RadWaste Monitor Vol. 13 No. 21
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Article 9 of 10
May 22, 2020

Decommissioning Only Option for Fort Belvoir Reactor, Army Corps Says

By Chris Schneidmiller

There is no reasonable alternative to the full decommissioning and disassembly of the retired SM-1 nuclear power reactor at Fort Belvoir, Va., according to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE).

The Army Corps on Monday announced the release of the final environmental assessment, finding of no significant impact, and finding of no practicable alternative for the upcoming job.

“The Proposed Action has been thoroughly reviewed by USACE and it has been determined that it will have no significant adverse effects on the local environment or quality of life that would require the preparation of an Environmental Impact Statement” under federal regulations, according to the 514-page document.

The Army Corps remains on track to issue the decommissioning contract in September, with the vendor mobilizing to the site in March or April 2021, Brenda Barber, project manager at the Environmental and Munitions Design Center in the USACE Baltimore District, wrote in a Monday morning update.

Decommissioning is scheduled for completion in 2025. The work will involve decontamination of facilities, dismantlement of the reactor building and other structures, packaging and removal of waste, and remediation of the area. The 3.6-acre plot would be afterward be available for unrestricted use, the environmental assessment says.

The SM-1 reactor was active from 1957 to 1973 on the Army installation about 20 miles from Washington, D.C. It was the first pressurized water reactor to be connected to the power grid in the United States, but was used primarily for training. Following deactivation, it has been in safe-storage mode (SAFSTOR) since 1974.

The reactor must be decommissioned within six decades of permanent closure, per the Army Corps’ Deactivated Nuclear Power Plant Program. That is in line with the schedule for decommissioning of retired commercial nuclear power plants under Nuclear Regulatory Commission rules.

The final version of the environmental assessment is nearly identical to the draft version issued in December, with only minor editorial updates, Barber told RadWaste Monitor.

The only other decommissioning alternative considered in the document was no action, with the Army Corps continuing to maintain the reactor. Both options were determined not to generate significant adverse impacts on water resources, air quality, biological resources, radiological safety and health, geology, and other environmental areas.

Leaving the power plant in place would burden the Army Corps with escalating maintenance costs and would not allow the site to be restored, the environmental assessment says. Meanwhile, the acreage is ripe for future use by the Department of Defense or another tenant.

Barber said she could not discuss any details of the decommissioning procurement, including the bidders and the projected value of the contract.

Infrastructure specialist APTIM managed the USACE decommissioning of the reactor on the STURGIS barge, from 2015 to 2018 at the Port of Galveston in Texas. Asked about the company’s interest in taking on decommissioning of the SM-1, along with the slightly further out Army Corps job for the SM-1A reactor at Fort Greely, Alaska, an APTIM spokesman said last month “We are in pursuit of just about all the USG DECOM work out there.”

Other companies in the market have to date not said whether they bid on the Fort Belvoir project.

The Army Reactor Office will have to issue a permit before decommissioning can begin.

“The team is working diligently with our regulator to finish the final review of the Decommissioning Plan. Once that is complete, we will officially apply for our Decommissioning Permit,” Barber said by email. “All other planning efforts are complete at this time.  We don’t anticipate any impacts from COVID-19 on the remaining planning efforts. With all of the virtual tools, we are managing through all planning efforts and experiencing very little impact.”

The Army Corps also plans in June to issue a sources-sought notice for the SM-1A reactor decommissioning in Alaska, with the contract on track to be awarded in the federal fiscal 2022. Decommissioning is scheduled for fiscal years 2022 to 2028.

The Army operated the SM-1A reactor from 1962 to 1972.  It primarily produced power and heated steam for utilities at the installation about 6 miles south of Delta Junction and 5 miles northeast of Anchorage. Some preliminary deactivation work was performed before portions of the reactor and other infrastructure were entombed by 1973.

APTIM Federal Services is engineering the reactor facility’s utility segregation from the attached and still-in-use base Central Heating and Power Plant.

“The final design work is on schedule to be completed in September of 2020,” Barber wrote in a separate update for the SM-1A project on Wednesday. “The team just finished reviewing the 60% Design package for this engineering design work. We anticipate issuing a Sources Sought Request by late May for the implementation of this utility segregation work.”

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