SRS complex to be nation’s sole tritium site
WASHINGTON — South Carolina’s nuclear weapons complex would be the sole tritium research and production site under the U.S. Energy Department’s plan for consolidating the nation’s most dangerous nuclear material.
The Savannah River Site, near Aiken, also would continue to be used for plutonium storage. Tritium is a gas used to boost the efficiency of plutonium-based nuclear warheads.
The restrictions are part of a plan to scale back and modernize management of the U.S. nuclear weapons stockpile.
The department gave preliminary approval to an environmental impact study on the consolidation program, which includes limiting plutonium and highly enriched uranium to just five sites — including the Savannah River Site — compared with seven today.
The government also would close 600 buildings and structures at the facilities and reduce the number of workers involved in weapons programs by 20 percent to 30 percent.
None of the seven primary weapons complex facilities, including three nuclear weapons research labs, will be closed. But activities will be combined in many cases.
The two sites shrinking will be the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory near San Francisco and the Sandia National Laboratory near Albuquerque, N.M.
“The world is changing, and we are changing along with it,” said Thomas D’Agostino, administrator of the National Nuclear Security Administration, the agency within the Energy Department that oversees the weapons program.
“The number of U.S. nuclear weapons is shrinking, budgets are flat or declining, and we need a smaller, more secure, more efficient infrastructure that reflects these realities and yet retains our essential capabilities,” he said.
D’Agostino said the program will not require new money beyond the agency’s existing five-year spending plan and would save dollars in the future.
The next administration will have to carry out the specifics. D’Agostino said he is “very comfortable” the plan will stand up to scrutiny.
A final go-ahead cannot be made for at least 30 days.
The plan would:
• Concentrate tritium research and manufacture at the Savannah River complex. Excess plutonium also is being shipped to Savannah River for storage. Tritium was produced in special heavy water reactors at the site until 1988.
• Focus uranium manufacturing, dismantlement and research at a new center within the Y-12 Oak Ridge complex.
• Concentrate manufacture of plutonium triggers and other plutonium research at the Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico. The plan calls for making a maximum of 20 triggers a year.
• Continue to use the Pantex weapons facility near Amarillo, Texas, as the center for plutonium warhead assembly and disassembly as well as some warhead surveillance work now done at Lawrence Livermore. An underground storage facility would be built for plutonium triggers, reducing the size of the facility and cutting security costs.
The other sites affected by the plan are the Nevada Test Site; Sandia, with locations in New Mexico and California; and the Kansas City Plant in Missouri.
Barrett:Nuclear renaissance can fuel S.C. economy
Energy independence is the greatest challenge of the 21st century. We must not be intimated by this challenge, but rather inspired by the opportunities it affords and confident that the American spirit of innovation will enable us to find a practical, permanent and renewable solution.
No option can be left off the table. While new technologies such as wind, solar and hydrogen energy are being developed and perfected, we must turn our attention to the domestic resources readily available today.
Much of the talk recently has centered on offshore drilling and tapping domestic oil supplies. Undoubtedly, drilling is a key component to solving our energy problem, but what if I were to tell you that right here in South Carolina we have the potential to further develop an energy resource that is more abundant than oil, cleaner than natural gas and cheaper than solar power? What if I were to tell you that developing this technology would create hundreds and possibly thousands of new jobs?
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GN: SC Policy Council Criticizes Energy Plan
COLUMBIA — The recent recommendations of a state climate and energy committee would cost the state $11.9 billion while only reducing global carbon emissions by two-tenths of 1 percent, according to the South Carolina Policy Council.
The Climate, Energy and Commerce Advisory Committee, appointed by Gov. Mark Sanford, formally presented its 653-page report to the governor last week.
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Santee Cooper Finishes Work on Cross Station
Santee Cooper’s 600-megawatt Cross Unit 4 entered commercial operation on Wednesday, three months ahead of schedule and on budget.
The $755 million unit completes a 25-year build-out of the Cross Generating Station, located in northwestern Berkeley County. The station’s four units total 2,400 MWs of generating capability, making Cross the largest coal-fired generating station in the Carolinas with the ability to power 1.1 million average-sized homes.
Construction on Cross Units 3 and 4 began in April 2004. The $1.4 billion project represented the largest single capital expenditure in Santee Cooper history. Cross Unit 3 entered commercial operation on Jan. 1, 2007, following the first two units in 1983 and 1995.
Santee Cooper is South Carolina’s state-owned electric and water utility and the state’s largest power producer, supplying electricity to more than 163,000 retail customers in Berkeley, Georgetown and Horry counties, as well as to 29 large industrial facilities, the cities of Bamberg and Georgetown, and the Charleston Air Force Base.
For more information, visit www.SanteeCooper.com.