After three days of bracing for impact from Hurricane Dorian, officials at the U.S. Department of Energy’s Savannah River Site determined Friday that the storm was no longer a local threat as it moved up the North Carolina coast.
According to the emergency status page for the 310-square-mile site near Aiken, S.C., “there are currently no Operational Emergencies or scheduled delays for the Savannah River Site.”
On Tuesday, the DOE office at the site announced that Savannah River had gone into Operational Control (OPCON) 2 in preparation for the storm. OPCON 2 meant the facility was tracking Dorian and was prepared to reduce staffing levels to essential personnel, those needed to maintain safety and security at Savannah River. However, normal operations and work schedules can proceed during the phase.
The OPCON stage also meant Savannah River staffers were monitoring local and national weather reports, and working with local governments in the Aiken region to determine any other precautions that need to be taken.
Ultimately, reduced staffing was not necessary as a result of Dorian.
The stage was necessary at the time, as Dorian had winds blowing at about 120 mph and was on track to impact Florida, Georgia, and the coasts of both Carolinas, beginning late Wednesday and into Thursday. The Savannah River Site at its closest point is roughly 110 miles from the coast, as the crow flies, and some 130 miles by road from the coastal city of Charleston, S.C.
As of Friday morning, Dorian had inflicted catastrophic damage to the Bahamas as a Category 5 storm. It never made landfall on the East Coast, though it came within 55 miles of Charleston as a Category 2 storm, causing overwhelming flooding to the city, along with hundreds of thousands of power outages and countless downed trees. The storm is expected to cause some damage to coastal cities in North Carolina as it continues moving north.
In past hurricanes, the Savannah River Site essential staff has totaled about 340 members of its roughly 11,000-person workforce. At that point, the site scales back or pauses critical operations, including treatment of radioactive waste for disposal and processing of nuclear materials such as highly enriched uranium.
Last September, Savannah River activated similar safety precautions for Hurricane Florence, which reached Category 4 with winds of more than 130 mph. The storm eventually hit North and South Carolina. SRS went into OPCON 2, but avoided the brunt of the storm and instead weathered some rain and thunder. In October 2016, the DOE facility sustained light damage from Hurricane Matthew, largely limited to about 80 downed trees and some leaky roofs on noncritical facilities.
