Talks on the future of the Savannah River Site in South Carolina are continuing between the Department of Energy’s Office of Environmental Management and the National Nuclear Security Administration, Nicole Nelson-Jean, a veteran of both DOE branches, told the Waste Management Symposia late last week in Phoenix.
Nelson-Jean, currently associate principal deputy assistant secretary for field operations for the Environmental Management office, did not divulge what’s on the table but said options might soon be ready for review by top brass.
“I think in the near future we will be presenting some options to Ike [White, the senior adviser for environmental management] and his counterpart Jill Hruby,” at National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA), Nelson-Jean said during a panel discussion on key issues at the cleanup office.
DOE Environmental Management has been the landlord at Savannah River since the late 1990s. But with major nuclear cleanup operations expected to wind down over the next two decades, and NNSA plutonium production plans ramping up, there has been talk of NNSA having more control of the site.
The DOE announced last November it was indefinitely delaying a competition for a new prime contractor at Savannah River.
Dae Chung, the head of corporate services for Environmental Management, said during the panel last week that talks are occurring about an extension for the current site operator, the Fluor-led Savannah River Nuclear Solutions. The incumbent has been onsite since August 2008 and its current contract, valued at about $15.8 billion, runs through September.
