Government accepting bids for Savannah River Site nuclear waste clean up
The federal government is taking bids to clean up nuclear waste at the Savannah River Site in Aiken. The contract could be worth up to $21 billion over several years.
The operator of a sprawling federal nuclear reservation in South Carolina says the vast majority of its 5,500 workers are now vaccinated against COVID-19 after the company mandated the shots. But nearly 80 Savannah River Site employees who have refused to get inoculated are now suing Savannah River Nuclear Solutions over the requirement, arguing the stipulation flouts South Carolina law because it amounts to illegally practicing medicine.
Along with billions of dollars in federal COVID-19 relief money, South Carolina lawmakers have another large bonus pot of money to spend soon — $525 million from the federal government over plutonium still sitting inside the state. The money is part of a 2020 settlement with the federal government which promised a plant at the Savannah River Site near Aiken that would turn plutonium from unneeded nuclear weapons into nuclear reactor fuel but instead left about 21,000 pounds of the highly radioactive material in storage in South Carolina.
The federal government is taking bids to clean up nuclear waste at the Savannah River Site in Aiken. The contract could be worth up to $21 billion over several years.