Savannah River Site begins hands-on work of preparing for plutonium pit production facility

• By Matthew Christian mchristian@aikenstandard.com
• February 2, 2023

The work to transform a building at the Savannah River Site into the site of plutonium pit production has begun. 

Savannah River Nuclear Solutions, the manager and operator of the site located 20 miles south of Aiken, announced Thursday morning AECON-WACHS of Jackson has begun the process of dismantling and removing equipment and material not suitable for plutonium pit production from Building 226-F. 

Plutonium pits are a sphere inside a nuclear weapon. The United States has been without a permanent capability for plutonium pit production since 1989. The National Nuclear Security Administration plans to produce 50 pits per year at the Savannah River Site and 30 pits per year at Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico.

Stuart MacVean, president and CEO of Savannah River Nuclear Solutions, said Thursday was an important day because it was the next step in moving forward with plutonium pit production. 

“From a national security standpoint, pit production is considered to be the No. 1 priority for the NNSA,” MacVean said. “We have a tremendous amount of support to be able to meet that mission, from the federal government, the White House and Congress.”

The equipment and material being removed includes heating, ventilation and air conditioning ducts, electrical conduits, pumps, tanks and gloveboxes. AECON-WACHS is also removing existing coatings from the walls, floors and ceilings of the building. 

Keith Willingham, AECON-WACHS vice president and general manager, said materials are being removed from the facility in numerous ways.

“We’re doing a lot of manual take out,” Willingham said. “Part of that removal will be with rough terrain cranes, and we have engineered an elevator system where we’ll be bringing materials out in skid pans and getting them ready for removal off-site.”

In October 2022, Savannah River Nuclear Solutions entered into an agreement with the Augusta Building and Trades Council, a group of 19 local trade unions, to provide skilled labor for the transformation of the facility and the construction of several buildings nearby. 

W. Gordon Scott, manager of the dismantling and removal process, said 81 skilled workers were on-site along with another 30-35 non-manual laborers. 

Building 226-F, a 500,000-square-foot concrete building, was built to convert weapons-grade plutonium into mixed-oxide fuel for use in commercial nuclear reactors. But that project was canceled by the federal government due to massive cost overruns. 

The dismantling and removal process is expected to take two years. Production of plutonium pits is expected to begin in the mid-2030s.