The National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) will dedicate $1 million annually over the next half-decade to train college students in South Carolina and Georgia to take over the upcoming plutonium pit mission, among others, at the Savannah River Site (SRS).
NNSA Administrator Lisa Gordon-Hagerty discussed the $5 million commitment Monday afternoon during a press event at the Aiken, S.C., Technical College, one of the several colleges from the two states in the region that partner with SRS. Also in attendance were U.S. Reps. Joe Wilson (R-S.C.) and Rick Allen (R-Ga.), along with several local officials in the Aiken area.
The funding, which will go toward the Workforce Opportunities in Regional Careers (WORC) program, will augment the $1 million the program has received each year from DOE since being launched in fiscal 2016. The workforce program pays for student training in areas including computer technology, radiation protection, nuclear engineering, and environmental remediation.
Gordon-Hagerty said the money will be directed through the SRS Community Reuse Organization (SRSCRO), a nonprofit organization that oversees the workforce initiative. For years, the organization has served as an advocate by encouraging students to seek employment at the nuclear site.
“The schools here in the Central Savannah River Area have been instrumental in preparing that workforce,” Gordon-Hagerty said at the press conference. “Our mission at Savannah River Site will be growing – not decreasing.”
Schools included in the initiative are Aiken Tech, Augusta Technical College, the University of South Carolina Aiken, Augusta University, and USC-Salkehatchie. Those schools will train students for missions at SRS, which include environmental management, welding, tritium production for nuclear security, and the upcoming production of plutonium pits.
When asked how the dollars will impact the SRS plutonium pit program, which would produce fissile cores for nuclear warheads, Gordon-Hagerty said the mission will see some trickle-down from the $5 million. However, the money is not specifically meant for pit production, but rather to train the future workforce for various site missions.
The NNSA plans to produce 50 pits a year by 2030 at SRS and another 30 annually by 2026 at the Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico.
Aiken Mayor Rick Osbon said the extra funding is a sign that NNSA is committed to the plutonium pit mission, as well as the site work as a whole. “We kept hearing about workforce development when the (plutonium pit) mission was first mentioned,” Osbon said. “It’s great to see the NNSA has answered our questions through this initiative.”
The partnership has paid dividends since funding began in 2016. About 190 students through the workforce program have received internships at SRS. Of those, all but two were hired into full-time positions.
Hiring to address attrition has been a longtime goal for SRS, mainly for management and operations contractor Savannah River Nuclear Solutions (SRNS). In May, SRNS announced that it had hired 900 employees in fiscal 2019 alone, with plans to hire another 300 before October, and 750 workers each of the next two years. Most of those are filling existing positions, though SRNS was unable to give a specific figure.
Hiring efforts for the contractor are not related to the WORC initiative.
