ARLINGTON, VA — Talks about the contractual future of the Savannah River Site in South Carolina, ongoing for years between the Office of Environmental Management and the semi-autonomous National Nuclear Security Administration, could bear fruit within three months, the head of the cleanup office said here Thursday.
William (Ike) White made the remark Thursday during kickoff of the National Cleanup Workshop hosted by the Energy Communities Alliance.
The Department of Energy’s Office of Environmental Management (EM) and the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) have been engaged in long-running talks about the cleanup office eventually relinquishing landlord control of the federal site to NNSA, which is preparing to build a large factory at the site to cast plutonium pits: the fissile cores of nuclear-weapon first stages.
In response to a question from ExchangeMonitor, White said the two nuclear offices hope to have details within a few months that can be shared with the communities in South Carolina and Georgia, around the Savannah River Site.
In April, the Office of Environmental Management abruptly cancelled a plan to extend for up to five years the Fluor-led Savannah River Nuclear Solutions as the site’s management and operations contractor. That was six months after the cleanup office cancelled a competition for a new management and operations contract, citing the increasing footprint of the NNSA nuclear-weapons mission at the site.
NNSA has been passing money for its active nuclear weapons work at Savannah River through the Office of Environmental Management’s operations contract. Since the Trump administration, the two DOE branches have fought over the contractual future of the site.
