Two of the largest properties overseen by the Energy Department’s Office of Environmental Management reported significant spikes in COVID-19 cases over the past week, although the number of active cases across the complex have dropped.
The DOE Office of Environmental Management complex currently has 88 active COVID cases, down from 94 last week, according to an agency representative. There have been two confirmed deaths from the virus within EM so far during the pandemic.
The cleanup office is not releasing the total of COVID-19 cases reported at the 16 Cold War and Manhattan Project sites so far this year.
The Savannah River Site in South Carolina disclosed Friday it has confirmed a total of 230 viral infections among its workforce. That was up from 183 confirmed cases a week ago.
Among those infected, 141 have recovered and been cleared to return to work, according to a notice from the Energy Department operations office at Savannah River.
The Savannah River Site employs 11,000 federal and contractor workers at operations controlled by the Office of Environmental Management and DOE’s semiautonomous National Nuclear Security Administration.
The DOE complex its near the South Carolina-Georgia border. It draws its workforce from the two states, which both exceed the national coronavirus infection rate. The national infection rate is 13,444 per 100,000 people, according to Thursday figures from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The South Carolina infection rate is 1,688 per 100,000 while Georgia’s is 1,695 per 100,000.
Georgia’s rate is the 11th worst nationally, while South Carolina’s is 13th worst among the 50 states plus the District of Columbia.
Washington state has one of the better ratios at 730 per 100,000, coming in at No. 38. But the two counties around Hanford – Benton and Franklin – are among a handful in the state reporting more than 3,000 cases each (3,400 and 3.200).
The Hanford Site spiked this week, with 10 employees informing management between Tuesday and Friday they have tested positive for the coronavirus. This brings the COVID-19 cases to 66, based on anecdotal reports from the former plutonium production complex, which employs 11,000 people.
The Hanford website, which posts regular COVID-19 updates, provided no additional information on the infected workers, such as whether they were tested because they were feeling ill.
The reports of confirmed cases at the site typically come after groups of people are tested as they return to work on-site. Hanford, along with most of the 15 other Office of Environmental Management properties, used minimal on-site staffing between late March and late May in order to slow the spread of the virus. Hanford is currently in Phase 1 of the DOE restart plan, which involves bring back key personnel and workers employed in low-risk jobs. Most, however, continue to either telework or collect paid leave.
Like Hanford, the Savannah River Site is still in Phase 1.
The four-stage remobilization program for DOE nuclear sites begins with preplanning (Phase 0) and culminates with a return to almost pre-pandemic studies during Phase 3. None of the 16 sites have entered Phase 3 – although the Uranium Mill Tailings Remediation Act (UMTRA) project in Moab, Utah, never dramatically scaled back its operations.
No Environmental Management location received approval this week from the office to advance to the next stage.
Sites currently in Phase 2, which can include bring workers back on-site who are engaged in “moderate” risk activities, are Idaho National Laboratory, the Paducah Site in Kentucky, the Portsmouth Site in Ohio, the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant in New Mexico, the West Valley Demonstration Site in New York, the Brookhaven National Laboratory in New York, and the Nevada National Security Site.
All other sites, with the exception of Moab, are still in Phase 1.
