My Trips

SEFOR (Southwest Experimental Fast Oxide Reactor) is a deactivated experimental fast breeder reactor located near Strickler, Washington County in northwest Arkansas.

It used MOX fuel and liquid sodium cooling, and generated 20MW of heat but no electricity. It was constructed particularly to test the suggested inherent safety features of the oxide fuel/sodium cooling configuration, and in particular the effect on the core of thermal expansion, including in an accident situation. The belief that this would stabilize the core was confirmed.

SEFOR operated from 1969 to 1972, when the original program was completed as planned. It was privately operated by General Electric and funded by the United States government through the Southwest Atomic Energy Associates, a nonprofit consortium formed by 17 power companies of the Southwest Power Pool and European nuclear agencies.

A proposal for funding to extend its operation to 1977 was rejected prior to the closure in 1972. The fuel and irradiated sodium coolant were removed and taken offsite later in 1972, and some dismantling performed. The reactor was acquired by the University of Arkansas in 1975 and is still owned by the university, although the university has never operated it. SEFOR was designated a Nuclear Historic Landmark site in October 1986.

The design concept of using thermal expansion to stabilize a reactor core has since featured in other reactor designs, notably in the pebble bed reactor which is however neither a fast neutron reactor nor a breeder reactor, and in subsequent FBRs.

The site is still contaminated with radioactive material, asbestos and chemical residues. As of 2005 the university is seeking $16 million in funding for decontamination work. Arkansas Senator Blanche Lincoln began trying to secure funds to clean up the site in 1999. In 2005 she introduced legislation to decommission and decontaminate SEFOR in the Energy Policy Act of 2005. Although the bill was approved and signed by President George W. Bush, money for cleaning up the site was not appropriated.

Me at the controls, SCRAM!:

Some pretty nasty stuff in there, eh?

 A little worse for ware

Many thanks to AR Senator Blanche Lincoln and Dr. Collis Geren for arranging and giving me a tour respectively. The reactor is costing the university a lot to keep up and they are currently trying to receive money for D&D work. While most of the radioactive material is gone, some remains not to mention volitile sodium and other hazards