AIKEN, S.C. – EM has reduced its operational footprint at the F Area Complex by moving from around-the-clock operations to dayshifts, a measure of progress toward completing cleanup and closure of that portion of the Savannah River Site (SRS).

“Moving to days in F Area frees up manpower for other important missions onsite,” said Verne Mooneyhan, F Area Facility manager for Savannah River Nuclear Solutions (SRNS), the SRS managing and operating contractor. “Most importantly, it’s one step closer to deactivating all of F Area and allowing us to fulfill our commitment to cleaning up the environment from activities related to the Cold War.”

Mooneyhan noted that the three main facilities in the F Area Complex — Building 235-F, the F/H Analytical Laboratory and the F Canyon chemical separations facility — had been in various stages of deactivation, and maintenance and surveillance, requiring operators to be present in the area 24/7.

“However, recent cessation of analytical operations, implementation of new DOE-approved technical safety requirements for facility operations — called a safety basis — and deactivation progress have allowed us to move to days,” Mooneyhan said.

Part of SRS since the site’s inception in the early 1950s, Building 235-F supported several production missions throughout its operational life. Deactivation of that building is scheduled for completion in September, allowing the facility to be in a stable condition for long-term safe storage until its eventual decommissioning.

Savannah River National Laboratory (SRNL) has performed analytical sampling from radiochemical processing and radiological environmental monitoring programs at facilities across the site for over 55 years and used one of F Area’s legacy facilities, the F/H Analytical Laboratory. Deactivation of that laboratory is set to be finished in fiscal 2027.

To reduce costs and streamline capabilities, SRNS and SRNL completed a multi-year project to relocate analytical services and methods from SRNL’s analytical laboratory facilities in F Area to its main laboratory in A Area, several miles away. Between fiscal 2018 and 2021, 45 laboratories in F Area no longer in use were placed in surveillance and maintenance mode.

EM finished deactivating F Canyon in 2010 and the facility is awaiting decommissioning. It had served as a chemical separations facility to recover plutonium-239 and uranium-238.