The Savannah River Site Citizens Advisory Board (CAB) received the status of the Advanced Manufacturing Collaborative (AMC) construction at the University of South Carolina Aiken (USCA) during its full board meeting, Tuesday.
Comprised of professionals from throughout the CSRA, the SRS CAB is an environmental management advisory board for the site, one of eight such bodies funded by the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) for DOE sites.
The board holds subcommittee meetings and full board meetings bi-monthly to discuss issues pertaining to the impact of SRS on the area. Tuesday, CAB held its full board meeting at the Village at Woodside in Aiken.
Edwin DeShong, acting manager for the United States Department of Energy Savannah River Operations Office (DOE-SR), included in his presentation to CAB board members a DOE update of the status of the Savannah River National Laboratory’s (SRNL) Advanced Manufacturing Collaborative (AMC) construction project.
The upcoming AMC facility is a $66 million investment from the Department of Energy (DOE), and the result of a partnership between USCA, SRNL and DOE to develop a 60,000-square foot facility on the USCA campus to house a variety of research labs for more than 100 engineers and scientists.
The facility, which broke ground in April of 2022, will be for the application and development technologies in a wide range of areas such as biomanufacturing, materials design and processing, cybersecurity, automation and data analysis.
The AMC is 95% complete, said DeShong, after more than 215,000 man hours of construction, putting the facility on track to open on schedule the summer of this year.
“They also began the civil work for site preparation, SRNL Savannah River National Laboratory, finalized the programs and laboratory equipment to be assigned to AMC, along with personnel that will work and occupy the facility,” DeShong explained. “The furnishing selections for the building is complete with plans to assemble and install upon receipt of the certificate of occupancy scheduled for June 2025.”
Skyler Andrews is a reporter covering business for The Augusta Press. Reach him at skyler@theaugustapress.com.
