How the US Department of Energy Transformed a Weapons Wasteland into a Wildlife Refuge

In 1952 the Atomic Energy Commission established a highly secretive site outside of Denver to fabricate triggers that contained plutonium and uranium fuels for nuclear weapons. By 1989 the site had become one of the most dangerously contaminated locations in the world. The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) designated the Rocky Flats plant and surrounding 6,262 acre site as a hazardous waste site and the President eventually ordered the Rocky Flats site to be permanently closed...
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In 1952 the Atomic Energy Commission established a highly secretive site outside of Denver to fabricate triggers that contained plutonium and uranium fuels for nuclear weapons. By 1989 the site had become one of the most dangerously contaminated locations in the world. The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) designated the Rocky Flats plant and surrounding 6,262 acre site as a hazardous waste site and the President eventually ordered the Rocky Flats site to be permanently closed and cleaned up.Total closure and clean-up of a nuclear production facility had never been accomplished anywhere in the world; many deemed success to be improbable. Cost estimates developed for Rocky Flats Closure Project included a 1995 Baseline Environmental Management Report that estimated the project could require up to 75 years and $37 billion. Faced with this daunting challenge, the United States Department of Energy (DOE) decided to try a different strategy: implement an innovative approach for working with a commercial contractor based on incentives to radically reduce the time and cost to close and clean up Rocky Flats. In 1995, DOE signed a contract with Kaiser-Hill Company LLC, a joint venture of CH2M Hill and Kaiser Engineers, to complete the Rocky Flats Closure Project. The result was nothing short of transformational. Kaiser-Hill transformed the world's most dangerous plutonium site to a prairie 60 years ahead of schedule and $30billion under budget. Today the Rocky Flats site is host to a 6,550 acre wildlife environmental refuge visited by thousands of schoolchildren and nature lovers each year. This case study tells the remarkable story of how the DOE and Kaiser-Hill closely followed what the University of Tennessee has coined as a Vested Outsourcing approach. Vested Outsourcing is a revolutionary way for organizations and service providers to contract for outcomes or results instead of paying for tasks or activities. This case study reveals how the DOE and Kaiser-Hill applied the Fives Rules of Vested Outsourcing to achieve what some called the impossible.