The Savannah River National Laboratory (SRNL) is a multi-program national laboratory for the U.S.

Department of Energy A Ministry of Energy or Department of Energy is a government department in some countries that typically oversees the production of fuel and electricity; in the United States, however, it manages nuclear weapons development and conducts energy-rel ...

’s (DOE) Office of Environmental Management. SRNL is located at the

Savannah River Site The Savannah River Site (SRS) is a U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) reservation in the United States in the state of South Carolina, located on land in Aiken, Allendale, and Barnwell counties adjacent to the Savannah River, southeast of August ...

(SRS) near

Jackson, South Carolina Jackson is a town in Aiken County, South Carolina, United States. The population was 1,700 at the 2010 census. It is part of the Augusta, Georgia metropolitan area. History Silver Bluff was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in ...

. It was founded in 1951, as the Savannah River Laboratory. It was certified as a national laboratory on May 7, 2004. SRNL research topics include

environmental remediation Environmental remediation deals with the removal of pollution or contaminants from environmental media such as soil, groundwater, sediment, or surface water. Remedial action is generally subject to an array of regulatory requirements, and may al ...

, technologies for the

hydrogen economy The hydrogen economy is using hydrogen to decarbonize economic sectors which are hard to electrify, essentially, the "hard-to-abate" sectors such as cement, steel, long-haul transport etc. In order to phase out fossil fuels and limit climate ch ...

, handling of hazardous materials and technologies for prevention of

nuclear proliferation Nuclear proliferation is the spread of nuclear weapons, fissionable material, and weapons-applicable nuclear technology and information to nations not recognized as " Nuclear Weapon States" by the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Wea ...

. It has specific experience in

vitrification Vitrification (from Latin ''vitreum'', "glass" via French ''vitrifier'') is the full or partial transformation of a substance into a glass, that is to say, a non- crystalline amorphous solid. Glasses differ from liquids structurally and glasses po ...

of nuclear waste and

hydrogen storage Hydrogen storage can be accomplished by several existing methods of holding hydrogen for later use. These include mechanical approaches such as using high pressures and low temperatures, or employing chemical compounds that release H2 upon demand ...

initially developed to support production of

tritium Tritium ( or , ) or hydrogen-3 (symbol T or H) is a rare and radioactive isotope of hydrogen with half-life about 12 years. The nucleus of tritium (t, sometimes called a ''triton'') contains one proton and two neutrons, whereas the nucleus o ...

and

plutonium Plutonium is a radioactive chemical element with the symbol Pu and atomic number 94. It is an actinide metal of silvery-gray appearance that tarnishes when exposed to air, and forms a dull coating when oxidized. The element normally exhibi ...

at the Savannah River Site during the

Cold War The Cold War is a term commonly used to refer to a period of geopolitical tension between the United States and the Soviet Union and their respective allies, the Western Bloc and the Eastern Bloc. The term '' cold war'' is used because the ...

. SRNL is a founding member of the

South Carolina Hydrogen & Fuel Cell Alliance The South Carolina Hydrogen & Fuel Cell Alliance (SCHFCA) is a Public-private collaborative with a mission of advancing the commercialization of hydrogen fuel cell technologies in the state of South Carolina. Government entities, in particular, ...

(SCHFCA). SRNL employs 980 people and has an annual programmatic budget of 249 million U.S. Dollars (2017). SRNL was operated by Savannah River Nuclear Solutions, LLC for the U.S. Department of Energy from 2008 to 2021. The LLC is a partnership between

Fluor Corporation Fluor Corporation is an American multinational engineering and construction firm headquartered in Irving, Texas. It is a holding company that provides services through its subsidiaries in the following areas: oil and gas, industrial and infrastruc ...

, Newport News Nuclear, Inc. (a subsidiary of Huntington Ingalls Industries) and

Honeywell International Honeywell International Inc. is an American publicly traded, multinational conglomerate corporation headquartered in Charlotte, North Carolina. It primarily operates in four areas of business: aerospace, building technologies, performance m ...

. In 2020, the Department of Energy approved a split in the SRS Maintenance and Operations contract. The agency awarded the SRNL M&O contract to Battelle Savannah River Alliance (BSRA), retaining Savannah River Nuclear Solutions, LLC for the maintenance and operations of the Savannah River Site. BSRA is wholly owned by Battelle Memorial Institute and partners with five regional universities. Contract transition was completed in 2021.

References

External links

Official website for Savannah River National Laboratory (SRNL)Official website for Savannah River Nuclear Solutions (SRNS)Official website for the Savannah River Site (SRS)
Buildings and structures in Aiken County, South Carolina United States Department of Energy national laboratories Federally Funded Research and Development Centers Savannah River Site Research institutes in South Carolina {{US-gov-stub

See also

References

External links