As it prepares by June to complete decommissioning of the retired nuclear power reactor on the STURGIS barge, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is already planning two follow-on projects at bases in Virginia and Alaska, officials said recently.
The SM-1 power reactor operated from 1957 to 1973 at Fort Belvoir, Va., primarily to train personnel to operate other facilities within the U.S. Army Engineer Reactors Group. At Fort Greely, Alaska, the SM-1A plant had a shorter lifespan: 1962 to 1972, largely to provide electricity and heating steam for utilities on the base.
AECOM-Tidewater JV holds the decommissioning planning contracts for both plants, totaling $8.5 million, according to Brenda Barber, project manager for the Environmental and Munitions Design Center at the Army Corps’ Baltimore District.
The decommissioning contracts will be separate. The Army expects to issue sources sought notices early this month, and decommissioning planning will continue through the year, according to an Army Corps presentation at last month’s Waste Management Symposia in Phoenix, Ariz. A request for proposals for SM-1 is expected to be issued by March of next year, with the award scheduled for May-June 2020. The SM-1A procurement will be a bit later, with the RFP due in 2021 and the contract award the following year.
The final disposal approaches and decommissioning cost estimates won’t be known until planning is complete, Barber said during the presentation. But the Army Corps anticipates awarding cost-plus reimbursable contracts, possibly with some fixed-price components, for both projects.
Each decommissioning is anticipated to last five years, and each brings its own challenges.
The Fort Belvoir plant has a small footprint, leaving limited room to work. Transporting radioactive waste off-site could mean going past base housing, and the installation is less than 20 miles from Washington, D.C.
At Fort Greely, crews will be working in an isolated area with a limited annual window for operations, possibly just May to September. There is no on-base housing available for the workers, so that will have to be supplied.
