Energy park details fuzzy

The Savannah River Site may be a future host of an energy park, but even the basic concept was up for debate Tuesday.

The Department of Energy does not know what an energy park is or what might be contained in one if an energy park was ever created.

Stakeholders from dozens of groups came to North Augusta to hear more about the concept Tuesday and heard that officials at DOE do not know what the concept will be but have vast, ranging plans for what an energy park could be.

Four hours of discussion were held at the first workshop on the subject. The discussion was led off by four speakers, each of whom laid out their information and then answered questions.

Karen Guevara, assistant manager of closure projects at the Savannah River Operations Office, mapped out the process for building energy parks and subsequent meetings to happen in October, but no dates for future meetings were finalized.

After a question, Guevara admitted that an environmental assessment that had been started for the concept of an energy park has been withdrawn as it "lacked detail."

The energy assessment is part of the process required under the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA).

Tom Clements, the Southeast campaign director for Friends of the Earth, complained to DOE that more public involvement and transparency were needed in discussions about the project.

The other speakers were Chuck Munns, president and CEO of Savannah River Nuclear Solutions, who outlined the capabilities and strengths of SRS for such a site.

Mark Gilbertson of DOE-Environmental Management spoke about using these strengths into the future.

Dr. Samit Bhattacharyya, Savannah River National Laboratory director, spoke on energy security initiatives.

Bhattacharyya described the importance of SRS being the research and development center for new technology.

He described energy solutions as diverse as nuclear, biomass and even Fusion reactors.

The event unofficially began at 12:30 p.m. outside the meeting where members of several environmental groups made their voices heard demanding that any energy park not be the home of nuclear reprocessing facilities or new reactors.

Each environmental group made comment and held signs, such as Clement's, whose read: "Energy Park means National Nuclear Dumping Ground."

Contact Mike Gellatly at mgellatly@aikenstandard.com.