The Department of Energy’s Savannah River Site in South Carolina said it will keep only essential safety and security staff on duty if Hurricane Florence threatens the nearby region inland.
The essential staff number fluctuates depending on what is needed at the time, but in recent memory it has been roughly 340 members of the full workforce of about 11,000 employees.
On Tuesday, SRS spokesman Monte Volk said safety precautions were already being taken at the 310-square-mile site near Aiken, S.C. That includes gathering fuel for power generators and coordinating with local hospitals, emergency responders, and South Carolina Gov. Henry McMaster’s office. Those calls are used to keep all parties ready for various emergency scenarios, such as lane reversals on nearby highways to expedite evacuations from the area. If that occurs, the site would need to make sure employees know which direction to travel when departing from work.
Hurricane Florence weakened from a Category 4 storm to a Category 2 on Thursday as it approached the East Coast, but is still expected to cause damage to the Carolinas. Earlier in the week, it appeared likely it would bring only rain and mild winds to the area surrounding the Savannah River Site, about 130 miles from the Charleston coast near the South Carolina-Georgia border. But chances of rain and thunder have increased, requiring SRS to take more precautionary measures.
“The Savannah River Site is currently in OPCON 2 [operational control] in preparation for Hurricane Florence, which requires the site to be ready to reduce to essential staffing on short notice if needed,” according to an update Wednesday to the SRS web page. “Managers are responsible for notifying their employees if they are essential staff.”
For now, standard operations are continuing. If the situations worsens, SRS is prepared to scale back or pause its critical operations, which include treatment of radioactive waste for disposal and the processing of nuclear materials such as highly enriched uranium.
Facilities at SRS are built to endure inclement weather, Volk stated. “Federal regulations require these facilities be able to withstand extreme natural events including hurricanes and floods,” he said.
The Savannah River Site has faced this position many times before. The site braced for Hurricane Irma last September, but escaped with no major impacts. In October 2016 the DOE facility sustained light damage from Hurricane Matthew, largely limited to about 80 downed trees and some leaky roofs on noncritical facilities. Ahead of that storm, SRS closed its gates to all nonessential personnel for multiple days, leaving about 340 workers to maintain safety and security.