One of five nuclear reactors at the Savannah River Site could become a historic landmark open for tours.
The Facilities Disposition and Site Remediation and Nuclear Materials subcommittees of the site’s Citizens Advisory Board recently voted to recommend that the Department of Energy plan to preserve the reactor in L Area and to pursue getting the site listed as a National Historic Site.
The Citizens Advisory Board is a board funded by the Department of Energy to make recommendations regarding environmental issues and waste remediation at the site. The board has three subcommittees to study and make recommendations to the full board: nuclear materials, facilities disposition and site remediation and waste management.
Board member Charles Hilton made the recommendation after touring a preserved reactor at the Hanford Site in Washington State.
The preserved Hanford reactor was the first plutonium production reactor in the world. It was constructed as part of the Manhattan Project and produced the plutonium for the first two nuclear weapons that used plutonium as a fuel source: the Trinity test in New Mexico and the Fat Man bomb that was used on Nagasaki at the end of World War II.
The reactor was shut down the next year but restarted around the beginning of the Cold War between the United States and the Soviet Union two years later. Two years later, amid rising tensions and after the Soviet Union detonated its first nuclear weapon, the decision was made to build the Savannah River Site to produce plutonium for use in nuclear weapons.
Construction of the Savannah River Site began in 1951 and the first reactor at the site, in R Area, went critical (sustained controlled fission) in 1953.
“The building of the Savannah River Plant … is truly one of the engineering marvels in our country’s history,” the recommendation said. “It is said the construction of the site was so rapid that the blueprints were barely dry before construction was implemented.”
In 1954, rectors in P, L and K Areas went critical. C Reactor went critical in 1955, and the H Canyon facility used to extract plutonium and uranium from the spent nuclear fuel came online.
The reactor in R Area was shut down in 1964. In 1968, L Reactor was shut down for upgrades. L Reactor was restarted in 1985 when C Reactor was shut down. The three remaining reactors, P, K and L were shut down in 1988. K Reactor was briefly restarted in 1992.
Currently, the P and R reactor facilities have been permanently decommissioned. C Reactor was scheduled to be preserved; but by 2015, the Department of Energy said it planned to decommission the facility due to deterioration, mold damage, water damage and a lack of maintenance for 25 years.
Both L and K reactors are currently used for other missions. L Reactor is used to store spent nuclear fuel, and K Reactor has been extensively modified to store plutonium that was to be disposed by the failed Mixed-Oxide Fuel Fabrication Facility.
“This leaves L Reactor as the only viable reactor to preserve as a part of the SRS legacy for generations to witness once the L Reactor completes its current mission currently estimated to end in…
Read More: Savannah River Site advisory panels recommend preserving L Reactor for tours | Savannah River Site