Story Published:
Feb 21, 2008 at 6:17 PM EST
Story Updated:
Feb 21, 2008 at 6:36 PM EST
About one hundred people attended a town hall meeting in North Augusta Thursday to share their opinions about an explosive issue - the proposed expansion of nuclear weapons at the Savannah River Site.
The crowd was overwhelmingly anti-nuke.
"Stop the insanity, slow down our nuclear weapons. That's the way to make us more secure," said Henry Gurr, former SRS employee.
He knows the economic impact of the Savannah River Site first hand: Gurr worked at the plant for years.
"In a certain sense my livelihood depended on the existence of that facility," he said.
Now he's speaking out against the planned expansion, even if it means an economic boost.
The Department of Energy plans to consolidate all of its Nuclear weapons materials into five sites.
The DOE could bring plutonium and uranium production to SRS generating as many as 2500 new jobs.
More likely, the site will be used for research and development of Tritium: a key element in modern nuclear weapons which could bring 25 jobs.
But the National Nuclear Security Administration says it isn't all about economics.
"It's to make it more safe, more secure and more responsive," said Ted Wyka, the NNSA Document Manager.
But opponents say there's no safety as long as we're building new nukes.
"We're concerned building new nuclear weapons facilities at SRS would be bad for National Security, would be a blow to the Federal Budget and would cause more nuclear waste," said Tom Clements with Friends Of The Earth.
Folks came from across the southeast to discuss the radioactive issue, but for those who've worked at SRS, it's personal.
"From that experience I saw how many nuclear weapons we had and all those weapons made me ever more certain somebody would use them," said Gurr.
The National Nuclear Security Administration will hold 19 public meetings about its nationwide plan.
It expects as many as one million public comments before a final decision is made in October.