Fluor executive Judith Hiatt-Rabb has been tapped as Savannah River Nuclear Solutions’ new project manager on the trouble Waste Solidification Building, arriving at the site in her new role this week. Hiatt-Rabb, who has more than 26 years of project and construction management experience at Fluor within its Power, Energy and Chemicals, and Government Business Units, replaces Guy Girard, who is moving to a new role as SRNS’ vice president of Project Management and Construction Services. As the company’s director of Nuclear Nonproliferation Projects, she will lead all SRNS construction work for NNSA, which currently only encompasses the Waste Solidification Building.
Hiatt-Rabb will report to Senior Vice President for NNSA Operations and Programs Dennis Donati, and will be charged with resurrecting the $345 million project that has come under fire from NNSA in recent months. Due to design problems, schedule slips and potential cost overruns, the NNSA last month accused SRNS of being “negligent” in its management of the project and demanded that the company return $12 million in fee that it had been paid for the project. In a statement, SRNS said that Hiatt-Rabb’s “background working on challenging projects utilizing the proven Fluor Construction Management Model will benefit our efforts to bring the Waste Solidification Building construction project to final completion.”