Nuclear Reactor near West Fork

[iamhere]

No flooding. Dry as can be. There are two sump pumps for the area designed to be non-hot, but they are not needed.

Ventilation fans are kept running.

There is NO radioactive material in the building. There is no trace of radioactive anything in the building other than a very small reading at the very core, less than you would recieve from a couple of X-rays.

UA still continues inspections every 3 months, and the buiding is alarmed for various conditions such as water, fire, break in, etc. Think about it - their insurance requires it. They even check the fire extinguishers every time.

The lady who lives in the visitor center - a very sweet lady, is the widow of the old caretaker. UA has always had someone living there. When he passed away, they have allowed her to live there. She has no duties other than to keep an eye on the building. She has had so many people come to her door, she now just ignores anyone, unless UA calls and lets her know they are headed out, or it is one of the UA people that she knows.

UA had great plans for the site, but reality set in after the government gave it to them.

They offered it for sale for a short period of time, but found that the liability would continue after they sold it, so they have pursued federal funding ever since for the cleanup.

[VBJag]

[TooMuchCoffee]

Update:
Area agencies recently toured the site. The site is currently active in that the secondary sodium coolent system is being removed. I was working and missed the tour. I did attend the training/briefing session we had on it.

I have received permission from my training officer to post pictures he took from inside (as soon as I figure out how).

According to the Dept of Energy, all spent fuel was removed and transported to an off-site location. I've heard from an electrician that worked there who said the fuel was actually sealed in a shaft under the reactor. A co-worker said he's talked to a physicist who worked there that has said the same thing. According to the county's fire service coordinator, the old containment site off Harmon Road (which has been removed and cleaned) most of the material from SEFOR was buried there. Main point is according to the DOE, the fuel is gone.
Maybe.
At the same time, according to the DOE, there is not a high radioactive storage site in the US. Power plants all hold their waste on-site. The DOE in their report seem to favor as an alternative to returning the site to greenspace, rather sealing up the site and monitoring. In other words, not digging around.

On site hazards, according to the DOE include:
1. residual sodium (which could react with water creating hydrogen gas which could explode)
2. abestos
3. underground storage tanks (probably filled with water)
4. mercury. Found in switches. May or may not be radioactive.
5. PCB's (lots)
6. lead. Used as shielding. According to the DOE "shouldn't" be radioactive.
7. Lead paint.
8. the drain field. could be chemically contaminated
9. vacuum pump oil. From the DOE report: "Two vacuum pumps are present on the upper level of the
containment building. These pumps were reportedly used to test fuel assemblies for leaks
by placing them under vacuum and analyzing the collected gas for gaseous fission
products. As a result, the vacuum pump oil is radioactive."
Note the last sentence!
10. Non-Southwest Experimental Fast Oxide Reactor Materials This includes "an accelerator containing tritium-contaminated oil is being stored in the fuel
storage vault." I believe this is the old accelerator that was under the Chemistry Building.

Other main hazards include open shafts, confined spaces, and a flooded basement. Oh, and the alarms are active and the care-taker, while a nice lady, doesn't mess around and will call the sheriff.

My training officer learned during the tour:
"Several of the lower level rooms are or have been flooded. After the removal of the radioactive fuel the reactors were flooded to “clean” much of the radioactivity out. This “Hot Water” was them pumped out to be disposed of until, a place of disposal was not found. This water has low level of radioactivity that is not harmful unless consumed, but it can not just be dumped to dispose." Again, note the last sentence!
Curiously, this little basement fact was not on the DOE report.

So basically, stay out, don't touch anything, stay out, and don't drink the water.
The place has multiple fall and confine space hazards with potential poor atmospheres.
As soon as I can I'll post some pictures.

[TooMuchCoffee]

Some photos from inside the site:
[img]
2011-10-19 006 by TooMuchCoffee2011, on Flickr[/img]
Outside the site.

Secured room due to radiation. This led to the Fuel Storage area- north and south vaults.
[img]
2011-10-19 082 by TooMuchCoffee2011, on Flickr[/img]

Contaminated area - this is the Secondary Sodium room
[img]
2011-10-19 014 by TooMuchCoffee2011, on Flickr[/img]

Reactor control rod remote arms. Where the orange is used to be 6 inch thick leaded glass. Looks into the reactor.
[img]
2011-10-19 138 by TooMuchCoffee2011, on Flickr[/img]

Confined area under the reactor
[img]
2011-10-19 176 by TooMuchCoffee2011, on Flickr[/img]

Looking down into the flooded basement, either the liquid or gas radioactive waste vaults
[img]
2011-10-19 085 by TooMuchCoffee2011, on Flickr[/img]

[TooMuchCoffee]

More pictures from the tour.

Sodium metal. This is what is being currently cleaned up
[img]
2011-10-19 039 by TooMuchCoffee2011, on Flickr[/img]

Possibly contaminated area. This is the Seconday Sodium Equipment Room. This is what is currently being cleaned and dismantled.
[img]
2011-10-19 013 by TooMuchCoffee2011, on Flickr[/img]

Looking down towards the bottom of the reactor area. This is the confined space hazard
[img]
2011-10-19 178 by TooMuchCoffee2011, on Flickr[/img]

Fall hazard into a confined space hazard. These are actually everywhere inside.
[img]
2011-10-19 018 by TooMuchCoffee2011, on Flickr[/img]

Outside the reactor. The person is pointing to a panel with orange writing. This is covering a open pit and the covering will not support weight.
[img
2011-10-19 134 by TooMuchCoffee2011, on Flickr[/img]

More open holes covered with panels
[img]
2011-10-19 121 by TooMuchCoffee2011, on Flickr[/img]

Airlock leading into the reactor area
[img]
2011-10-19 097 by TooMuchCoffee2011, on Flickr[/img]

Inside the airlock looking out.
[img]
2011-10-19 109 by TooMuchCoffee2011, on Flickr[/img]

DOL boiler licenses. Must be kept on site.
[img]
2011-10-19 112 by TooMuchCoffee2011, on Flickr[/img]

Intercom phone from inside the reactor room.
[img]
2011-10-19 194 by TooMuchCoffee2011, on Flickr

Pristine (if obsolete) gauges
[img]
2011-10-19 125 by TooMuchCoffee2011, on Flickr[/img]

In service fire extinguisher
[img]
2011-10-19 116 by TooMuchCoffee2011, on Flickr[/img]

Stacks of warning indicators
[img]
2011-10-19 046 by TooMuchCoffee2011, on Flickr[img]

Close up
[/img]
2011-10-19 054 by TooMuchCoffee2011, on Flickr[img]

Control rod assembly
[/img]
2011-10-19 183 by TooMuchCoffee2011, on Flickr[img]

Control Rod assembly
[/img]
2011-10-19 187 by TooMuchCoffee2011, on Flickr[img]

Something to think about
[/img]
2011-10-19 090 by TooMuchCoffee2011, on Flickr[img]

And finally, a little common sense when inside a nuclear reactor.
[/img]
2011-10-19 200 by TooMuchCoffee2011, on Flickr[img][/img][img][/img]

On the web, I have found some old photos of when the site was operational. I'm going to try to post then and now photos.
Also, the DOE actually has a website with a diagram and photos of the site. The link is:
http://www.emcbc.doe.gov/sefor/

[TooMuchCoffee]

Almost forgot. Another view of the flooded basement
[img]
2011-10-19 070 by TooMuchCoffee2011, on Flickr[/img]

[Nicotti]

These are awesome photos!

[TooMuchCoffee]

Full credit goes to my training officer who took them. He took over 200 photos while on the tour.
I really wished I could have arranged a shift trade and went on the tour but for me it was short notice.

I would love to have some of the old gauges and control panels for my man cave...

[SubLunar]

Looks like an awesome place to explore.

Thanks for the pics!

Kinda makes me want to drive down and check it out..

[jkm001]

COOL! Thanks.

[godfather]

Outstanding updates TMC! Thank you for sharing there. Please keep us updated on the activity out there.

[TooMuchCoffee]

According to the NW Arkansas Times, they're currrently "blowing out" the secondary sodium systems with nitrogen. Surprised some people driving by.
Also, in Idaho, they're also cleaning up an old reactor that used sodium and they had an accidental sodium fire due to a water reaction.

[RXGT]

dose any one know if the facility has been torn down yet

[ropingk]

well its almost a year old post so who knows

[jkm001]

There hasn't been anything about demolition in the news. Washington County GIS from 2011 still shows it. The Google and Bing images that claim to be from 2012 also show it. The University doesn't want to spend any of its own money to clean it up and has been seeking money from Congress. If you want to bid on the cleanup you can read about it here (this is also the last mention of SEFOR on the UARK website and it's from 2010):

http://planning.uark.edu/capital_budgeting/content/ad_bids_sefor.pdf

There are plenty of pictures of the site posted on this thread. This isn't a place you want to get caught in.