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.
