The Savannah River Site in South Carolina sustained minor impacts from Hurricane Michael late Thursday and early Friday, during a 24-hour workforce reduction activated as the storm approached.
Effects included minimal damage to some administrative buildings at the 310-square-mile Department of Energy facility near the city of Aiken, along with some loss of power and downed trees. Further details were not immediately available at deadline Friday.
Savannah River closed its gates to nonessential personnel at 8 p.m.Wednesday and resumed normal operations 24 hours later. Operations paused during that daylong stretch included liquid waste treatment, nuclear materials processing, and other missions the site conducts for DOE’s Office of Environmental Management and the agency’s semiautonomous National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA).
It was unclear how many of the site’s 11,000 employees were part of the essential staff, but that number in the past has been about 340 workers.
Michael was a Category 4 Hurricane on Wednesday when it hit the Florida panhandle with wind speeds at 155 mph. The storm has been connected to at least 11 deaths in several Eastern states.
By the time it went through the Aiken region on Thursday morning, it had slowed to a tropical storm with winds of 55 mph. The storm still resulted in power outages and downed trees in the area, which remained in a tornado watch for much of the day.
Last month, SRS had to brace for potential impacts from Hurricane Florence. However, the site was able to keep operating at a normal level.
