PHOENIX BRANCH PLAYS UNIQUE ROLE IN EMERGENCY RESPONSE

Barnhart’s Phoenix branch occupies a unique niche. Nearly 68,000 square feet of its 72,000 square foot facility is devoted to storage of a very specific kind.

The facility acts as a response center for the SAFER (Strategic Alliance for Flex Emergency Response) program, storing $30 million of backup equipment for the nuclear industry in case of an emergency, including pumps, industrial grade fire hoses, generators, and lights that can illuminate five acres. This equipment would maintain safety functions for an indefinite period if an event disabled a plant’s installed safety systems. It has been preloaded on 46 trailers and, once deployed, can be at any nuclear facility in the United States within 24 hours.

Barnhart’s football-field size storage facility is climate-controlled and has been upgraded to nuclear storage standards. Three full-time employees maintain and test the equipment on a regular basis.

The site is so essential to the program, it attracts an assortment of distinguished visitors.  Senators, congressman, industry executives and top U.S. and Japanese nuclear regulators regularly tour the facility.