Washington, D.C. - Congressman John Barrow (GA-12) today announced $1.6 billion in new Department of Energy funding under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act to accelerate environmental cleanup work of the Savannah River Site while creating jobs for local residents.  Nationwide, the Department of Energy will fund $6 billion in cleanup work and create thousands of jobs across 12 states.

The project is described by the Department of Energy as follows:

Savannah River Site ($1.615 billion) - Accelerate decommissioning of nuclear facilities and contaminated areas throughout the Site, including in-place decommissioning of two nuclear materials production reactors. Recovery Act work includes shipping more than 4,500 cubic meters of waste out of South Carolina and will reduce the site's industrial area by 40 percent, or 79,000 acres, by September 2011.

"This is an investment in our future because it'll leave this area better for our kids and grandkids," said Barrow.  "But, it's also an investment in the present, because it'll put a lot of folks from the area to work."

This project and the new funding are managed by the Department's Office of Environmental Management, which is responsible for the risk reduction and cleanup of the environmental legacy from the nation's nuclear weapons program, one of the largest, most diverse, and technically complex environmental programs in the world.

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Contact:  Jane Brodsky, (202) 225-2823

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