Savannah River Nuclear Solutions (SRNS) hired 80 new operators in April in an effort to address workforce concerns as the Savannah River Site’s management and operations contractor.
The operator position involves assisting in the operation of a process or equipment within a nuclear facility at SRS and can include nuclear material handling and monitoring.
SRNS announced in January that it was looking to address its attrition problem over the next few years by hiring 2,000 workers with the help of partnerships with colleges and universities near the site in Aiken, S.C. SRNS President Carol Johnson said at the time it would take that many employees to offset employment “levels off.”
Wyatt Clark, a senior vice president for SRNS, said in a press release Tuesday that 50 percent of the contractor’s workforce is expected to retire in the next five years. He said the 80 new hires will help sustain workforce levels. “Hiring and retaining quality employees are concerns across the DOE complex because of the number of long-time employees who are becoming eligible for retirement,” he said. Most of the upcoming hires, including all of the operator positions, are replacement jobs.
The contractor reported in May that as of April 30 it employed 4,894 employees, and that about 30 percent of its workforce is eligible to retire this year. By 2022, 59 percent of the workforce will be eligible for retirement. In addition to the operators, the contractor is looking to hire scientists, engineers, radiological control inspectors, and maintenance mechanics.
The new hires will work in environmental management operations, at the Savannah River National Laboratory, and in the Savannah River Tritium Enterprise. SRNS hired a total of 818 people in fiscal years 2014 and 2015, and is projected to hire 344 this fiscal year. To date, 288 people have joined SRNS in fiscal 2016.
To address hiring issues, SRNS has partnerships in place with the University of South Carolina Aiken and Orangeburg-Calhoun Technical College in Orangeburg, S.C., among others. The former joined with SRNS earlier this year to launch the Nuclear Fundamentals Certificate program. According to the school’s website, the program combines applied chemistry, physics, and engineering – all of which the college says will create opportunities for employment in modern nuclear facilities.
With Orangeburg-Calhoun Technical College, SRNS agreed to collaborate in a number of areas to help students possibly transition into a career path with the contractor. The college has worked to match SRNS’ entry-level job requirements with parts of the relevant Orangeburg-Calhoun curriculum.
