NNSA support for Savannah River nuke work evident, says official

• By Colin Demarest cdemarest@aikenstandard.com
• November 17, 2021

NORTH AUGUSTA — A multibillion-dollar endeavor to construct a factory at the Savannah River Site in which nuclear weapon parts will be made for decades to come has the full backing of the National Nuclear Security Administration and its latest leader, a top project official said Wednesday.

"I'll tell you," said Dave Olson, an executive vice president with Savannah River Nuclear Solutions, "they're 100% locked and loaded behind us to get that mission done, and to do it in the right way."

Olson's remarks, at a North Augusta Chamber of Commerce event at SRP Park, came days after the NNSA boss, Jill Hruby, and her deputy, Frank Rose, visited the Savannah River Site and toured the footprint of the Savannah River Plutonium Processing Facility, where the warhead parts, known as plutonium pits, are expected to be made.

Jobs, jobs, jobs

The National Nuclear Security Administration's growing portfolio and various projects at the Savannah River Site translate to many new jobs in various fields and disciplines, according to Dave Olson, an executive vice president with Savannah River Nuclear Solutions.

Olson in a Wednesday speech to the North Augusta Chamber of Commerce said there are and will be "many opportunities to do work for us" and there is "lots of growth yet to come."

"When I came back in 2018, I told folks, 'If you've ever worked with plutonium pits before, send your resume, I'll hire you tomorrow,'" he joked. "Over the last three years, I've changed that. If you can spell plutonium, send your resume."

Olson specifically mentioned "electricians and pipefitters and machinists and welders and the like," as well as accountants, engineers, and radiation protection specialists.

"Just be on the lookout for the postings that are happening," the executive vice president said, "or word of mouth as we're promoting what we're doing."

Olson on Wednesday suggested plutonium pit production — in South Carolina and New Mexico, as recommended in 2018 by the Trump administration — is being closely watched by Hruby.

"It's a national priority. If it's not first on her priority list, it's near the top," the executive vice president said. "It has the attention of the decision makers, to make sure it's funded and stays at that level."

Olson met with National Nuclear Security Administration leadership in Washington on Monday. Support, he said, was evident.

The potential $11 billion Savannah River Plutonium Processing Facility, built using the bones of a failed nuclear fuel plant, could come to fruition as late as 2035, according to budget documents and congressional testimony. That's years later than initially projected and officially due.

As federal law stands, 80 plutonium pits — triggers — are required by 2030 and beyond. At least 50 per year are supposed to be fabricated at the Savannah River Site; at least 30 per year are supposed to be fabricated at Los Alamos National Laboratory, in New Mexico.

But nobody, House Armed Services Committee Chairman Adam Smith said in September, "thinks that we're going to produce 80 pits a year by 2030. It is, currently, a complete impossibility."

"The estimate is that at the earliest, Savannah River would be able to be online and begin producing pits by 2034," said Smith, a Washington Democrat who has dinged the Savannah River Site before. "So that's four years after our 2030 requirement."

Rep. Joe Wilson, a South Carolina Republican, last week told the Aiken Standard the Savannah River Plutonium Processing Facility "will take a great amount of collaboration between the NNSA and Congress." He said he welcomed "the administrator's support" — Hruby's — and looked "forward to working with all to see this project come to fruition."