Savannah River Ecology Laboratory

Timeline

1951: The Atomic Energy Commission (AEC) asked the University of Georgia to submit a proposal to conduct ecological research at Savannah River Plant (SRP, later renamed SRS). Dr. Eugene Odum, headed the effort, and with $11,934 in funding for the first year, a small but eager group began work three days after the budget was approved. Odum and a group of scientists, many of whom volunteered their time and knowledge, focused on two areas of research: Inventory of conspicuous features of the environment of the site and basic, long-term ecological research. 1955: The University of Georgia hired Dr. Robert Norris as the first ecologist to conduct full-time research at the Savannah River Plant. Norris later won the Eminent Ecologist Award given annually by the Ecological Society of America.

1955-1961: SREL researchers concentrated on radiation ecology studies, publishing about 30 scientific papers based on this research.

1961: The AEC established a permanent ecology laboratory on the site; two Army barracks were converted into laboratory space for the scientists. The next year, the University of Georgia hired a full-time staff with doctoral degrees to expand the research effort. [Dr. Frank B. Golley] became the first director of the Laboratory, then known as the Laboratory of Radiation Ecology. In the mid 1960s the University of Georgia renamed the Laboratory the Savannah River Ecology Laboratory, reflecting the broad spectrum of ecological studies carried out on the site. Technical papers published by the group reached 100.

1967: The University of Georgia appointed Dr. Robert J. Beyers director of the laboratory. Over the next six years, researchers published more than 200 scientific papers and the operating budget almost doubled.

1973: Dr. Michael H. Smith became director of SREL and the research expanded through a prime contract with the Atomic Energy Commission. SREL began a thermal ecology program to investigate the ecological effects of hot water from the SRS reactors on the fauna and flora of streams, ponds and swamps on the site. Researchers also expanded studies of mineral cycling and the fate and effects of containments on the environment. The first SREL symposium in 1974 was organized by Drs. J. Whitfield Gibbons and Rebecca R. Sharitz and brought most U.S. researchers who concentrated on thermal biology together for the first time, establishing the field of thermal ecology. The SREL Symposium Series focused on numerous other ecological fields of interest including Mineral Cycling and Biogeochemical Ecology.

1974: SREL participated in a national research program on the fate and behavior of transuranic elements in agriculture and natural ecosystems, funded by ERDA (DOE) and Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC)

1977: SREL moved into its present 30,000-square-foot (2,800 m²) building near the DOE Administration Area. Associated with this facility are numerous outdoor enclosures for conducting field observations and metapopulation studies on a variety of animals and plants. Two laboratories within the facility focus on genetic studies.

1980s: SREL restructured from numerous and diverse research programs into three research divisions: biogeochemical ecology, wildlife ecology and toxicology and wetlands ecology.

1991: SREL developed the Division of Environmental Outreach and Education, with the guidance of Dr. J. Whitfield Gibbons, to formalize SREL’s commitment to educate the general public as well as the scientific community. The Outreach staff visits schools, holds teacher workshops, and gives talks to the general public. As part of Outreach, a graduate research participation program was developed to provide qualified graduate students support while conducting full-time thesis or dissertation research on the SRS. Graduate students from more than 50 U.S. universities have participated in the program.

1994 -1996: The UGA-SREL Conference Center opens as an environmental education facility and a place for scientific meetings. Also, Georgia Lottery funds provide sophisticated equipment for environmental study at the main laboratory. SREL goes through a period of building expansion adding a new computer laboratory, an animal holding facility, a molecular genetics laboratory, analytical instruments laboratory and a distance learning facility, increasing the size of the main laboratory to 45,000 square feet (4,200 m²).

1996: SREL goes from a Government Owned Contractor Operated (GOCO) contract with DOE to a new cooperative agreement.

1998-1999: The Radioecology Laboratory in Chernobyl, Ukraine opens under the directorship of SREL. Dr. Paul Bertsch becomes SREL's director as Dr. Michael Smith retires as director. SREL also had a leading role in establishing Partners in Amphibian and Reptile Conservation (PARC), the only national/international organization to address the conservation of both reptiles and amphibians. An SREL publication, Snakes of Georgia and South Carolina, goes into three printings and more than 30,000 issues are distributed. The global decline of reptiles receives worldwide recognition in 1999 led by an SREL initiative in conjunction with PARC.

2000: SREL is given a Guinness World Records plaque for having the longest, daily-monitored wetland study in the world for its reptile and amphibian research at Rainbow Bay.

2001: The 2,500th peer-reviewed paper by an SREL author was published, continuing the tradition of productivity and academic excellence set early in SREL's history. SREL renews its cooperative agreement with DOE for $53 million for a combined total over ten years of approximately $115 million.

2005: The fate of SREL was threatened when funding of the laboratory was reduced by 40% in the DOE budget. A restructuring occurred including a downsizing in the number of employees.

2007: SREL again faced a loss of funding from DOE. Dr. Paul Bertsch resigned as Dr. Carl Bergmann took over as co-director along with Dr. Carl Strojan. SREL was forced to consider closing its doors, however funding from a diversity of other sources was able to keep the lab open, but with substantial loss of budget and personnel. Dr. Strojan retired in the summer of 2007, and Dr. Bergmann became the SREL director.

2008: SREL continues to diversify its funding with grants from the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA).