facility at the Y-12 National Security Complex.
Christenson replaces Scott Cannon, who is now serving as the Director of the Pit Disassembly and Conversion Facility Office, located at the Department of Energy Savannah River Site, South Carolina.
Christenson previously served as the Deputy Federal Project Director for the Highly Enriched Uranium Materials Facility (HEUMF) and as the Federal Project Director for Y-12’s Security Improvements Project, which is modernizing the security and alarm monitoring systems across the Y-12 site.
“Over the past year, Dale has played a key role in helping us to achieve the HEUMF construction milestone. I know that he will do a great job as we move forward towards full installation, operational testing, and readiness reviews at HEUMF,” said Ted Sherry, Y-12 Site Office Manager.
The $549 million facility — Y-12’s ultra-secure uranium warehouse of the future — will replace multiple aging facilities within a single state-of-the-art storage facility. HEUMF will play a major role in helping the National Nuclear Security Administration accomplish its mission of protecting the nation’s inventory of highly enriched uranium, which is a vital national security asset.
Christenson has more than 20 years of experience working in the nuclear industry, and over 10 years in the construction industry. He has previously held other key positions at YSO, serving as the restart team leader, and lead operations engineer. Before joining the YSO staff, Christenson served as a construction engineer on the Superconducting Super Collider project south of Dallas, Texas, and as a nuclear engineer on the New Production Reactor project supporting the Heavy Water Reactor design team. Christenson is a veteran of United States Navy and served as a submarine officer and was assigned on the USS Sargo (SSN-583) and USS Queenfish (SSN 651) based in Pearl Harbor, Hawaii.
Christenson received a B.S. degree in civil engineering from the University of Washington in 1983, and an M.S. degree in civil engineering/construction management from the University of Maryland in 1993. He is a registered Professional Engineer and Certified Project Management Professional and is a certified DOE Federal Project Director.