Safety precautions are already being implemented at the Savannah River Site, a Department of Energy facility near the Georgia-South Carolina border, as Hurricane Florence moves up the coast of Florida toward the Carolinas.
For now, operations are running in a normal fashion, since Florence is expected to miss the 310-mile federal property near Aiken, S.C. Nonetheless, the site began preparing over the weekend, SRS spokesman Monte Volk said by email Tuesday.
That includes organizing site resources and coordinating with state and local emergency officials to ensure the facility is secure.
Critical operations at Savannah River – which include liquid waste processing and the processing of nuclear materials such as highly enriched uranium – will be maintained at safe levels during the hurricane, meaning the site will be ready to scale back or pause work if necessary, according to Volk. “Response equipment and fuel is staged in critical areas on site and available for response activities,” he wrote.
Hurricane Florence is currently a Category 4 storm and could reach Category 5 in the next day or so. By late Thursday or Friday, when it hits the Carolinas, it should weaken to a Category 3, according to the National Weather Service.
In the inland SRS region, Florence is currently expected to have little to no impact. Forecasts predict rain on Wednesday, but mostly sunny skies the next two days ahead of weekend showers. Even then, winds should not exceed 15 mph.
Regardless, SRS facilities are ready to withstand inclement weather, Volk stated. “Federal regulations require these facilities be able to withstand extreme natural events including hurricanes and floods.”
The Savannah River Site has found itself in this position many times before. The site braced for Hurricane Irma last September, but escaped with no major impacts. 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. Ahead of that storm, SRS closed its gates to all nonessential personnel for multiple days, leaving about 340 workers to maintain safety and security.
