SRNS Plaintiffs Given Until Nov. 17 to Revise Complaint

Dozens of Savannah River Nuclear Solutions employees suing the Department of Energy contractor over a vaccine mandate got a two-week extension, to Nov. 17, to revise their complaint and respond to the company’s motion to dismiss the suit.

The plaintiffs’ response to the motion to dismiss by Savannah River Nuclear Solutions (SRNS), the Fluor-led operations contractor at the Savannah River Site, was initially due Wednesday. However, U.S. District Judge Julianna Michelle Childs issued an order on Monday giving the 79 plaintiffs refusing to be vaccinated against COVID-19 two more weeks to make their filing.

The vaccine holdouts filed their case in the U.S. District Court in South Carolina a day before they were scheduled to turn in their access badges on Oct. 15 in anticipation of being terminated on Nov. 30.

SRNS, which has said at least 95% of its 5,500 workers at the federal complex near the Georgia line have been vaccinated against the illness. The contractor has said it is implementing a reasonable policy to carry out President Joe Biden’s September orders calling for federal employee and contractor vaccinations. The management and operations contractor said its approach will protect its workforce against the potentially deadline virus during the pandemic.

SRNS handles landlord duties and some solid waste cleanup at the Savannah River Site. The National Nuclear Security Administration also passes funding through the contract, which DOE’s Office of Environmental Management owns, to pay for tritium extraction and design and construction of the Savannah River Plutonium Processing Facility: one of the weapons agency’s two next-generation plutonium pit factories.