NNSA takes over as Savannah River Site landlord
Nearly six years after it was first announced, the Department of Energy has transitioned landlord responsibilities at the Savannah River Site from the Office of Environmental Management to the National Nuclear Security Administration. The shift will align with the start of federal fiscal year 2025.
Landlord responsibilities include the primary authority, accountability, and stewardship responsibilities of SRS. All other non-landlord federal entities at SRS are referred to as “tenants,” which describes DOE-EM’s new role at the site, according to the DOE. DOE-EM will continue to be responsible for completing the cleanup of remaining legacy radioactive waste at the site.
SRS joins other sites like Los Alamos National Laboratory, the Nevada National Security Sites, and the Pantex Plant under the direct responsibility of NNSA.
The why: In October 2018, the DOE announced its decision to transfer primary management of SRS to the NNSA. The department deemed it necessary because of steadily increasing NNSA security mission requirements at SRS and the concurrent progression of the DOE-EM cleanup mission toward a defined end state.
In 2020, NNSA issued a record of decision to repurposeSRS’s Mixed-Oxide Fuel Fabrication Facility to produce at least 50 plutonium pits per year for the U.S. nuclear weapons stockpile. Under federal law and to meet national security requirements, the NNSA must implement a strategy to produce at least 80 war reserve plutonium pits a year by 2030. Additional pits are to be produced at LANL.
The details: According to the DOE, the transition of responsibility from DOE–Savannah River Operations Office to the NNSA–Savannah River Field Office included the transition of the multibillion-dollar management and operating contract (held by Savannah River Nuclear Solutions), the protective force security contract, the responsibility for the Savannah River Ecology Laboratory and U.S. Forest Service interfaces, along with other major utility and infrastructure contracts with Dominion Energy South Carolina, Ameresco, and CSX Transportation.
Additionally, approximately $180 million of budget scope and 85 full-time federal positions moved from DOE-EM to NNSA, the DOE said.
They said it: “With the growth in NNSA missions coming to SRS, a shift in landlord responsibilities made sense,” said Mike Budney, DOE–Savannah River Operations Office manager. “While we are no longer responsible for the day-to-day administration of SRS; we are not going anywhere; we’ll be here until the job is done on our environmental cleanup mission.”
Michael Mikolanis, NNSA–Savannah River Field Office manager, added, “We understand that the unique capabilities at SRS, its strong production culture, and the support from the surrounding communities, are something NNSA will need to leverage as a permanent piece of the nuclear security enterprise for years to come.”
