FAYETTEVILLE -- A community meeting will be held at 6 p.m. today to discuss ongoing cleanup efforts at a former nuclear reactor test site in rural Washington County.
The meeting at the Strickler Volunteer Fire Department community room will be about efforts at the 620-acre site approximately 20 miles southwest of Fayetteville. The Southwest Experimental Fast Oxide Reactor ceased operations in the 1970s.
Fuel used in the reactor was removed after operations ceased, Dean Wheeler, project manager with cleanup firm Energy Solutions, has said. The University of Arkansas, Fayetteville took ownership of the site for research purposes, but it went unused after the mid-1980s.
In 2016, a $10.5 million grant from the U.S. Department of Energy kick-started cleanup, with additional federal funding awarded last year to complete the project. Work thus far has included removal of the site's reactor vessel. The project is on track to be finished this spring, according to the university.
Metro on 01/10/2019