With uncertainty still surrounding the path of Hurricane Dorian, the U.S. Department of Energy’s Savannah River Site as of Tuesday was monitoring the storm but otherwise proceeding with normal operations.
Dorian reached Category 5 status earlier this week, devastating the Bahamas. It was downgraded to a Category 2 hurricane as of Tuesday, with winds still blowing at about 120 mph. The storm is on track to impact Florida, Georgia, and the coasts of both Carolinas, beginning late Wednesday and into Thursday. The 310-square-mile Savannah River Site (SRS) is near the city of Aiken, S.C., which at its closest is roughly 110 miles from the coast, as the crow flies, and some 130 miles by road from the coastal city of Charleston, S.C.
At deadline Wednesday, Savannah River Site was still the better part of 100 miles west of Dorian’s predicted path, according to the National Weather Service.
In a notice sent to employees and posted on srs.gov, DOE officials at Savannah River said the site had gone into Operational Control (OPCON) 2 in preparation for the storm. OPCON 2 means the site is tracking Dorian and is prepared to reduce staffing levels to essential personnel, those needed to maintain safety and security at Savannah River.
In the past, the SRS essential staff has totaled about 340 members of its roughly 11,000-person workforce. The OPCON stage also means Savannah River staffers are monitoring local and national weather reports, and working with local governments in the Aiken region to determine any other precautions that need to be taken.
For now, normal operations will continue. But if the situation worsens, the site would scale back or pause critical operations, including treatment of radioactive waste for disposal and processing of nuclear materials such as highly enriched uranium.
Last September, the site activated similar safety precautions for Hurricane Florence, which reached Category 4 with winds of more than 130 mph. The storm eventually hit North and South Carolina. SRS went into OPCON 2, but avoided the brunt of the storm and instead weathered some rain and thunder. 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.
Separately, the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission said Tuesday that Dorian did not appear to be tracking to impact the two-reactor St. Lucie nuclear power plant on Florida’s east coast.
