WASHINGTON, D.C. - Two senior career executives in EM - a headquarters official and field site manager each with 27 years of federal service - received 2017 meritorious service Presidential Rank Awards, a top U.S. civilian career leadership recognition.
The U.S. President recognizes a small percentage of the members of the Senior Executive Service (SES) for outstanding achievements in public service each year. In 2017, Stacy Charboneau, EM Associate Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary, Field Operations, and Todd Shrader, Manager of EM’s Carlsbad Field Office (CBFO), received the Meritorious Rank Award, given for sustained accomplishment. Only 5 percent of career SES or SES equivalents receive the award.
A DOE employee of 22 years, Charboneau joined EM’s Richland Operations Office (RL) in 1994, becoming the first woman to qualify as a Hanford Site Facility Representative. A year later, Charboneau was selected as the Hanford Facility Representative of the Year for DOE, and later led the Hanford Facility Representative Program.
She went on to become the Engineering and Construction Manager for the Spent Fuel Project, leading projects to remove 2,100 metric tons of spent fuel from the aging K Basins.
Later, as the Federal Project Director for the Plutonium Finishing Plant, she led the project to complete plutonium stabilization and transition to demolition preparation.
As RL’s River Corridor Federal Project Director, Charboneau kicked off what became one of the most successful cleanup projects in DOE history: demolition of over 500 facilities and remediation of 1,200 waste sites at seven reactor sites in the 220-square-mile area of Hanford along the Columbia River. RL completed the River Corridor Closure Contract at $260 million under cost.
In 2008, Charboneau was promoted to the SES, as the Assistant Manager and Federal Project Director of the Tank Farms Project with EM’s Office of River Protection (ORP). She was then promoted to ORP’s Deputy Manager and Chief Operating Officer in 2011.
Charboneau returned to RL in 2013, and was promoted to Manager the next year. She is the first woman to ever serve in this position, and was responsible for the leadership and management of 260 federal staff, providing direction and oversight to over 4,000 contractors at the 586-square-mile site.
At EM headquarters, Charboneau was instrumental in developing and implementing an organization focused on field mission execution to improve EM’s ability to effectively conduct cleanup across the DOE complex.
Shrader is a DOE employee of 19 years. After working as a civilian at the Department of Defense, he joined RL’s Waste Management Division, where he held a variety of roles including the Hanford Site TRU Program Manager, and led RL’s National Transuranic Waste Program efforts.
Shrader then moved to ORP, where he spearheaded efforts to resolve key technical issues related to the Waste Treatment and Immobilization Plant (WTP). He then transitioned to the Yucca Mountain Project, eventually assuming the role of Project Manager for License Defense. Later, he worked for the Office of Loan Programs, supervising technical reviews of renewable energy projects.
Shrader returned to EM as Director of the Office of Waste Treatment Plant and Tank Farm Projects at EM headquarters, where he helped create a strategy to treat Hanford’s radioactive tank waste at least 15 years before WTP’s scheduled completion, allowing for accelerated risk reduction. The team that developed this strategy won a Secretary of Energy Honor Award for the WTP Strategic Realignment.
Since 2015, Shrader has served as the CBFO Manager, leading the recovery of the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP), the nation’s only permanent geologic repository for disposal of nuclear waste. He oversees a staff of 60 federal employees and over 1,000 contractor personnel, with an annual budget of more than $300 million.
During this time, WIPP completed recovery activities and all required actions in a settlement agreement with New Mexico as a result of the events that suspended emplacement operations in 2014. With the reopening of the facility in January 2017, waste emplacement and shipping restarted, and efforts continue to fully recover the facility to pre-event conditions.
Source: U.S. Dept. of Energy, Office of Environmental Management
