PHOENIX — The Department of Energy manager for the Savannah River Site said Tuesday he would not be surprised if the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) one day assumes ownership of the operations contract for the South Carolina complex.
The semiautonomous DOE nuclear-weapon steward is already funding more of the work at Savannah River, SRS Manager Michael Budney told Weapons Complex Monitor on the sidelines of the Waste Management Symposia.
The DOE Office of Environmental Management administers the $14.8 billion management contract, held by Fluor-led Savannah River Nuclear Solutions (SRNS). The deal is due to expire in September, although the agency holds additional options that could keep SRNS around up to two additional years.
A switch to the NNSA is not likely to happen within the next few years, Budney said, but eventually it would seem logical the entity providing most of the funding would take over the landlord role.
“There has been no decision on exactly when that would happen,” Budney said.
An advisory committee looked at the relationship between EM and NNSA at Savannah River and in essence decided to leave the status quo in place, but take another look in the future “when you see the workload shifting,” Budney said.
Currently, about 65% of the roughly $2.2 billion of funding provided for the Savannah River Site in fiscal 2020 comes from the Environmental Management office, 27% from the NNSA, and 8% for work for others, according to presentations at WMS. By fiscal 2025, the EM funding will drop to 45%, while NNSA support increases to 50%, as it invests in pit production and other work at SRS.
In addition to nuclear cleanup for Environmental Management, SRNS also oversees NNSA work such as the Tritium Extraction Facility and designing the Savannah River Plutonium Processing Facility, which will manufacture the plutonium cores for nuclear weapons.
In addition to SRNS, other major vendors at Savannah River include Amentum-led liquid waste management contractor Savannah River Remediation and security provider Centerra.
The Savannah River Site has a workforce of more than 11,000.
The Energy Department has issued a request for information for a contract for stand-alone management of the Savannah River National Laboratory (SRNL), now held by SRNS. The agency expects to issue a draft request for proposals for lab management within the next couple weeks, Norbert Doyle, EM deputy assistant secretary for acquisition and program management, said during a Tuesday presentation.
Having a contract of its own would mean SRNL would be formally structured as Federally Funded Research and Development Center, Budney said. This can foster more of a “special relationship with us,” the DOE, without going through a contractor that’s a corporate entity, the SRS official added.
An individual lab management contract would also make it simpler for SRNL to do work for other companies not connected with Savannah River Nuclear Solutions. “We know we want them [the lab] to be an enduring mission,” and this could make that less complicated, Budney said.
