Official: Lease Close for Savannah River Site

The Savannah River Site (Courtesy)


Officials report progress on leasing 2,500 acres within Savannah River Site that could be marketed as an energy park or a possible site for a commercial nuclear power plant.

Rick Toole, who heads the Savannah River Site Community Reuse Organization, says his group and the U.S. Department of Energy are in the final stages of the deal. But he says they cannot divulge its location until the lease is signed, possibly by this summer.

Once the lease is completed, Toole believes SRS will become much more attractive as a potential site for energy projects.


Photo of the Savannah River Site, taken from the International Space Station. The annotations are from the Wikipedia page.

The nonprofit reuse organization was formed 15 years ago to find ways to bring new jobs to SRS as its nuclear weapons mission and employment numbers dropped.

Information from: The Augusta Chronicle.

(AP)

Click here for more GPB News coverage of this and related stories about Savannah.

Salt Waste Plant Gets Okay Near Augusta

The U.S. Department of Energy says construction can begin on a new plant near Augusta that will process radioactive materials for disposal.

The plant will process about 33 million gallons of the waste at the Savannah River Site. The waste has resulted from plutonium production by the federal government since the 1950s. Much of the waste is stored in tanks in the form of salt cakes. After the cakes are liquefied, the plant will separate highly radioactive isotopes from lesser radioactive materials.

The highly radioactive materials will be turned into glass and stored at the Savannah River Site until a permanent disposal site is opened, presumably at Yucca Mountain in Nevada.

The low level waste will be converted into a concrete grout mixture, which will be placed in vaults and also stored at the Savannah River Site.

Officials at the Savannah River Site expect the $1.34 billion plant to be online by 2013.

Preliminary site preparation has already begun. The DOE's decision is the final stage of the construction approval process.

The Savannah River Site is a massive federal entity that processes nuclear materials.

First nuclear reactors at Savannah River Site near Augusta get historic designation

The first nuclear reactors at the Savannah River Site near Augusta played an important role during the Cold War era.

On Monday, they received an historic designation.

The nuclear reactors at the Savannah River Site processed materials for nuclear weapons during the Cold War.

They were the site's first reactors, and were built in the 1950s.

The state of South Carolina has designated both as historic sites.

"The men and women did an important job," says Leo Sain, president of the Washington Savannah River Company, the site's manager. "They contributed quietly to a mission that's a significant part of the history of the world."

Both reactors produced plutonium and tritium.

They used new technology and conducted research that no other reactor in the U.S. had done at that time.

Those reactors have since shut down.

The Savannah River Site spans 310 square miles along the South Carolina and Georgia border.

Current operations at the site include cleanup, storage and the reprocessing of nuclear materials.

The site is a major employer in the Augusta region.

Legal protest delays management changeover at Savannah River Site

There’s been a delay in the change of management of a federal site that processes nuclear materials.

A group representing the longtime managers of the Savannah River Site has filed a legal protest trying to stop new managers from taking over.

Savannah River Nuclear Solutions was scheduled to start managing the site this week.

The federal government recently awarded a $4 billion contract to the company.

But the takeover would knock out Washington Savannah River Company, who has managed the site since 1989.

The U.S. General Accounting Office is reviewing the protest.

The agency has until May 1 to issue its recommendations.

Until then, the Washington Savannah River Company will continue to head the site.

The Savannah River Site spans 310 square miles along the South Carolina-Georgia border.

It is one of the region’s top employers, with 6500 people working in management and operations there.

New company to manage Savannah River Site

The U.S. Department of Energy has selected a new contractor to manage a federal site that processes nuclear materials near Augusta.

Savannah River Nuclear Solutions will take over management of the site during a transition period beginning Jan. 24, according to D.O.E. officials. The company consists of Fluor Federal Services, Inc., Honeywell International, Inc. and Newport News Shipbuilding and Drydock Company, a Northrup Grumman Company. Lockheed Martin Services, Inc., and Nuclear Fuel Services, Inc., will also be subcontractors with the company.

The D.O.E. officials say a variety of factors, such as approaches to management and technical operations, as well as the management team itself, led to the decision.

The company won a five-year $4 billion contract over the Washington Savannah River Company, who has managed the site for 19 years.

The contract includes environmental cleanup, consisting of the management of spent nuclear fuel and remediation of soil and ground water. It will also manage operation of the Savannah River National Laboratory research facility and activities of the National Nuclear Security Administration, such as operation of the site's tritium facilities, completion of the plutonium disposition program and disposition of highly enriched uranium, according to a statement by the D.O.E.

"We and our partners had put together what we thought was a novel and creative proposal and a similar exceptional team that has a proven record of performance in all the areas critical to the site," said Jack Herman, a spokesman for Washington Group International.

The management and operations division of the Savannah River Site employs about 6500 people.

But only about 60-100 high level management employees will lose their jobs, according to stipulations in the federal contract.

Washington Savannah River Group still manages the disposition of liquid waste at the site.

But it's currently in a contract bidding process for that operation as well.

Savannah River Site Near Augusta May Take in Additional Nuclear Fuels

The Savannah River Site near Augusta could take in additional nuclear fuel used by other countries for research.

The U.S. Department of Energy has been taking back the research fuels since the mid-1990s, much of it at the Savannah River Site.

It's part of a nonproliferation program to help reduce security threats.

"Some of it is U.S. origin fuel...the other is highly enriched uranium that does not have proper security measures to protect from use by terrorists and groups who pose a threat to the U.S. or its allies," says Jim Giusti, a spokesman for the U.S. Department of Energy who is based at the Savannah River Site.

The DOE is currently authorized to take back 19 metric tons, although officials say they've taken in far less. It is now seeking to take an additional metric ton, which would otherwise be especially vulnerable to security risks in its current locations. Giusti says officials have not determined which country or countries the extra fuel would come from.

The extra fuel, some of which was provided by the U.S. decades ago, would be stored and eventually reprocessed for use in research in the U.S. or for commercial nuclear reactors.

Environmental groups, meanwhile, say they support nonproliferation, but worry about environmental impacts of storage at the site, and reprocessing of the fuels. They also worry about cost factors.

The Savannah River Site is a massive federal entity along the South Carolina-Georgia border that processes nuclear materials.

Federal Officials Question Financial Discrepancies at Savannah River Site Near Augusta

Federal officials are questioning serious accounting discrepancies at a massive federal site that processes nuclear materials near Augusta.

The U.S. Department of Energy's inspector general says the Washington Savannah River Company can't properly account for $1.4 billion spent at the Savannah River Site in 2007.

It says auditors at the company failed to properly approve procurements and omitted information, and inappropriately changed information in its internal audits to hide discrepancies. The report says the company's actions violated procedures designed to detect costs that the federal government might not otherwise pay for, over the protests from the auditors themselves. It also blasts the DOE for inadequate oversight of the process.

"I have a feeling that over the years that a lackadaisical attitude has developed in managing all this money, and the company essentially thought that they could do as they pleased," says Tom Clements, a spokesman for Friends of the Earth, an environmental group.

The Washington Savannah River Company lost its contract to manage the site last year, after about 18 years there. It's unclear if the issues brought up in the audit were the reason for that.

A spokesman at the company declined to comment on the report.

Officials with the U.S. Department of Energy were not available for comment.

The Washington Savannah River Company still manages the removal and disposal of liquid waste there, employing about 2000 people. It managed about 6500 other employees under the management contract it lost a year ago.

Federal officials in December awarded the liquid waste contract to Savannah River Remediation, whose parent company is the same as the Washington Savannah River Company, but a losing bidder has challenged the award.

U.S. Energy Secretary Confirms $1.6 Billion Coming to Savannah River Site

U.S. Energy Secretary Steven Chu says the $1.6 billion will help speed up the de-commissioning of nuclear reactors and contaminated areas at the Savannah River Site near Augusta.

The money could provide up to 3000 new jobs in the area, although it's unclear how many of those jobs would be permanent. The funding is part of the new economic stimulus package that targets the environmental clean-up of nuclear sites in the U.S.

The Savannah River Site for years refined nuclear materials for weapons. But employment numbers there dropped by thousands after the Cold War ended.

Federal officials say the funding will pay for the clean-up of about 40 percent of the site's massive industrial area, and ship out about 4500 cubic meters of waste.

About $6 billion is going out to nuclear sites in the U.S., according to the U.S. Department of Energy. Savannah River Site is getting the second-highest funding. The Hanford Site, in Washington state, is getting most at about $2 billion.

Photo courtesy of the U.S. Department of Energy

Savannah River Site to get more tritium research

A proposal to streamline the nation's nuclear weapons infrastructure will be a boost to a federal site near Augusta.

The Savannah River Site processes nuclear materials.

The federal government's consolidation proposal means all activities and research involving tritium will likely happen there.

Tritium is a radioactive isotope of hydrogen.

The Savannah River Site refills nuclear weapons with it and also recycles it.

The site already conducts about 90 percent of the federal government's activities and research involving tritium and nuclear weapons.

It will take on research currently conducted at Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico.

Federal officials say the nation's total nuclear weapons complex is too big and too expensive.

They want to reduce square footage of its infrastructure by 30 percent.

They also want to reduce its workforce nationally by a third, mostly through attrition.

The Savannah River Site expects to lose only about five percent, or 20, of its jobs at its tritium facilities in that cut.

CDC says Savannah River Site not contaminating water

The Centers for Disease Control says water near the Savannah River Site, a nuclear materials processing facility near Augusta along the Georgia-South Carolina border, is safe.

A study spanning about 12 years found no contaminants in the groundwater near the site, and levels of radioactive materials in surface water were too low to cause health concerns.

The CDC started its study in 1993, monitoring water for radioactive materials such as tritium and cesium.

Contaminants were found in the water on the site itself, and there are concerns that a toxic plume could potentially migrate out of the site, although that hasn't happened. SRS has been containing the plume.

The study did find levels of radium and lead in a city well in Jackson, South Carolina, but officials say it occurred naturally and was unrelated to the Savannah River Site.

The well has been taken offline.

For more information, or to read the report, go to www.atsdr.cdc.gov/hac/pha/index.asp.

Savannah River Site near Augusta studying controversial proposal to reprocess fuel

The federal government is looking at ways to dispose of spent nuclear fuel from commercial nuclear reactors.

One idea under consideration is to reprocess it and use it again.

The Savannah River Site near Augusta, a federal site which processes nuclear materials, is one of 11 sites studying the feasibility of reprocessing. It's also one the sites in the running for the reprocessing plant, if approved by the federal government.

More than 100 commercial reactors produce about 2000 metric tons of spent nuclear fuel each year and then store it at their sites. That's because the U.S. has no permanent disposal site.

Officials are again looking into expanding nuclear power in the coming years as demand for electricity increases. The federal government says the reprocessed fuel could be re-used in nuclear reactors.

Officials say the process would reduce the hazards of radiotoxicity, as well as the risk of dangerous proliferation, where hostile countries get hold of the fuel and develop nuclear weapons.

The idea is highly controversial, though. At a recent public hearing near Augusta, the plan drew a hefty amount of both support and opposition.

"You will eliminate things that people worry about for thousands of years," says Nick Kuehn, a retired nuclear engineer. "You'll burn them in the reactors. You'll get some power out of them so you will not be putting them in the ground and so you won't be asking the question, 'Will it be safe hundreds of thousands of years from now.' "

But opponents worry that a reprocessing plant would require massive amounts of federal money. They also worry that the Savannah River Site would become a temporary dumping ground for the nation's spent nuclear fuel. The site already stores spent nuclear fuel from the U.S. Department of Energy.

"I believe the whole reason they're doing this whole re-processing scam is just to get the waste into interim storage and get it somewhere, because the utilities are screaming we want it somewhere and this is the path of least resistance," says Leslie Minerd, who opposes the idea.

Federal officials say they're unsure how much a reprocessing plant would cost, and don't yet have a timeline for the process, if approved.

Bids considered for Savannah River Site

The bids of two companies hoping to land the contract to operate part of the Savannah River Site are being reviewed by the Department of Energy. The site is the former nuclear weapons complex across the Savannah River from Augusta.

The current contract is worth one-billion dollars, and splits work between operation of the site and enviromental cleanup. The current deal with Washington Savannah River ends in June of next year. That company is one of the two bidding for the new deal.

Federal Government Considers Savannah River Site Near Augusta for Mercury Storage

The federal government is considering the Savannah River Site near Augusta, along with six other sites, for the storage of more than 10,000 metric tons of mercury.

Officials are searching for a site to store the mercury, as federal law will ban the sale or export of the element by 2013, and require the federal government to store it.

Mercury is produced in the manufacturing of caustic soda and chlorine at a handful of plants in the U.S. It's also a by-product in gold mining, and in recycling and waste recovery.

Mercury is controversial, since it causes developmental disabilities in children, and also harm fetal development.

It's already a sore spot in Augusta, where environmental groups have been calling for the Olin Corporation to stop using the element in the manufacture of chlorine. A bill in Congress also seeks to eliminate mercury from the few chlorine plants that still use it. Olin, meanwhile, has maintained that is mercury use its safe.

The Savannah River Site is a massive federal entity that processes nuclear materials near Augusta.

The U.S. Department of Energy, meanwhile, will hold a public comment period on the proposal to store mercury. There will be a public meeting in North Augusta, South Carolina on July 30.

For more information, click here.

Savannah River Site Could Get Up to 3000 New Jobs

The economic stimulus could bring employment to the nuclear industry.

The stimulus would provide nearly $2 billion and up to 3000 jobs to the Savannah River Site, which is near Augusta.

"These are shovel ready jobs that have been identified and hopefully will make a big difference not only for environmental management in the area, but also create new jobs for the area," says Seth Kirshenberg, director of the Energy Communities Alliance, a national organization of counties and cities where sites operated by the U.S. Department of Energy are located.

However, there's been no official announcement yet.

The DOE will get about $6 billion in federal funds for environmental clean up at its sites.

The Savannah River Site refined nuclear materials for weapons during the Cold War. But employment numbers there dropped afterward, ever since the site's mission changed to cleanup efforts.

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Federal Audit Questions Safety of Projects at Savannah River Site Near Augusta

The U.S. Department of Energy’s inspector general is sharply criticizing the DOE for safety and quality assurance controls in multiple projects at the Savannah River Site near Augusta.

An audit report by the inspector general focuses on the procurement of materials used in the construction of a mixed oxide fuel plant (MOX) that would convert weapons-grade plutonium to fuel for commercial reactors, as well as a tritium extraction facility and a salt waste processing plant to treat radioactive waste.

“In a worst case scenario, undetected, nonconforming components could fail and injure workers or the public,” the inspector general’s report says.

The inspector general noted problems with $11 million in weakened rebar procured for the $4.8 billion MOX facility, one of the Department of Energy’s most expensive projects. The company building the MOX plant said earlier this year that the problems had been corrected.

But the correction of such errors is costly, the inspector general says, adding that quality assurance and communication between contractors involved in the three projects should be improved.

“Although these are positive steps, weaknesses in oversight and communication remain; therefore, additional action is necessary.”

The audit also noted that none of the six safety issues reviewed by the inspector general at the tritium extraction facility adequately met quality assurance standards. The facility would replenish the nation’s tritium supply. The Savannah River Site conducts nearly all of the Department of Energy’s tritium activities.

In addition, any potential failure of a component procured for the salt waste project could have caused a radioactive spill of up to 15,000 gallons of high-level radioactive waste.

The National Nuclear Security Administration, meanwhile, disagrees with the inspector general’s safety concerns and related cost impacts, noting instead that the problems were of low significance, the report says.

The inspector general’s investigation spans from September 2008 until April 2009.

To see the report, click here.

Savannah River Site near Augusta hits milestone

The Savannah River Site's defense waste processing facility has poured its ten millionth pound of radioactive glass.

The site reached the milestone on Tuesday.

The facility converts highly radioactive liquid waste, which is currently stored in 49 underground tanks at the site, into a solid glass form suitable for long-term storage and disposal, according to a spokesman for the site.

About 36 million gallons of liquid nuclear waste are stored in the tanks.

The federal site near Augusta processes nuclear materials, much of it nuclear waste left over after the Cold War ended.

Radioactive salt waste decontamination begins at site near Augusta

The Savannah River Site has begun decontaminating radioactive salt solution at its facilities.

Officials of the U.S. Department of Energy say it's a move toward closing the site's 49 high-level waste tanks, which contain 36 million gallons of waste. The radioactive salt makes up about 90 percent of the waste in the site's tank farms.

The interim process will eliminate nearly all of the radioactive isotopes from about two million gallons of salt solution until a new salt waste processing facility opens in 2013, according to officials.

The Savannah River Site is a federal facility near Augusta that processes nuclear materials.

Savannah River Site near Augusta to offer voluntary severance for employees

The Savannah River Site, a federal entity which processes nuclear materials near Augusta, is offering severance packages to employees who choose to leave their jobs voluntarily. Officials there say they're looking at likely freeing up dollars from those salaries for what they term higher priorities at the site, although they did not give specifics about what those priorities might be. They also did not connect the voluntary severance offer to tough economic times. A spokesman for the site was unsure if mandatory layoffs would follow, saying that depends on the status of federal funding under review by Congress. The employees will get a week's pay of severance for each year they've worked the site, for up up to 26 weeks. They can also take retirement if they qualify. SRS officials say they've offered the program for the past four years.

Energy plant at Savannah River Site to use recycled wood

The U.S. Department of Energy is replacing an old coal-fired plant at a site near Augusta that processes nuclear materials.

The project is one of the largest energy improvement projects within the federal agency.

The plant will provide energy to the Savannah River National Laboratory…a technological research and development facility near Augusta.

The fuel will come from wood chips collected from forest management activities at the Savannah River Site, which processes nuclear materials.

Officials say the energy is cleaner and cheaper, saving about $1.5 million a year.

"The cost savings comes through the operations of the plant, requiring inexpensive wood chips versus coal, reduced emissions and it’s going to be a smaller plant," says James Giusti, a spokesman for the U.S. Department of Energy.

The project replaces a coal-fired plant built in 1951.

Officials expect operation of the new plant to begin by autumn.

SRS Land Being Leased for Energy Park of Nuclear Power Plant

Officials are reporting progress on leasing 2,500 acres of land within the Savannah River Site. This land could be used to make an energy park or possibly a site for a commercial nuclear power plant.

Rick Toole -Chairman of the Savannah River Site Community Reuse Organization- says his group and the U.S. Department of Energy are in the final stages of the deal. But- the location cannot be divulged until the lease is signed.

Toole believes that once the lease is done, SRS will be much more attractive as a potential site for energy projects.

(AP)

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