Savannah River Site: Past and Future
Business and Economic Review › Vol. 54 Nbr. 1, October 2007
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Summary
In its first decades, the Savannah River Site (SRS) produced plutonium and tritium used in nuclear weapons. This article will briefly trace the history of the the SRS, its importance in the regional and state economies, its role in the production and disposal of nuclear materials, and its participation in research and development of hydrogen as a fuel of the future. During much of its history, SRS has been one of the largest industrial employers in South Carolina. Changes in the mission of SRS since the early 1990s sharply reduced total employment from about 25,000 in 1992 to about 14,000 in 1997, with current employment at about 10,000. The new research alliance on hydrogen and fuel cells between Savannah River National Laboratory, research universities, and county and state governments represents a new era in the conversion of former national defense research expertise into cutting-edge hydrogen research important to the energy and environmental quality future of the state and nation.
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Savannah River Site: Past and Future
In the closing months of 1950, 1,500 families in Aiken and Barnwell counties were told that they would be displaced to make room for a plant that would "provide materials which can be used either for weapons or for fuels potentially useful for power purposes."1 The plant, initially designated the Savannah River Plant (and called by locals "the bomb plant"), has evolved over the years into today's Savannah River Site (SRS). The urgency surrounding the rapid construction of the plant was a result of both the intensifying Korean War and nuclear weapons development by the Soviets.
In its first decades, the site produced plutonium and tritium used in nuclear weapons. Following the end of the Cold War, the focus of SRS gradually changed from the production of weapons materials to environmental protection and cleanup, together with tritium processing (for nuclear weapons), the conversion of plutonium (formerly in weap...See the full content of this document
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