South Carolina's Savannah River Research Center to Become National Laboratory

May 8, 2004

The Energy Department will designate its Savannah River Technology Center in South Carolina as its 13th national research laoratory, department and congressional sources said.

Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham plans to make the announcement during a visit to the facility, near Aiken, SC.

Created the 1950's as a research facility for producing plutonium and tritium for nuclear warheads, the ecology center more recently has focused on a wide range of applied research from environmental remediation, hydrogen energy technology to counterintelligence and security systems and robotics.

The designation as a national laboratory will increase the facility's perstige and allow its scientists more easily to team up with scientists at other national laboratories in research projects, officials said.

The research center is part of the Energy Department's broader Savannah River Site, a key part of the government nuclear weapons complex, located along the Savannah River bordering South Carolina and Georgia.