NNSA assumes landlord responsibility for Savannah River Site from EM

The Department of Energy’s semiautonomous National Nuclear Security Administration was set to become landlord of the Savannah River Site in South Carolina effective Tuesday, Oct. 1.

The nuclear-weapons agency will take over management of the 310-square-mile federal complex near the Georgia line from DOE’s Office of Environmental Management, which cleans up shuttered nuclear-weapons production sites. Environmental Management will essentially swap roles with the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA), becoming a tenant at the site that began its existence as a plutonium production complex.

The Environmental Management office will continue to be responsible for cleaning up liquid radioactive waste and other nuclear remediation left over from nuclear weapons-related work, DOE has said.

DOE has said the switch makes sense given that the nuclear cleanup mission at Savannah River is gradually decreasing over time, while NNSA plans next decade to begin plutonium pit production at the site’s former Mixed Oxide Fuel Fabrication Facility.

Currently, NNSA provides 51% of the funding at Savannah River, with 47% coming from Environmental Management, Edwin DeShong, a senior cleanup supervisor at the site told the Savannah River Site Citizens Advisory Board Sept. 16.

“NNSA has a more enduring mission,” DeShong said. “We are both still under DOE. The landlord keeps the infrastructure going.” 

There are 85 jobs being transferred over to NNSA from Environmental Management, DeShong said. NNSA and Environmental Management have been working on the changeover for about two years, DeShong said.