Thin Safety Margin

About

Thin Safety Margin charts the history of SEFOR, a twenty-megawatt reactor that operated for three years in the rural Ozark Mountains of Arkansas as part of an internationally sponsored program designed to demonstrate the Doppler effect in plutonium-oxide-fueled fast reactors. Authors Jerry Havens and Collis Geren draw upon this history to assess the accidental explosion risk inherent in using fast reactors to reduce the energy industry’s carbon dioxide emissions.

If a sufficiently powerful fast-neutron explosion were to cause the containment of a reactor such as SEFOR’s to fail, the reactor’s radiotoxic plutonium fuel could vaporize and escape into the surrounding environment, resulting in a miles-wide swath of destruction. The demonstration that the Doppler effect could prevent limited runaway reactivity in the event of an accident or natural disaster proved a critical development in producing safe nuclear technology. But while SEFOR was hailed as a breakthrough in nuclear safety, Havens and Geren’s examination of the project, including the partial SCRAM that occurred in late 1970, confirms experts’ concerns regarding the limits of the Doppler effect and presents a compelling argument for caution in adopting fast reactors like SEFOR to reduce carbon emissions.

Authors

Jerry Havens is emeritus distinguished professor of chemical engineering at the University of Arkansas. His principal research centers on atmospheric dispersion, fire and explosion science, and regulation of liquefied natural gas facilities, with an emphasis on worst-case hazard potential in chemical and nuclear facilities.

Collis Geren is emeritus professor at the University of Arkansas. He previously served as vice chair and chair of the chemistry department, chair of the biological science department, dean of the graduate school, and chief research officer. He also directed the Arkansas Biotechnology Center and served as the state director of several national EPSCoR programs. His main research involved the structure and function of the toxic components of native spider and snake venoms.

Imprint

Arkansas Scholarly Editions

Open Access

Thin Safety Margin is available at ScholarWorks@UARK.

ScholarWorks@UARK, the institutional repository for the University of Arkansas, contains research, scholarship, and creative work produced by the university’s academic departments, research centers, faculty, staff, researchers, and students. Much of the content is open access, meaning that it is offered to users worldwide for the purpose of furthering research, scholarship, and education.