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JANUARY 23, 2022 FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

City of Aiken Announces Partnership with SRNL at State of the City Address

Aiken, SC – The City of Aiken announced Monday it will explore building a new high-tech workforce development Center in Downtown Aiken to house elements of the Savannah River National Laboratory using $20 million in Plutonium settlement funding set aside by the State of South Carolina for that purpose.

Aiken Mayor Rick Osbon hosted fellow elected officials, City staff, and members of the public for the City’s annual State of the City address. The event summarized the City’s successes from the past year before moving into the SRNL proposal to be considered in future weeks by Aiken City Council.

Savannah River National Laboratory (SRNL) is the newest National Laboratory under the Department of Energy (DOE). Nationwide, there are 17 DOE National Laboratories, and SRNL is the only DOE lab in the Carolinas, serving the Southeast region of the United State along with Oak Ridge National Laboratory in Tennessee. SRNL is operated by Battelle in collaboration with University of South Carolina, Clemson, South Carolina State University, University of Georgia, and Georgia Institute of Technology.

SRNL’s mission is ensuring America’s security and prosperity by addressing its energy, environmental and nuclear challenges through transformative science and technology solutions. We create high quality jobs in central Savannah River area and are an enduring economic engine by attracting advanced science and technology-based companies.

The Laboratory achieves this by attracting, motivating, and training a diverse and highly skilled workforce to execute on complex DOE programs. Therefore, SRNL is envisioning a workforce development building (WDB) that will provide the Laboratory with a pipeline for new talent acquisition as well as develop the existing employee base. Over the next five years, we anticipate hiring more than 1,500 highly-technical employees and host more than 100 faculty/graduate students and 500 undergraduate interns.

The work in the proposed building extends far beyond the five partner universities and includes an intense focus on minority serving institutions, continuing professional development of SRNL employees, recruitment of postdoc scientists; graduate students; undergraduate students; technicians (2-year degree); and precollege students. The pre-college tier is essential for building a long-term talent pipeline.

SRNL’s workforce development building is envisioned to be the hub for Laboratory’s collaboration with academic and industrial partners. SRNL would permanently place between 80-100 laboratory employees at this location to enable the following planned activities.

Director Dr. Vahid Majidi said he intends for the Downtown facility to serve as the community face of SRNL. His stated goals for the facility include:

Media Contact Mary Tilton Director of Operations City of Aiken mtilton@cityofaikensc.gov

USC Aiken could soon offer in-state tuition to residents of Georgia and North Carolina.

The Higher Education Subcommittee of the S.C. House Education and Public Works Committee voted unanimously Tuesday afternoon to forward H.B. 3325, which allows USC Aiken, Coastal Carolina University, Francis Marion University, USC Beaufort, USC Upstate and Winthrop University to offer in-state tuition to residents of border states, to the full House Education and Public Works Committee.

Dan Heimmerman, USCA chancellor, addressed the subcommittee before it voted to forward the bill onward. He said the bill would be a great advantage to the school as it works to increase its enrollment, particularly its residential enrollment. Heimmerman said the school has around 1,000 beds but less than 700 of them are occupied.

The bill is sponsored by Rep. Tim McGinnis, R-Horry, and co-sponsored by Reps. Terry Alexander, D-Florence, and Pat Henegan, D-Marlboro. S.C. Rep. Bill Taylor, R-Aiken, joined as a co-sponsor Tuesday morning.

McGinnis, who chairs the Higher Education Subcommittee, said the bill originated with a request from Francis Marion University.

Francis Marion University is located near Florence. Though the county its in is not a border county, many of the school’s students come from border counties such as Dillon, Marlboro, Chesterfield and Horry.

Daniel Dukes, legislative liaison for Francis Marion, said the school has trouble competing for those students with UNC Pembroke and three other North Carolina schools – Fayetteville State, Western Carolina and Elizabeth City State – that can offer out-of-state students a state subsidized tuition rate of $2,500 per semester.

He added Francis Marion charges in-state students a tuition rate of $5,500.

Heimmerman added the bill would also help USCA – out of state rate $11,600 – to compete with Georgia public schools for students. He also said the bill would expand the school’s ability to offer out of state tuition to Georgia and North Carolina students.

Currently, USCA can offer in-state tuition to residents of Richmond and Columbia counties.

Heimmerman said around 110 students take advantage of this option currently.

McGinnis said Monday the bill has no downside for the state.

McGinnis said the bill prohibits the colleges from seeking reimbursement for the tuition discounts from the state and from taking a spot from a South Carolina student and giving it to a student from another state.

“There’s no economic impact to us and it will not take away opportunities from South Carolina students,” McGinnis said. “I don’t think there’s anything wrong with getting students from North Carolina and Georgia to come to school in South Carolina because maybe they’ll decide to stay in South Carolina and make a career here.”

McGinnis said the schools sign on to the program voluntarily. He added there was little need for the flagship University of South Carolina campus in Columbia or Clemson University to participate in the program.

If the bill is approved by the full House Education and Public Works Committee, the bill would go to the full House of Representatives.

From the House floor, if passed, the bill would go to the Senate and probably be referred to the Senate Education Committee. If approved by the Education Committee and the full Senate, it would go to Gov. Henry McMaster for a signature to become law.

The temperature may have been around 10 degrees cooler than normal but that didn’t keep people from attending the 80th running of the Aiken Trials Saturday.

The main activity at the Aiken Training Track was tailgating. Generally people would enter the infield or outfield gates and make their way to one of several tailgating spots located along the inside and outside rail of the track.

Marley Davis had one of the best spots on Row 2 in the outfield. His spot was located next to an access point allowing people and cars to cross from the outfield to the infield.

He said he had been coming to the Aiken Trials for 45 years.

“We could have any of those [along the rail] but we picked right here by the paddock,” Davis said. “You can be right here and enjoy yourself.”

Also, the horses are brought right past the spot when they enter the track.

Steve Taylor and David Comer were setting up their spot on the outfield rail. Taylor said they had been in the same spot for over 30 years.

“My wife stood in line with a bunch of little kids to get these tickets,” Taylor said. “Now those little kids are in their 40′s. We’ve had a chance to move up but this spot’s kind of special to us.”

Linda Loving moved to Aiken about three years ago from Virginia and was looking forward to seeing horses pulling carriages. She said she used to work with carriage horses in Virginia but developed Lyme disease and could no longer work with the horses.

Lisa Benefiel and Laura Wilson were setting up a tent in Row 2 of the outfield.

Benefiel said she is a regular attendee but wished the weather would have been warmer for the races.

Wilson said her daughter would be riding Bonafide in one of the races.

Like at college football games, several tailgaters used their tents to express allegiance to their teams. In addition to South Carolina and Clemson, there were also Tennessee tents and Penn State tents.

Rich and Deborah Robbins were at the Penn State tent.

“Penn State is here representing,” Deborah said.

Another similarity with college football tailgates were the activities around the tailgates. Many children were throwing footballs or kicking soccer balls. Others were playing cornhole.

Editor’s note: We Are Aiken County is a series of articles that will run through Feb. 26. It celebrates people, places and events that shaped Aiken County.

On Sept. 23, 1949, President Harry Truman announced the Soviet Union successfully tested its first nuclear weapon.

Truman said he believed the American people – consistent with national security needs – had a right to know about developments in atomic energy.

“We have evidence that within recent weeks an atomic explosion occurred in the U.S.S.R.,” Truman said. “Ever since atomic energy was first released by man, the eventual development of this new force by other nations was to be expected. This probability has always been taken into account by us.”

The announcement began a great debate within the military, scientific and government over whether to proceed with further development of nuclear weapons including the hydrogen bomb.

Truman ended the debate on Jan. 31, 1950.

“It is part of my responsibility as Commander in Chief of the Armed Forces to see to it that our country is able to defend itself against any possible aggressor,” Truman said. “Accordingly, I have directed the Atomic Energy Commission to continue its work on all forms of atomic weapons, including the so-called hydrogen or superbomb.”

Truman asked for and received a supplemental appropriation of $260 million to develop new plants to produce new weapons.

DuPont, the operator of the first plutonium production plant (the Hanford Site in Washington State), was selected to find a site and build and operate a plant to produce plutonium and tritium.

DuPont evaluated 114 sites and eventually selected an area 15 miles southeast of Aiken in Aiken and Barnwell counties. The company’s recommendation was approved by a review committee in mid-November 1950.

At noon on Nov. 28, 1950, the Atomic Energy Commission made a radio broadcast informing 1,800 families from the communities of Ellenton, Dunbarton, Skinface, Bush, Hawthorne, Leigh, Greenland, Robbins, Hattiesville, Meyers Mill and Donora that they would need to move to make way for the Savannah River Plant.

Soon an area dedicated to growing corn, cotton and peanuts began to transform into the site of five nuclear reactors (C, R, K, L and P Areas), two chemical separation plants (H and F Canyons), a heavy water plant (D Area), a fuel and target producing area and a laboratory (It became the Savannah River National Laboratory in 2004).

The number of construction workers peaked in September 1952 with 38,582 workers. In addition to the facilities, the workers also constructed 60 miles of railroad, 230 miles of new roads (including South Carolina’s first cloverleaf interchange) and power plants.

The site was closed to the public on Dec. 14, 1952 before the reactors went live:

The Savannah River Ecology Laboratory was established in 1961. The Savannah River Archaeological Program was established in 1978.

The plant’s presence forever altered Aiken County. The county’s population grew by more than 50%. According to the 1950 Census, the county’s population was 51,137 people. By the 1960 Census, the population had grown to 81,038 people. And those additional people needed homes, schools, churches and stores to go to and roads to drive on, leading to the development of modern Aiken County.

And impact of the plant extends beyond Earth.

In 1956, Fred Reines and Clyde Cowan confirmed the existence of the neutrino using the flux in P-Reactor.

The plant also produced californium 252 (the element is a strong neutron producer), plutonium 238 for use in deep space missions like the Voyager program, Galileo, Ulysses and Cassini, cobalt 60 for use in radiotherapy and curium which was an earlier source of spacecraft power.

DuPont said it would end its tenure as the manager of the site in 1987. In 1989, Westinghouse took over management. Savannah River Nuclear Solutions took over for Washington Savannah River Company (the Westinghouse company was renamed in the mid-1990s) in 2008.

The Savannah River Site (renamed in 1989) is home to the only tritium production facility in the United States.

Work continues to clean up the nuclear waste generated to produce the plutonium. Several facilities have been built to facilitate cleaning up the waste including the Defense Waste Processing Facility, Salt Waste Processing Facility, a glass waste storage building and nine saltstone disposal units.

Cleanup work is performed by Savannah River Mission Completion.

Management of the national laboratory was split from the main site management contract and the lab is managed by Battelle Savannah River Alliance.

The ecology lab is managed by the University of Georgia.

Plans call for the construction of a plutonium pit production facility on the site. The main building for pit production was constructed to be the home of a Mixed-Oxide Fuel Fabrication Facility but that project was terminated in 2016.

Pit production is scheduled to begin in 2036.

The City of Aiken is clearly at a crossroads regarding downtown development, and the public continues to pay the price. First, the current city administration, which seems determined to undermine the grace and charm which defines the city, appeared in disarray at the council meeting on March 27. It might have been laughable had it not been so sad in light of the seriousness of the issues.

Witness Mayor Rick Osbon, who frequently insists on the need for civility, be decidedly uncivil, telling one resident who came forward with comments, “I don’t want to listen to them.” At another juncture, after surpassing the 3-minute time limit with the Parker’s Kitchen rep by his own acknowledgement, began loudly repeating, “You’re over the 3-minute limit” several times to another resident speaking.

There was the issue of Council member Lessie Price abruptly calling for an executive session without the required procedural motion being made. There was Mr. Stuart Bedenbaugh unable to answer basic questions about the square footage and setbacks of the proposed Hampton Inn with a resulting gruffness on his part. Yet, the community is expected to accept decisions being made by this council and mayor without a word. It is a travesty and an insult to the work of the original city planners as well as the administrations of Mayors Weeks and Cavanaugh who worked so hard to preserve Aiken’s uniqueness and welcomed public input and involvement.

Secondly, it is difficult to understand the rush to allow the Savannah River Site to turn the downtown area in a modern-day mill town. How does this vision support what attracts visitors to Aiken? Tours of historic towns rarely, if ever, include new lumbering monolithic buildings and parking garages that are clearly out of step. SRS did not create Aiken, although it certainly has a significant place in its history. It has its 60,000-square-foot building at USC Aiken, which makes perfect sense, unlike 45,000 additional square feet downtown. The current proposal ignores the contributions of townspeople to downtown and the enormous impact of the equestrian community, and is squarely at odds with the community’s wishes.

Meanwhile, Hotel Aiken, which could be central to revitalization, stands untended and forgotten.

This will the legacy of this administration if they persist.

Maria Durban

Johns Island

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