The Southwest Experimental Fast-Oxide Reactor (SEFOR) in Arkansas moved closer to final remediation this week when contractor EnergySolutions removed the reactor from the containment building and placed it into a shipping container.
Moving the roughly 90,000-pound reactor with a large crane took less than 30 minutes Monday, EnergySolutions spokesman Mark Walker said by telephone Wednesday. The unit was placed into a carbon steel containment vessel.
After the unit is filled with grout and welded shut, which should several days, it is expected to be shipped by truck to a low-level radioactive waste disposal facility at the Nevada National Security Site, Walker said. The reactor will probably be transported in late November, after the grout has dried and the welding is completed.
EnergySolutions worked with subcontractors Barnhart Crane and Rigging and Brandenburg in removing the reactor, the last remaining facility on-site. Some components that held the reactor in place below ground still remain to be removed, Walker added.
The Utah-based nuclear services company in May signed a contract valued at $9.45 million with the University of Arkansas, and funded by a Department of Energy grant, to finish dismantling and decommissioning the 3-acre research reactor site. The fixed-priced contract, for Phase 3B of the overall SEFOR cleanup, is a follow-on to prior awards between the parties.
Decommissioning started in 2016 after planning dating to 2009, but the needed funding from Congress has been a challenge over time, according to University of Arkansas spokesman Steve Voorhies.
The DOE grant that funded this final phase of work was included in the fiscal 2018 federal omnibus budget package and announced in April by Sen. John Boozman (R-Ark.) and Rep. Steve Womack (R-Ark).
Most of the contaminated dirt and support structures at the site near Fayetteville, Ark., were hauled away under earlier phases of work by EnergySolutions. Final cleanup is expected in early 2019 and EnergySolutions is supposed to legally release the site by May 24, 2019, Voorhies has said.
The future use of the site for near term at least is “greenfield,” the university spokesman said.
The 20-megawatt sodium-cooled test reactor was built in 1968 and was retired in the early 1970s by the U.S. Atomic Energy Commission, a predecessor to the Energy Department. The University of Arkansas used the facility for research on instrument calibration for 11 years, beginning in 1975, and subsequently became its caretaker. The 2005 Energy Policy Act placed DOE in charge of the reactor’s cleanup.
