A committee of the Savannah River Site Citizens Advisory Board (CAB) this week urged the Energy Department to step up efforts to regulate drone flights over the facility in South Carolina.
Tuesday’s vote came two months after the CAB’s Strategic and Legacy Management Committee tabled the recommendation. At the time, members determined it was best to receive a presentation on the drone issue before filing a recommendation with the full committee. The CAB received a presentation a month later at a larger, bimonthly meeting.
From June 19 to July 22, 2016, SRS employees reported 12 unmanned aerial systems (UAS), or drone, sightings over sensitive areas of the site. These included: the Mixed Oxide Fuel Fabrication Facility (MFFF), which is being constructed to convert 34 metric tons of nuclear weapon-usable plutonium into commercial nuclear fuel; H Area, where nuclear materials are processed; and E Area, where low-level waste and transuranic waste is stored.
Officials say the flights pose a security and safety concern because no one knows who is controlling the drones, or what information that person might hope to obtain.
At Tuesday’s meeting, the committee passed the recommendation that asks DOE to continue investigating the drone sightings as allowed within agency regulations. “Continue to work with needed authorities to understand and implement the best use of air space over the site, to protect site activities and workers,” the recommendation says. The committee asked that DOE also provide the CAB with “updates and number of unauthorized occurrences … related to the unauthorized UAS.”
The recommendation will now go before the full board at next month’s meeting. If passed there, it will elevate to DOE headquarters where officials can fully or partially accept it, or deny it.
In the middle of last year’s drone sightings, the Savannah River Site reported that DOE was seeking to restrict airspace above all of its “sensitive” facilities. Those include all Category 1 sites, which house 2 or more kilograms of plutonium or uranium-233, or 5 or more kilograms of uranium-235. The department did not specify which other locations house the different quantities of materials, or how many sites there are.
To restrict airspace above Savannah River, the department must file a request with the Federal Aviation Administration. It has not yet done that, but says it is working with the agency on the details of the request.
During the CAB meeting in May, Michael Mikolanis, DOE SRS assistant manager for infrastructure and environmental stewardship, said site security personnel have been authorized to act appropriately if a drone is spotted and appears to be a threat. “Protocols are in place for engagement and I don’t really want to say anything else about that,” he said. “But the hazard has been assessed and there are protocols in place for security to engage a drone that is deemed as posing a threat.”
