Savannah River National Laboratory

The Savannah River National Laboratory (SRNL) is a multi-program national laboratory for the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Office of Environmental Management. SRNL is located at the Savannah River Site (SRS) near Jackson, South Carolina. It was founded in 1951, as the Savannah River Laboratory as an research, development and manufacturing center for tritium production from lithium. The intended end use of the tritium was in nuclear fusion weapons (such as hydrogen bomb), as well as in thermonuclear fusion reactors for civilian use. Plutonium production and research was a second main activity in the lab at that time.

Since the end of the Cold War, the laboratory expanded its civilian research. Savannah River Laboratory was certified as a national laboratory on May 7, 2004.

SRNL research topics include environmental remediation, technologies for the hydrogen economy, handling of hazardous materials and technologies for prevention of nuclear proliferation, vitrification of nuclear waste and in hydrogen storage. SRNL is a founding member of the South Carolina Hydrogen & Fuel Cell Alliance (SCHFCA).

Budget and staff
SRNL employs 980 people and has an annual programmatic budget of 249 million U.S. Dollars (2017).

Operations
SRNL was operated by Savannah River Nuclear Solutions, LLC for the U.S. Department of Energy from 2008 to 2021. The LLC is a partnership between Fluor Corporation, Newport News Nuclear, Inc. (a subsidiary of Huntington Ingalls Industries) and Honeywell International.

In 2020, the Department of Energy approved a split in the SRS Maintenance and Operations contract. The agency awarded the SRNL M&O contract to Battelle Savannah River Alliance (BSRA), retaining Savannah River Nuclear Solutions, LLC for the maintenance and operations of the Savannah River Site. BSRA is wholly owned by Battelle Memorial Institute and partners with five regional universities. Contract transition was completed in 2021.