EnergySolutions said Thursday it has finished on-site remediation of the Southwest Experimental Fast Oxide Reactor (SEFOR) near Fayetteville, Ark.
“The application of the EnergySolutions Decommissioning Management Model at SEFOR produced results that exceeded our expectations,” EnergySolutions Chief Nuclear Officer John Sauger said in a press release. “A site that pioneered research for reactivity control in fast neutron reactors has now been restored to its natural state, the same goal we have for every project we complete.”
The decontamination and decommissioning process EnergySolutions used at SEFOR is basically the same approach it has taken with larger projects such as the Zion nuclear plant in Illinois and the La Crosse nuclear plant in Wisconsin, company spokesman Mark Walker said by email.
All of the waste, including contaminated equipment and debris from building demolition, has been removed from the site, most of it taken to an EnergySolutions disposal facility in Clive, Utah.
The reactor vessel and some other components from the 20-megawatt reactor were taken by truck during November and December to the Nevada National Security Site, which disposes of certain low-level radioactive waste from Department of Energy sites.
The company is adding topsoil and doing grass seeding, and will file a final report on the decommissioning with the Arkansas Department of Health in a few weeks, according to Walker. The EnergySolutions contract is scheduled to end May 23.
Sampling done on-site and adjacent to the property indicated no evidence of radioactive material, according to an EnergySolutions video about the cleanup, shown Thursday in a fire hall in Strickler, Ark., near the SEFOR site.
The $25 million restoration project was conducted in phases since 2010 as Energy Department funds became available. The final chunk of money, a $10 million DOE grant included in the 2018 consolidated appropriations act, was announced in April 2018 by U.S. Sen. John Boozman and U.S. Rep. Steve Womack (both R-Ark.)
Most of the support buildings and contaminated dirt at the site were hauled away under earlier phases of work by EnergySolutions.
Built in the 1960s, the reactor was used by a group of utilities to glean data on design and operation of commercial-size sodium-cooled nuclear reactors. The University of Arkansas bought the unit in 1975 for calibration and testing of nuclear instruments, but only used the plant for a year before placing it into a safe-storage status. The Energy Department became responsible for the site’s decommissioning under the 2005 Energy Policy Act.
