A $10.5 million grant from the Department of Energy will finally enable the University of Arkansas to move ahead with demolition of the Southwest Experimental Fast Oxide Reactor (SEFOR) facility, which has gone unused for 30 years.
The funding will pay for a series of cleanup operations culminating in decommissioning and dismantlement of the facility in Washington County, Ark. The grant’s performance period is 18 months.
The U.S. Atomic Energy Commission funded construction of the 20-megawatt sodium-cooled nuclear test reactor in 1968. Southwest Atomic Energy Associates, a partnership of 17 electric utilities, used the facility from 1969-1972 to provide data for design and operation of commercial-size sodium-cooled power reactors.
The plant shut down in 1972, and was formally deactivated two years later after its nuclear fuel and coolant were extracted for disposal at a separate location. The University of Arkansas took ownership of the plant in 1975, employing it for instrument calibration and research for the next 11 years.
Since then, the university has effectively been the site’s caretaker while it sought the funding needed to eliminate the plant. The 2005 Energy Policy Act made DOE responsible for the site cleanup, specifically the department’s Office of Environmental Management (EM).
In its fiscal 2016 spending bill, Congress directed EM to shift $9.5 million to SEFOR cleanup, Lynette Chafin, with the DOE Environmental Management Consolidated Business Center, said by email. The money was covered by the energy appropriations bill and was not taken from a specific funding line. The department also had nearly all remaining of $1 million provided in fiscal 2014 for development of a SEFOR remediation plan.
The department had previously provided $1.9 million in 2009 for cleanup work on the plant. That funding tranche, delivered under the fiscal 2009 federal omnibus appropriations bill, covered a full assessment of the facility and preparation of a comprehensive remediation program, the University of Arkansas said at the time.
The university and contractor EnergySolutions anticipated finishing the plan in early 2010, after which the school could apply for the full $20 million needed for the remediation project. It was not immediately clear what progress has been made in the interim.
“SEFOR is not owned nor operated by DOE,” Chafin said. “We have followed Congressional direction to provide funding to support further cleanup.”
While the most dangerous substances were taken out of the facility decades ago, it as of 2009 still housed low levels of residual radioactivity as well as asbestos, paint with lead, and PCBs in fluorescent lights.
University of Arkansas spokesman Steve Vorhiees said Thursday the school’s facilities manager was not available to discuss the state of the reactor plant or plans for the cleanup work.
The new DOE funding will cover a range of projects, including updating the decommissioning plan in light of the present state of SEFOR, engineering studies, public meetings, transport and disposal of waste from the facility, site restoration, project management, securing a cleanup provider, and the actual D&D work. The university ultimately wants the site returned to green-field state.
The department has no expectations for how the funds will be distributed among the various remediation steps, nor a specific progression of the work, Chafin said. She added that it is too early to know how much work will be completed with the grant funding.
