SRS should be U.S.'s primary nuclear site

For more than half a century the Savannah River Site has been a leader in the nuclear industry. Its people have been instrumental in achieving success in nearly every task they have been asked to tackle - from the creation of materials for nuclear defense uses to the safe disposition of waste from those processes.

The communities that surround SRS have provided more support for the Site than those of any other facility in the American nuclear complex. Together SRS and its nearby neighbors make a solid team that continues to work for a free and safe America.

That combination cannot be lost on members of the President's Blue Ribbon Commission on America's Nuclear Future who conclude a visit to SRS today.

What the Commission reports to the president remains to be seen. Yet, we have no doubt what the report should be telling President Barack Obama. It should say that SRS is a leader in the nuclear field and that it must be considered as the federal government's primary nuclear facility in the 21st century. No other facility makes more sense for such a task.

New missions that advance nuclear technology should be targeted for the 300-square-mile facility, taking advantage of the personnel expertise, existing infrastructure and community partnerships that are already in place. There is no need to place projects in areas where an upstream battle looms with locals, when the ideal site and local support are right here.

While SRS has been a leader in developing solutions to nuclear waste disposition, that should not be seen as the only or even the primary mission of the Site which has played such an important part in the nuclear field since the 1950s.

Commission members are likely impressed with the safety record of SRS and its handling of massive amounts of waste. But the successes of enterprises like the Defense Waste Processing Facility, which has safely secured tons of nuclear waste in glass logs, should not be an encouragement for envisioning SRS as a long-term storage site. That would be a betrayal of trust against the people of this area and all of South Carolina.

There is still much work to be done to clean up SRS's legacy wastes from 40 years of nuclear material production. That work is scheduled for completion in the years to come but should not preclude the identification of other projects that will make use of what is already in place at SRS for new nuclear-related missions.

SRS and its people have proven to be resourceful and adaptive since the inception of the huge project. SRS has gone through a number of phases in its history: The massive construction phase, the creation of nuclear materials, the closure of reactors and the cleanup of high level waste. SRS, its workers and its neighbors have always answered the bell when called upon. They await again a calling to help this nation.