The University of Arkansas hopes Congress will soon come through with the last $10.1 million needed to complete cleanup of the long-disused Southwest Experimental Fast Oxide Reactor (SEFOR) facility.
The university aims in October to begin the third and final phase of the nearly decade-long remediation program, which would involve removing the plant reactor and all remaining material and returning the Washington County site to greenfield status.
The project has received $17.9 million in federal funding to date, including $5.5 million in the current budget year under the Department of Energy’s non-defense environmental cleanup line item. The latest funding is enough to start Phase 3, but not for completion of the project due to wrap up by the end of 2018.
“Another $10.1 million is needed,” university spokesman Steve Voorhies said by email Tuesday. “Our Congressional delegation is working hard to get the final part of the funding and we hope they will be successful.”
The House version of the energy and water appropriations bill for fiscal 2018 does not include funding for SEFOR cleanup. The lower chamber’s Appropriations Committee approved the legislation last week, sending it to the full House for consideration.
The Senate Appropriations Committee marked up its energy and water bill this week. While the full bill has not been posted, the legislative report makes no mention of SEFOR in the small sites section of the $218.4 million non-defense line item.
Representatives for Sen. John Boozman (R-Ark.) and Rep. Steve Womack (R-Ark.), both of whom have worked to fund the SEFOR project, did not respond to requests for comment on the outlook for fiscal 2018. The next fiscal year begins on Oct. 1.
The 20-megawatt sodium-cooled nuclear test reactor was built in the 1960s with funding from the U.S. Atomic Energy Commission, then used by a coalition of 17 electric utilities from 1969 to 1972 to provide data for design and operation of commercial-size sodium-cooled power reactors. The facility was officially deactivated in 1974, and its nuclear fuel and coolant removed.
The University of Arkansas acquired the site in 1975 and used it for instrument calibration and research for 11 years, afterward essentially becoming SEFOR’s caretaker for several decades. The 2005 Energy Policy Act made the U.S. Energy Department responsible for cleaning up the facility — specifically the Environmental Management Consolidated Business Center.
The university first received a $1.9 million DOE grant to evaluate the site and prepare a remediation plan and budget, which it did from 2009 to 2011.
The second phase of work was funded by a $10.5 million grant from the Energy Department in October 2016. Since then, cleanup contractor EnergySolutions has torn down two auxiliary support buildings for the reactor, after removing 15,850 pounds of low-level radioactive waste from the buildings and shipping the material to its disposal site in Clive, Utah, Voorhies said. Roughly 60,000 gallons of water, which had seeped into the support buildings and had minimal levels of tritium contamination, was also extracted and disposed of via the Fayetteville city wastewater system.
Radiological testing during the second phase determined that the reactor and reflectors are designated as Class C waste. The material itself will be dealt with during the third phase of cleanup.
Some limited work can be done in the final phase with the $5.5 million secured for this budget year, Voorhies said: “The dome around the bioshield can be lowered, some additional material can be removed, and transport and disposal packages can be designed, a weather enclosure can be installed, and the site can be secured to prevent any future contamination.”
