Damaged reactor headed from Arkansas to Nevada

WASHINGTON — A university-owned nuclear reactor in Arkansas is being contained after cleanup efforts and readied for transport to the Nevada National Security Site where it will be disposed.

The Southwest Experimental Fast Oxide Reactor, owned by the University of Arkansas, was raised from a cleanup site about 20 miles outside of Fayetteville, Arkansas, and will be shipped by truck to Nevada, according to officials who spoke to the Northwest Arkansas Democrat-gazette.

The Arkansas reactor core is a vessel that was contaminated during research and is not considered high-level waste, said Greg Lovato, the Nevada Division of Environmental Protection administrator in Carson City.

Lovato said the storage was approved in June, and a review must still be conducted before the material is shipped. He said the transportation of the reactor would go around the main population of Las Vegas.

The Nevada National Security Site is the designated site for low-level waste for the Department of Energy.

Rep. Dina Titus, D-nev., an outspoken opponent of storing nuclear waste in Nevada, said the Trump administration is determined to make the state a “dumping ground” for nuclear materials nationally.

Earlier this month, the Department of Energy announced it would seek a new definition of high-level nuclear waste for shipment from South Carolina to Nevada for permanent storage at the Nevada National Security Site.

“Nevada continues to be targeted by the Trump Department of Energy to be the nation’s dumping ground,” Titus said. “It was South Carolina last month, Arkansas now and who knows what state next.”

Contact Gary Martin at gmartin@ reviewjournal.com or 202-662-7390. Follow @garymartindc on Twitter.