UofA Nuclear Plant

[isochanvre]

Has anyone ever heard of the abandoned University of Arkansas nuclear plant? I've heard people living near the area have reported higher cancer rates. Don't know if I would want to explore this, but curious about any information.

[isochanvre]

The defunct test-site reactor, known as SEFOR, is near Strickler, about 20 miles southwest of Fayetteville in Washington County

The nuclear facility was built between 1965 and 1968 by Southwest Atomic Energy Associates, a consortium of 17 utility companies, General Electric Co., the West German government, the U.S. Atomic Energy Commission and the European Atomic Energy Community.

It opened in 1969 and was permanently shut down in 1972. Its nuclear core was removed but some radioactive material was left behind.

UA acquired the reactor and the surrounding 620 acres in 1972 with hopes of using the facility to train future nuclear engineers.

That was before the collapse of the domestic nuclear energy industry later in the 1970s. UA never used the reactor for research purposes and was saddled with a useless lab.

UA spends about $50,000 a year for maintenance and safety precautions at SEFOR, said Collis Geren, the university’s vice provost for research.



http://nwanews.com/story.php?paper=adg& ... yid=123424

[White Rabbit]

So... Basically there's an abandoned nuclear reactor site outside of Fayetteville?

[jetskiergrant]

Does anyone know why this reactor was only open for three years? Seems kind of short for such an expensive project.

[jkm001]

viewtopic.php?t=357

[RXGT]

Any one got a map to this place

[radguy]

Here is the link to Taylor Wilson's site. I think he visited the site back in 06.

http://sciradioactive.com/Taylors_Nuke_ ... lcome.html

Not much radioactivity left at the site.

Dan

[TooMuchCoffee]

The site is slowly being "cleaned" of any potentially radioactive material. There is material stored in a room/vault that is radioactive (mostly low level) along with a troublesome flooded basement. The secondary sodium system was being cleaned and removed.

[bizusn]

Hey all, I just wanted to chime in on this topic because I was searching around the internet to see what has been said about this particular project. I know facts about it that the UofA or the NRC doesn't talk about.

My grandfather headed up the research, development, tooling, startup and shutdown of this reactor. He was the first in and the guy that put the lock on it when it was closed.

The reason it was only operating for a short time was because it was just for research, development and proving a point.

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission wanted to see if a company could build perpetual energy and a reactor that would shut itself down if needed. Unfortunately, the head of GE got crosswise with the NRC and the project and funding went to Westinghouse, who never built their prototype or proved their theory. But GE did.

So they developed a way to make as much fuel as they burnt, the only extra fuel was used to start the plant. I won't go into detail about that. It's no surprise why the government and the deep pockets wouldn't want a system that could perform like this to become used.

And then they developed a system that would shut the reactor down if it got to critical power. My grandfather said that the moment he sent the power critical was one of the most exciting moments of his career. I can see why. But it worked flawlessly and the power quickly returned to normal and leveled off.

They spent the last year cleaning up all of the contamination and taking it to a burial site in another state. The university tried to sue GE for the cleanup costs but lost because it was a load of crap.

[s.sisco]

Well thanks for sharing. Welcome to uo.

[s.sisco]

Any one got a map to this place

I don't have a map but I know how to get thr. I've been driving by ther my whole life.

[SubLunar]

Holy shit. If true, I anticipate some suits with sunglasses and ear pieces knocking on your door right about... now.

[radguy]

There are no secrets as to what the reactor was or what it was for. It was a fast breeder reactor. There were many test reactors built throughout this country. Just look up "Southwest Experimental Fast Oxide Reactor" (SEFOR) or Fast Oxide Reactor

[radguy]

"Designed for power oscillations, sub-prompt critical excursions, and super-prompt critical excursions to demonstrate the safety characteristics of the Doppler coefficient for oxide fuel"

Such secrets!

[wlhyatt]

The dump site was not in another state, it was off of Harmon Road north of Weddington, near the water tower.

That site was cleaned up sometime between 2006 and 2010, there is information on the net about the routes that the trucks took to deliver the material removed from the dump sites to a rail loading area in Springdale.

Before the cleanup there were fences and signs with radioactive symbols on them surrounding that dump site.


Here is a link to a google maps street view of the site.