Savannah River Site was built in the early 1950's to produce fissionable materials for atomic and hydrogen bombs. The facility, which covers parts of three South Carolina counties, remains one of the area's largest employers. File

For more than half a century, the Savannah River Site has reigned as one of the Aiken-Augusta area's largest employers.

Construction on the federal installation began in 1950. The Cold War had begun and the nation called on Aiken, Barnwell and Allendale counties to provide about 200,000 acres of farmland and forest.

Nearly 1,500 families were displaced in the name of freedom and protection from Soviet Union communism.

The federal government put more than 38,000 people to work by September 1952, working around the clock toward the production of plutonium and uranium needed to build hydrogen and atomic bombs.

The first reactor churned bomb material in 1953 and kept producing it for decades. But the Cold War came to an end in the early 1990s without even one missile carrying SRS material being fired against the enemy. For that matter, no missile was launched in a war better characterized as a standoff.

The business of bombs at SRS turned to the labor of cleanup during the 1990s and the work force went from about 25,000 to about 13,000, as of 2003.

The site's future remains uncertain, though the battle against communism has turned to war against terrorism.

President Bush has called for new nuclear weapons such as "bunker busters," built to penetrate deep into the earth before exploding. SRS is contending with four other nuclear installations to build a facility that would produce plutonium, a radioactive substance found in many of the nation's current stockpile of weapons that experts say is losing its potency over time.

The factory could cost as much as $4 billion to build and would employ more than 1,000 people.

Local economic boosters and political representatives are rallying for SRS to acquire the plant contract in hopes of solidifying the site's future.

The site also is supposed to begin construction on a nuclear fuel conversion plant in 2004.

Fuel rods built at the plant would be used to run private power plants. Site leaders want to further diversify SRS's capabilities, with plans already in the works to produce hydrogen energy that could fuel automobiles.

IT'S A FACT:

The Savannah River Site is expected to begin construction on a nuclear fuel conversion plant in 2004, which would provide hundreds of jobs.