The U.S. Energy Department will provide the University of Arkansas with $10 million to complete the environmental remediation of the Southwest Experimental Fast Oxide Reactor (SEFOR).
Two members of the state’s congressional delegation, Sen. John Boozman (R) and Rep. Steve Womack (R), announced the funding this week. The money is included in the fiscal 2018 omnibus budget, which President Donald Trump signed into law on March 23.
“A decades-old problem will now be eliminated and that will benefit the University and the state of Arkansas for generations to come,” University of Arkansas Chancellor Joe Steinmetz said a Thursday press release.
The 20-megawat sodium-cooled nuclear test reactor was built in 1968 with backing from the U.S. Atomic Energy Commission. Used by a group of 17 electric utilities from 1969 to 1972 to provide data for design and operation of commercial-size sodium-cooled power reactors, the plant was shut down in 1974 and its reactor defueled and coolant removed. SEFOR in 1975 was transferred to the university, which used it for research purposes for about 11 years.
The university effectively became the reactor’s caretaker, but the Department of Energy was made responsible for site remediation under a provision of the 2005 Energy Policy Act. After it received a $1.9 million grant from DOE, the university had a remediation plan drawn up between 2009 and 2011.
Decommissioning began in 2016, led by EnergySolutions. It should resume final decommissioning within a few weeks. The cleanup should be finished in early 2019, returning the site to greenfield status, according to the university.
The reactor containment building is about the only structure that remains to be taken down, university spokesman Steve Voorhies said by phone Friday. The reactor building takes up 3 acres on a site of about 620 acres, the spokesman added.
The SEFOR funding came from the “small sites” portion of the non-defense environmental cleanup segment of the DOE budget. Funding for small sites is increasing from $77 million in the fiscal 2017 enacted budget to almost $120 million in the final fiscal 2018 budget.
