Wikipedia:WikiProject Military history/Assessment/Savannah River Plant
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Savannah River Plant
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Savannah River Plant (edit | talk | history | links | watch | logs)
I am nominating this article for A-Class review because it was originally part of Savannah River Site but was split in two. Hawkeye7 (discuss) 00:32, 17 February 2026 (UTC)
Support Comments by A.Cython
A very interesting article about a group of facilities to produce materials relevant to nuclear weapons, etc. Overall, it is well-written and sourced. My comments are mostly minor/cosmetic and note that I am not an expert. I also assume it is ok to skip the GA review process.
Lead
- I feel it is not reflective of the content, for example, the neutrino experiment, space exploration, and the environmental activities are not mentioned.
Prose
- did not want it too isolated → did not want it to be too isolated
- on expensive water purification → on the cost of expensive water purification
- A announcement was → An announcement was
- secure access to the water supply, and provide flexibility → secured access to the water supply, and provided flexibility
- were not fixed → finalized (?)
- Decision were taken → "Decision was taken" or "Decisions were taken"
- to an interim measure → to be an interim measure
- ceased mid-1988 → ceased in mid-1988
- operate at Savannah River Plant → operate at the Savannah River Plant
- low power → low-power
- was begun in June →
wasbegun in June - level to be raised → level was raised
- To meet the objections → To address the objections
- Final concentration was done → The final concentration was done
- really existed or not → existed
- heavy-water reactor key advantage → heavy-water reactor's key advantage
- Savannah River Projec to → Savannah River Project to
- five year intervals → five-year intervals
- River Plantby → River Plant by (add space)
- If you do not use an acronym then you do not need to define it, e.g., NPR, EPA, SREL, SRARP, ERDA
- Also, is there a reason why AEC is defined twice?
- Is there a reason why in "Open to the public" the answer is in boldface, i.e, No?
Consistency
- At the lead you say use ceased in 1988. but at the infobox In use 1951–1989. So which was the final year? Note the status says active, which confuses the reader. Perhaps expanding the lead would help the reader to read the infobox better.
Wikilinks
- aluminium
- fossil fuel
Linked. I note in passing that Wikipedia uses "aluminium", overriding US English. Hawkeye7 (discuss) 21:16, 10 April 2026 (UTC)
Note
- [Optional] I am not aware of restrictions against mixed reference style system, but my limited understanding is that at higher levels it is appreciated to have a clean and consistent reference style. A.Cython(talk) 20:27, 10 April 2026 (UTC)
- What sort of inconsistency so we have? Hawkeye7 (discuss) 21:16, 10 April 2026 (UTC)
- Under the section references, the citations of books, whose information is located under "Sources", is mixed with the citation information of reports and papers (e.g., 156, 157, 158), meaning that reference information is located at two different sections. A different way to see this is by asking whether there reports and papers should be under "Sources", are they considered sources? In my mind, a fully segregated information helps with the organization of the article's bibliography and eventually to the curious reader. I suppose this is more of my personal opinion so please ignore this if not relevant. A.Cython(talk) 22:18, 10 April 2026 (UTC)
- What sort of inconsistency so we have? Hawkeye7 (discuss) 21:16, 10 April 2026 (UTC)
Drive-by comment - as this is a clear candidate for using American English, shouldn't it be "aluminum" not "aluminium"? Hog Farm Talk 20:30, 17 April 2026 (UTC)
- WP:ALUMINIUM:
For articles about chemistry-related topics, Wikipedia follows the spellings recommended by the International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry (IUPAC): aluminium not aluminum, sulfur not sulphur, caesium not cesium. These spellings should be used in all chemistry-related articles on English Wikipedia, even if they conflict with the national spelling variety otherwise used in the article.
Hawkeye7 (discuss) 22:28, 17 April 2026 (UTC)
Support by Dumelow
Just started and only read the first section so far, will continue when I can - Dumelow (talk) 07:17, 11 June 2026 (UTC)
- "In response to the detonation of Soviet Union's first atomic bomb on 29 August 1949"
- "An increase in plutonium production required more reactors. There were concerns about the vulnerability of the Hanford Site to Soviet bombers, but considerations of cost led to the idea of a second plutonium production site being rejected in 1947 and 1948."
- Were more reactors built at Hanford then? Otherwise leads the reader to question if or how plutonium production was increased
- "By using heavy water as a moderator, they could be fueled with natural rather than enriched uranium"
- Might be worth mentioning why this would be advantageous, presumably on cost and availability grounds?
- Yes, it much cheaper and more readily available, and the heavy water reactor makes more efficient use of it. Unfortunately, I am having trouble sourcing that. Hawkeye7 (discuss) 09:03, 11 June 2026 (UTC)
- However the cheaper fuel (at today's prices slightly enriched uranium is ten times as expensive as natural uranium but it would have been more so then) was offset by the high cost of heavy water. Uranium was (incorrectly) thought to be scarce in the 1950s, and a heavy water reactor made more efficient use of it. Hawkeye7 (discuss) 22:07, 12 June 2026 (UTC)
- Yes, it much cheaper and more readily available, and the heavy water reactor makes more efficient use of it. Unfortunately, I am having trouble sourcing that. Hawkeye7 (discuss) 09:03, 11 June 2026 (UTC)
- Might be worth mentioning why this would be advantageous, presumably on cost and availability grounds?
- "The AEC's director of production, Walter J. Williams, suggested that what was required was a new production site, a new site office, and a new contractor. For the new contractor, the AEC Commissioners turned to DuPont"
- "DuPont appointed Charles H. Topping to head its site selection effort"
- "In September, as a result of the outbreak of the Korean War in June, the AEC increased the number of reactors to five, with the possibility of a sixth, power-generating, reactor."
- Presumably there was a worry that the production of nuclear weapons would need to be increased from the original plan?
- Well yes, but at the same time there was the hydrogen bomb program's demand for large amounts of tritium, which could only be produced in reactors at the expense of plutonium. At the time there was no working thermonuclear design. The Teller-Ulam design ultimately adopted did not require such large amounts of tritium. Hawkeye7 (discuss) 22:07, 12 June 2026 (UTC)
- Presumably there was a worry that the production of nuclear weapons would need to be increased from the original plan?
- "Each production reactor would have a separation plant, so this meant twelve facilities, of which would occupy about 1 square mile (2.6 km2)"
- There's an "each" missing after the second comma, I think?
- You've previously said five reactors "with the possibility of a sixth, power-generating, reactor". Given two separation plants per production reactor would the sixth reactor also have been used for production?
- "The separation plants had to be at least 1 mile (1.6 km) apart and the reactors at least 2 miles (3.2 km) from any other plant. The whole area had to be surrounded by a 5.5 miles (8.9 km) exclusion zone from which any inhabitants would have to be removed"
- "twenty-nine copies of the findings of the site survey were produced, and presented to the AEC Site Review Committee on 20 November.[31][32] The Site Survey Committee had been established by the AEC in August to review DuPont's findings"
- "the towns of Jackson and Snelling were saved, but Dunbarton and Ellenton remained within the boundary"
- "the property was condemned in the Federal district Court. The money was deposited with the court, and the owner could ask for up to 80 to 90 percent as credit against the final award. Property that was required immediately was obtained under a Federal declaration of taking"
- "While black and white neighborhoods were intermingled in the old town, the new was built along modern lines, with strict racial segregation, black and white communities being divided by the highway"
- " Strom Thurmond, a former governor of South Carolina who had run against Truman in 1948, was a partner in the Aiken law firm of Thurman, Lybrand and Simons"
- "The site eventually encompassed 310 square miles (800 km2)"
- "even before startup R Reactor was found to be capable of 700 MW, and in upgrades later years would permit the reactors to be run at up to 2,000 MW."
- Probably worth linking White-collar worker, Anti-aircraft warfare (for "anti-aircraft gun"), Fire-control system
- "computerised" is presumably spelt with a z in American English?
- "the 33rd AAA Battalion departed, the 425th and 478 were disbanded, and further military construction was cancelled."
- "The Army presence at the Savannah River Plant ended in 1960"
Read down to "Cold War era operations"
Changes look good to me, continuing:
- "The Savannah River Plant, as SRS was known until 1 April 1989"
- I don't think much of the information about the plant in the first paragraph of "Nuclear weapon program" needs restating. You've already covered the construction of the same.
- You've previously said there were six separation plants, each at least a mile apart from the others but here you mention only two? Were they rationalised later?
- "Construction of the first reactor at the Savannah River Plant, R Reactor, commenced June 1951, and was completed in July 1953, twenty-five months later"
- Was this the first reactor or the first production reactor, as you have previously mentioned test reactors?
- I don't think we need to tell the readers that July 1953 is 25 months after June 1951
- "R Reactor became operational in December 1953; the Savannah River Plant reactors required a longer period of testing and tweaking before becoming fully operational"
- "The allowed C Reactor's power level to be raised to 2575 MW in 1960, and then to 2915 MW in 1967"
- "The operation of these reactors had become increasingly complex owing to the extensive manual oversight required to control various nuclear fuel types and to monitor targets irradiated at increasing high specific powers in 600 fuel positions"
- "The first mainframe computers installed in any of the productions reactors were the General Electric GE-412"
- By the end of 1964, this system was scanning more signals than any computer in the United States"
- Closed-loop controller is probably worth linking
Read down to "Détente"
Continuing on:
- "R Reactor had already sprung some leaks."
- "there was an unexpected power surge from 500 MW to 925 MW within 2.5 minutes. This was one of the three worst reactor incidents at the SRP."
- "By 1972, all the Hanford production reactors and reprocessing activities had been shut down and N Reactor converted to maximize electricity production.[88][76] The nuclear weapons production complex was reduced to just 4 production reactors: P, K, and C reactors at Savannah River Plant, able to keep pace with demand by operating at high power levels, and N reactor at Hanford."
- I found this confusing. You say all production reactors at Hanford has been shut down but then include N Reactor there in a list of four remaining production reactors.
- Because I know the story from reading about and working on the article on the Hanford Site. Clarified that N Reactor was a dual-purpose rector. A pity there are so few Americans on Wikipedia; the article on the Washington Public Power Supply System could use a lot of work. Hawkeye7 (discuss) 09:07, 18 June 2026 (UTC)
- I found this confusing. You say all production reactors at Hanford has been shut down but then include N Reactor there in a list of four remaining production reactors.
- "The last of the heavy water production units at the Savannah River Plant was closed in 1982"
- "The effort had a budget of $214 million (equivalent to $836 million in 2025) and a workforce of 800 for the renovation effort."
- "a series of lawsuits from individuals and organizations concerning the discharge of hot water into Steel Creek and 14 curies (520 GBq) of caesium-137 from Steel Creek into the Savannah River."
- You've only previously said cooling water was discharged into the ponds or the river, so I think it would be helpful to establish how Steel Creek fits into this. Presumably this was a new discharge for the reactivated reactor? Might be as simple as putting "proposed" before "discharge"?
- "In March 1987, power level limits were instituted on K, L and P Reactors due to problems with the emergency core cooling system and the increased risk of loss-of-coolant accident"
- "The August 1988 incident during the P reactor's startup attracted media attention,[100] triggered Congressional hearings, and spurred the decision to implement much-needed nuclear safety improvements, enhance operator qualifications, and bolster management oversight before restarting any of the production reactors"
- "the "very significant leak" of water from the C Reactor in May 1965 when 2,100 US gallons (7,900 L) of heavy water was spilt on the floor;"
- There is incosnsitency in if you capitalise "reactor" when naming them, eg. you have "K reactor" and "K Reactor"
- "During the war, the Manhattan Project's P-9 Project had produced heavy water at three DuPont munitions plants: the Morgantown Ordnance Works, near Morgantown, West Virginia; at the Wabash River Ordnance Works, near Dana, Indiana, and the Alabama Ordnance Works, near Sylacauga, Alabama."
- "Girdler and, as a DuPont subcontractor, worked through the problems associated with the new process."
- "In addition to the GS units, the plant had twelve distillation towers for the second step, and electrolysis building for the final step"
- "In 1956, the market price of heavy water was $28 per pound (equivalent to $332 in 2025) of $14,000 per drum (equivalent to $166,000 in 2025)"
Read down to "Neutrino discovery", will continue when I can
- Just spotted that there is a mix of use of "US" and "U.S."
- "Early research concerned cobalt-60, which was not only a heat source, but could also be used food irradiation."
- "Plutonium-238 was produced by the irradiation on neptunium-237, a byproduct of the irradiation of uranium in the reactors."
- "pressed plutonium oxide, plutonium-molybdenum cermet, or plutonium metal"
- "the production of iridium-encapsulated 100-watt PPO spheres for Multi-Hundred Watt RTGs started in 1978"
- "Between August 1969 and November 1970, an effort was made gram-scale amounts of californium-252 in K Reactor to develop a market development for Cf-252 neutron source applications.
- "Twenty-one targets were processed in 1972–1973 at ORNL to recover about 4 grams of plutonium-244, "heavy curium" (i.e., curium rich in curium-246 and curium-248) and about 2.1 grams, but an incident occurred in November 1970 when an antimony-beryllium control rod melted"
- "The DOE distribution center for californium-252 for transitioned from the SRP to the ORNL in the late 1980s."
- "The case of Roger D. Wensil, a pipe-fitter, worked for the B.F. Shaw Co., a subcontractor at Savannah River Plant, stands as a significant milestone in the evolution of whistleblower protection in the U.S. nuclear sector."
- Missing "who" before "worked"?
- "In 1950, once the contract formally awarded, DuPont integrated Ruth Patrick and her team from the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia (ANSP) into the Savannah River Project to study the river's biological diversity prior to the operation of the planned SRP reactors, which were anticipated to elevate the river's water temperature.";
- "water as hot as 45 °C (113 °F) was discharged into Steel Creak"
- "Odum began working on the site in 1951, with three graduate students, each from a different university."
- You've only mentioned two universities before, did a third become involved?
- "The United States Forest Service was brought in August 1951 to manage and protect the forests that occupied 67 percent of the Savannah River Plant reservation at that time."
- "The Forest Service also maintained a wildlife and botany conservation programs."
- "their numbers on site grew from four in 1970 to 120 in 2002."
Completed main text, I will have a quick look over the lead, captions, infobox when I can - Dumelow (talk) 10:45, 18 June 2026 (UTC)
- In the lead there is a typo of "proxinmity"
- I don't think "Nuclear Materials Production and Processing Facilities" should be capitalised in the infobox
- "H Canyon under construction (left) and as finished (right)"
- "there is no record of any threat of air attack." is stated in a caption but not explicitly supported in the article. I know it is hard to cite a negative but is there anything to support this? The existence of the air defence zones suggests there was at least some level of threat determined.
- D area is mentioned in captions but not the article. I had assumed these facilities were connected to D Reactor but the dates don't tie up, is it something else?
- "A second GS facility was therefore authorized in January 1951, to be built in the 400-D area at the SRP... In addition to the GS units, the plant had twelve distillation towers for the second step, and an electrolysis building for the final step. The facility had its own pumping station to bring river water and a power station to supply electricity and steam that could burn up to 350 short tons (320 t) of coal per hour." Hawkeye7 (discuss) 08:38, 19 June 2026 (UTC)
- "A pellet of Plutonium-238": the element shouldn't be capitalised
- I find the first two captions in "Environmental monitoring" overly wordy. Parts repeat things covered in the main text while other statements (eg " it was the largest mechanized planting program in the United States, with 400,000 trees planted per day during the first two years. The 100 millionth pine seedling was planted in 1968 and roughly one million seedlings have been planted every year since") are novel and uncited
- "SRNL Senior Scientist Wendy Kuhne collects plant samples along Tinker Creek." & "SRNL postdoc Maria Kriz works on structural characterization of materials using X-Rays"
That's everything from me on the text. Responses look good so far and I can see no problem supporting this once the last responses are made - Dumelow (talk) 07:10, 19 June 2026 (UTC)
- Supporting, you might consider citing the original caption for the air defence caption, but nothing major - Dumelow (talk) 12:20, 19 June 2026 (UTC)
Image review
- File:Apollo_12_Second_Look-_Midday_on_the_Ocean_of_Storms_(LROC70_-_AS12-46-6943_pluto).png: the source has an all-rights-reserved notice. Nikkimaria (talk) 01:31, 18 August 2026 (UTC)