DOE manager has high hopes for SRS

The Department of Energy's Savannah River Site manager Dr. Dave Moody briefed local companies and members of community organizations on the future of SRS at the Chamber of Commerce's First Friday Means Business breakfast. Staff photo by Anna Dolianitis.

Looking a few years into the future, the Savannah River Site will sustain a workforce of approximately 13,000, serve as an enabler in the country's nuclear future and aid in the nuclear security and energy independence of the nation, Dr. Dave Moody predicted as he spoke to members of the Greater Aiken Chamber of Commerce.

Moody, the Department of Energy's site manager at the SRS Operations Office, was a featured speaker at the chamber's First Friday Means Business breakfast on Friday morning.

"If we don't look toward the future and accept the fact that we are a cleanup site and concentrate just on the cleanup, then where will we be by 2015? We will reduce probably down from 13,000 to 8,000 or 9,000 (employees). I don't believe that's the right thing for this region. I don't believe that's the right thing for this country," said Moody. "We're about doing the best job we possibly can with our current mission. We're about reducing the footprint by 75 percent to enable a future."

Reducing the site's industrial footprint by 75 percent by the end of 2012, however, does not mean shrinking the site, Moody said.

"That 75 percent footprint reduction is an enabler for a future mission, and that's really what we're about," he said. We're also about growing small businesses."

Moody said more than $320 million in American Recovery and Reinvestment Act funding has gone to small businesses.

Currently, research and technology is in the works to achieve the future that Moody talked about.

Moody said the site is researching technology to position the U.S. to reprocess used nuclear fuel at H Canyon and is using wood-burning rather than coal to generate steam. He added that in the future, small modular reactor technology is expected to generate all of the energy that the site needs.

Another hope that Moody has for SRS' future is to use unique separations chemistry expertise at the Savannah River National Laboratory to develop new medical radioisotope procedures - an area in which Moody said the nation has fallen behind the rest of the world - so the U.S can stop importing materials needed in hospitals.

The breakfast also included remarks from City Manager Richard Pearce, Aiken County Administrator Clay Killian, Aiken Young Professional's co-chair Jason Rabun and Master Chevrolet Cadillac owner Will Schafer, this month's corporate sponsor.

Killian announced that Aiken County Parks, Recreation and Tourism is seeking submissions for Aiken County Home Brew, a video competition contest in which short films less than 10 minutes will be judged. Accepted genres will be narrative, documentary, animation and experimental/abstract. The deadline for submitting the films is March 25, and screening and awards will take place on April 28.

Rabun said that AYP is kicking off its fourth year. For more information about AYP, please contact the Chamber of Commerce at (803) 641-1111.

Congressmen Joe Wilson and Jeff Duncan were among the elected officials in attendance, but, along with Moody, left early to participate in a tour of SRS.

The First Friday Means Business breakfast is held on the first Friday of each month.

"I think there is a lot of energy, there is a lot of optimism in Aiken, South Carolina and hopefully that optimism is contagious as it spreads out into other parts of the state and this country," said Greater Aiken Chamber of Commerce President David Jameson.

Contact Anna Dolianitis at adolianitis@aikenstandard.com.