The Energy Department’s Savannah River Site in South Carolina said Wednesday it is activating its Infectious Disease Response Team to help navigate the COVID-19 crisis.
The team will operate around the clock and will hold “daily leadership calls” in an effort to limit potential impact of the novel coronavirus on the 310-square-mile, 11,000-employee federal installation.
“The Savannah River Site is fully operational,” according to the statement distributed from facility management to employees. “Currently, SRS has no cases of COVID-19.”
The federal facility is following protocols issued by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the South Carolina Department of Health and Environmental Control on safety measures such as handwashing and “social distancing,” according to the memo.
While the Savannah River Site is employing telecommuting to the extent possible, “the important missions of SRS [such as nuclear cleanup and national defense] must continue and for much of our work, telework is simply not a viable option,” according to the statement. The memo does not specify which staff members are allowed to telecommute.
In addition to doing extra cleaning, SRS is putting contracts in place “to handle more extensive sanitizing [of buildings] should it be needed.”
The statement notes precautions that are now commonplace across the DOE weapons complex – encouraging handwashing, limiting the size of in-person meetings, and suspending public tours through the end of April.
Meanwhile, an employee of DOE’s Hanford Site in Washington state was undergoing testing for COVID-19, according to a Wednesday morning posting on the site’s web page. Access to the MO-533 facility, where the employee worked has been restricted, with the exception of authorized janitorial staff, as a precaution until it can be disinfected.
In the past week, the Hanford Site web page has indicated three or more workers are being tested for the virus, but has not revealed anything on the results of the tests.
Hanford’s state regulator, the Washington Department of Ecology, said late Wednesday it is closing most of its offices to walk-in service, including in-person document reviews. Ecology staffers will still be available by telephone or email. The move is effective immediately and lasts until further notice.
