The Savannah River Site’s possible receipt of 900 kilograms of highly-enriched uranium (HEU) from Germany will be discussed Monday and Tuesday by the site’s Citizens Advisory Board (CAB). The board’s Nuclear Materials Committee earlier this month approved a position paper that states the CAB does not want the material to come to SRS for fear of the site becoming a nuclear dumping ground, and because the Energy Department has already verified that there is no proliferation concern regarding the HEU.
The issue dates to 2012 when Germany contacted the Energy Department for help in disposing of the material. The CAB has no authority in the matter, but approval of the position paper would represent the opinion among many community members who have denounced the arrival of additional nuclear materials in recent years. Still, the community remains divided on the issue, with others voicing their approval of SRS accepting the HEU.
If the full CAB approves the paper, it would be posted on the board’s website.
Other topics on the agenda include the site’s efforts to recruit and retain workers amid concerns that the workforce will be greatly reduced in the coming years. Site officials previously reported that within the next five years, 50 percent of the SRS workforce will be eligible for retirement. A recent regional workforce study put together by the SRS Community Reuse Organization concluded that the local area, including SRS, will have 37,000 job openings in the next half-decade. About 80 percent of those positions will be replacement jobs. “There are workforce concerns across the DOE complex,” Rick McLeod, SRSCRO executive director, said last month.
Separately, the Aiken Standard reported Friday that another drone had been seen above the Savannah River Site. This was the ninth sighting since June 19.
The FBI has been involved in the investigation.
