A longtime advocate for the Energy Department’s Savannah River Site in South Carolina has again been named chairman of the SRS Community Reuse Organization, a nongovernmental group that works with local stakeholders to benefit the site and local economy.
David Jameson’s two-year term will begin Jan. 1. He previously chaired the SRSCRO from 2010-2011.
As chairman, Jameson will oversee many of the group’s activities. That includes working with local colleges and public schools to help students understand the benefits of the site so they might someday join its workforce. For example, the group partners with the University of South Carolina Aiken, among other schools, to host Nuclear Science Week each October.
The SRSCRO also monitors how the SRS workforce drives off-site employment and business. The organization concluded in 2015 that the local region, including the site, would need to hire 37,000 new employees over the next five years to meet its workforce needs. Most of those jobs would be replacement jobs due to attrition and retirement on and off-site.
Jameson said by email Thursday that the SRSCRO board has agreed to broaden its scope to pursue workforce interests in cyber, manufacturing, and health. That will include working with local partners in those industries to identify workforce needs.
He said will have some crossover appeal to Fort Gordon, the U.S. Army base just across the river in Augusta, Ga., and for National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) at SRS.
“We will continue to educate local, state, and federal officials on SRS issues important to the SRSCRO,” Jameson wrote.
The Savannah River Site is a 310-square-mile site located near Aiken, S.C. The site conducts a wide variety of missions, including radioactive liquid waste treatment; nuclear materials processing; and producing tritium for the national defense program.
Jameson’s history as an advocate for the site is well documented. He routinely meets with South Carolina’s congressmen to discuss funding for SRS. In addition, as president of the Aiken Chamber of Commerce, Jameson spearheads an annual trip to Washington D.C., to meet with lawmakers and push even harder for adequate funding for SRS.
The SRSCRO is designated by the Department of Energy as an official community reuse organization. It is overseen by a 22-member board made up of local business and government officials, and academic leaders.
