The long discussed Advanced Manufacturing Collaborative envisioned for the University of South Carolina-Aiken campus took a major step forward on April 19.
A groundbreaking ceremony for the $50 million project brought together leaders from local, state and federal governments, the university and the business community.
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The facility will be a partnership with the Savannah River Nuclear Laboratory and the university. It will also involve STEM education at the Ruth Patrick Science Center and the Aiken Scholars Academy. The center will be built on land adjacent to the science center and the campus intramural field.
Ike White, Senior Advisor for the DOE Office of Environmental Management, said the facility will be an important part of the cleanup program at the Savannah River Site. He said it will be instrumental in developing the workforce pipeline necessary for the clean up operations to be successful.
“If you think about the progress that we want to make in dealing with the world’s largest environmental liability, which is what the cleanup program does across DOE (Department of Energy), having the innovation and the research and the ideas to make advancements and find ways to do this more cost effectively starts with efforts like this,” he said. “In partnership with the laboratory and the university trying to figure out better ways of doing the cleanup program going forward into the future.”
Among the speakers was Sandra Jordan, who was chancellor of USC-Aiken when the project was first proposed. She said it started as a dream, then a possibility and now a reality.
“This is a groundbreaking that’s more than a literal turning over of the dirt,” she said. “Groundbreaking will be the research that’s done at the AMC. There will be groundbreaking partnerships that we may not have seen in the past that will flourish here at the AMC. And I’d like to suggest that this groundbreaking is an opportunity to cheer on investment in our collective futures.”
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County Council Chairman Gary Bunker has his eyes on the future.
“What we’re hoping is that we’re going to be able to have some of the expertise on the Savannah River site come, as we say, across the fence, and get some synergy with the University for a variety of different projects, including the aforementioned advanced manufacturing.”
SRNL estimates it will create between 200 and 400 construction jobs to build the facility, then 110 permanent high-wage jobs to operate it.
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David Jameson, President and CEO of the Aiken County Chamber of Commerce said those employees will impact local businesses and create opportunities for new businesses to come to Aiken County.
“That number of employees that are going to work here instead of out at the site, they can run errands on the way to work, they can run errands on the way home from work, and they can go to lunch,” he said. “It’s going to bring conferences; the badging is going to be a lot easier here. This building is going to be an economic engine for this community, and bring other companies, other R&D (research and development) companies that want to move in and be part of what’s going on at this site.”
It is estimated it will take up to two years to complete construction of the AMC.
More information on the project is available at: https://srnl.doe.gov/amc/index.htm
Dana Lynn McIntyre is a general assignment reporter for The Augusta Press. Reach her at dana@theaugustapress.com
