Savannah River Tritium Enterprise & Plutonium Processing Facility
Under the Fluor-led SRNS management & operating contract, the team operates the Savannah River Tritium Enterprise (SRTE) — the nation's only facility that recycles, purifies, and extracts tritium gas essential to the U.S. weapons stockpile — and manages the Savannah River Plutonium Processing Facility (SRPPF), a major NNSA initiative to manufacture at least 50 plutonium pits per year.
The Savannah River Plutonium Processing Facility is one of two NNSA sites (alongside Los Alamos) tasked with restoring the nation's plutonium-pit manufacturing capacity lost after Rocky Flats closed in 1989. Driven by the 2018 Nuclear Posture Review, NNSA's strategy calls for a combined 80 war-reserve pits per year across the two sites — no fewer than 50/year at Savannah River — to replace an aging pit inventory on a sustainable production cycle. NNSA approved Critical Decision 1 for the facility in June 2021 with an original cost estimate of $6.9–11.1 billion and a 2032–2035 completion target; NNSA has since acknowledged the original 2030 delivery date will not be met, and more recent government cost tracking puts the main process building alone above $22 billion.
Program detail
- Agency
- National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA)
- Acronym
- SRTE / SRPPF
- Budget
- Phase
- Under construction (CD-1 approved June 2021; original 2030/2032-2035 targets acknowledged by NNSA as delayed, no updated schedule published)
- Domain
- Nuclear weapons sustainment infrastructure
Contracts0
No linked records yet.
Frequently asked
- What is Savannah River Tritium Enterprise & Plutonium Processing Facility?
- The Savannah River Plutonium Processing Facility is one of two NNSA sites (alongside Los Alamos) tasked with restoring the nation's plutonium-pit manufacturing capacity lost after Rocky Flats closed in 1989. Driven by the 2018 Nuclear Posture Review, NNSA's strategy calls for a combined 80 war-reserve pits per year across the two sites — no fewer than 50/year at Savannah River — to replace an aging pit inventory on a sustainable production cycle. NNSA approved Critical Decision 1 for the facility in June 2021 with an original cost estimate of $6.9–11.1 billion and a 2032–2035 completion target; NNSA has since acknowledged the original 2030 delivery date will not be met, and more recent government cost tracking puts the main process building alone above $22 billion.
- Which agency runs Savannah River Tritium Enterprise & Plutonium Processing Facility?
- Savannah River Tritium Enterprise & Plutonium Processing Facility is run by National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) and is also known as SRTE / SRPPF.
Sources & citations2
Each claim links to its underlying source. Confidence reflects how directly the source supports the claim.
- 1
Under SRNS M&O, Fluor's team operates the Savannah River Tritium Enterprise, the nation's only tritium recycling/purification capability, and manages the Savannah River Plutonium Processing Facility for NNSA (at least 50 pits per year)
Fluor: U.S. DOE Savannah River Site Management & OperationsVerified2026-08-05 - 2
NNSA's original CD-1 approval set a $6.9-11.1 billion cost estimate and 2032-2035 completion target for SRPPF, part of a strategy to produce a combined 80 pits/year across Savannah River and Los Alamos.
U.S. Department of Energy / NNSA: NNSA Approves Critical Decision 1 for Savannah River Plutonium Processing FacilityVerified2021-06-28