Feds, Idaho take comment on cleanup for naval reactor sub prototype

A Department of Energy advisory board Wednesday endorsed DOE’s preferred cleanup plan for a naval prototype reactor at the Department of Energy’s Idaho National Laboratory.

The DOE Idaho Cleanup Project Citizens Advisory Board endorsed the $70-million cleanup option in a public meeting. 

The public comment period on remediation of the Submarine 5th Generation General Electric Prototype Facility and its defueled reactor vessel at the Idaho National Laboratory started Oct. 15 and is slated to run through Nov.15, according to a press release last week. The comment period involves DOE, Idaho and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).

The facility was a nuclear propulsion research and training prototype used at the Naval Reactors Facility in Idaho for 30 years, from 1965 to 1995, according to the release.

A cleanup strategy favored by DOE and the other agencies would cost more than $70 million and involve complete removal of the prototype intended to eliminate long-term environmental liability and significant contamination.

The cleanup is being coordinated by DOE’s Office of Environmental Management and its Idaho prime contractor, the Amentum-led Idaho Environmental Coalition. DOE’s Office of Environmental Management is in charge of the cleanup under a 2019 agreement with the Naval Reactor office, officials said at the Wednesday meeting.