“Constructing SRPPF is a directive from the National Nuclear Security Administration, and this is one of the top projects within the nuclear security enterprise today,” said Dennis Carr, Savannah River Nuclear Solutions president and chief executive officer. “Reaching this milestone at SRS allows crews to begin the next stages of work in the field to build this pit production facility for our country.”
SRNS is responsible for the management and operations of SRS.
End result: The DOE noted in a press release that in support of the nation’s nuclear deterrent, the NNSA plans to make at least 80 pits per year in production facilities at SRS and at Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico. A pit is a critical component in every nuclear weapon.
SRS is constructing the SRPPF complex by repurposing the unfinished MOX Fuel Fabrication Facility, which will allow the NNSA to make use of an existing seismically qualified structure that has supporting facilities and existing SRS services and infrastructure, such as security, fire protection, and emergency response.
The work: Subcontractor Aecon-Wachs performed the D&R scope, which included the dismantlement and removal of equipment such as HVAC ducts, piping, electrical conduits, pumps, tanks, and gloveboxes from the structure without damaging the configuration of items that might be reused.
A total of 2,535 gross tons of materials were removed from the 400,000-square-foot SRPPF main process building and sent off-site for recycling.
“It was very challenging work, and completion of D&R shows we’re making great progress,” said Jon Lunn, SRNS senior vice president and SRPPF project director.
Work support: In support of the construction of SRPPF, SRNS entered into a project labor agreement in 2022 with the Augusta Building and Construction Trades Council, which comprises19 local unions. About 2,500 construction and trade union jobs will be filled for the life of the entire SRPPF project, according to the DOE.
Once construction of the facility is completed, the plutonium pit production mission will continue to employ about 2,000 people, the DOE added.
Note: Established by Congress in 2000, the NNSA is a semiautonomous agency within the DOE that is responsible for enhancing national security. According to the DOE, the NNSA maintains and enhances the safety, security, and effectiveness of the U.S. nuclear weapons stockpile; works to reduce the global danger from weapons of mass destruction; provides the U.S. Navy with safe and militarily effective nuclear propulsion; and responds to nuclear and radiological emergencies in the U.S. and abroad.
