The Savannah River Site confirmed the facility is experiencing a “security event” at the site’s H Area; however, the Aiken County Sheriff’s Office is calling the event a “lockdown.”
As of now, no one is allowed in or out of the facility and site barricades are closed off to incoming traffic.
Savannah River Site issued a press release stating “a potential security event is in progress that has triggered emergency response activities at the Department of Energy’s Savannah River Site,” and the release is “being sent to you as part of our emergency response organization information process.”
SRS also stated there is no indication of a “consequence beyond the Savannah River Site boundaries,” and the Site will provide further information when it becomes available.
The site’s H Area is the location of H Canyon, the only hardened chemical separations facility still operating in the U.S. The primary mission of the H-Canyon Complex is to dissolve, purify and blend-down surplus highly.
All Clear Call given
http://wjbf.com/2015/08/17/breaking-on-6-srs-on-lockdown-after-incident/
This article addresses facilities that handle materials similar to SRS.
Here is a disconcerting fact. It will be 10 more years before all the chemical sites in this nation are reviewed by our gov. for security.
http://www.epictimes.com/charlesfaddis/2015/08/toxic-cloud-the-threat-of-terrorist-chemical-attack/
In the latest release on the Savannah River Site’s Facebook page, the all clear was given at 5:52 p.m.
The nuclear facility was on lockdown for hours Monday afternoon after what officials described as a “potential security event in progress.”
A post on the SRS Facebook page said the event “triggered emergency response activities at Department of Energy’s Savannah River Site.”
A SRS news release said possible explosive residue detected on a delivery truck triggered the emergency response. The possible residue was detected on the vendor’s truck by a dog and by electronic scans.
Law enforcement was called in to help.
Site barricades were used to block the facility to incoming traffic, the post said.
The incident was reported in an area of the facility where uranium is purified and blended down and excess plutonium is dissolved for transfer to waste processing, according to officials.
The SRS nuclear facility is on land in Aiken, Allendale and Barnwell counties adjacent to the Savannah River, 25 miles southeast of Augusta.
From a news local to the Savannah River Nuclear Facility: