The Nation - News from April 2, 1989
About 6,500 Savannah River Plant workers got $80 million in severance and vacation pay as E. I. du Pont de Nemours & Co. handed over operation of the nuclear weapons plant to Westinghouse Electric Corp. Du Pont, which built the plant near the Georgia border at Aiken, S.C., and managed it for the government for 38 years, announced last October it was not renewing its contract with the Department of Energy amid continuing reports of safety problems. Du Pont issued the checks Thursday and Friday, even though most employees will stay on. About 1,200 workers decided to retire. The Savannah River Plant is the nation’s only manufacturer of tritium, a radioactive isotope of hydrogen used to make nuclear weapons at other government defense plants. Its three reactors have been idled for nearly a year because of safety and structural problems.
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